Tehran has canceled the Islamic Solidarity Games after Saudi Arabia asked Iran to remove the term Persian Gulf from game medals and brochures.

The Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation (ISSF) Secretary General Saleh Gazdar and Technical Committee Chairman Mohammad Bashir Al-Trabosli said in a Tehran meeting that Arab states would only participate in the event if the term Persian Gulf is replaced with the Arabian Gulf or Gulf.

Tehran, however, said it would never retreat from its stance concerning the use of the Persian Gulf and canceled the games despite spending over 10 million US dollars on the project in the past two years, alef reported.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty adds this tidbit.

Coincidentally (or not), Tehran held a conference today exploring the historical background of the term “Persian Gulf.”

Negotiations are ongoing, so the games may yet go ahead as scheduled in Iran this October.

Although the official website of the Islamic Solidarity Games 2009 says nothing about the controversy, it does have a timetable of sporting events, publicity videos, and a spiffy logo.

At right is a satellite photo of the body of water in question.

Hamoud was arrested on 13th January 2009 and detained at the infamous Eleisha political prison in Riyadh. He had written in his blog of his decision to leave Islam to follow Jesus, and had also been critical of the judicial system in his country, highlighting corruption and human rights abuses. This was the third time that Hamoud had been detained, having been held for nine months in 2004 and for one month in 2008.

Hamoud has been forbidden to leave Saudi Arabia or to appear in the media. New entries have been posted at his blog, Christ for Saudi (Arabic).

After his arrest, Saudi authorities blocked his blog within the country. A few days later, Google closed his blog for alleged terms of service violations. Google restored the blog on 5 February, but gave no explanation for the temporary closure.

As Middle East Concern points out, Hamoud’s release is surprising, since leaving Islam is a capital crime in Saudi Arabia. In August 2008 it was reported that a Saudi man murdered his daughter for converting to Christianity.

May our Lord continue to encourage and protect Hamoud.

h/t: Persecuted Church Weblog

Sara, a 32-year-old mother of three children, has been trying to secure a divorce from her husband.

“My case has been in the court for three months,” she said. “My husband is demanding SR50,000 while all I received from him as a dowry was SR30,000.”
[…]
Sara’s brothers offered to help out with the cash, “but it is not fair, they all have families and responsibilities,” she said.

“Some men use the khula system to make money on account of women who are willing to pay off their husbands in order to end a troubled marriage,” said Noha, a 28-year-old mother of a four-year-old.

In effect, these Saudi women are forced to pay their husbands to make them go away.

Khula divorce is another example of systemic discrimination faced by Saudi women.

h/t: Mission & Justice

When he opened up the CD, we were both astonished however. I hadn’t noticed when I bought it, but the tightly sealed plastic wrap packaging had been removed and had been replaced with a clear plastic resealable envelope-type wrapper. The front cover of the little booklet tucked inside serves as the front of the CD cover. This little booklet insert has photos of the artist, a list of the songs and lyrics, as well as the artistic credits.

Here’s what the front cover looks like before and after Saudi CD cops got through with it.

Click on images for enlargements.  See Susie of Arabia’s blog for the rest of the censored and uncensored cover art.

Saudi Arabian CD cops went to a lot of trouble to remove the plastic wrap and take the jewel box apart so they could carefully colour Kate Perry’s excessive exposed flesh with red and black markers.

One suspects, however, that the CPVPV agents were so distracted by Ms Perry’s bare legs that they completely forgot to read the song titles and lyrics. The second song is the notorious (and fatuous) “I Kissed A Girl”. How did that slip past the CD constabulary’s black markers?

h/t: Global Voices

Saudi religious police say they have uncovered the country’s first female-run alcohol factory, in the eastern city of Dammam. Alcohol production and consumption is strictly forbidden in Saudi Arabia, which adheres to the fundamentalist Wahabi interpretation of Islam.

The alleged illegal alcohol factory was located inside an empty house, where religious police said they had in recent weeks noted a number of foreign women carrying containers into and from the house.

Busted at the scene were several African women aged 35 to 45. The report does not state how many were arrested.

Nor does the report indicate what punishment they face, but I bet it’s not pretty.

First of all, Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, does not have a codified criminal law and modern courts do not exist. Usually it is a cleric or the police who pass verdicts against criminals. Besides, the King and his clan are the law. They rule whimsically, supported by Wahhabism, a stone-age Islamic version of Islam.
[…]
A Saudi practicing Muslim does not shake hands with a woman. Touching her hand stirs his sexual lust and that is haram (sinful).
[…]
Women in Saudi Arabia must veil themselves from head to toe in public. Also, a woman must be accompanied by a close relative in public, otherwise she is branded as a prostitute and very often is snapped by the Mutawas (Morality police) and detained. Saudi women are forced to wear a niqab (face veil).

Further, a Saudi woman is not allowed to perform any public transaction: economic, financial, or administrative, without the approval of a male relative – husband, father, or brother.
[…]
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that does not allow followers of other faiths to have their own temples. Even wearing the Christian cross in a necklace is forbidden. Its owner may be charged with proselytizing and could face flogging or deportation. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia has funded the erection of mosques all over the world, and spends billion of dollars on Islamic centers across the world.

Read the whole thing.

Now, however, Blogger.com has blocked his blog, so no one in the world can view it. Anyone trying to surf to Saudi Masihi sees only this.

Saudi Masihi was available two weeks ago when I first viewed it. Google, which owns Blogger.com, provides no information as to what has happened since then to cause the blog to be in violation of Blogger’s Terms of Service. Has Saudi Arabia pressured Google to shut it down?

If you’re concerned about this, a discussion has been initiated at the Blogger Help Group where you can add your (civil) comments.

Compass Direct has a story with a summary of the reasons Mr Bin Saleh gave for believing in Christ.

On his web site, which Saudi authorities have blocked, Bin Saleh wrote that his journey to Christ began after witnessing the public beheading of three Pakistanis convicted of drug charges. Shaken, he began an extensive study of Islamic history and law, as well as Saudi justice. He became disillusioned with sharia (Islamic law) and dismayed that kingdom authorities only prosecuted poor Saudis and foreigners.
[…]
After reading how Jesus forgave – rather than stoned – a woman condemned for adultery, Bin Saleh eventually received Christ as savior.

“Jesus . . . took us beyond physical salvation as he offered us forgiveness that is the salvation of eternal life and compassion,” he wrote. “Just look and ask for the light of God; there might be no available books to help you make a comparative study between the teachings of Muhammad (which are in my opinion a series of political, social, economical and human disasters) and the teaching of Jesus in Saudi Arabia, but there are many resources on the Web by which you might get to the bosom/arms of the Father of salvation. Seek salvation and you will reach it; may the Lord keep you from the devil’s pitfalls.”

In August 2008, Fatima Al-Mutairi was brutally murdered by her father, a Saudi religious cop, for writing online about her conversion to Christianity.

h/t: Glenn Penner at Persecuted Church Weblog

UPDATE (7 Feb.): The blog is available again.  No explanation has been given as to why Blogger/Google blocked it.

Based on information obtained by ANHRI, the Saudi authorities jailed the young blogger at the infamous Eleisha political prison in Riyadh; a prison which in 2004 witnessed the arrest of the reformists Matrouk el Falih, Ali el Domini and Eissa al Hamed.

The 28-year-old alumni of the al Yarmouk University in Jordan has been arrested twice before; for nine months in 2004 and last Nov. Saudi Arabia, which decided to sponsor an interfaith dialog conference in New York last Nov. and because his arrest may tarnish its image and expose the Saudi government’s false allegations, has to set him free. That conference was attended by representatives of 80 countries.

But the blogger re-arrest, after the conference wrapped up, raised fears upon his life because the entire world is busy following up the aggression on Gaza and the Saudi authorities may seize the chance to make him an example with nobody watching.

ANHRI condemns the arrest and calls on the Saudi government to act in accordance with the Saudi king’s  proclaimed tolerance for freedoms of speech and religion.

Mr Saleh’s blog is Saudi Masihi (Arabic).

h/t: Global Voices Advocacy

The organisation is seeking to establish a minimum age of 15 years for girls to be married in the kingdom, the Saudi Gazette reported on Thursday.

Dr Saleh al-Khathlan, deputy chairman of the NSHR, told the paper the move was based on several court rulings on cases of underage girls married to men tens of years older than them.

Dr al-Khathlan says there have been ten such cases in the past two months.

At least two related news stories have been reported in the past few days:

A Saudi judge refused to grant an annulment to an 8-year-old girl married to a 58-year-old man.  According to this news story, the girl does not yet know that she is married.

A doctor stopped, or at least delayed, the marriage of 5-year-old girl by refusing to conduct legally required pre-marital blood tests,

• The women will end up married to their careers
• Women will work in mixed environments (medical facilities are not segregated like the rest of the work world in KSA)
• The women will end up getting married late or not at all
• Women in the field are considered “easy”
• Men do not want their wives to be doctors

Where did anyone get the idea that women doctors are “easy”?

The stigma against female physicians may seem silly, but it can have lethal consequences.  Last weekend, a Saudi father slit his daughter’s throat after objecting to her study of medicine.

Imtihan, the 19-year-old girl who was allegedly murdered last week by her father because she wanted to study medicine, will not be buried until the forensics team has completed a post-mortem examination.
[…]
On Wednesday, he [her father] reportedly called Imtihan and told her that he was coming to meet her.

She received him and showed him her medical textbooks and notes, the newspaper said. It was then that, according to the witnesses, he stabbed the girl and slit her throat.

The father had previously objected to her pursuing medical education, but the news story doesn’t state the grounds of his objection.  Apparently, he thought it highly dishonourable.

h/t: Global Voices

Pakistan is even worse shape, largely because it had no oil exports to start with. Its current account deficit has ballooned to 14% of GDP, and it must pay 3000 basis points (30%) above the benchmark rate to finance its debt. Turkey is in similarly dire financial straits.

Asia Times columnist Spengler comments.

Pakistan has one of the world’s youngest populations and an enormous capital requirement. Young people borrow from old people, and countries with young populations should import capital from countries with aging populations. That is out of the question, for the world markets have turned Pakistan into a pariah.
[…]
Pakistan is about to become a failed state, and Iran and Turkey will be close behind.
[…]
The West at present is unable to cope with a failed state like Somalia, with less than a tenth as many military age men as Pakistan, but which nonetheless constitutes a threat to world shipping and a likely source of funding for terrorism. How can the West cope with the humiliation of Pakistan’s pro-American president and the inability of its duly-constituted government to suppress Islamist elements in its army and intelligence services?

Spengler points out that many Islamic nations are facing higher borrowing charges.

The Muslim risk premium has become so pervasive that investors are looking cross-eyed at Saudi Arabia. The cost of credit protection on the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has jumped since August, and now is considerably higher than Israel’s.

Near the end of the column, he offers some thoughts on the Mumbai terrorist attack. He believes that Indian authorities have lied about important aspects of the attack, which was, in his view, not a suicide mission but “a new kind of urban terror assault”.

They cannot perform in public. They cannot pose for album cover photographs. Even their jam sessions are secret, for fear of offending the religious authorities in this ultraconservative kingdom. But the members of Saudi Arabia’s first all-girl rock band, The Accolade, are clearly not afraid of taboos.
[…]
All four members of The Accolade are women: Dina, the group’s guitarist and founder and her sister Dareen, bass player; Lamia, the group’s singer, and Amjad, the keyboardist.

The group’s name was inspired by one of Dina’s favourite paintings, ‘The Accolade,’ by the English pre-Raphaelite painter Edmund Blair Leighton. She studies art at King Abdulaziz University.

Playing “in Saudi [Arabia]”? “Yes, it’s a challenge,” said Lamia. “Maybe we’re crazy. But we wanted to do something different.”

The band’s first single “Pinocchio” is posted at their MySpace page. It’s pretty good. Check it out.

Click here for a high-resolution image of Edmund Blair Leighton’s 1901 painting The Accolade.

So, you want to be a rock ‘n’ roll star?
[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vgl6_the-byrds-so-you-want-to-be-a-rock_music[/dailymotion]

While he praised his close ally, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Mr Bush effectively challenged the strict Islamic kingdom’s outlawing of apostasy, or change of religion.

Addressing the UN General Assembly, he said that the UN Declaration of Human Rights, adopted 60 years ago, enshrines “the right to choose or change religions and the right to worship in private or public”.

Mr Bush added: “Freedom includes the right of all people to worship as they see fit.”

Saudi Arabia is far from the only country in which apostasy is illegal. Fifteen Muslim-majority countries outlaw converting from Islam to some other religion.

Seven years after 15 Saudis hijacked U.S. jetliners and flew them into the World Trade Center, Saudi Arabia is leading a UN forum in New York this week to promote peace and interreligious dialogue.

Saudi King Abdullah is hosting the “Culture of Peace” gathering at United Nations headquarters on November 12-13.
[…]
However, critics question the UN interreligious conference being led by Saudi Arabia, which does not allow other faiths to be practiced on its soil. Like June’s Madrid forum, this week’s meeting will not be attended by Saudi Arabia’s top Muslim clerics, including its grand mufti.

The Christian Science Monitor points to the elephant in the room: Saudi Arabia is also leading a drive by Islamic nations for an international agreement to outlaw criticism of Islam.

Saudi King Abdullah, who initiated this week’s special session, is quietly enlisting the leaders’ support for a global law to punish blasphemy – a campaign championed by the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference that puts the rights of religions ahead of individual liberties.

If the campaign succeeds, states that presume to speak in the name of religion will be able to crush religious freedom not only in their own country, but abroad.

To add a final comic flourish, Iranian students have reacted with horrified indignation to the fact that Israel is invited to the conference.

Head of the Muslim World Students’ Front Hojjat Khodadadi told IRNA on Wednesday that the invitation extended to Zionist regime’s foreign minister Tzipi Livni by Saudi Arabia, as the country leading the UN inter-faith meeting, means that Saudis have practically opened the door for normalization of ties with the Zionist regime.

Khodadadi said that the Zionist regime does not have the least belief in any religion and religious school of thought.

Right!

h/t for Christian Science Monitor: Persecuted Church Weblog

Sheikh Mohsen al Obeikan, an adviser to the Saudi Ministry of Justice and a member of the Saudi Shura Council agreed with some Islamic scholars in Turkey and Egypt in this regard. “This [issue] is acknowledged by Islamic jurists and it has roots in Islamic Shariah, the Quran and the Hadith [Prophetic traditions],” said the Sheikh. He referred to the following excerpts of the Quran: ‘The recompense for an injury is an injury equal thereto (in degree),’ [Surat Ashoura: 40] and ‘…whoever then acts aggressively against you, inflict injury on him according to the injury he has inflicted on you…’ [Surat al Baqara: 194]

Al Obeikan, who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat by phone, said women should only hit their husbands if they are defending themselves.

For the average Arab wife, the fatwa is only a sop. Husbands are almost always taller and stronger than their wives. Unless she knows martial arts or resorts to using a knife or other weapon, a wife so bold as to strike back against an angry and violent husband only risks more severe injury.

The ultimate answer is for legal and religious authorities to tell husbands that physical violence against women is never justified. Until that happens, this fatwa will not help most women in Muslims lands.

And here’s the proof of that statement.

The fatwa has been met with controversy among the conservatives in Turkey as it may “stir up rebellion” within families.

h/t: The Women of Islam