JAFFA, Israel – A prominent Saudi media outlet is striking back at British officials who accused the kingdom of fanning the flames of terror. The British officials relied on a German intelligence report and similar statements by German officials indicating that Saudi Arabia funds terrorist organizations. In retaliation, one Saudi paper said that Great Britain has turned from “a haven for extremists” to an “assembly line of terrorists.” Okaz, one of the largest Saudi newspapers, said that over the past few years Great Britain has become a favorite place of asylum for radical extremists fleeing their respective countries. Britain, the paper claimed, is a major supplier of manpower to some of the most radical terrorist organizations, like Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State. Britain, the paper continued, is the second-largest source of jihadi fighters. “Some people called the British capital ‘Londonistan’ as early as the 1990s.”
Author: Ali Waked
Saudi Women Find Their Husband a Third Wife ‘Out of Love’
JAFFA, Israel – Two Saudi women married to the same man have reportedly asked a younger woman to be his third wife, in what they say was a gesture of love to their man. Awad Elzuweibi, who is in his seventies, thought his wives were joking at first. “But then I realized they were serious, and I said yes,” he stated. The wedding took place last week in the city of Taeef, in front of hundreds of guests. He told the Saudi press that he is currently on honeymoon with his new wife. Polygamy has become increasingly controversial, even in staunch Islamic circles. Women’s organizations claim that the justification for it, found in early Islamic writings, is no longer relevant today. The practice, they say, only perpetuates unequal power relations between men and women. In one report, the paper said that the gracious wives “defied the growing trends among Saudi women.” Another said, “We bring you this story, but it does not necessarily reflect the paper’s position.”
Top Hamas Terrorist Celebrated on Twitter, 20 Years After Assassination
JAFFA, Israel – The twentieth anniversary of the targeted assassination of top Hamas explosives expert Yahya Ayyash was marked in the Palestinian Territories on Tuesday. It was also marked on Twitter, with a #Ayyash_is_coming hashtag that reached more than 26 million users around the Islamic and Arab world. Ayyash, an operative of Hamas’ Azz a-Din al Qassam Brigades, was killed in January 1996 by a booby-trapped cell phone that was passed on to him by the Israeli Shin Bet. The bombs put together by Ayyash, known as “the engineer,” were used to kill more than 70 Israelis. After his assassination, Hamas carried out a string of suicide bombings in retaliation, which left 40 Israelis dead. The attacks are credited with ushering the victory of Benjamin Netanyahu in the 1996 election, who was trailing 30 points behind then Prime Minister Shimon Peres in the polls. “Ayyash was killed but his spirit is still alive among the young Palestinians,” some wrote alongside the hashtag, that became the most popular in Jordan, tenth most popular in Saudi Arabia and was also trending in the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Qatar, Algeria and elsewhere.
Meet the Saudi Shi’ite Cleric Whose Execution May Spark Sectarian Violence Across the Middle East
JAFFA, Israel – The Saudi authorities executed 47 terror suspects over the weekend, including a Shi’ite cleric whose death sentence raised the ire of Iran and its supporters. Since Nimr Baqr al-Nimr’s execution, Iran and Saudi Arabia have traded accusations, the Saudi embassy in Tehran has been attacked by rowdy protesters and supporters and detractors have waged war on social media. Nimr’s execution was slammed by critics of the Saudi royal family, especially among the Kingdom’s Shi’ites (who make up 15 percent of the population), and other coreligionists in Iran, Iraq, Bahrein, and other places. Who is Nimr, whose death may spark a Sunni-Shi’ite religious war? Born in 1959, Nimr was one of the most famous Shi’ites in Saudi Arabia. In 1980 he moved to Iran to study Shi’ite theology. He made headlines in 2009, when he read an audacious sermon criticizing the “discrimination” against the country’s Shi’ites. “If you further discriminate against the community and ban them from state and military positions, they will secede and come back under the sovereignty of Bahrain” he said. (Bahrain, a predominantly Shi’ite country, is ruled by a Saudi-backed Sunni royal family that serves as a bulwark against Iranian claims that the tiny state is a lost Iranian territory.)
WATCH: Man Arrested in Saudi Mall for Wearing Islamic Women’s Garb
JAFFA, Israel – A Saudi man was arrested in a shopping mall in the city of Taeef while dressed in a niqab, a traditional women’s garb. The man, who is in his twenties, aroused the suspicion of a passer-by. He approached what he thought was a woman – niqabs cover the entire body, except the eyes – and when he realized it was a man, he called the mall’s security. The young man was handed over to police, who made no accusations against him except “mingling with female visitors of the mall.” See the video below: The kingdom’s bubbly social media was abuzz following the incident. Some criticized conservative elements in Saudi society that force women to fully cover their bodies. That, they claimed, raises the arousal threshold among “sick people, like this guy.” Others criticized that “damned man, whom we pray Allah will cure and give back his brain.” One commenter said: “By the way he walks, he clearly wants to be a woman,” followed by a luscious curse.
Saudis Ban Controversial Female Poet For 15 years
JAFFA, Israel – The Saudi authorities have banned a controversial woman poet from participating in cultural events for 15 years, the Qatari-British Al Quds newspaper reported on Sunday. Hind Al-Mutairi (pictured), a critic of patriarchy and polygamy, was precluded at the personal insistence of Prince Khaled al Faisal, a poet and the official in charge of all the cultural events in the kingdom. Al-Mutairi read some of her controversial poems at an exhibition in Jedda recently, drawing fire from conservative critics who already protested the invitation of a female participant. Prince Khaled succumbed to mounting public pressure to sanction the poet. The organizing committee of the exhibition accused al-Mutairi of adding a provocative verse to her poem to stir controversy and embarrass them. In her defense, al-Mutairi said that she had read the same poem at a festival in Cairo shortly beforehand. Prince Khaled sought to preempt criticism from liberal circles in the kingdom and abroad, and decided to ban two of al-Mutairi’s critics from participating in the exhibition that has yet to close.
Tunisia Admits 3,000 Nationals Fighting for Islamic State, 600 Returned After ‘Expressing Remorse’
Tunisia admitted that around 3,000 of its nationals have left for Syria and Iraq to fight in the ranks of the Islamic State, more than three times the number previously estimated. Walid Elwekeine, a spokesperson for the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior, confirmed the estimates to the Saudi newspaper Asharq al Awsat, which is published in London. The men, he said, infiltrated into IS-controlled areas under false pretenses, such as tourism. Elwekeine also said that a hair-raising 12,000 potential Tunisian volunteers were prevented from joining IS after their intentions were uncovered by the local security services. In response to international estimates that between 10,000-50,000 Tunisians have been recruited for the jihadi cause, whether by IS or another group, the spokesperson said: “That’s an exaggeration. Our estimate stands at 3000, with another 800 killed in the last five years in battle in Syria, Iraq and Libya.” According to Elwekeine, some 600 returned to Tunisia soon after they left, having realized they made a mistake. “They contacted our embassies in Turkey and Syria and, after expressing remorse, asked to return,” he said. “Ninety-five percent of them were arrested and interrogated by police upon their return, while the others remained under surveillance,” he
SHOCK VIDEO: Engagement Ceremony in Egypt Brings 9-Year-Old Groom, 8-Year-Old Bride Together
JAFFA, Israel – A 9-year-old boy got engaged to an 8-year-old girl in the Egyptian town of Shirbin, Egyptian news media reported.
WATCH: Saudi Social Media Abuzz Over Video of Woman Driver
JAFFA, Israel – A young Saudi woman driver came under fire this week after a video of her driving a car in the city of Tabuk has gone viral on social media in the kingdom.
Saudis Challenge Islamic State on End Times Theology, Egyptian Mufti Says
JAFFA, Israel – Although some member states are not aware of its existence, the ideology behind a Saudi-led anti-Islamic State coalition is challenging the jihadi organization’s theological underpinnings, the Mufti of Egypt told Asharq Al Awsat newspaper. Shawki Alam, the religious leader of the largest Arab nation, told the Saudi-British paper that the coalition has destroyed IS’s “religious and ideological infrastructure, which has relied on fallacious interpretations of prophecies.” Alam added that Egypt’s Fatwa Council, which has consistently opposed IS’s eschatological beliefs, supports the Islamic coalition unanimously, and this is is “the beginning of the moral and ideological end of the principles on which Islamic State is founded. Extremists distort the prophet’s teachings, which are meant to promote peace, piety, and serenity, and co-opt them to their bloodthirsty ends.” “The so-called [IS] caliphate, which cannot tolerate the existence of an Islamic military coalition, constantly tried to undermine it,” he added. Breitbart Jerusalem reported last week on IS’s recent publications regarding a doomsday war, which they believe will take place in the Syrian town of Dabiq near Aleppo and on the Syrian-Turkish border. According to IS, one of Mohammed’s hadiths, revealed by his companion Abu Hurreyrah, ensures that “the Last Hour will not come until the Romans