SaudiSphere

Riot on Stage

When the lights dimmed signaling the beginning of the play “Centrist without a Center” at Al Yamammah’s college theater in Riyadh, something unexpected happened.

Allah Akbar, Allah Akbar, a number of the audience started shouting.

Confusion.

The lights are back. 

Audiences were surprised to find bearded men storming the stage, smashing the theatrical equipment and quarreling with organizers and security forces.

Satanic Wreaths

Satan comes in many forms, shapes and colors. Check out his latest symbol

Dot It

Got any religious questions or troubles?

Do you spend many sleepless nights wondering about your worldly actions and if they follow the proper Sharia?

Worry no more
Sheikh Dot has the answer.

Iraq, a Civil War?

AP Revenge-seeking militiamen seized six Sunnis as they left Friday prayers and burned them alive with kerosene in a savage new twist to the brutality shaking the Iraqi capital a day after suspected Sunni insurgents killed 215 people in Baghdad's main Shiite district.

And

In Hurriyah, the rampaging militiamen also burned and blew up four mosques and torched several homes in the district, Hussein said. Residents of the troubled district claim the Mahdi Army has begun kidnapping and holding Sunni hostages to use in ritual slaughter at the funerals of Shiite victims of Baghdad;s raging sectarian war.

If this is not civil war, then I don’t know what is?

Update November 29:

Colin Powell:  Iraq's violence meets the standards of civil war and President Bush needs to acknowledge that

Reuters: NY Times, others to call Iraq conflict "civil war"

Happy Thanksgiving

Dwane Powell

 

Women Out

Arab News columnist Abeer Mishkhas writes about yet another incident where Saudi women are treated as inferior and second grade citizens.

 Just when you think you have heard it all, something new and incredible tops everything that has gone before. Are you ready? Well, just a day or two ago, a group of women doctors — medical doctors — attending a conference in Riyadh were asked to leave the hall since a male speaker — a PhD on the teaching staff at King Saud University — refused to address a group consisting of both men and women. And so what happened next? Surely, I hoped, the man was told he had two choices: Either deliver his speech to the mixed audience of doctors or leave. No, that is not what happened. The organizers in fact asked the women to leave the hall and in spite of protests from them, they left the hall in yet another battering to the worth and dignity of Saudi women.

Whenever I read such stories, I get reminded of the struggle for civil rights in America, which was a fight against racism, discrimination and segregation. However, in Saudi, we are far from any organized movement and I am not sure when the idea that sexism and inequality should no longer be tolerated will ever sink in.

Saudi legal system = rapists best friend

Punishing the victim is a specialty of Saudi courts:

When the teenager went to the police a few months ago to report she was gang-raped by seven men, she never imagined the judge would punish her — and that she would be sentenced to more lashes than one of her alleged rapists received. More

(h/t Mystique)

Another Assassination in Lebanon

Pierre Gemayel, the Anti-Syrian Lebanese politician and Minister of Industry was assassinated in a Beirut suburb today.  Hizbullah has been threatening to topple the government and seems to have blood on its hands.

Just a couple days ago Nasrallah gave a speech and indicated that he will resort to action against the government:

Addressing Saniora's government, Nasrallah said: "We will not allow you to continue ruling this country, because you are an American government." (Naharnet)

+ For updates check From Beirut to the Beltway’s coverage of the situation in Lebanon

Saudi Justice

And in a distant holy land, a Saudi woman is still hoping for the day when she can go back to her husband.

Update November 23: The judge who forcibly divorced the couple disappears.

What title/caption would you give for this cartoon?

Simanca Osmani, Brazil