The youth in Saudi Arabia have very little forms of entertainment or avenues to express themselves and thus they have created their own form of entertainment and amusement in the form of Saudi drifting also known as tafheet or hajwalah in the Arab world. This dangerous and deadly activity has been occurring in the Kingdom ever since motor cars have made their way into the oil rich Kingdom. Tafheet practice and events occur with little to no concern for any vehicle occupants, other drivers or any spectator safety. For those of you out there who do not know what drifting is all about let me give you a brief explanation. Basically the driver would drive the car at maximum speed and then turn the steering wheel sharply towards the right and then left causing the vehicle to spin and sway from side to side. Young Saudi men see this as an act of bravery or very simply a means of showing off their manhood....It is a case of "I am a macho man". In most instances though the car spins completely out of control and causes loss of life and damage to property. Many innocent bystanders or pedestrians lose their lives. Many of these drifters would actually be daring enough to carry out this bizarre activity in peak traffic on the main streets of Riyadh. Many 'shabaabs'---young Saudi men would consider drifting in rich affluent neighbourhoods to attract the young women residing in those neighbourhoods forcing the police to set up speed bumps to contain this bizarre activity. I believe that if a person has no respect for their own life and wishes to destroy their own life then no problem that's your right. But no one has the right to destroy someone elses life or show disrespect towards another human beings property. The video below is absolutely appalling. The young men in the video literally hijack the vehicles driven by expats and then utilize the vehicle to carry out their drifting stunts. As you can see they have targeted the poor expat workers residing in the Kingdom knowing fully well that these labourers do not really have a say in the Kingdom from a human rights point of view. I do not think that these youth would dare to try a stunt like this with a Saudi citizen. These youth have shown no respect towards another human being and have failed to respect another persons property. I wonder if the parent's of these youth know what their young men are up to. They continued this horrific activity for four hours. The question is this? Where the hell were the police? The mutawwa are quick to run after women in the malls yelling at them to cover their eyes, cover their faces, reprimanding them for wearing nail polish etc etc. Why was there not one mutawwa in sight to advise these destructive youth about respecting other people? Islam is a religion that teaches us to respect and value other people along with their property irrespective of race, colour or creed. Clearly these youth have not upheld the teachings of Islam. It is of paramount importance that youth camps be set up to teach young Saudi men to become productive members of society.These young men should be inspired to learn other skills or take up part time jobs. They should be encouraged to become involved in social and community welfare projects like visiting the sick, visiting orphanages, raising funds for various charities across the globe. I strongly believe that residing in an overly repressive environment creates a recipe for disaster and the video below is a clear depiction of this. What are your thoughts on this one?
