Every day I receive many inbox messages from
people all over the world. The most common question that most people
tend to ask is with regards to my nationality and marital status lol.
But there are also many inbox messages like the one below that truly
touches my heart and encourages me to continue writing and bring to the
fore issues that affect all our lives. My life in the Kingdom was more
laid back and hence I had lots of free
time to write. Here in South Africa I find that I have many things to do
and hence I am finding it difficult to put my mind into writing. I
guess I just have to plan my day so that I can allocate an hour every
day towards penning my thoughts, ideas and opinions. Thanking all my
facebook friends and blog readers for your messages and sweet words of encouragement and
please do continue writing to me....
"Slm dear Sumayya
I
hope that all is well with you. Welcome back home. I'm from
Johannesburg. I absolutely love your writing and have learnt so much
through your experiences. Although I rarely comment on your posts, I
read almost everything and thoroughly enjoy it. I used to write for an
Egyptian based website a few years ago. Whenever I read your posts, I
often feel inspired to write again (although I don't find the time
anymore).
I look forward to reading about your experiences now that you are back in SA.
I read your last post and mirror your sentiments. Crime in SA is quite a
problem. I have my drivers license for six years now, but because of
the innumerable unfortunate incidents that take place, I hardly ever go
out on my own. Its a sad reality.
Thanks so much for all that
you have shared through Facebook. Reading your posts often made me feel
like I got to experience a part of your travels. It's my dream to travel
the world and experience the different cultures and lifestyles of
people around the world. For now, I'm unable to live that dream but if
Allah wills, then I will get to do so. Please remember me in your duas.
Keep your head high. Don't get despondent. In time, you will ease into
this life. May Allah always keep you happy and successful. I make dua
that Allah will grant you easiness in adjusting to this new lifestyle.
Take care of yourself and be safe.
Love and duas"
Yippy, I am really happy and excited that the blog has reached over 40 000 visitors in a short space of time. I
would like to also take the opportunity to thank everyone out there who has taken the liberty and the
initiative to visit my blog. All proceeds from the
blog goes to charity. May God Almighty bless all of you for your
continued love and support. Remember that helping someone else in need
is just a click away. Share my blog link with all your friends and
family..:))))
by William Bauer
“Please bear in mind, that
people are witch hunting for us…so be careful which details you use,”
Jabir begins. He is right to be concerned, for he is an atheist in a
country where advocating beliefs other than those of a Sunni Muslim
engender imprisonment, possible torture, and a theoretical possibility
of execution.
Although Jabir is not his real name, he is still
wary of publicly voicing his views. Saudi Arabia is an intensely hostile
environment in which to express non-Islamic religious beliefs, let
alone a lack of belief. Indeed, for many Saudis, atheism – mulhad in
Arabic – is far more disturbing than believing in a different religion.
Atheism, as argued by many clerics in Saudi Arabia, leads to dissolute
lives, carnal pursuits, immoral behaviours, and ultimately, eternal
damnation.
Atheists are portrayed in Saudi official media as an
existential and corruptive threat to society. One cleric even recently
spoke of a: “wave of atheism sweeping the country.” This is highly
unlikely, but it shows a persistent fear of atheists and ensures that no
Saudi ever express such a belief openly.
Jabir is in his
twenties, and a successful graduate from a top Saudi university. He used
to be highly religious, regularly attending his school’s Qu’ranic
classes, and not listening to music until his late teens. But in his
final school years, this changed.
“I found some religious
teachings and rules didn't make any sense. So, I started asking
questions about small things like why music is Haram (forbidden) or why
women have to cover their faces. Then I started reading about the way
Islam scripts and Hadith were gathered … I had a group of people and we
would discuss books in regular meetings…After a while I came to believe
that the whole of religion is nothing but man’s invention to fight
reality and impose order.”
Citing works by key Muslim and Arab
thinkers, as well as authors such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher
Hitchens and Sam Harris, Jabir explains that acquiring these books was
tricky. Often, he had to smuggle them into Saudi.
“I usually get a
few copies of English language books that no one can understand, but I
had to cover “God is not Great” with a bag as I went through customs,
that was too obvious…”
Then comes another complication, the hiding
of these books. The process is so time consuming that Jabir notes:
“...if you want to joke with a Saudi atheist ask him “where’s your
special book stash?”” Beyond the humour, however, the issue is very
serious, and if found with such books, Jabir would be in deep trouble.
When
asked if holding such views isolates him, he answers confidently: “From
my own experience, it was really easy. Importantly, a group from my
school friends that I was really close with, left the Islamic faith
along with me. As I finished from my degree, I went off to work, as did
most of my friends, in different cities. This made it easy for me to be
introduced to a group of “pro-reason” or “anti-theist” in every city I
go to.”
In the past ten years, new means of communication have
opened doors for many in the Kingdom. Whether it is a young Saudi
looking for love, a budding political analyst spoiling for debate, a
seasoned writer looking for an audience, or an atheist searching for
kindred spirits, the Internet has possibilities for all.
“Facebook
and Twitter made it easy to find people who debate and are interested
in secular values. We ‘non-believers’ have meetings and groups in a lot
of Saudi cities. Although it's really hard to notice them, if you go
into them, then you will be shocked by the numbers and elements of
society represented,” Jabir notes.
It was not just the fact that there were many others like him which surprised Jabir.
“I
was shocked to meet older people in their forties and fifties who been
hiding their atheism for decades. They said that only recently with the
young generation in their twenties had they found other people who
think like them and were able to find social group that they can talk
and debate about their ideas in.” Jabir politely demurs when asked about
the backgrounds of these people; confidentiality and secrecy run deep
in the Saudi Arabian atheism milieu.
Jabir continues to keep up
the semblance of belief in Islam when with his family. Occasionally,
this becomes frustrating, especially as every Friday he has to pretend
to go pray at a mosque, but in reality sits in his car outside a coffee
shop chain, sipping a latte until the sermon is finished. Another
atheist, Abdullah, mentions he is fortunate to have his family live in
another part of Saudi Arabia, and is therefore free to have a weekly lie
in.
Nevertheless, the consequences of Jabir or any of his co-believers being unmasked as atheists would be dire.
“If
someone declared that he was non-believer, regardless of whether the
government took action or not, he would be cut off by his family, he
would be fired from his own job, people everywhere would talk about him
and warn others about him. It would be highly likely that people would
hurt him physically, perhaps murder him.”
When asked how this
makes him feel to be Saudi, Jabir says: “The fact that Saudi is not a
secular country, make one pessimistic for the future. But the fact that
this country is a theist state, promoting one of the most extreme forms
of Islam, horrifies me. I don’t see change from society, I don’t see
change from the royal family, and as for the outside world, they don’t
care how many people are killed for simply refusing to believe in the
religion they were born into, as long as the oil keeps pumping.”
Although
Jabir’s vision is deeply depressing, it is undeniable that Saudi Arabia
is changing. With a booming population, rising unemployment, falling
revenue from oil sales, and the ever-growing Internet and social media
expansion, the country faces times of change and possible instability.
It could yield a society that is freer and more tolerant of differing
views and ideas from within its communities.
Yet, it may also, as
the political system reacts to these new conditions, be a time of
tightening and ever greater social and religious restrictions. The
nightmare situation for Jabir is that when the relatively reform-minded
King Abdullah dies it will bring about a new monarch who will let the
religious police and certain segments of the Saudi community start an
aggressive witch-hunt for ‘non-believers’.
I ask him why he continues to hold on to his views, in this most dangerous of societies.
“As
a person, I never imagined I’d be in peace with myself and with my view
of life like I feel now. My new views on supreme power, afterlife,
faith and religion, formed gradually over years of reading and seeking
self-satisfaction. However, as a Saudi, I feel like I was born in the
wrong place,” he says, concluding:
“Isn't it a basic right for
humans to believe or not believe freely! I know this is only a dream in
Saudi, but it doesn't change the fact that people will have different
views and believes, whether society will allow it or not.”
William Bauer is a columnist for Your Middle East, focusing on Saudi Arabia. You can follow him on Twitter @SOCHUM_William
Source:
http://www.yourmiddleeast.com/columns/article/interview-with-a-saudi-atheist_11146
www.documentarystorm.com - picture
by Ramon Mohamed, Riyadh
For the Saudi Gazette
Last Thursday I went with my Saudi wife to the Riyadh International
Book Fair. I moved to Riyadh from the UK three years ago and each year I
have visited the book fair. My wife is an Assistant Professor and I am a
teacher. We both agreed that the fair has improved in its content of
books that promote a more multicultural understanding of Saudi society and the wider global community.
It was great to see men, women and families attending the event who have a thirst for reading and learning.
The only sour point for me was the few incidents I saw in which members
of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice
(the Hai’a) behaved badly and disrupted the event. I have read of other
incidents written in this newspaper and I have experienced one of my
own.
I came across the Hai’a personally a few weeks ago on my
first ever visit to Madina with my wife. My wife and I went in by
separate entrances to pray in the Prophet’s Mosque. After prayer I had
arranged to meet my wife outside the ladies entrance. When I arrived she
was very upset and surrounded by members of the Hai’a and a couple of
ladies who supervise inside of the mosque.
My wife is very
petite and she was surrounded by three very large, long bearded Hai’a
staffers. She was being accused of being a “troublemaker” and of
“causing trouble”! What this “trouble” was had not been made clear.
I started to speak to my wife and tried to walk her away from the
bullying Hai’a staff, but they physically grabbed hold of me. I know
little Arabic to remonstrate with them and tried to release myself. My
wife tried to translate but they showed her little respect. By this time
my wife was very upset and what is worse is that these so-called
Religious Police were behaving more like vigilantes in such a holy
place. We were then accused of not being married. By this time a group
of onlookers watched as my wife tried to explain our relationship.
More Hai’a staff arrived and this was becoming ridiculous. We are not
teenagers but mature professional people who had arrived only a few
hours earlier on a flight from Riyadh to Madina.
The Hai’a
members then started to shout angrily asking for our marriage
certificate. Luckily I had put the certificate in my suitcase so that I
could show it at the hotel reception should they need it.
They
demanded to see our iqamas. As we had only just been married a few
months before I had not registered the marriage on my iqama and because I
am a foreigner married to a Saudi I was told that I could not register
the marriage on my iqama. We tried to explain this to them but they
refused to listen to any rational explanation.
My wife
explained to the aggressive Hai’a staffers that I would go and get the
marriage certificate, which was a few kilometers away in our hotel room.
However, they kept hold of me and demanded that my tearful wife walk to
the hotel. Here we were outside the Prophet’s Mosque and were being
treated so shamelessly by a bunch of thugs.
The Hai’a staff
members during this time made several attempts to drag me into one of
their security cars which I constantly resisted as I was innocent of all
the things they were stupidly accusing me and my wife of.
My
wife returned still in tears an hour later with the marriage
certificate. The Hai’a staffers inspected the certificate and found that
we were telling the truth.
They passed back our marriage
certificate. Gave not one word of apology not even an explanation of the
so-called “trouble” my wife had caused. They got back into their
security cars and drove away!
Unbelievable is all I can say in the way they treated “guests” at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madina.
As a postscript to all of this, my wife and I were on our way to Yanbu
via Medina to announce to her parents that she was pregnant and
expecting our first child. God forbid if he/she turns out to be one of
those unintelligent beings who are given the highest responsibility to
“protect” the people visiting the holy mosque.
Authorities in Paris are to seize assets
belonging to a Saudi princess to help cover the cost of an eye-watering
€6 million bill she left behind on a recent, no-expense spared visit to
the French capital.
A judge in Nanterre, near Paris, on
Wednesday ordered the seizure of three storage units owned by Maha
Al-Sudairi, so that their lavish
contents can be sold to pay the staggering €1 million-a-month bill the
Saudi princess left behind on her last trip to Paris, French daily Le
Parisien reported.
Al-Sudairi, the former wife of the late
Saudi crown prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, checked into the
‘palace’ hotel Le Shangri-La in Paris in December 2011, with her 60
attendants and assistants.
By the time she left, in June 2012,
Al-Sudairi had managed to rack up the barely believable total of €6
million in unpaid bills for expensive meals, jewelry, and a luxury limo
service.
The princess started by renting out the entire seventh
floor of the Shangri-La in the exclusive 16th arrondissement of Paris,
for her personal entourage, and hired the luxury services company
'Cinquieme Etoile' ('Fifth Star') to take care of their daily meals,
provide chauffeur-driven cars and a security detail, and take care of
Al-Sudairi's dirty linens.
“Every day we had about 30 cars at
the ready for her and those who accompanied her,” the director of
Cinquieme Etoile was quoted as saying in French daily Le Parisien. “We
are still awaiting payment,” added the company's boss.
That payment was estimated to amount to €1.5 million.
The day after her husband's death on June 16th, 2012, Al-Sudairi and
her people attempted an audacious night flight, but were caught by staff
loading limos with luggage outside the hotel.
As a member of
the Saudi royal family, Al-Sudairi – who has since returned to Saudi
Arabia – is protected against prosecution by her diplomatic immunity.
However, the court in Nanterre on Wednesday agreed that the contents of
three lock-ups in the French capital be seized, and put towards paying
the bill for Cinquieme Etoile, along with five other companies.
Authorities are hoping there will be enough to cover the bill, with the
boxes believed to contain luxury leather goods, artworks, jewelery, and
clothing with an estimated worth of €10-12 million.
However,
the director of Cinquieme Etoile is not holding his breath. “As far the
process of getting paid goes – it's going to be long, very long,” he was
quoted as saying in Le Parisien.
“We'll have to take
international legal action, before the items are appraised, and then
sold at auction,” said the company's director.
Dan MacGuill (dan.macguill@thelocal.com)
Source:
http://www.thelocal.fr/page/view/saudi-princess-pursued-for-6m-bill-on-paris-trip#.UTssJVdmPOp
