Showing posts with label House of Saud. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House of Saud. Show all posts
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
What Is Happening In Saudi Arabia? - Marwa Osman on The Corbett Report
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
Wednesday, November 08, 2017
How Saudi Arabia Financed Global Terror
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
Monday, October 05, 2015
The Real House of Saud - Saudi Arabia's Oil-For-Tyranny
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Saudi Royal Calls for Regime Change in Riyadh
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| Saudi Arabia's King Salman. One Saudi royal claims that the king's son, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 'is ruling the country'. |
A senior Saudi prince has launched an unprecedented call for change in the country’s leadership, as it faces its biggest challenge in years in the form of war, plummeting oil prices and criticism of its management of Mecca, scene of last week’s hajj tragedy.
The prince, one of the grandsons of the state’s founder, Abdulaziz Ibn Saud, has told the Guardian that there is disquiet among the royal family – and among the wider public – at the leadership of King Salman, who acceded the throne in January.
The prince, who is not named for security reasons, wrote two letters earlier this month calling for the king to be removed.
“The king is not in a stable condition and in reality the son of the king [Mohammed bin Salman] is ruling the kingdom,” the prince said. “So four or possibly five of my uncles will meet soon to discuss the letters. They are making a plan with a lot of nephews and that will open the door. A lot of the second generation is very anxious.”
“The public are also pushing this very hard, all kinds of people, tribal leaders,” the prince added. “They say you have to do this or the country will go to disaster.” » | Hugh Miles in Cairo | Monday, September 28, 2015
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
House of Saud: Letter Calls for Saudi King to Be Replaced
Friday, April 26, 2013
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
First it was Tunisia, then came Egypt. One can only wonder which country will be next. One can only wonder which country is now the weakest link in the chain. For indeed, the domino efect has already taken hold.
The Saudi royal family won’t sleep well in their golden feathers tonight! They have seen how the Obama administration abandoned Mubarak in his hour of need. What reason do they have for believing that America will treat them any differently?
The Obama administration has shown itself to be weak and dithering. No certainties of the Reagan administration in the Whie House these days!
We are living in interesting times indeed. We are also living in dangerous times. A contagion appears to have taken root in north Africa and the Middle East. One can only ask oneself where it is all going to end. For there is no doubt about it, the House of Saud is not a beloved royal family by all and sundry: there are many in Saudi Arabia who would like to see the back of this régime. Now that they have witnessed the US’ lack of resolve to stand by its ally, Egypt, they may well come to the conclusion that the US will do the same with their own royal family. If they do come to this conclusion, they may well feel empowered to start their very own revolution.
We are living in interesting times indeed! – © Mark Alexander
All Rights Reserved
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
MINN POST: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Ibrahim Al Maiman, a respected Muslim scholar, calls himself "a son" of Al Imam Muhammed bin Saud University, theological citadel of Saudi Arabia's ultraconservative version of Islam.
This makes Al Maiman singularly qualified for his new role in a crucial ideological struggle that is taking place in the kingdom and throughout the Muslim world. He is charged with organizing an international conference on the ancient Islamic practice of takfir. More than just another academic conference, it is part of a concerted effort by the House of Saud and top theologians here to reclaim core concepts of Islam that have been warped and misinterpreted by militants.
Simply put, takfir means declaring a fellow Muslim an apostate, or infidel, because of behavior deemed unIslamic.
In recent decades, extremist groups like Al Qaeda have used takfir — hijacked may be a better word — as the theological underpinning for their ideology and to justify murdering other Muslims.
Across the Middle East, they invoke takfir to kill and threaten women for not covering their hair, Iraqis for working with American occupiers, novelists for writing racy scenes, television executives for airing romantic soap operas and government officials for being part of what extremists call takfiri, or infidel, regimes. "
The danger of this ideology is greater now than it has ever been," said Al Maiman on a recent rainy night in Riyadh. "It is the most dangerous because whoever adopts this ideology ... also believes that he has the duty of ... expressing it through acts. And they reach a stage where they pay [with] their own lives ... for this belief."
Seated in the royal reception hall of the university, where he is an assistant professor in Islamic law and jurisprudence, Al Maiman provided GlobalPost a rare interview. He wore a gold-trimmed formal vestment, and an uncut black beard to signify his devotion to emulating the Islamic prophet Muhammad. And he was passionate about what he sees as widespread abuse of takfir by extremists. "
Takfir in Islam is a principle that is governed by its own rules, and not open to the whims and judgments of people," he said. "It is first and foremost a judicial sentence, and not just hearsay which people can talk about. ... Only Shariah courts can say and prove that one is an apostate." Read on and comment >>> Caryle Murphy | Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Thursday, May 08, 2008
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback – USA)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardcover – USA)
Friday, March 09, 2007
THE TELEGRAPH: Just what has come over the Saudis? For as long as anyone can remember, the House of Saud has been a model of discretion and reticence in its dealings with the outside world. Whenever the royal family has found itself having to deal with some unpleasant local difficulty, such as Saddam threatening to overrun their oil fields, or Osama bin Laden plotting to murder the king, its time-honoured response has been to reach for the chequebook and buy its way out of trouble. No publicity, no fuss.
Well, that was then. Nowadays, if you look at any of the key issues affecting the region, whether it is Iraq, Iran or the stalemate over Israel/Palestine, you'll invariably find the Saudis spear-heading some bold initiative to find a solution.
Take the talks they hosted last month to persuade the rival Hamas and Fatah Palestinian factions to stop the bloody infighting that nearly brought Gaza to the brink of all-out war.
Had it not been for the personal intervention of King Abdullah, the rival Palestinian groups would still be trying to resolve their differences through violence. But after he managed to persuade Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, and Mahmoud Abbas, the veteran Fatah activist who is nominally the Palestinians' president, to get together in the Saudi holy city of Mecca, the two sides agreed to patch up their differences and form a government of national unity - albeit one that still declines to recognise the right of Israel to exist.
Even more daring was the Saudi initiative this week to try to talk some sense into the nuclear-obsessed Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Saudi Arabia's hardline Sunni regime has always been a source of friction for the Shia zealots who seized control of Iran during the 1979 revolution, so much so that Iran's Revolutionary Guards were blamed by the Saudis for training the al-Qa'eda terror group that blew up the Americans' military base in Dhahran in 1996, killing 19 people and wounding 500.
Yet the new-look Saudis have been able to ignore the bad blood and laid on a lavish welcome for Mr Ahmadinejad. And, if Saudi reports are to be believed, the summit achieved a tangible result, with the Iranian president, who normally makes impassioned speeches calling for Israel's destruction, actually supporting an Arab peace plan to end the Israel-Palestinian crisis (although there was, strangely, no mention of this historic volte face in the official Iranian media). Prince Bandar shows the House of Saud how to punch its weight by Con Coughlin
Mark Alexander
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