A few days back I happened to read an article in a newspaper's magazine section dated 6th March,2011.
The above heading caught my attention and after reading it I just could not believe my eyes.
In 1974 the Saudi Royal family had planned to build a grand conference hall in the capital city Riyadh.
where they would meet the business tycoons,property developers and other important personages,and
try to make them look like patrons of arts and architecture.They engaged the services of one famous
painter Andrew Vicari of Europe who charges around 6 million dollars per painting,to make 60 paintings
called "The Rise of the Bedouin" which was to be displayed in the conference hall.These paintings were
supposed to depict the rise to power of the Saudi Clan in Arabia in the wake of the first world war.
The Saudis famous for their generosity might have paid more for these paintings.
I was just wondering how the muttawallis of the holy kaaba and claimants of the puritanical Islam can
indulge in such wasteful expenditure when in their own neighborhood Somalia and the other African
countries millions of people were dying of starvation and falling prey to diseases for want of adequate
medications,more over when Islam strictly prohits the paintings of living beings, dead or alive