Lovers of Saudi Arabia are banned give roses

As he said the Saudi Gazette newspaper, the squadron of vice Saudi Arabia has banned selling red roses and other goods, which often give to loved ones. The prohibition was already released before Valentine's. The Committee on the promotion of the moral virtues and vices prevention - this is the name official of the Bureau of Islamic peace in this country - ordered to withdraw sale flowers and gift wrapping.

According to the newspaper, they have already risen prices of roses on the "black market". Authorities think that it is a sin - to celebrate the day of San Valentín San and other parties non-Muslim.

Valentine, the day on which lovers in many countries are giving each other presents believes that it is an additional cause of non-marital relations, which is a crime in Saudi Arabia.

As the Saudi newspaper said some Saudis already have placed orders in flower shops many days and even weeks before the holidays to absolve themselves of suspicion.

"Sometimes offer us clusters of flowers in the middle of the night or early in the morning, in order to not fall under suspicion" - one of the sellers of flowers has revealed the secret.

Other lovers organize their dates in the more liberal neighbours: Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates.

Saudi authorities try not to allow the dates between men and women not linked with the bonds of marriage on religious grounds. To enter into marriage, work or education, a woman must have the permission of a man: father, trustee or husband. Women in Saudi Arabia still can not drive cars [http://www.tripspirit.com/50:Women-from-Saudi-Arabia-are-still-not-allowed-to-drive-cars].

IURI Tarabanov writes about interesting travel experiences. Http://www.tripspirit.comis your site to travel directions .

Religious Tolerance Forum Hosted by the King of Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia initiated inter-religious meeting at the United Nations this week. King Abdullah called his initiative a "Culture of Peace Summit," to promote tolerance among the world's major religions. Participants who gathered in New York on Wednesday and Thursday called for promoting mutual understanding and tolerance, through dialogue. Among those who attended are leaders from Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt, Britain, Spain and the Philippines, said Enrique Yeves, spokesman for U.N. General Assembly president Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann. President Bush joined the leaders this morning and gave a speech at the U.N General Assembly hall.

Other participants include U.N. Secretary General Ban Li-Moon and the head of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the bloc of Muslim nations spearheading a campaign at the U.N. to outlaw the "defamation" of religion.

Critics note that while King Abdullah hosted leaders from different Muslim sects in Saudi Arabia, his other initiatives have taken place outside the kingdom. Any inter-religious meeting inside Saudi Arabia could draw opposition from conservative clerics unhappy with the presence of Christian and, especially, Jewish religious leaders.

The underlining results of this Summit are to make non-Muslims accept Islam and the shari'a law as well as the Islamic banking system without any recognition by Muslims to other faiths. The whole focus of the Summit is to endorse a U.N. Resolution of anti-blasphemy law against Islam around the world.

In 1999, Pakistan and the Organization of the Islamic Conference introduced a measure to the U.N. Human Rights Council to spread shari'a law to the Western world and to intimidate anyone who criticizes Islam.

The measure was amended to include religions other than Islam, and it has passed every year since. In 2005, Yemen successfully brought a similar resolution before the General Assembly. The 192-nation Assembly is set to vote on it again.

In 2007, a non-binding Resolution 62/145 says: "It notes with deep concern the intensification of the campaign of defamation of religions and the ethnic and religious profiling of Muslim minorities in the aftermath of 11 September 2001." It also "stresses the need to effectively combat defamation of all religions and incitement to religious hatred, against Islam and Muslims in particular."

The resolution is really designed to permit countries with a dominant religion, such as Islam, to squelch any free-speech rights of religious minorities, according to Bill Saunders of the Family Research Council (FRC). "So for instance, in some Muslim countries, it's considered blasphemy to just say what a Christian believes - because that is consistent with what Islam teaches," Saunders explains. "Or, to try to switch from Islam to Christianity, that's considered apostasy, and in those situations you can be punished by death."

This also means that, it will be ILLEGAL to practice any other religion in an Islamic country other than Islam.

Critics say that Saudi Arabia's policies are marked with oppression towards non-Muslims, which is in direct conflict with their attempt to promote religious tolerance abroad. By endorsing King Abdullah's call for "religious tolerance" critics say, the U.N. General Assembly is "partaking" in religious oppression in Saudi Arabia.

Muslims of Egypt has been, for a long time, persecuting Christian Coptic minority, under the auspices of the strict Islamic rule of Hosni Mubarak. The Christian minority of Iraq are being persecuted by the Muslims, with immunity and Christian churches are bombed with explosives in Pakistan.

There is a widespread concern that the resolutions are being used to justify harsh blasphemy laws in countries such as Pakistan, Egypt, Sudan and Afghanistan.

In addition, every single constitution of the Middle East countries (except Lebanon and Turkey) has a provision stating that the laws of the land are based on the Islamic shari'a.

The U.S. government mission in Geneva, told the U.N. Human Rights Council that "defamation-related laws have been abused by governments and used to restrict human right" around the world, and sometimes Westerners have been caught in the web.

Felice Gaer, chairman of the U.S. Commission for International Religion Freedom (USCIRF) was travelling Monday and could not be reached for comments, wrote CNS News. But a spokeswoman pointed to recent remarks Gaer gave to Fox News: "We'd like to see a conference like this take place inside Saudi Arabia and the fact that it isn't speaks volumes," she said. "That's true of the Madrid conference [in July] and true of the one at the U.N."

Gaer voiced the view that "the conference was part of a Muslim campaign to promote a religious "defamation" resolution at the General Assembly," said CNS News on November 11, 2008.

The European Union said the text proposed by Islamic countries was "one-sided" because it primarily focused on Islam. E.U. diplomats had said they wanted to stop the growing worldwide trend of using religious anti-defamation laws to limit free speech.

The European Center for Law and Justice filed a brief with the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in June 2008 warning that such anti-defamation resolutions "are in direct violation of international law concerning the rights to freedom of religion and expression.

"Saudi Arabia calling on international religious tolerance is a little bit like the wolf calling for a sheep convention," responded Carl Moeller of Open Doors USA to Saudi Arabia's hosting a forum to promote interfaith dialogue.

In fact the U.N. "blasphemy resolution" has emboldened Islamic authorities and threatened Westerners:

- On Oct. 3 in Great Britain, three men were charged for plotting to kill the publisher of the novel "The Jewel of Medina," which gives a factional account of the Prophet Muhammad and his child bride. FOXNews.com reported U.S. publisher Random House Inc., was going to release the book but stopped it from hitting shelves after it claimed that "credible and unrelated sources" said the book could incite violence by a "small, radical segments."

- A British teacher was sentenced to 15 days in jail in Sudan for offending Islam by allowing students to name the class teddy bear Muhammad in November 2007.

- In February 2007 in Egypt an Internet blogger was sentenced to four years in prison fro writing a post that critiqued Islam.

- In 2004, Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was murdered after the release of his documentary about the abuse of Muslim women.

- On November 6, the Parliament of Kyrgystan adopted unanimously a new religious law targeting Christians and other religious minorities. It bans "proselytizing" and prohibits the conversion of Kyrgyz citizens to a different faith.

The pressure to protect religions from defamation has been growing ever since a Danish magazine published caricatures of Muhammad, provoking riots across the Islamic world in 2006 in which dozens of people were killed.

Gabriel Sawma, a lawyer dealing with International Law, mainly the European Union Law, the Middle East Law and Islamic Shari'a law. Professor of Middle East Constitutional Law, Islamic Shari'a, Arabic and Aramaic languages. Expert witness on Islamic marriage contracts, including the mahr contract; expert witness on U.S.-Middle East commercial contracts. Member of the Beirut Bar Association in Lebanon; The New York State Bar Association; Associate member of the American Bar Association. Author of "The Qur'an: Misinterpreted, Mistranslated, and Misread. The Aramaic Language of the Qur'an." Author of an upcoming book on "Islamic marriage Contracts in U.S. Courts.
http://www.syriacaramaicquran.com
Editor of International Law website: http://www.gabrielsawma.blogspot.com
Email: gabrielsawma@yahoo.com

Saudi Arabia's Role in Anti-American Terrorism

The latest public relations missive from Riyadh complains bitterly that alarmist Americans "have gotten out of control" with accusations that Saudi Arabia supports terrorism. But there is good reason to state the opposite: That we ignore to our peril the degree to which the Saudis spread extremist anti-Americanism. It is particularly unsettling that the Saudis stoke such sentiments here, in our own country. They do this by funding American outposts of the intolerant, militant Wahhabi form of Islam.

The Saudis have poured an astonishing sum of money into this effort. Reza F. Safa, author of Inside Islam, estimated that since 1973, the Saudi government has spent some $87 billion to promote Wahhabism in the United States and the Western Hemisphere.

In some ways, such largesse is to be expected from the Al-Saud. This old bellicose tribe - the only ruling family in the world with the audacity to name a country after itself - owes much to Wahhabism.

The Saudi regime first came to power via an 18th century alliance between two Muhammads: ibn Saud and ibn al Wahhab. Together, the Al-Saud and the Wahhabis commanded armies that vanquished Arabia. They pledged to form a nation based on the principles of Islam. In 1932, an Al-Saud warlord, Abdul Aziz, fulfilled his ancestor's dream; he declared himself sovereign of his own newly conquered territories, which he named the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Abdul Aziz adopted the Islamic holy book, the Koran, as his nation's constitution.

To this day, the official constitution of Saudi Arabia remains the Koran. Saudi officials affirm that their government functions "in total adherence to the Islamic religion."

This might be little more than a political curiosity if not for two factors. First, that a geological twist of fate gave Saudi Arabia considerable prominence in world economic affairs. Secondly - and significantly - Islam is not content to coexist peacefully with other faiths or systems of government.

Says Bernard Lewis, widely recognized as the foremost Western scholar on Islam: "In time, in the Muslim view, all mankind will accept Islam or submit to Islamic rule."

Hence, while Saudi contributions toward American Islam are not surprising, they are deeply worrisome.

Of that $87 billion religious propaganda budget, the Saudis have allocated considerable line-item space toward institutions that mold minds in the model of Wahhabism.

The most malleable minds belong to children. An estimated 30,000 of them attend Saudi-funded Wahhabi day schools.

In America, parochial schools have long been noted for their high educational standards. But Wahhabi schools do not emulate other American church-based nativities of faith and knowledge; nor do they follow the American model of rigorous intellectual inquiry.

The Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Northern Virginia forthrightly states that even though it exists on U.S. soil, it is "subject to the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

Students at ISA are not required to study U.S. history or government. They do, however, receive instruction in Wahhabism.

Outsiders are not permitted to observe Wahhabism lessons or any other classes at ISA. But early this year, students at the academy told two Washington Post reporters some of the things they learn at school. Among other things, students discover the intricacies of Judgment Day.

One event on that formidable day will be that Muslims will fight and kill Jews. The cowardly Jews will seek refuge behind trees. Much like the trees in the forest scene from the Wizard of Oz, these trees will become animated and aggressive. They will call out to the righteous: "Oh Muslim, Oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him."

Students also said they are taught "it is better to shun and even to dislike Christians, Jews and Shiite Muslims." Furthermore, students learn, it is okay to hurt or steal from a non-Muslim.

The Saudi-supplied textbooks at this and other Wahhabi schools state that Muslims are obliged to consider all infidels the enemy. Certain enemies are not even acknowledged in geography class. Wahhabi schools in America are notorious for doctoring maps of the Middle East, and hanging them in classrooms - with Israel blotted out.

Such is the curriculum of education-minded Saudis.

And what of the Saudis' contributions toward American mosques?

According to Safa, the Saudis have funded more than 80 percent of the mosques built in the United States within the last 20 years. The newcomers do not embrace the American religious community's spirit of inter-faith cooperation. They are distinctly isolationist. This attitude came to light as early as the 1990's, when Wahhabi mosques in America refused to accept help from local churches wanting to donate food to Bosnian Muslims. Apparently Wahhabis will not work with infidels, even if the purpose is to help other Muslims.

The Saudis, meanwhile, have directed considerable outreach toward the American Black Muslim community.

In one effort to showcase the bounties of Wahhabism to this target audience, the Saudis' enfeebled King Fahd pledged as much as $8 million for a lavish mosque in shabby South Central Los Angeles. The Saudis' Islamic Development Bank pledged an additional $295,000 for a school attached to the mosque.

From the Saudi perspective, this and other similar contributions are less an expense than an investment. According to Safa, as much as 90 percent of American converts to Islam are black. According to some estimates, if the conversion rate continues, Islam could emerge as a dominant religion among urban blacks.

This is a trend worth watching. Many of America's black Muslims have harshly criticized America, and have deemed it an "immoral society." Increasingly, black Muslims oppose U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and are adopting a Saudi-influenced view of Arab-Israeli relations.

Other Wahhabis in the U.S. advocate a Saudi-style approach to American government. Insightful Saudi-watcher Daniel Pipes reports that significant elements within American Islam seek to replace our Constitution with the Koran. A ludicrous fantasy, to be sure; but one that offers a glimpse of Wahhabi dreams for America.

Far more troubling is the ease with which the Wahhabis use religion as a means to express and stoke violent impulses. Indeed, in the days leading up to Christmas, the Wahhabi on-line magazine Al-Islam published this religious passage from the Koran: Against them make ready your strength to the utmost of your power, including steeds of war, to strike terror into (the hearts of) the enemies.... A particularly resonant selection, given the events of September 2001.

In the aftermath of those appalling attacks, Federal officials formed Operation Green Quest, aimed at tracing the money trail to Islamic terrorism. In the course of their investigation, agents raided more than a dozen Saudi-funded organizations, such as the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, Virginia.

Investigators are still working to unravel the complicated network of financial ties between the various organizations and their charities.

One targeted group, the SAAR Foundation, had links to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is being investigated by European and Middle Eastern governments for ties to terrorist organizations, including the Palestinian Hamas. Among its many other activities, SAAR, which is now officially disbanded, helped fund a Tampa, Florida-based group suspected of having ties to the terrorist Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

"It's like peeling an onion," said an intelligence officer familiar with Operation Green Quest. "There's always another layer."

The organizations and their Saudi enablers proclaim both innocence and ignorance. "To hear them tell it," the intelligence officer says, "they're just a bunch of well-meaning religious folks."

As in the days of old, though, when the two Mohammads acquired territory and power via jihad, Wahhabis are as much about politics as they are about religion.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey told Congress: "One analogue for Wahhabism's political influence today might be the extremely angry form taken by much of German nationalism in the period after World War I." The former spy chief acknowledged that not all extremists of the day became Nazis. But, he added: "Just as angry and extreme German nationalism of that period was the soil in which Nazism grew, Wahhabi Islamist extremism today is the soil in which al Qaeda and its sister terrorist organizations are growing."

Much of that soil is spread across the United States. It hosts a nascent Wahhabi Fifth Column.

Political commentator William Kristol couches the Saudi's export of Wahhabism - via its funding of schools, mosques and think tanks in America - as "a clear and present danger to the United States and its citizens."

America must respond aggressively to that threat. Rather than accept continued transparent professions of innocence, Americans must insist that the Saudis immediately stop funding Wahhabi schools, mosques, charities and think tanks in this country. We can no longer tolerate such an overt onslaught on our national values.

Susan Katz Keating

http://susankatzkeating.blogspot.com