ماجد المهندس - يا رايح وين مسافر | جلسة ماجد صوت الحب | Reupload

May 22, 2024 | Majid Almohandis

Jamal Khashoggi’s Widow Urges Starmer to Raise Husband’s Murder at Saudi Meeting

THE GUARDIAN: Starmer will meet crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia for talks about forging closer ties on Monday

Jamal Khashoggi’s widow has urged Keir Starmer to raise her husband’s murder at his meeting with the Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Starmer will arrive in Saudi Arabia on Monday for talks with the Saudi crown prince as part of a two-day trip to the Middle East, his first to the region as prime minister.

Hanan Elatr Khashoggi said it was incumbent on the UK to raise the case of her husband, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who was critical of the Saudi government and wrote a column for the Washington Post. US intelligence believes Prince Mohammed directly ordered his murder, which the kingdom strenuously denies. » | Eleni Courea, Political correspondent | Monday, December 9, 2024

One can but feel for this lady. She says that she has never received any apology or compensation from the kingdom. Nor have I for what the kingdom did to me. So, I, too, wish that Saudi would pay me compensation for my substantial losses. My human rights were also violated. – © Mark Alexander

Young Saudis Are Crucial to Halting Desertification, Climate Envoy Adel Al-Jubeir Tells Arab News

Dec 5, 2024 | Young Saudis are crucial to halting desertification, Climate Envoy Adel Al-Jubeir tells Arab News

ماجد المهندس - يا رايح وين مسافر | جلسة ماجد صوت الحب

May 22, 2024 | Majid Almohandis

When I listen to this beautiful song, I experience a longing for the Middle East. The Middle East has a magic all of its own.

Wenn ich dieses wunderschöne Lied höre, überkommt mich eine Sehnsucht nach dem Nahen Osten. Der Nahe Osten hat seine ganz eigene Magie.

Quand j'écoute cette belle chanson, je ressens une nostalgie pour le Moyen-Orient. Le Moyen-Orient a sa propre magie. – © Mark Alexander

ماجد المهندس - يا رايح وين مسافر | جلسة ماجد صوت الحب

May 22, 2024 | Majid Almohandis

WIKIPEDIA: Majid Al Mohandis »

This Arabic music is beautiful and cheerful. Let us hear it again.

Diese arabische Musik ist wunderschön und fröhlich. Hören wir sie uns noch einmal an.

Cette musique arabe est belle et joyeuse. Écoutons-la à nouveau.

هذه الموسيقى العربية جميلة ومبهجة. دعونا نسمع ذلك مرة أخرى — Mark

ماجد المهندس - يا رايح وين مسافر | جلسة ماجد صوت الحب

May 22, 2024 | Majid Almohandis

WIKIPEDIA: Majid Al Mohandis »

Contraband Whiskey and a Secret Royal Dinner: Wall Street Goes to Riyadh

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Are you an international business titan on the hunt for billions of dollars of Saudi oil cash? Prepare for “a mind game.”

At exactly 6:19 p.m. last Tuesday, in a gold-trimmed hallway snaking off the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton, Riyadh, a lesson emerged in money, power and what Arabs call wasta, or influence.

The scene was opened by Marc Rowan, the private equity billionaire, pacing the carpet leading up the unremarkably named Meeting Room B — where a few minutes earlier chairs had been arranged in a semicircle.

Mr. Rowan, clad in a neat suit rather than his usual sweaters, was 11 minutes early — he actually doubled back a few times, apparently unwilling to arrive first — but was soon followed by a dozen or so titans of technology and finance, including top executives of the Carlyle Group, BlackRock, Citi and Standard Chartered, and founders of the giant hedge funds Bridgewater Associates and Third Point. » | Rob Copeland | Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Iran & Saudi Arabia: Neighbours and Rivals | ARTE.tv Documentary

Oct 23, 2024 | On the one hand, Iran, an Islamic republic led by an ayatollah, sworn enemy of Israel and the USA, with a mostly Shiite population. On the other is Saudi Arabia, a hereditary monarchy whose inhabitants are 90% Sunni. This episode focuses on two neighbours whose rivalry shapes the balance of power in the Middle East...

Iran & Saudi Arabia: Neighbours and Rivals | ARTE.tv Documentary

Available until 23/07/2031

Saudi Executions Hit Record Number under ‘Reformist Prince’

THE TELEGRAPH: Rise in capital punishment under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, despite pledge to cut down on the death penalty

Saudi Arabia has reached a record high for executions despite pledges to cut down the death penalty.

There have been some 208 deaths so far in 2024, eclipsing the 2022 record of 196, 81 in a single day.

The executions have been carried out under reformist Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has overseen at least 1,447 executions carried out since he was made Crown Prince to his elderly father, Salman, in 2015.

It comes as on October 9, UN member states will vote on whether to allow Saudi Arabia a seat on the Human Rights Council.

Reforms made in the kingdom include allowing women to drive and bringing in some of the world’s top names in sport and entertainment.

However, the rise in capital punishment continues, with 32 in September alone, and 41 in August, the 2024 monthly high so far, despite a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in 2020. » | Melanie Swan | Sunday, October 6, 2024

Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's Controversial Prince | Full Documentary in English

Aug 20, 2024 | This documentary offers an in-depth look at Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. It examines his rise to power, his ambitious Vision 2030 plan to modernize the Saudi economy, and his controversial actions on both the domestic and international fronts.

Despite accusations of human rights abuses, political repression, and a costly war in Yemen, MBS is presented as a key figure shaping Saudi Arabia’s future and its place in the global order.

The film highlights the complex interplay between his efforts to reform and modernize the kingdom while maintaining tight control and confronting regional threats, particularly from Iran.


Nb: The subtitles can be changed. Several languages are available. – Mark

Ex-Muslim Opens Up About Sex and Islam in Saudi Arabia | The Story of ‪@ApostateAladdin‬

May 14, 2024 | Anonymous YouTuber Apostate Aladdin shares his story of becoming a man in an environment that used fear to keep boys and girls and men and women separated. This intense fear that men need to be kept away so they don’t act on their uncontrollable desires, left him feeling scared, targeted, alone and shameful. Here we learn about purity culture through a different lens and how he was able to overcome his fear of interacting with women so he could create positive friendships and relationships. | Find Apostate Aladdin YouTube: @apostatealaddin

WARNING: This discussion Is suitable neither for children nor for the narrow-minded or people of a prudish or sensitive nature. – Mark Alexander

How Nuriyah Khan’s Upscale Islamic Life in Saudi Arabia & Dubai Took a Dark Turn

Jul 8, 2024 | When her well-off British family moved to Saudi Arabia near Mecca, Nuriyah Khan (‪HolyHumanist‬) lived in two worlds at once — a plush Muslim life inside a compound which protected her from a fundamentalist Islam. Hoping to continue to live a progressive Muslim lifestyle, she married and moved to Dubai. Once her relationship became unsafe, she asked for a separation and was confronted with Sharia law, Islamic religious law that guides the moral and religious lives of Muslims. He relentlessly stalked her along with the Dubai police who were trying to force her to stay with him, confiscating her passport.

Holy Humanist: Fleeing Saudi Arabia | Jasmin's Unprecedented Journey to Freedom

Jul 3, 2024 | oin me and the wonderfully brave Jasmin Faulk Dickerson who is an author, speaker, podcaster, educator and one of the first documented Ex-Muslim women to escape from Saudi Arabia and embrace a new (and often, very unfamiliar) way of life for herself in America.

After Over 1,000 Deaths: How to Make Hajj Safer in Extreme Heat? | DW News

Jun 20, 2024 | A searing heatwave in Saudi Arabia has led to the deaths of over 1,000 people in the city of Mecca during the annual Hajj pilgrimage, according to a tally by the AFP news agency. At least two-thousand people were hospitalized as temperatures there rose above fifty degrees Celsius. The Hajj is one of the largest gatherings of people in the world with an estimated 1.8 million people attending this year.


Are these deaths truly Allah's will? – © Mark Alexander

More Than 550 Hajj Pilgrims Die in Mecca as Temperatures Exceed 50C

THE GUARDIAN: At least 320 of the dead are from Egypt and Saudi officials report treating more than 2,000 people for heat stress

At least 550 pilgrims have died during the hajj, underscoring the gruelling nature of the pilgrimage which again unfolded in scorching temperatures this year.

At least 323 of those who died were Egyptians, most of them succumbing to heat-related illnesses, the two Arab diplomats coordinating their countries’ responses told AFP.

“All of them [the Egyptians] died because of heat” except for one who sustained fatal injuries during a minor crowd crush, one of the diplomats said, adding that the total figure came from the hospital morgue in the Al-Muaisem neighbourhood of Mecca.

At least 60 Jordanians have died, the diplomats said, up from an official tally of 41 given earlier on Tuesday by Amman.

The new deaths bring the total reported so far by multiple countries to 577, according to an AFP tally. » | Agence France-Presse in Riyadh | Tuesday, June 18, 2024

Rare Footage of 1960s Saudi Arabia - Religion and Reform in the Arab Cold War (1966)

Apr 27, 2024 | On 22 June 1966, ITN broadcasted a special report by Alan Hart on King Faisal's Saudi Arabia. In a 25 minute programme, Hart examined Saudi Arabian society and culture as its king, Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, embarked on a large-scale project of social and economic development. The desert kingdom’s enormous oil wealth was being used to modernise the nation’s infrastructure and raise standards of living, all in an effort to address the social grievances which, if left unaddressed, might lead to support for Communism. The development efforts also served to compete with similar nation-building projects being undertaken by leaders of revolutionary Arab nationalist regimes in the region, led by Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and supported by the Soviet Union. Hart’s report, which includes an interview with King Faisal, offers an insight into Saudi society at the height of what became known as the Arab Cold War. It also highlights some of the tensions at the heart of Saudi society, in particular the codependent but nevertheless uneasy relationship between the ruling House of Saud and the country’s religious establishment.

Is the Saudi Crown Prince an Ex-Muslim Atheist?

Streamed live on Jan 29, 2024 | Did Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman leave Islam?

Saudi Fury at Criticism from Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert

THE TELEGRAPH: Former champions had published open letter calling on the WTA not to stage a tennis tournament in the country

Saudi Arabia has told Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova to “get their facts straight” amid an escalating row about the nation’s increasing profile in tennis.
The Saudi ambassador to the US hit out after the two tennis greats wrote that the country was an incompatible choice as host for the next WTA Finals.

In a jointly-authored Washington Post column last week, the pair said that “the WTA’s values sit in stark contrast to those of the proposed host”.

The WTA came close to staging the 2023 Finals in Saudi, before going to Cancun in Mexico. However, the WTA is now believed to be close to moving the season-ending event to Riyadh for future tournaments.

“Not only is this a country where women are not seen as equal, it is a country where the current landscape includes a male guardianship law that essentially makes women the property of men,” says Evert and Navratilova’s article in the latest in a string of attacks on Saudi’s prospective investments in the sport. The pair add that Saudi Arabia “criminalises the LGBTQ community to the point of possible death sentences” and the country’s “long-term record on human rights and basic freedoms has been a matter of international concern for decades.” » | Tom Morgan, Sports News Correspondent | Tuesday, January 30, 2024 [£]

What is Saudi doing about gay rights? Are the authorities going to continue to punish gays severely and possibly put them to death simply for being attracted to people of the same sex, and for loving them? – © Mark Alexander

Saudi’s MBS Welcomes Putin with Smiles & Handshake | Russia’s Bid to Checkmate US In Middle East?

Dec 7, 2023 | Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman held bilateral talks in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, on December 6. Putin said "nothing can prevent the development of our friendly relations" as he makes a rare trip abroad seeking to bolster Russia's influence in the Middle East. MBS also said that cooperation between the two countries had a "positive impact on many issues" in the Middle East. Before Saudi Arabia's visit, Putin made a trip to the UAE, where he met President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Arab States Intensify Pleas for Gaza Cease-fire as Public Anger Mounts

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Citing deepening fears for regional stability, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries are beseeching the U.S. to push Israel to end its military campaign in Gaza.

A rally in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in Amman, Jordan, on Oct. 27. | Khalil Mazraawi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Facing growing anger from their own people, Arab countries are intensifying their appeals to the United States to pressure Israel to implement an immediate cease-fire in Gaza or risk sabotaging the security of the entire Middle East.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt have all implored American officials, including Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, to get Israel to halt its military assault.

“The whole region is sinking in a sea of hatred that will define generations to come,” the Jordanian foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, warned at a news conference this weekend.

As unrest spills into the streets and fear spreads that Iran-backed militias in the region will enter more directly into the conflict, some Arab leaders are worrying for their own security, said Elham Fakhro, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Program.

“Long-term resentment among the Arab public is fuel for extremist groups,” she said. “The region is already walking a delicate balance,” she added. “This is what drives Arab governments to use their available leverage to call for a cease-fire.” » | Vivian Nereim, Reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | Tuesday, November 7, 2023