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US dictating Saudi religious policy

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    US dictating Saudi religious policy (OP)


    Salaam

    Most interesting. Who controls the Sauds?



    DKg7EuTXcAARRGL 1large - US dictating Saudi religious policy

    - - - Updated - - -

    Salaam

    Wow its already having an effect

    Mecca imam slammed for claiming Trump 'steering world to peace'

    Abdul Rahman al-Sudais claims Saudi Arabia and US are leading world to peace and security, sparking outcry on social media



    We have to raise the question whether the Sauds are worthy of being the Custodians of the two holy sites.

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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

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    Salaam

    Another update

    Saudi cleric Abdelaziz al-Fawzan arrested over 'war on religion' tweets

    Fawzan had criticised imprisonment of other imams by Saudi authorities as part of Mohammed bin Salman's crackdown on dissent


    Saudi Arabian authorities are reported to have arrested influential cleric Abdelaziz al-Fawzan after he spoke out against the arrests of other religious leaders in the country.

    Fawzan’s arrest was highlighted by Prisoners of Conscience, a Twitter account run by activists campaigning against the wave of arrests targeting opponents of the Saudi government.

    Prisoners of Conscience said it had received confirmation that Fawzan, a professor of comparative religious law at the Saudi Higher Institute of Justice, had been arrested over a tweet in which he had “expressed his opinion against the suppression of sheikhs and preachers”.



    Translation: It was confirmed to us that that the Saudi authorities arrested Dr. Abdelaziz Fawzan, professor of comparative religious law at the Higher Institute of Justice, against the background of the tweet in which he expressed his opinion against the suppression of sheikhs and preachers. He warned people against being sycophants.

    Fawzan has been banned from leaving Saudi territory and barred from using social media networks, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

    The cleric, who has more than two million followers on Twitter, criticised the arrests of other imams and religious leaders in tweets posted on 15 and 16 July, in which he accused Saudi authorities of waging a “war on religion and values”.

    "With this heinous war on religion and values, you should not back the criminals, and your love for money and status should not lead you to try to please them or portray their wrongful actions positively, otherwise you would lose this life and the afterlife," one of the tweets said.

    Several prominent clerics were arrested as part of a wider purge instigated by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in September, which also targeted Saudi princes and high-profile business tycoons.

    Those detained include Salman al-Odah and Awad al-Qarni, two of the country’s most prominent scholars, who were arrested in September in what was seen as a crackdown on some of the country’s most influential religious figures.

    Saudiclerics factfile 0 1 - US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Odah, who was arrested after offering to mediate in the dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar, was reportedly taken to a hospital in January after spending five months in solitary confinement.

    Earlier this month, Sheikh Safar al-Hawali, a veteran Salafi scholar and leading figure in Saudi Arabia's Islamic Sahwa (Awakening) reformist movement, was also arrested.

    Bin Salman is currently overseeing a programme of economic and social reforms. But he has been criticised by human rights groups for cracking down on opposition activists, with Human Rights Watch reporting in April that “state repression against human rights defenders and any form of dissent has only increased under the crown prince”.

    Authorities last month arrested a number of prominent women's rights campaigners, just days before the kingdom ended a decades-long ban on women driving.

    http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-cleric-abdelaziz-fawzan-arrested-over-war-religion-tweets-1915905016
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Caution loooonngggg article.

    Interesting narrative the (globalists) Guardian is trying to paint. Still good article.

    My son, Osama: the al-Qaida leader’s mother speaks for the first time

    Nearly 17 years since 9/11, Osama bin Laden’s family remains an influential part of Saudi society – as well as a reminder of the darkest moment in the kingdom’s history. Can they escape his legacy?

    On the corner couch of a spacious room, a woman wearing a brightly patterned robe sits expectantly. The red hijab that covers her hair is reflected in a glass-fronted cabinet; inside, a framed photograph of her firstborn son takes pride of place between family heirlooms and valuables. A smiling, bearded figure wearing a military jacket, he features in photographs around the room: propped against the wall at her feet, resting on a mantlepiece. A supper of Saudi meze and a lemon cheesecake has been spread out on a large wooden dining table.

    Alia Ghanem is Osama bin Laden’s mother, and she commands the attention of everyone in the room. On chairs nearby sit two of her surviving sons, Ahmad and Hassan, and her second husband, Mohammed al-Attas, the man who raised all three brothers. Everyone in the family has their own story to tell about the man linked to the rise of global terrorism; but it is Ghanem who holds court today, describing a man who is, to her, still a beloved son who somehow lost his way. “My life was very difficult because he was so far away from me,” she says, speaking confidently. “He was a very good kid and he loved me so much.” Now in her mid-70s and in variable health, Ghanem points at al-Attas – a lean, fit man dressed, like his two sons, in an immaculately pressed white thobe, a gown worn by men across the Arabian peninsula. “He raised Osama from the age of three. He was a good man, and he was good to Osama.”

    The family have gathered in a corner of the mansion they now share in Jeddah, the Saudi Arabian city that has been home to the Bin Laden clan for generations. They remain one of the kingdom’s wealthiest families: their dynastic construction empire built much of modern Saudi Arabia, and is deeply woven into the country’s establishment. The Bin Laden home reflects their fortune and influence, a large spiral staircase at its centre leading to cavernous rooms. Ramadan has come and gone, and the bowls of dates and chocolates that mark the three-day festival that follows it sit on tabletops throughout the house. Large manors line the rest of the street; this is well-to-do Jeddah, and while no guard stands watch outside, the Bin Ladens are the neighbourhood’s best-known residents.

    For years, Ghanem has refused to talk about Osama, as has his wider family – throughout his two-decade reign as al-Qaida leader, a period that saw the strikes on New York and Washington DC, and ended more than nine years later with his death in Pakistan.

    Now, Saudi Arabia’s new leadership – spearheaded by the ambitious 32-year-old heir to the throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – has agreed to my request to speak to the family. (As one of the country’s most influential families, their movements and engagements remain closely monitored.) Osama’s legacy is as grave a blight on the kingdom as it is on his family, and senior officials believe that, by allowing the Bin Ladens to tell their story, they can demonstrate that an outcast – not an agent – was responsible for 9/11. Saudi Arabia’s critics have long alleged that Osama had state support, and the families of a number of 9/11 victims have launched (so far unsuccessful) legal actions against the kingdom. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia.

    Unsurprisingly, Osama bin Laden’s family are cautious in our initial negotiations; they are not sure whether opening old wounds will prove cathartic or harmful. But after several days of discussion, they are willing to talk. When we meet on a hot day in early June, a minder from the Saudi government sits in the room, though she makes no attempt to influence the conversation. (We are also joined by a translator.)

    Sitting between Osama’s half-brothers, Ghanem recalls her firstborn as a shy boy who was academically capable. He became a strong, driven, pious figure in his early 20s, she says, while studying economics at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, where he was also radicalised. “The people at university changed him,” Ghanem says. “He became a different man.” One of the men he met there was Abdullah Azzam, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood who was later exiled from Saudi Arabia and became Osama’s spiritual adviser. “He was a very good child until he met some people who pretty much brainwashed him in his early 20s. You can call it a cult. They got money for their cause. I would always tell him to stay away from them, and he would never admit to me what he was doing, because he loved me so much.”

    In the early 1980s, Osama travelled to Afghanistan to fight the Russian occupation. “Everyone who met him in the early days respected him,” says Hassan, picking up the story. “At the start, we were very proud of him. Even the Saudi government would treat him in a very noble, respectful way. And then came Osama the mujahid.”

    osama011610x394 1 - US dictating Saudi religious policy

    A long uncomfortable silence follows, as Hassan struggles to explain the transformation from zealot to global jihadist. “I am very proud of him in the sense that he was my oldest brother,” he eventually continues. “He taught me a lot. But I don’t think I’m very proud of him as a man. He reached superstardom on a global stage, and it was all for nothing.”

    Ghanem listens intently, becoming more animated when the conversation returns to Osama’s formative years. “He was very straight. Very good at school. He really liked to study. He spent all his money on Afghanistan – he would sneak off under the guise of family business.” Did she ever suspect he might become a jihadist? “It never crossed my mind.” How did it feel when she realised he had? “We were extremely upset. I did not want any of this to happen. Why would he throw it all away like that?”

    The family say they last saw Osama in Afghanistan in 1999, a year in which they visited him twice at his base just outside Kandahar. “It was a place near the airport that they had captured from the Russians,” Ghanem says. “He was very happy to receive us. He was showing us around every day we were there. He killed an animal and we had a feast, and he invited everyone.”

    Ghanem begins to relax, and talks about her childhood in the coastal Syrian city of Latakia, where she grew up in a family of Alawites, an offshoot of Shia Islam. Syrian cuisine is superior to Saudi, she says, and so is the weather by the Mediterranean, where the warm, wet summer air was a stark contrast to the acetylene heat of Jeddah in June. Ghanem moved to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1950s, and Osama was born in Riyadh in 1957. She divorced his father three years later, and married al-Attas, then an administrator in the fledgling Bin Laden empire, in the early 1960s. Osama’s father went on to have 54 children with at least 11 wives.

    When Ghanem leaves to rest in a nearby room, Osama’s half-brothers continue the conversation. It’s important, they say, to remember that a mother is rarely an objective witness. “It has been 17 years now [since 9/11] and she remains in denial about Osama,” Ahmad says. “She loved him so much and refuses to blame him. Instead, she blames those around him. She only knows the good boy side, the side we all saw. She never got to know the jihadist side.

    “I was shocked, stunned,” he says now of the early reports from New York. “It was a very strange feeling. We knew from the beginning [that it was Osama], within the first 48 hours. From the youngest to the eldest, we all felt ashamed of him. We knew all of us were going to face horrible consequences. Our family abroad all came back to Saudi.” They had been scattered across Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Europe. “In Saudi, there was a travel ban. They tried as much as they could to maintain control over the family.” The family say they were all questioned by the authorities and, for a time, prevented from leaving the country. Nearly two decades on, the Bin Ladens can move relatively freely within and outside the kingdom.

    Osama bin Laden’s formative years in Jeddah came in the relatively freewheeling 1970s, before the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which aimed to export Shia zeal into the Sunni Arab world. From then on, Saudi’s rulers enforced a rigid interpretation of Sunni Islam – one that had been widely practised across the Arabian peninsula since the 18th century, the era of cleric Muhammed ibn Abdul Wahhab. In 1744, Abdul Wahhab had made a pact with the then ruler Mohammed bin Saud, allowing his family to run affairs of state while hardline clerics defined the national character.

    The modern day kingdom, proclaimed in 1932, left both sides – the clerics and the rulers – too powerful to take the other on, locking the state and its citizens into a society defined by arch-conservative views: the strict segregation of non-related men and women; uncompromising gender roles; an intolerance of other faiths; and an unfailing adherence to doctrinal teachings, all rubber-stamped by the House of Saud.

    Many believe this alliance directly contributed to the rise of global terrorism. Al-Qaida’s worldview – and that of its offshoot, Islamic State (Isis) – were largely shaped by Wahhabi scriptures; and Saudi clerics were widely accused of encouraging a jihadist movement that grew throughout the 1990s, with Osama bin Laden at its centre.

    In 2018, Saudi’s new leadership wants to draw a line under this era and introduce what bin Salman calls “moderate Islam”. This he sees as essential to the survival of a state where a large, restless and often disaffected young population has, for nearly four decades, had little access to entertainment, a social life or individual freedoms. Saudi’s new rulers believe such rigid societal norms, enforced by clerics, could prove fodder for extremists who tap into such feelings of frustration.

    Reform is beginning to creep through many aspects of Saudi society; among the most visible was June’s lifting of the ban on women drivers. There have been changes to the labour markets and a bloated public sector; cinemas have opened, and an anti-corruption drive launched across the private sector and some quarters of government. The government also claims to have stopped all funding to Wahhabi institutions outside the kingdom, which had been supported with missionary zeal for nearly four decades.

    Such radical shock therapy is slowly being absorbed across the country, where communities conditioned to decades of uncompromising doctrine don’t always know what to make of it. Contradictions abound: some officials and institutions eschew conservatism, while others wholeheartedly embrace it. Meanwhile, political freedoms remain off-limits; power has become more centralised and dissent is routinely crushed.

    Bin Laden’s legacy remains one of the kingdom’s most pressing issues. I meet Prince Turki al-Faisal, who was the head of Saudi intelligence for 24 years, between 1977 and 1 September 2001 (10 days before the 9/11 attacks), at his villa in Jeddah. An erudite man now in his mid-70s, Turki wears green cufflinks bearing the Saudi flag on the sleeves of his thobe. “There are two Osama bin Ladens,” he tells me. “One before the end of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, and one after it. Before, he was very much an idealistic mujahid. He was not a fighter. By his own admission, he fainted during a battle, and when he woke up, the Soviet assault on his position had been defeated.”

    As Bin Laden moved from Afghanistan to Sudan, and as his links to Saudi Arabia soured, it was Turki who spoke with him on behalf of the kingdom. In the wake of 9/11, these direct dealings came under intense scrutiny. Then – and 17 years later – relatives of some of the 2,976 killed and more than 6,000 wounded in New York and Washington DC refuse to believe that a country that had exported such an arch-conservative form of the faith could have nothing to do with the consequences.

    Certainly, Bin Laden travelled to Afghanistan with the knowledge and backing of the Saudi state, which opposed the Soviet occupation; along with America, the Saudis armed and supported those groups who fought it. The young mujahid had taken a small part of the family fortune with him, which he used to buy influence. When he returned to Jeddah, emboldened by battle and the Soviet defeat, he was a different man, Turki says. “He developed a more political attitude from 1990. He wanted to evict the communists and South Yemeni Marxists from Yemen. I received him, and told him it was better that he did not get involved. The mosques of Jeddah were using the Afghan example.” By this, Turki means the narrowly defined reading of the faith espoused by the Taliban. “He was inciting them [Saudi worshippers]. He was told to stop.”

    “He had a poker face,” Turki continues. “He never grimaced, or smiled. In 1992, 1993, there was a huge meeting in Peshawar organised by Nawaz Sharif’s government.” Bin Laden had by this point been given refuge by Afghan tribal leaders. “There was a call for Muslim solidarity, to coerce those leaders of the Muslim world to stop going at each other’s throats. I also saw him there. Our eyes met, but we didn’t talk. He didn’t go back to the kingdom. He went to Sudan, where he built a honey business and financed a road.”

    Bin Laden’s advocacy increased in exile. “He used to fax statements to everybody. He was very critical. There were efforts by the family to dissuade him – emissaries and such – but they were unsuccessful. It was probably his feeling that he was not taken seriously by the government.”

    By 1996, Bin Laden was back in Afghanistan. Turki says the kingdom knew it had a problem and wanted him returned. He flew to Kandahar to meet with the then head of the Taliban, Mullah Omar. “He said, ‘I am not averse to handing him over, but he was very helpful to the Afghan people.’ He said Bin Laden was granted refuge according to Islamic dictates.” Two years later, in September 1998, Turki flew again to Afghanistan, this time to be robustly rebuffed. “At that meeting, he was a changed man,” he says of Omar. “Much more reserved, sweating profusely. Instead of taking a reasonable tone, he said, ‘How can you persecute this worthy man who dedicated his life to helping Muslims?’” Turki says he warned Omar that what he was doing would harm the people of Afghanistan, and left.

    The family visit to Kandahar took place the following year, and came after a US missile strike on one of Bin Laden’s compounds – a response to al-Qaida attacks on US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. It seems an entourage of immediate family had little trouble finding their man, where the Saudi and western intelligence networks could not.

    According to officials in Riyadh, London and Washington DC, Bin Laden had by then become the world’s number one counter-terrorism target, a man who was bent on using Saudi citizens to drive a wedge between eastern and western civilisations. “There is no doubt that he deliberately chose Saudi citizens for the 9/11 plot,” a British intelligence officer tells me. “He was convinced that was going to turn the west against his ... home country. He did indeed succeed in inciting a war, but not the one he expected.”

    Turki claims that in the months before 9/11, his intelligence agency knew that something troubling was being planned. “In the summer of 2001, I took one of the warnings about something spectacular about to happen to the Americans, British, French and Arabs. We didn’t know where, but we knew that something was being brewed.”

    Bin Laden remains a popular figure in some parts of the country, lauded by those who believe he did God’s work. The depth of support, however, is difficult to gauge. What remains of his immediate family, meanwhile, has been allowed back into the kingdom: at least two of Osama’s wives (one of whom was with him in Abbottabad when he was killed by US special forces) and their children now live in Jeddah.

    “We had a very good relationship with Mohammed bin Nayef [the former crown prince],” Osama’s half-brother Ahmad tells me as a maid sets the nearby dinner table. “He let the wives and children return.” But while they have freedom of movement inside the city, they cannot leave the kingdom.

    Osama’s mother rejoins the conversation. “I speak to his harem most weeks,” she says. “They live nearby.”

    Osama’s half-sister, and the two men’s sister, Fatima al-Attas, was not at our meeting. From her home in Paris, she later emailed to say she strongly objected to her mother being interviewed, asking that it be rearranged through her. Despite the blessing of her brothers and stepfather, she felt her mother had been pressured into talking. Ghanem, however, insisted she was happy to talk and could have talked longer. It is, perhaps, a sign of the extended family’s complicated status in the kingdom that such tensions exist.

    I ask the family about Bin Laden’s youngest son, 29-year-old Hamza, who is thought to be in Afghanistan. Last year, he was officially designated a “global terrorist” by the US and appears to have taken up the mantle of his father, under the auspices of al-Qaida’s new leader, and Osama’s former deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

    His uncles shake their heads. “We thought everyone was over this,” Hassan says. “Then the next thing I knew, Hamza was saying, ‘I am going to avenge my father.’ I don’t want to go through that again. If Hamza was in front of me now, I would tell him, ‘God guide you. Think twice about what you are doing. Don’t retake the steps of your father. You are entering horrible parts of your soul.’”

    Hamza bin Laden’s continued rise may well cloud the family’s attempts to shake off their past. It may also hinder the crown prince’s efforts to shape a new era in which Bin Laden is cast as a generational aberration, and in which the hardline doctrines once sanctioned by the kingdom no longer offer legitimacy to extremism. While change has been attempted in Saudi Arabia before, it has been nowhere near as extensive as the current reforms. How hard Mohammed bin Salman can push against a society indoctrinated in such an uncompromising worldview remains an open question.

    Saudia Arabia’s allies are optimistic, but offer a note of caution. The British intelligence officer I spoke to told me, “If Salman doesn’t break through, there will be many more Osamas. And I’m not sure they’ll be able to shake the curse.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/03/osama-bin-laden-mother-speaks-out-family-interview
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    americans: saudis are controlling our gov and are taking over

    others: america is controlling ksa and are taking over
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    Arabic press review: Well-known cleric latest arrest in Saudi Arabia

    Sheikh Nasser al-Omar joins a list of prisoners of conscience, including religious leaders, writers and thinkers, behind bars in the kingdom


    NasserAlOmarTwitteranees115 0 1 - US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Renowned cleric arrested in Saudi Arabia

    Saudi authorities have arrested a university professor and well-known Islamic cleric, adding another person to the list of prisoners of conscience in the kingdom which has witnessed a widescale campaign of arrests for months, according to al-Quds al-Arabi.

    The London-based newspaper confirmed the arrest last Tuesday of Sheikh Nasser al-Omar, a former professor at Imam Mohammed bin Saud University, and pointed out that he had stopped tweeting since his arrest.

    Omar’s arrest comes as part of an ongoing wave of detentions of prominent Saudi clerics, writers, thinkers and activists.

    Last September, the Saudi authorities interrogated Omar, and he has pledged not to interfere in political issues or allude to them.

    Abdullah al-Odah, the son of Sheikh Salman al-Odah, one of the most prominent detainees in Saudi Arabia, told the paper that Omar was arrested in Mecca on Tuesday.

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/arabic-press-review-245844928
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    format_quote Originally Posted by fschmidt View Post
    America corrupts everything that is corruptible. This will continue until America's own corruption destroys it from the inside.
    Yes



    Or perhaps more accurately American/globalist elites.

    I'm just speculating, its the seems the globalists want to accelerate their take over Saudi Arabia to remake the society in their own image, replacing Islam with a new Saudi nationalism. Its probably take them several decades.

    If you want to see an example of a society remade in the image of the globalists you only have to look at Ireland. 40 - 50 years ago it was staunchly Catholic in morals and attitudes, the globalists moved in and have campaigned to remake the society and you can see the results.

    Blurb


    On May 25th 2018 Ireland voted by referendum to remove from its constitution the right to life of unborn children, an event which signifies Irish society's compete abandonment of traditional moral values and its embrace of the liberal death cult. E.Michael Jones is the editor of Culture Wars magazine.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgaEzBoQJGY&t=17s

    Some comments

    Lost Hobo

    We sold out. Every other Irish person I know became obsessed with money. Everything else followed. Career self absorbed materialistic people. It went the way of the rest of the Western world. Faith becomes an uncomfortable obstacle to selfishness. I have tried to speak out against abortion on social media and most people just blanked me after that.

    Sharon Mortimore

    It’s amazing just how powerful brainwashing has proven to be. How the minds and hearts of the masses can be controlled so readily within a generation of educational programming, necessarily starting in early childhood. The deconstructionists have brainwashing and social engineering down to a fine art, after many decades of researching and testing it. We are now seeing the rotten fruits of their labour. The deconstruction phase is pretty much complete, as we see the construction phase of their New World Order in full swing. The good news is, their own tactics and measures can be harnessed by traditionalists to recover what has been lost, (ie, morality, traditional values, social cohesion and functionality, strong families and communities) by employing similar measures in the reverse. We’ve seen for ourselves how easily cultures, value systems, societies can be dismantled and decimated... the same can be done now with the sick immorality that controls our world. This New World Order can be deconstructed and replaced too.

    Conservative society in the past was too confident... they didn’t seem to fully understand that all could be lost if they didn’t defend the minds of their children against those who sought to corrupt and control them for their own nefarious purposes. But all is not not lost yet. There are still enough of us left to fight this drawn out psychological war. Enough of us to win back what has been destroyed and protect what little is left. We can still turn this ship around.


    Thank you for leading the charge where you can, Dr E. Michael Jones.

    fantom58

    "Cultural Marxism" is actually symptomatic of late-stage capitalism, where nothing matters but mammon and pleasure, and if such impediments as morality and honor are in the way, they're swept aside. When the whole rotten economic edifice finally collapses of its own internal contradictions, that's when this depravity some call cultural Marxism (and its enablers) will be dealt with.

    Moira Forest

    France, as the "Eldest daughter of the church" is being completely destroyed by Cultural Marxism and financial Libéralism. The process has begun 50 years ago with a spectacular revolution ("spectacular" here means that it was only a show to deceive people) and since then, we are getting more and more apathetic and deluded by false discourses and meaningless pleasure. Ireland, that I consider as a "little sister" as Catholicism is concerned, seems to get through an even more radical process as if a kind of Cromwellian campaign, more than 300 years after the actual Cromwell was taking place, a Cromwellian campaign without bloodshed, with a "cool" attitude, with credit cards and condoms... That's the very proof that Liberal Left and Capitalism plot together against the people. The weapons are television, corporate medias and of course unbound sexuality...

    hoplite23 345

    Successive Irish governments have since the 1960s depended on their ability to attract Foreign Direct Investment from transnational corporations as their prime economic policy to the point of actually standing up to the EU Commission's attempt to recoup €13bn tax from the Apple Corp in Ireland in 2016. That dependency has turned Ireland like a street addict in thrall to his supplier.

    Onto that the Irish have been successively brainwashed by mainstream culture to see the past as nothing but bad and therefore anything "progressive" as positive. As a result it has become not only one of the most globalized countries anywhere but one which on the whole has maybe most wholeheartedly embraced globalization. Most opposition to such policies comes from the hard Left in the main which are still not anyway attractive of a prospect to the vast majority. Therefore the mainstream discourse is between two "Center Right" ardently pro-Globalist and Pro-EU parties and a "Center Left" third party which has more or less abandoned its Trade Unionist roots for a Post-Modernist variety of "progressive" ideology. Along with a socially liberal dominated pro-EU media it has the feel of near single party state despite the very obvious rapid changes being brought about by such polices.


    Central California Bipedal Trails


    To be honest with you, in my opinion, the Irish wrote their epitaph when they joined, and decided to stay with the EU. The EU, is about as secular as you can get. Even the English were smart enough to shout out " we've had enough!" So, the Irish have put their faith in a Catholic church that is embracing diversity and Echumenism, so now the Irish adopt a liberal platform fine tuned by Soros, the Rothschilds and the Bilderberg G7 and G20, then the U.N. Agenda 21 and 30? Well, I was in Ireland in 1993, when Ireland still had it's more traditional Catholism, and it's almost end of IRA Northern Ireland strife. My observation is that indeed the devil is doing his will and the strength of the Irish conviction is in the past. The large families are a thing of the past. The EU is being driven by Ashkenazi domination and a class warfare. The whole notion of NWO comes from the Talmudic synsgogue of satan. The movement of population control and so called " diversity" is a way for the youth rebellion , the acceptance of socialism and the tendency for the progressives to eat their own. Only a change of attitude and an admission of guilt, can save Ireland and the rest of Europe now....

    Chris Adams

    Most Irish people are a lost cause now, the anti-Catholic propaganda in Ireland is monstrous. Ireland barely has a population of 5 million, compare that to the 50 million of England and over 300 million in the US. Ireland has been bullied relentlessly into becoming another liberal American town, another anglo-jewish colony. Ireland without its glorious Catholic history is totally defenseless. Brian O'Higgins' poem is as revelant today as the first time it was published>


    This doesn't detract from the fact that the Catholic Church brought a lot of its problems on itself.

    The Pope recently visited Ireland and was told in no uncertain terms that Catholicism is to be relegated to bystander status by the new liberal elite.

    Take heed.
    Last edited by سيف الله; 08-30-2018 at 09:22 AM.
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  9. #46
    سيف الله's Avatar Full Member
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    Saudi 'seeks death penalty' for Muslim scholar Salman al-Awdah

    Scholar, 61, charged with 37 counts, including incitement against the ruler and spreading discord, his family says.

    Public prosecutors in Saudi Arabia are seeking the death penalty against prominent Muslim scholar Salman al-Awdah, local media, activists and his family members have said.

    Awdah, who UN experts have described as a "reformist," was imprisoned a year ago, shortly after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a crackdown on dissent and imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the kingdom's Gulf neighbour, Qatar.

    Awdah, who has 14 million followers on Twitter, posted a tweet on September 9, saying: "May God harmonise between their hearts for the good of their people" - an apparent call for reconciliation between the Gulf countries.

    Local daily Okaz reported that the public prosecution, which represents the Saudi government, had levelled 37 counts against Awdah and called for the death penalty.

    According to London-based Saudi rights group ALQST and other activists, some of the charges included incitement against the ruler and spreading discord.

    Awdah's son, Abdullah, wrote on Twitter that the charges against his father included critical tweets and establishing an organisation which worked to defend the honour of the Prophet Muhammad.

    "Today, at a court hearing for my father Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, the prosecution requested the death penalty against him, and submitted 37 charges, one of which was establishing the al-Nusra organisation in Kuwait to defend the Prophet (PBUH), and being a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research and the International Union of Muslim scholars, with other charges related to his tweets on Twitter."

    Amnesty International's Saudi Arabia campaigner Dana Ahmed called the reports "a disturbing trend in the Kingdom [that] sends a horrifying message that peaceful dissent and expression may be met with the death penalty".

    Crackdown on dissent


    The ruling Al Saud family has long regarded Islamist groups as the biggest internal threat to its rule.

    In the 1990s, the Muslim Brotherhood-inspired Sahwa (Awakening) movement demanded political reforms that posed a challenge to the ruling family.

    Al-Awdah, a Sahwa leader, was imprisoned from 1994-99 for agitating for political change, an act which would earn him praise from Saudi-born late al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

    In 2011, al-Awdah called for elections and separation of powers, demands considered dangerous provocations in the kingdom.

    Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy where public protests and political parties are banned, has witnessed a massive crackdown on dissent, with dozens of religious leaders, intellectuals and women's rights activists arrested in the past year.

    Among those arrested were prominent Islamic preachers Awad al-Qarni, Farhan al-Malki, Mostafa Hassan and Safar al-Hawali.

    Al-Hawali, 68, was detained after he published a 3,000-page book attacking bin Salman and the ruling family over their ties to Israel, calling it a "betrayal".

    Earlier this year, bin Salman softened the kingdom's stance on Israel, telling the US-based Atlantic magazine that Israelis "have the right to their own land" and "there are a lot of interests we [Saudi Arabia] share with Israel".

    Last month, authorities recommended the death penalty for five human rights activists from the kingdom's Eastern Province, including Israa al-Ghomgham, the first woman to possibly face that punishment for rights-related work.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/...055754018.html

    Last edited by سيف الله; 09-07-2018 at 10:29 PM.
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  10. #47
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    CAGE calls for the release of Sheikh Salman al-Oudah and other scholars imprisoned in Saudi Arabia

    CAGE is deeply concerned about reports that prosecutors in Saudi Arabia are seeking the death penalty against prominent Islamic scholar, Sheikh Dr Salman al-Oudah.

    Dr. Al-Oudah, is widely known throughout the Arab world and beyond for seeking positive reform in the Kingdom as well as engagement and understanding of other communities and beliefs.

    In 1994, Al-Oudah was imprisoned for five years alongside Dr. Safar al-Hawali for seeking reforms in Saudi Arabia – following the First Gulf war and the establishment of US military bases on Saudi soil.

    Since then, Dr. al-Oudah’s views on various subjects have been sought and praised by millions in the Muslim world. He currently has a twitter following of 14.3 million.

    However, despite his positive influence, Dr al-Oudah was imprisoned again in September 2017 for failing to tweet in support of the Saudi blockade of Qatar. Instead, he advocated in favour of reconciliation.

    CAGE Outreach Director, Moazzam Begg said:

    “Sheikh Salman al-Oudah is a breath of fresh air in a country like Saudi Arabia. He is an independent thinker, a social reformer and he is unafraid to speak words of sense and compassion.”

    “It has now emerged that Saudi prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Dr al-Oudah despite the fact he has been imprisoned without charge or trial in solitary confinement. They have cited his membership of the International Union of Muslim Scholars as the justification for this and designated it a terrorist entity.”

    “Saudi Arabia, like many other countries, has adapted the language of the war on terror to challenge dissent or silence calls for positive reform. In this regard it is no different to many Western nations but also countries like Myanmar, China or Syria.

    “To seek the death penalty against a man because he sought reform at home and reconciliation with neighbours can only end with upheaval in Saudi society. We call for his immediate release, and the release of other scholars who have been imprisoned for their views – one of which has already died, allegedly due to torture.”

    https://www.cage.ngo/cage-calls-for-the-release-of-sheikh-salman-al-oudah-and-other-scholars-and-activists-imprisoned-in-saudi-arabia
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  11. #48
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Oh I missed this..We need more like this Algerian hero..

    | Likes سيف الله liked this post
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  12. #49
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    The International Union of Muslims Scholars categorically denounced and rejected its characterisation of terrorism by some countries, but it is the one who debunked the terrorism that came out of the cloak of some countries. The Union warns that the hostility towards its members and imprisonment of Muslim clerics for telling the truth is a harbinger of shame and punitive. In this regard, the Muslim world, therefore, appealed to its faithful leaders and clerics, thinkers/intellectuals, to intervene given securing the release of all the prisoners of conscience, such as Sheikh Salman Al-Awda, Dr.Musa. Al-Sharif, Dr.Nasser Al-Omar and others.

    The International Union of Muslim Scholars has received with high anxiety and agony the initiation of the secret trial of prisoners of conscience, advice and supplication, of the Divine scholars, thinkers and reformers and so on. Such as Sheikh Salman Al-Awda, Dr Musa al-Sharif, Dr.Nasser Al-Omar, Dr Safar Hawaali, Dr Awad Qarni, Dr.Khaled al Ajami, Dr Ali al-Omari, Dr Ali Badhaddah, Sheikh Saleh al-Taleb, Sheikh Dr Abdul-Aziz Al-Fawzan, and others.

    These divine Muslim scholars did anything neither revolt against the state, by threaten and undermining the national of the nation. Their only crime was to direct the most honest and sincere advice without a smidgeon of hypocrisy or favouritism to the government and the leadership of that country, this government and the entirety of its leadership. Instead of being appreciative for receiving such a generous and honest advice they reward these clerics and slap them with hefty forfeit of imprisonment and castigation in a country founded by the terms of reference and the unitary doctrine of Islam.

    There is no doubt that this religion based on the truth and patience, and on the other hand’s good advice and guidance of wisdom. Even the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) asserted this when he said “Religion is advice (he said it three times) we said, “For Who?” He said “for God and his book, and his messenger the feasting of Muslims and their public” a true famous hadeeth. Every human being, even he is a leader of Muslims, he should be advised and equally can encourage others as well. Therefore, we in the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which includes tens of thousands of scientists from all over the world and dozens of societies and institutions of the community, express our opinion and affirm the following

    First, we categorically denounced and rejected the accusation of terrorism in the strongest against the Union and its respected members. This categorical rejection by the Union constituted the choice of clerics, which builds the moderate middle path. Which strongly against terrorism of its all kind and form whereby exposing terrorist groups created and funded by some of these countries who labelled this excellent Union terrorist group, while some were adopting the methods of great violence against innocent human race through the Takfiri groups around the world. The Union retain its right to defend is a name, its integrity and above all the of its members and their integrity by all legal and lawful means available. It is worth mentioning that the Union had specific information pertinent to some Saudi scholars when they wanted to join the union, they excused by one of the ministries of the royal court under the reign of King Abdullah may God have mercy on him. Second. The Union calls upon the Islamic world, led by the faithful and the Divine scholars, and its civil institutions to intervene given securing the release of all the prisoners of conscience in Saudi Arabia and another part of the world. Since they have been in imprisoned for a long time without trial, and now they are secretly tried on false charges. Third. The union denounces the secret trials, and the bad jails terms that led to the death of some prisoners, this is a condemnable and legally unacceptable act.

    Fourthly. The union warns against the dangers of anti-religious scholars and their imprisonment because they told the truth by wisdom and proper preaching methods. Alternatively, they called for the mutual understanding and reconciliation between siblings, or they cried to panic what they saw as legitimate irregularities in the countries of the two Holy Mosques, or they warned about the dire consequences of the evil of sin.

    The legal texts in the book and the Sunnah indicate that this act, condemned against the scholars' right, it is a sign of shame and punishment from Allah Almighty. “Consider not that Allah is unaware of that which the Zalimun (polytheists, wrong-doers, etc.) do, but He gives them respite up to a Day when the eyes will stare in horror (Quran Surat Ibrahim verse 42).

    We ask Allaah the Almighty to fix by improving the condition of the country and its people, and on the other hand, protect them from the wrath of God and his punishment amen.

    Dr Ali al-Qaradawi Prof. Yousef Al-Qaradawi AND

    http://iumsonline.org/en/ContentDetails.aspx?ID=8761
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  14. #50
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    Prison, Torture, Death… Enter Paradise


    With the current global trends of imprisonment, torture, exile and sentences of death being imposed upon the scholars who refuse to sway on issues of Islām and moral justice; it would serve as an appropriate time to re-align ourselves with some of the messages and promises found within the Qur’ān. We can likewise revisit and study History as a source of practical evidence of the promised outcomes of such situations.

    The Qur’ān provides a trajectory of outcomes based upon the courses traversed; and history provides evidence and a formula of results achieved when particular components and ingredients come together.

    Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) says:

    And there came a man rushing from the farthest part of the city. He said, “O my people, follow the messengers. Follow those who do not claim any reward from you, and who are on the right path. What excuse do I have if I do not worship the One who has created me and to whom you will be returned? Shall I adopt those gods besides Him whose intercession, if Rahman (the All-Merciful) intends to do harm to me, cannot help me in the least, nor can they come to my rescue? In that case, I will be in open error indeed. Undoubtedly I have believed in your Lord; so listen to me.” (Thereafter when his people killed him,) it was said to him, “Enter the Paradise”. He said, “Would that my people knew how my Lord has forgiven me and placed me among the honoured ones!”[1]


    Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) presents us here with a scenario not too unfamiliar from our current context. A man simply proclaiming his belief in Allāh and calling his fellow townsmen to belief is put to the sword.

    The famous Andalusian scholar of tafsīr and fiqh Imām al-Qurtubi (raḥimahu Allāhu) discusses the events cited in these verses.[2] As regards what is meant by “it was said to him enter paradise”,[3] he quotes the statement of Qatadah, deemed an authority in Qur’anic interpretation by the earlier generations and scholars of tafsīr,[4] as saying: “Allāh entered him into paradise and he is therein receiving provisions.” Al-Qurtubi continues, “[Qatadah is] referring to the āyah “and think not of those killed in Allāh’s way as dead, for they are indeed alive with their Lord receiving provisions”.”[5] Al-Qurtubi is informing us of the promise made clear by Allāh, those who are murdered or killed for their belief in Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) will not be at loss, they will be entered into paradise.

    The Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) also indicated the station of such a man when asked what the greatest of struggles for Allāh’s sake was. His response was “a word of truth in the presence of a tyrannical ruler”.[6] When explaining the ḥadīth, some scholars mentioned the reason for it is that when a person confronts a tyrannical ruler with a word of truth, they do so in a state of complete nakedness, he has no ability nor might in comparison to that of the tyrant and yet he stands up and speaks the truth, subjecting himself to the grave consequences.

    Going back to the aforementioned verse, al-Qurtubi mentions another great benefit we often forget: not to be reactionary in nature. He (raḥimahu Allāhu) states regarding the hope of this murdered believer when he said “if only my people knew, how Allāh has forgiven me and honoured me [for my belief]”:

    “In this verse there is a great lesson and an evidence that one must subdue his anger and not be reactionary, rather he must have patience with the people of ignorance, be merciful towards the one who has placed himself within the midst of evil and surrounded himself with the people of sin and temptations. He must work hard in trying to save him, and be soft in trying to free him, he must busy himself with this (i.e trying to save him) instead of cursing him and supplicating against him. Do you not see how this man wished good even for those that killed him and transgressed against him!”[7]


    This was a methodology encompassed within the manner and approach of the Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam) himself, some examples being his treatment of the hypocrites in Medina, his mercy towards the people of Makkah and Taif, the forgiveness he gave to those who murdered and tortured his own family members and followers. This is a methodology that would bring about great change if adopted, standing firm upon the principles of good character as taught to us by our master and leader Muhammad ibn Abdillāh (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam saw) regardless of those that stand in front of us.

    Regarding this verse a contemporary thinker of Islām noted that the silent sacrifice of one individual may be more beneficial than thousands of sermons.[8] Such is the case with this unnamed man; he stood up for belief and called his people to follow. Though neither his name, town nor time of living were mentioned, Allāh raised his rank and station and made him known as a sign for the generations to come until the Day of Judgement. How many words on the pulpits go in vain, yet the sincere actions of one or perhaps a few inspire masses. Again, this was also something encompassed within the actions of our Prophet (sall Allāhu ʿalayhi wa sallam), as he was a man of action, a man who spoke with his actions and led by his own example.

    Likewise, due to the sacrifice of Hājar, the mother of Ismāʿīl (ʿalayhi al-Salām), as well as her submission to the will of Allāh in the barren valley of Makkah, Allāh raised her rank and status, and made her a sign of sincerity and submission. All of the believers are commanded to emulate her actions during the rites of pilgrimage. We can take from this a great practical lesson, relevant to all; the sacrifices we make, although seen by none or perhaps few, may be the reason we are honoured by Allāh in the dunya and ākhira. We do not know where the beneficial action lies and so we should not belittle any sacrifice made for Allāh’s pleasure, regardless of the perceived toll at the time.

    This brings us to a point which we often overlook: success is not defined by results. We often identify success by the tangible results seen but this is not the case, guidance itself is a success granted from Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā), and stability upon guidance is another success. Sticking to the principles of guidance regardless of the outcome can be seen as one of the ultimate forms of success. We are taught this lesson in the story of Mūsā (ʿalayhi al-Salām). The magicians of Pharaoh were threatened with a severe punishment of death and torture due to their new-found belief in Allāh, they respond:

    “We will never prefer you over the clear signs that have come to us, and over Him who has created us. So, decide whatever you have to decide [of punishment]. You will decide only for this worldly life.”[9]

    Allāh (subḥānahu wa taʿālā) then informs us that the believers will be honoured and granted high places in paradise and bountiful rewards.

    When we turn to the pages of history we find those imprisoned, murdered, tortured or harmed for standing firm to the truth they lived for were given life through the words, pages and movements they left behind. From the likes of the companions imprisoned and tortured in Makkah to the scholars such as Imām Abu Hanifa, Imām Malik and Imām Aḥmad; anti-colonial freedom fighters such as Omar al-Mukhtar, AbdulKarim al-Khattabi or Saeed Nursi; revivalists and educators such as the founders of the Deobandiyah movement Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi, and the thinkers and movers such as Malcolm X. Their bodies were placed into the ground, but their words were preserved within the hearts and souls of those that came after them. Muslims and non-Muslims alike who struggled and sacrificed are the ones remembered by history and those who subjected them to oppression are simply forgotten. Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela are examples in our modern times.

    The “palace scholars”; opposers of truth and justice; the seekers of luxuries, status and fame who once stood so haughtily lost their pedestals, their hypocrisy was revealed, and time preserved the truth and its people.

    In this time in which those who stand up for truth are persecuted and the world remains silent, we remind ourselves that the end result will be for the pious, who remain true to the covenant of Allāh.

    It is also important to remind ourselves that terms and labels of description are only as valuable as the evidences that prove their worth. Pharaoh justified his tyranny and oppression by labelling Mūsā (ʿalayhi al-Salām) as a man of corruption and accused him of what we hear similarly repeated about those unjustly imprisoned today. Without evidence of their inference, they asked: “Shall you leave Mūsā and his people free to spread disorder in the land?”[10]

    Yet in the same chapter, Allāh reminds us of the outcome of such struggles and events:

    “We caused those people who were deemed to be weak to inherit the East and West of the land that We had blessed. And the sublime word of your Lord was fulfilled for the children of Isrā’īl, because they stood patient; and We destroyed what Pharaoh and his people used to build and what they used to raise high.”[11]


    https://www.islam21c.com/islamic-thought/prison-torture-death-enter-paradise/
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  15. #51
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    Push to Execute Saudi Clerics Rattles Kingdom’s Power Structure

    Prosecutors seek death sentences for influential imams, challenging alliance behind monarchy


    Saudi authorities are seeking the death penalty for three prominent clerics, rights activists and a government official said, testing the unwritten code that has kept the kingdom’s rulers in power.

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his father, King Salman, have jailed activists, businessmen and government officials as part of their efforts to reshape Saudi society and economics. But Saudi clerics have long been a power unto themselves, with fame and influence beyond that of others caught up in recent crackdowns.

    The jailed clerics are among Saudi Arabia’s best-known and most popular Sunni Muslim religious figures: Salman Al-Odah, who has more than 14 million Twitter followers; Awad al-Qarni, a popular and outspoken cleric; and Ali Alomari, a TV preacher.

    They were arrested a year ago in a roundup of imams with large followings for not openly supporting the government’s pressure campaign against Qatar, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing rights activists.

    They are now facing trials in a national-security court on charges that include conspiring against the monarchy and supporting terrorism, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty, said relatives, activists and the government official.

    A senior Saudi official said the clerics are “under investigation for constituting a danger to society because they belong to terrorist organizations.” The senior official said Saudi prosecutors and judges were independent and that the crown prince would play no role in a verdict or punishment, if any.

    “Nobody in Saudi Arabia is being investigated because of their political views,” the senior official said. “The arrests of these individuals and others is in line with the kingdom’s keenness with the international community to exert efforts to combat the extremism that the world suffers from and to combat terrorism in all its forms,” the official said.

    The senior official denied the men were originally arrested over their views on Qatar. The men have access to attorneys and the right to appeal any sentence, the official said.

    The prosecutions are among the riskiest pieces of 33-year-old Prince Mohammed’s efforts to consolidate power since June 2017, when he pushed aside another royal to become crown prince.

    Moving against clerics could turn public opinion against the kingdom’s rulers and strengthen elements of the royal family who oppose them.

    The House of Saud has remained the country’s ruling family for over eight decades through an alliance with imams who adhere to a strain of Islam known as Wahabbism. The partnership has provided largely stable leadership and resulted in one of the world’s most religiously conservative societies—one in which clerics have significant influence over public opinion.

    With the trials, Prince Mohammad is putting the clerics “on notice that the rules have now changed,” said Ali Shihabi, founder of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington think tank that often supports the Saudi government.

    Mr. Shihabi said he doubted the government would follow through and execute clerics. “This is messaging more than substance,” he said.

    Mr. Odah faces 37 charges for alleged crimes including spreading discord, incitement against the ruler, and being active in the Muslim Brotherhood, his son said. The senior Saudi official cited Mr. Odah’s position in the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which he said has ties to al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.

    His son, Abdullah Odah, a senior fellow at Georgetown University, called the charges absurd. “They don’t have any rules, they broke all traditions of authority, religion, politics, culture and everything in the country so we really don’t know what is next,” he said.

    Clerics haven’t always supported Prince Mohammed as he pursued a series of changes that include allowing women to drive, fashioned a more muscular foreign policy, and moved to diversify the oil-dependent economy by making Saudi Arabia more attractive to foreign investment and tourism.

    He has also sought to turn Saudi Arabia—home to Islam’s holiest cities of Mecca and Medina—into a center of a more moderate form of Islam.

    Saudi authorities have sought in part to remake the country through prosecutions. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for several activists who campaigned for minority Shia Muslim rights; activists who campaigned for women’s right to drive and other freedoms have been jailed; and dozens of businessmen and government officials remain detained on undisclosed charges 10 months after the start of the corruption crackdown.

    “Since MBS could well be in power for 50 years, there is a strong case for pushing through with the most controversial changes now, before MBS assumes the throne and must accept full blame,” said Jim Krane, a Middle East fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, using a common nickname for the crown prince.

    Mr. Odah, 61 years old, was once a hard-core Islamist who led the antimonarchy “Islamic Awakening” movement in the 1990s, which criticized Saudi Arabia’s decision to allow the U.S. military into the country to protect it from a potential Iraqi invasion. He went to prison for five years and embraced more moderate views after his release, becoming an advocate for social and political reform.

    Rights activists and relatives said the clerics have been charged retroactively for belonging to organizations that weren’t banned at the time of their arrests.

    Abdullah Odah said his father is accused of belonging to the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which wasn’t named as a terrorist organization by Saudi authorities until November, two months after his arrest.

    Mr. Alomari faces 30 charges related to terrorism, including allegedly forming a terrorist youth organization, according to rights activists. Mr. Alomari’s family or legal representatives couldn’t be reached for comment.

    According to rights activists, Mr. Qarni is charged with supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups in Saudi Arabia designated as terrorist organizations. He is also accused of the crimes of stirring public discord, conspiring against the kingdom’s leaders, and sympathizing with those arrested in security cases.

    Rights groups have protested the treatment of the imams. “Saudi’s alleged efforts to tackle extremism are all for show if all the government does is jail people for their political views,” said Adam Coogle, a Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch.

    At least 15 other Saudi figures arrested in the same roundup that caught up the three imams last year are also being tried in nonpublic cases at the Specialized Criminal Court, which hears national security and terrorism cases. Prosecutors are asking for 20-year sentences and over $100 million in fines, according to rights activists and the Saudi official.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/push-to-execute-saudi-clerics-rattles-kingdoms-power-structure-1537097475
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  16. #52
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    Arabic press review: Saudi opposition movement launched from Paris

    New Saudi opposition movement established

    A Saudi academic and writer has publicly opposed the Saudi government and announced the formation of an opposition movement from abroad, according to an Arabi21 report.

    Marzouk Mashan al-Otaibi declared the establishment of the National Mobilisation Movement from his new home in Paris, and it has reportedly already attracted several Saudis who are unhappy with the current government.

    Al-Otaibi is a former writer for local Saudi newspapers Makkah and Al-Sharq, and was also a lecturer at King Saud University's chemistry department.

    In a statement addressed to Saudi citizens, Al-Otaibi said: "Al-Saud’s regime is humiliating you, impoverishing you, enslaving you and scorning you."

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he added, continues "to underestimate you by ignoring all the taboos and violating Arab and Islamic sanctities. He breached the sanctity of homes and arrested women, the elderly and children. Bin Salman also tortured detainees to death".

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/arabic-press-review-2020124217
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    US officials meet with Saudi Arabia's religious police

    Saudi Arabia's liberalisation policies have allowed women to drive, but some activists remain silenced behind bars

    For the first time, a United States delegation met with Saudi Arabia’s religious police, the US said on Thursday.

    The US Commission on International Religious Freedom met with Saudi's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, commonly known as the religious police, about the decision to allow women to drive and open some public spaces to women.

    “I am encouraged by the opening that is being seen in the capital of Riyadh. I saw women driving, some guardianship rules being rolled back, and women and men increasingly mixing in public venues, including at a Cirque du Soleil concert in Riyadh,” said commissioner Nadine Maenza.

    "The question we continue to assess is whether this opening is extending to other parts of the country and the degree to which these reforms are impacting freedom of religion or belief in a country that still - for instance - officially bans public worship unless it is the state-sanctioned practice of Islam,” Maenza added.

    Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has vowed to return the country to "moderate Islam," has cut back the political role of hardline clerics in a historic reordering of the Saudi state.

    Saudi Arabia is implementing a far-reaching liberalisation drive that has upended years of conservative tradition, launching a series of reforms, including gradually diminishing religious police powers to arrest citizens and allowing women to drive.

    Still, the crown prince has also pursued an aggressive crackdown on activists, royal family members and critics of the government, jailing a number of the leading voices for women's rights who first championed the right to drive.

    Under his watch, scores of people have been imprisoned, tortured and stripped of their assets, according to Human Rights Watch.

    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-meets-saudi-arabias-religious-police-227821434
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  18. #54
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    Brotherhood our enemy

    It is not strange that they do not believe in a modern state because their culture is very much similar to that of bandits.

    I CAN find excuses for those who make me an enemy for personal reasons. I understand the position of a country that is viewed as enemy to my country. The same can be said for a devilish party that inherited hatred from the past and is using it for the future as an excuse to settle accounts.

    But it is very difficult for me to understand the position of a group that grew within us and benefitted from our wealth and managed to thrive with our support at a time when their closest people betrayed them.

    I always believed that the dangers of political Islam were greater than its benefits. No one ever used the religion of Islam as a card to push their political agenda as much as the Muslim Brotherhood. No one ever instigated the public and society as much as they did. No other group played with ideology, putting Islam as a religion in a narrow frame, to control the minds of people and turn them against their countries as the Muslim Brotherhood did. It is not strange that they do not believe in a modern state because their culture is very much similar to that of bandits. The verse in the Holy Qur’an, “They know the favor of Allah and then deny it”, applies to them.

    Arab countries throughout their history were obvious victims of their devilish and violent practices. If we look back in history and searched for the truth, we will discover that they had killed many innocent people and branded many philosophers infidels. It is because of their weak understanding and hatred, the Muslim nation that they are crying for now has almost lost everything.

    We lived through the Sahwa (Awakening) Movement with all its implications. We have seen the Muslim Brotherhood icons loving worldly life and amassing wealth. This makes us ask the real question: Are they really calling people to return to Islam? Do they really care about following the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)? The answer is definitely a big “no”.

    For many years, we listened to them and saw them recruiting members, rehabilitating and reinforcing their lines, and we did not ask what was this preparation for. They were recruiting and mobilizing people against their own countries and instigating their members against own families.

    In the past three decades, I am asking myself, what did this Sahwa Movement achieve? Are there any local, Arab or Islamic achievements? Was Palestine liberated through their hands?

    http://saudigazette.com.sa/article/546607/Opinion/Local-Viewpoint/Brotherhood-our-enemy
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Pain and hardships allow you to grow spiritually Alhamdulilah so smile when a so called calamity befalls upon you.
    Alhamdulilah Allah swt is the greatest.
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  21. #56
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    Breaking: Family confirms Sh Safar al-Hawali is still alive

    Contrary to reports of the death of prominent Saudi scholar Sheikh Safar al-Hawali in the prisons of the Kingdom, a close source familiar with the case has informed Islam21c that the Sheikh is alive and may even be released soon.

    The source which has direct contact with the Sheikh’s family said that the family were officially informed on Tuesday 30th October that the Sheikh was alive and they were then permitted to visit him on Wednesday 31st October.

    As well as being informed of the condition of the Sheikh, the family were permitted to visit his sons who are arrested including Abdur Rahman, Abdullah, Abdur Raheem and Ibrahim.

    The source stated:

    “I can confirm that the Sheikh is alive and his wife saw him. He gave his Salams to everyone. InshāAllāh we are hopeful that some of the many prisoners in Saudi Arabia will be released in the coming days.”
    The source however added that:

    “This is not due to any compassion on the part of the government but rather because of the pressure they are under.”
    In July, reports emerged suggesting that the medical condition of Sheikh Safar al-Hawali and Sheikh Salman al-Ouda was deteriorating due to medical negligence according to the advocacy group ‘Mu’taqilī al-Ra’ī‘ or ‘Prisoners of Conscious’. [1]

    In a tweet the group claimed that Sheikh Safar al-Hawali and his children had been pressured to disavow themselves from his book “Muslims and Western civilization”, and to claim that the book was not written by the Sheikh, in return for their release. [2]

    Sheikh Safar al-Hawali and his sons were arrested on July 12th, a few days after the publication of the book attributed to the Sheikh, in which he imparts advice to the ruling family and the Council of Senior Scholars close to the monarchy.

    In his book, the prominent Sheikh criticises the ruling family in Saudi Arabia and the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Mohammed bin Zayed for their over-sized expenditure, saying it: “has been wasting funds on fake projects” and calling the Crown Prince’s cosy relationship with Israel a “betrayal”. [3]

    A previous report by Al Jazeera suggested that the arrest of Sheikh Safar al-Hawali was because of what was contained of advice directed at the Saudi Arabian ruling family, scholars and activists.

    This is the first time that the family has seen Sheikh al-Hawali since his arrest. The source stated that:

    “The funny thing is that the first they heard about him after his arrest in July was on the same day that Sheikh Salman al-Ouda’s trial was adjourned.”
    Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia recently sought the death penalty for some prominent scholars including, Sheikh Salman al-Ouda, following an apparent secret trial. [4] Amongst the dozens of prominent scholars, activists and academics arrested by the Saudi authorities, are Sheikh Salman al-Ouda, Sheikh Awad al-Qarni, Sheikh Mohammad Musa al-Sharif, Sheikh Muhammad Saleh al-Munajjid and Sheikh Abdul Aziz at-Tarefe. [5]

    The source further added that:

    “People expected him [Sheikh al-Hawali] to be sentenced to death but instead they adjourned the trial to December. The same public prosecutor (Saud al-Mojeb) who recommended the death sentence was in Istanbul trying to save the neck of MBS.”

    “The authorities here told Sheikh al-Hawali’s family that he was alive and the next day his wife was allowed to see him. Before that they did not know if he was dead or alive. In fact, there were rumours just after Hajj that he had died in prison.”
    The source informed Islam21c that the condition of the Sheikh remains the same as when he was taken prisoner. He walks with assistance and is unable to pray in the Mosque. The 68-year-old Sheikh has also suffered a stroke, a failed kidney and a broken pelvis.

    The family has suggested that the imprisoned scholars in Saudi could be released soon according to sources inside the prisons as well as “government advisors”. However, the family stressed that Sheikh al-Hawali may be the last to be released as a result of the book which he published.

    The Saudi authorities have arrested scores of scholars and activists in what is seen as a significant shift in internal policy led by Crown-Prince Mohammad bin Salman. The measures have been dubbed by some as a precursor to introducing more secular-leaning laws. [6]

    The disappearance and evident brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi continues to dominate headlines around the globe as pressure continues to grow on the Saudi authorities surrounding the case. Some suggest that one result of the pressure faced is to review some of the repressive policies put in place by the Crown Prince.

    https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/breaking-family-confirms-sh-safar-al-hawali-is-still-alive/
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    Its has subtitles so you can turn the volume down.



    Last edited by سيف الله; 11-15-2018 at 08:36 PM.
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    attachmentphp?attachmentid6566 - US dictating Saudi religious policy
    Last edited by anatolian; 12-05-2018 at 07:02 AM.
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  24. #59
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update





    Traitors in Our Midst: The Scholars of Colonization

    What’s wrong with scholars like Hamza Yusuf, Abdallah bin Bayyah, Habib Ali Jifri, et al., supporting Arab dictators and legitimating their regimes? There has been lots of analysis on the 2018 UAE forum for “promoting peace,” but some of this analysis misses the mark.

    For example, what I keep reading over and over again is that Saudi and the UAE are not truly tolerant and they are not truly democracies, therefore it is a major violation for scholars to support them. This is silly. When did democratic secularism and liberal tolerance become the standard for determining legitimate vs. illegitimate governments as far as Islamic morality is concerned? This makes no sense.

    Another criticism is that these are brutal regimes that have shed the blood of many innocent Muslims and oppressed many more. This is a good criticism. It boggles the mind how any informed person could excuse, much less defend, a scholar who has made a career out of praising clear oppressors and their regimes. (And to be fair, there are uninformed individuals who need to be shown the exact implications of their excuses and defenses of such scholars.)

    It doesn’t matter if you think the scholar is a wali. What about the hundreds of thousands of people being killed and oppressed by the tyrants your “wali” is praising? You don’t think there were any awliya buried in the rubble or gunned down in Yemen, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, etc.? Only your favorite scholar is a wali, but not any of the hundreds of thousands of Muslims killed and oppressed by these dictators? What about the scholars that these tyrants have jailed or executed? Is it not possible that those scholars were awliya? This whole “wali card” is ludicrously incoherent and, when you think about it, quite despicable.

    Now the further point here is that these scholars are the successors of a long line of co-opted ulama who, historically, would use religious arguments to support the colonizers. Since the beginning of the colonization of the Muslim world over 200 years ago, the colonizers figured out that the best way to avoid backlash from the native Muslim population was to get traditional scholars on the payroll. These scholars would then go around teaching about the virtues of loyalty to the new colonial masters and the values of peace and co-existence with them, the “wisdom” of their culture and religious traditions, etc. These scholars would teach the community to disavow Islamic governance, to disavow khilafa, to disavow jihad, to disavow the Sharia, to eschew religious exclusivism, etc.

    They would emphasize this idea of الإنسانية قبل التدين (humanity before religiosity), essentially promoting the central tenet of liberal humanism. In the end, anything that could possibly threaten colonial power was denounced as “backwards” and, ultimately, “un-Islamic.” This was to ensure that the Muslim community would not violently resist the new political order that had been brutally imposed upon them and would, instead, become docile, accepting subjects of the invading colonial force and its systematic domination.

    Prominent scholars who played this role for colonizers over the past 150 years include figures like Muhammad Abduh, Uthman bin Yahya, Mohammad al-Hajwi, Mustafa al-Maraghi, Syed Ahmad Khan, and many more. Of course, there were other scholars who fought the colonizers and considered resisting colonial invasion necessary jihad in defense of the Umma. These included figures like Omar Mukhtar, Abd al-Qadir al-Jazairi, Imam Shamil, Imam Bonjol, and Muhammad `Abd Allah al-Hasan. These brave Muslim leaders were denounced as barbarians (what would be called “extremists” or “Islamists” in today’s nomenclature) by those religious scholars who had been bought by the colonizers. Thankfully, most of our ulama today are in the mold of these brave figures who fought on behalf of the Umma instead of the minority who betrayed it.

    So, in a nutshell, that is what is so wrong with scholars legitimating secular Arab tyrants. They are endorsing the current day neocolonial project of secularizing and subduing the Muslim world via brutal Western-backed puppet tyrants, who are themselves agents of Western imperialism. This is precisely how these scholars are contributing to bringing the Umma under the control of Western (and Israeli) powers economically, politically, socially, culturally, and, of course, religiously. (And notice how these “peace” initiatives always have Zionist representatives and representatives from Western security and anti-extremism agencies.) This is the “peace” that they are promoting: Be peaceful while the West continues to rape you. Be peaceful while the oppressors continue to slaughter you. Be peaceful while the missionaries and the Zionists indoctrinate you and turn you away from your deen.

    This is a huge betrayal of the Umma and should be denounced in the strongest terms, lest this behavior become normalized in and acceptable to the community at large.

    But let’s not forget the social justice imams in the West who are also legitimating tyranny. Instead of praising MBS, MBZ, et al., they praised Hillary Clinton, campaigned for her, endorsed her, etc. They went far beyond merely picking Clinton over Trump as the “lesser of two evils,” but instead expressed enthusiastic support and even giddy joy at the thought of electing her as president, and told the Muslim community that it is a religious obligation (fard) to vote for her, even though she was directly responsible for the destruction of at least one Muslim country and had threatened war against others. So, what makes these scholars for Hillary any different from the tyrant endorsers?

    Abu Dharr related, “I was walking with the Prophet ﷺ and I heard him saying: “There is something I fear for my Umma more than the Dajjal.” He repeated it three times. So I said: “O Messenger of Allah, what is it other than the Dajjal which you fear most for your Umma?” He said: “Misguided Imams.” [Musnad Ahmad]

    And as far as advancing the secularizing, liberalizing colonial project, a scholar doesn’t have to attend a UAE sponsored peace forum to do that. There are some imams who are doing that without even leaving the country. They simply endorse liberal political platforms and, in effect, if not intent, promote perennialism (the view that all “sacred” religions are acceptable to Allah), LGBT, radical feminism, abortion rights, dissolution of family, dissolution of marriage, etc., etc. Their vocal support of these left-wing political factions and policies colonizes the Muslim minds in the West and furthers the colonial project in the Muslim world as well.

    They are providing the veneer of religious legitimacy to views that are deeply antithetical to Islam and are harmful to the interests of the Umma writ large. Furthermore, they are benefiting financially from these liberal connections and are granted access to many circles of power and influence within governmental and non-governmental organizations as well as think tanks, media, “charitable” funds and foundations, and billion-dollar companies. So, there is nothing more hypocritical than such social justice imams and activists acting indignant and holier-than-thou with respect to Hamza Yusuf, et al. They’re just the other side of the same coin.

    Of course, the vast majority of imams and scholars in the West and the East have nothing to do with such evil alhamdulillah. We need to support these ulama for their bravery and principled stance against the tide. These are the Omar Mukhtar’s of our times. May Allah bless these scholars of haqq and us with them, and protect the Umma from every evil tyrant and every traitorous scholar.

    https://muslimskeptic.com/2018/12/13...-colonization/

    Last edited by سيف الله; 12-14-2018 at 08:37 PM.
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    Re: US dictating Saudi religious policy

    Salaam

    Another update

    A sincere letter to Shaykh Hamza Yusuf from a concerned Muslim layman

    Dear Shaykh Hamza Yusuf,

    As salaamu alaikum.

    It can be very daunting for a layperson to account a scholar of prolific credentials. What is unfortunate however is the erroneous assumption that lacking such a profile precludes any criticism of those more erudite amongst us. Seeing as accounting those in positions of power has a precedent in our Islamic tradition, I feel obliged to express my concern following your recent comments at the fifth annual Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies.

    Your attendance at this conference, where you praised the UAE as a tolerant nation has caused much consternation among Muslims, especially in light of the country’s flagrant violation of human rights both domestically and abroad as documented by leading NGOs and the international community at large.

    Since the Arab Spring, Gulf monarchies have been scrambling to preserve their despotic regimes and the spectre of political Islam has emerged as the greatest existential threat to its power structure. This explains why the UAE and its partner in crime KSA sponsored the coups in Egypt and Turkey and continue to mount an unprecedented clampdown on dissidents, activists and journalists. As part of a concerted campaign to preserve its hegemony, the repression of any grassroots movement seeking a reformation of the authoritarian order forms the basis of the UAE’s geopolitical strategy.

    Against this backdrop, I believe your role as the Forum’s Vice-President serves an expedient purpose, seeing as your framing of the caliphate as a modern Islamist fantasy and maligning of the Muslim Brotherhood sits neatly with the political absolutism of your hosts who seek to obstruct such trends from taking root on their soil. The fact that you were feted by the UAE’s ambassador to the US, Yousef Al-Otaiba, at an inter-faith event one week after the Qatar blockade makes no pretence to impartiality and suggests you have aligned yourself with the UAE against calls for altering the political landscape of the Muslim world.

    Regrettably, your ill-conceived comments are treason of your scholarly vocation. With much of your public witness premised on advocating law and justice, it beggars belief why you choose to remain silent on the infringement of civil liberties which the UAE is notoriously renowned for. Equally distasteful is how you identify so intimately with Islam’s humanist traditions, yet fail to account this so called champion of civil society for its merciless treatment of Yemen’s men, women and children.

    It smacks of hypocrisy when someone can brace the pulpit at these events and equivocate on matters of public policy, willingly choosing to ignore the elephant in the room. By granting the Emirati status quo a respectable face, you are guilty of not only deflecting criticism of its panoply of human rights abuses but also for sabotaging hopes for the freedom of Yemenis who are being pulverised into oblivion. Dressing your fawning adoration as a well-intentioned ijtihad rings hollow as the government which sponsored this peace initiative is the most culpable in violating its laudable objectives.

    To add insult to injury, the conference was moderated by Ed Husain, a co-founder of the Quilliam foundation, an anti-extremism think tank which thrives on a neo-McCarthyite blacklisting of mainstream Muslim organisations and figureheads. Sara Khan, a divisive counter extremism commissioner and longstanding advocate of the discredited Prevent programme which is widely criticised for disproportionately targeting British Muslims, was another attendee.

    While sharing a platform with such personalities does not amount to a wholesale endorsement of their views, there is nothing in their public engagement which justifies an invitation to make proposals for world peace, except that they are mouthpieces for received opinion acting at the behest of the powers that be. As much as I’m inclined to invoking the excuse of ignorance when making sense of your political judgements, it seems inconceivable that you are totally oblivious to the UAE’s regional ambitions and the nefarious associations of your fellow panellists.

    The maslaha (public interest) you cite as justification for fraternising in these conventions casts a cloud of suspicion for those perceptive enough to see through the benevolent guise. Invoking the interfaith card is dubious as these initiatives appear to be instrumentalised for a conniving agenda which seeks to whitewash the brutality of the Gulf States and sell the genocide of Muslims as a tribulation to be passively endured. Your insistence on forming strategic alliances to benefit the Ummah as a judicious demonstration of Muslim outreach is proving highly counterproductive and disingenuous.

    If anything, the conference was a savvy PR ploy which sought to exploit the supine apologetics of scholars like Abdullah Bin Bayyah- someone you extol as a master of Islamic jurisprudence and rank among the awliyah of Allah-to legitimate the neo-colonial project of secularising the Muslim world through tyrannical despots. Is it so implausible that as the head of a newly formed Emirates Fatwa Council, Bin Bayyah’s role makes him a vital asset in the UAE’s propaganda drive to push the narrative on religious moderation and censor any calls for transparent governance? Perhaps this is why the topic of unwavering allegiance to rulers featured in his keynote address at the conference’s inaugural forum.

    When the balance of justice is so unfairly weighted against the Ummah, I believe your participation at this event was a monstrous betrayal of our collective fight against state sponsored terrorism. By conferring legitimacy to the UAE status quo, you do not become a positive catalyst for top-down change. Rather, you succumb to the insidious PR machine of a nation desperate to export a progressive global image, thereby enabling the institutions actively undermining and criminalising movements demanding greater accountability from their rulers.

    Spurning such invitations, even at the risk of ostracism would have been a greater measure of your commitment to Muslim solidarity. Instead, you have plunged the dagger deeper into the emaciated children of Hodeidah, who must bear the misfortune of an esteemed scholar pandering to their murderers by allowing a culture of brown nosing to infiltrate his public discourse.

    With Bin Bayyah’s recent endorsement of Saudi Arabia’s efforts in combating radicalisation and epitomising moderation, it is only so long one can maintain the façade. Beholden to state affiliations, one could easily infer that neither of you are any longer on guard against manipulative influences and are complicit in a culture of newspeak as apologists of tyranny, fatally compromising your abilities to publicly associate with the Ummah’s struggle against injustice.

    Admittedly, I have benefited from your scholarship. In fact, the inspiration for some of my writing on contemporary Muslim affairs derived to an extent from your enlightening ruminations into the Islamic tradition. Your ability to explore interrelated religious and social topics with astuteness satiated an intellectual curiosity for which I remain indebted. It’s painful that I now find myself in a position where questioning your motives becomes a matter of religious necessity.

    Speaking truth to power is a prophetic practice in urgent need of restoration. At the very least, you owe a full retraction and apology to the voiceless victims of the UAE’s unspeakable crimes against humanity.

    One can no longer afford the luxury of claiming to feel the Ummah’s pain while deeming the cost of non-conformism too great a price to pay.

    Your brother in Islam,

    Hasten Lais

    Last edited by سيف الله; 12-19-2018 at 05:27 PM.
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