Release of a Courageous Saudi Blogger

Director’s Comment: Fouad Al-Farhan was arbitrarily arrested by Prince Naif’s infamous Ministry of Interior on December 10, 2007, for reasons undeclared. His incarceration brought national and international protests, especially from bloggers, but also human rights activists, free press advocates and democratic reformers. Al-Farhan was released on April 26, after almost five months of being held in prison without charge. Arresting people in Saudi Arabia does not require a court order or evidence of any wrongdoing. Since no charges were mounted against Al-Farhan, he never appeared in court, had access to a lawyer or was given the basic right of visiting with his family. No one knows whether he was tortured in order to confess to things he did or did not do. A major condition for releasing prisoners in Saudi Arabia is for the prisoners never to discuss their experiences and treatment in the hands of the ferocious Saudi jailers, except to say that they were treated fairly. Read More

British Rule of Law versus Terror Threats

Director’s Comment: The scandalous and highly contested corruption case concerning how to handle the large sums of money given by the British military hardware manufacturers to Saudi princes in order to make a lucrative arms sale go through is being resurrected after former Prime Minister Tony Blair overrode the British judicial system to appease the Saudis. It is reported that Tony Blair’s reason for compromising his nation’s democratic judicial system came about as a result of a threat by the Saudis to withdraw the deal and stop providing the British with information about potential terrorist attacks on Britain. This raises a very curious and alarming concern. Does this mean the Saudi government knows about terrorist plans and is willing to withhold information unless it gets what it wants from the British and other governments? One can only wonder if other governments, including the US, are subject to the same practice. Read More

Is Islam the Problem?

Director’s Comment: While there are many schools of thought and interpretations of the Quran, Shari’ah Law and Hadith (the Prophet’s conversations), it is argued by many Muslim scholars that the Saudi brand of Islam, Wahhabism, has hijacked Islam and turned it into a system of oppression, segregation, disenfranchisement and hate against non-Muslims and Muslim minorities for reasons of political control. A recent book by a very courageous and well-known female Saudi professor, Dr. Hatoon Al-Fassi, showed that women had more rights before Islam than after its founding in the seventh century. Dr. Al-Fassi findings is another glaring reason for Muslims, the majority of whom are non-Arabs, to save their faith from being disfigured by a few Saudi, nomadic extremists to justify their condemnation of women as subhuman and to deny other people their very basic human right to worship freely and practice their religious rituals as they wish. CDHR calls for and supports the establishment of a diverse and inclusive international Muslim council to revisit the original interpretations and subsequent implementation of the Quran, the Shari’ah and Hadith as an all-encompassing and controlling way of life instead of a personal relationship between the individual and his/her Creator. Read More

Protecting Women From Whom?

Director’s Comment: At a point in history in which women are competing for everything society has to offer, the Saudis are still mired in endless debates as to whether or not women are capable of working, driving, using common sense, protecting themselves, thinking rationally, or even worthy of full citizenship. The Saudi men, from the king down to the garbage collectors, see women as nothing more than second class citizens, who must be controlled and remain dependent on and protected from predators. The question is: who are these predators?

Saudi Arabia is suffering from a severe shortage of trained workers, yet millions of Saudi women who are college graduates are forced to stay home, watch television or roam shopping malls to buy imported goods, meet men (the ones who deny them the right to leave home and work) and ease their incapacitating boredom. The unnatural, unjust and damaging institutionalized policies against women’s full participation in the building of a self-sufficient society are hurting the country socially, economically, politically and religiously. Read More

Failure to Meet Labor Needs

Director’s Comment: A combination of avoidable political, religious, social, and business impediments prevents Saudi Arabia from meeting its growing labor demands. The lack of investment in human development by the Saudi royal family (it controls the decision-making and allocations of funds) is Saudi Arabia’s most obvious impediment to meeting the nation’s labor and other needs. The Saudi educational system remains under the control of the Saudi austere religious establishment, therefore, school curricula are related to religious and nonscientific material. The religious men in charge of school books and even some standardized national exams see non-religiously educated people as threats to their control and that of the royal family with whom the religious establishment shares control over the fate of the nation and its voiceless population.

The Saudi government’s lucrative job opportunities, the lack of strong labor laws and independent, accountable and transparent institutions to enforce them, and rampant nepotism (Wastah or middlemen) in the public and private sectors discourage a competitive environment and dampen the spirits of Saudi job seekers. Whether in government or the private sector, jobs are not awarded based on a person’s education, capabilities and independent thinking, but on one’s tribal roots, region, religious orientation and above all, loyalty to the ruling religious and political elites.

The older Saudi princes’ constant encouragement and profuse praises for nomadic traditions and man’s supremacy prevent many Saudi men from taking jobs considered below a man’s tribal heritage and manly image. The disenfranchisement of the overwhelming majority of Saudi women who happen to be the most aspirant and eager to work could ease the country’s dangerous need for foreign laborers. However, these women are denied the right to work. All of these crippling obstacles can be remedied by transforming the Saudi intuitions to meet the country’s and its people’s needs and reduce the country’s dependence on foreign laborers among other things. Read More

Rehabilitating Guantanamo Bay Returnees

Director’s Comment: Ostensibly, former Saudi Guantanamo Bay prisoners receive intense rehabilitation and deprogramming treatement under the auspices of the Saudi Ministry of Interior that discourages them from rejoining violent groups after the US hands them back to Saudi authorities. The de-programming is conducted mostly by religious people who encourage the former prisoners (considered by the US as terrorist killers) to dedicate their lives to the service of Islam, God, and the royal family. Once the rehabilitative procedures are completed, the ex-prisoners are back in the streets where they can easily revert to their old habits of going back to join violent groups to fight the infidel enemies of Islam. The de-programming does not emphasize total rejection of violence against all people. While this program may sound reassuring on the surface, it does not address the root causes of the environment that led young Saudis to travel the world to kill those who are considered heretics, apostates, and infidels. Read More

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