Khaled Muhammad Batrafi, a Saudi columnist for the London daily Al-Hayat, recently published an article headlined "Why do we hate the People of the Book?" (namely – Christians and Jews) in which he tells of a religious argument he had with a friend regarding the annihilation of C...
Two Saudi columnists recently challenged Arab conspiracy theories. Both aimed their comments primarily atwell-known Islamist Egyptian journalist Fahmi Huweidi who wrote a series of articles in the Saudi press accusing"extremist American militias" or, alternatively, the "Israeli M...
When New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani rejected Saudi prince Al-Walid bin Talal's $10 million donation to New York City following the latter's comments on what he referred to as the root causes of the September 11 attacks, newspaper columnists in Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the Pale...
In a recent column, the Saudi ambassador in London and occasional columnist for the London Arabic daily Al-Hayat,Ghazi Al-Qusaibi, advised Arab regimes not to rule out the possibility of waging war against Israel. On August 9,2001 he published a scathing attack on US President Ge...
Since the outbreak of the second Intifada, at the end of September, 2000, the Egyptians and Saudis have been at theforefront of the moderate camp in the Arab world, against the cries for war coming from Iraq, Yemen, Sudan andoccasionally from Syria. Lately, however, statements by...
On June 21, 2001 the US announced its decision to indict fourteen suspects of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, in Daharan,Saudi-Arabia, in which 19 American soldiers were killed and approximately 400 people injured. The announcement was followed byanger against the US in Iran and ...
The UN, international organizations and local human rights NGO's constantly pressure the regimes in Arab states to improve the state of human rights in general and women's rights in particular. According to UN data, the proportion of women's representation in Arab parliaments is ...
In an article in the Saudi daily Okaz, Saudi columnist Abdullah Abu Sameh argued that Saudi Arabia must challenge the fanatic ideology which has infected the youth with a false interpretation of Islam. The following is his article: [1] The Extremists have Corrupted the Minds of O...
On November 29, 'Ain-Al-Yaqeen, a weekly news magazine published online by the Saudi royal family, released an English translation of an interview with Saudi Minister of Interior Prince Nayef Ibn Abd Al-Aziz; the interview originally appeared in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Siyasa. T...
Recently, the media have been focusing on the relationship between Saudi businessman Osama Basnan, who was arrested on August 22, 2002 in San Diego and held for 85 days on immigration violations charges, and another Saudi, Omar Al-Bayyumi, who was reported to have helped defray l...
The Arabic press occasionally publishes articles about Western Christians and Jews who converted to Islam. One report claimed that 34,000 Americans converted to Islam one month after September 11, 2001.[1] The government of Saudi Arabia has been on the forefront of Da'wa - spread...
Part I - 'The Christians and the Jews are "Infidels," "Enemies of Allah"' Part II - 'Jews - The Descendants of Pigs and Apes' Part III - 'It is Impossible to Make Peace With the Jews' Part IV - 'Muslims Must Educate Their Children to Jihad… and to Hatred of Jews and Christians' ...
In a recent article published in the Saudi state controlled daily Al-Jazirah, columnist Dr. Muhammad bin S'ad Al-Shwey'ir, a past advisor to former Saudi mufti Sheikh Abdallah bin Baz and editor-in-chief of the Islamic Research periodical published by the Islamic Clerics Associat...
The lawsuit against Saudi and other Arab officials and organizations by the families of September 11 victims has aroused the ire of the Saudi media. The following are excerpts from articles that appeared in Saudi newspapers on this subject: Saudi Columnists: The U.S. Should be Su...
On July 10, 2002, the Qatari television channel Al-Jazeera interviewed Saudi sheikh Mohsin Al-'Awaji; a previous attempt by Al-Jazeera to interview him was prevented by Saudi authorities. Sheikh Al-'Awaji holds a PhD from the University of Wales in the U.K., and has served as the...
Saudi Defense and Aviation Minister Prince Sultan bin Abd Al-Aziz recently rebuked Jewish U.S. congressmen. Following a ceremony at the Public Institution For Military Industries in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi prince, who is also the father of Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Bandar bin ...
The Arab League summit meeting held in Beirut at the end of March was characterized by two major events—one substantive and the other symbolic. The substantive event was the unanimous vote in favor of Crown Prince Abdallah's proposals for peace between Israel and the Arab countri...
Huda Al-Husseini, a correspondent for the Saudi owned London Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, conducted an extensive interview with Saudi Ambassador to London Ghazi Al-Qusaibi.[1] The following are excerpts from the interview:[2] I Had to Take a Stand on Suicide Bombers Answering ...
Correspondent 'Ali Nouri Zadeh, of the the Saudi London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reports from London on recent developments regarding Iranian support of Palestinian organizations: Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority Meet in Iran"Iran has decid...
In an article published recently in the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat, reporter 'Hazem Al-Amin exposes the manner in which Iraqi authorities subvert the sanctions regime in an effort to buy friendships and, at the same time, earn illicit income. According to Al-Amin, two int...
Dr. Mohammad T. Al Rasheed, a columnist for the Saudi government English daily The Saudi Gazette, responded to President Bush's demand that Arab leaders cease calling suicide bombers "martyrs." In an article titled "God Bless Our Martyrs," Dr. Al-Rasheed criticized the U.S. The f...
On April 13, 2002, the Saudi ambassador to London, Ghazi Al-Qusaibi, published a poem in the London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat criticizing America and praising suicide bombers. Al-Qusaibi is the author of an article which accused President Bush of having "complexes" and stat...
In a recent article for the Saudi government-controlled daily Al-Jazirah, columnist Dr. Khalil Ibrahim Al-Sa'adat applauded the actions of 'Abd Al-Baset 'Oudeh, the Palestinian who detonated himself at a Passover 'Seder' in a Netanya hotel, and Ayat Al-Akhras, who carried out a s...
The March 1, 2002 edition of the Saudi government English weekly Ain Al-Yaqeen extensively detailed the Saudi royal family's efforts to spread (Wahhabi) Islam throughout the world. The following are excerpts taken from the article: Efforts to Spread [1](Wahhabi) Islam "…The deter...
Following MEMRI's recent reports on antisemitism in the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh (See MEMRI Special Dispatch 354 and {{nodeurl-PR102}}) - The Voice of America broadcast an official U.S. editorial calling upon Saudi Arabia and the Arab nations to "…stop newspapers and radi...
Following the publication of a two-part "Purim" blood libel in the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh (Saudi Government Daily: Jews Use Teenagers' Blood for 'Purim' Pastries), MEMRI has received several emails from readers who could not locate the articles on Al-Riya...
In an article published by the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh[1], columnist Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma ofKing Faysal University in Al-Dammam, wrote on "The Jewish Holiday of Purim." Following are excerpts of thearticle: Special Ingredient For Jewish Holidays is Human Blood Fro...
The popular Al-Jazeera talk show, "The Opposite Direction," recently addressed the issue of whether Osama bin Laden has served thecause of Islam, or damaged it. Appearing on the program were Osama Safar, a Kuwaiti columnist who opposed bin Laden andAbdallah Bin Matruk Al-Haddal, ...
On January 18, 2002, The Washington Post ran an article quoting unnamed top Saudi officials who expressed hopesthat the U.S. would end its military presence in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi sources stated that this presence had becomea "liability" due to the Saudi public's hostility to...
Along with the usual letters to the editor denying any Arab or Muslim role in the September 11 attacks - or, alternately, calling on the U.S. to amend its foreign policy - the London Arabic-language daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat has published a few letters calling for a thorough self-e...
Following are excerpts from an article in the Saudi daily 'Al-Riyadh' by Abdallah Al-Ka'id, titled "The Culture of Hatred": "When a particular culture is characterized by negative traits such as aggression, piracy, racism, or any other repulsive term, it must be hated by the othe...
The Saudi government press has recently been sharply critical of the U.S. The criticism is in response to the Americanpress' coverage of Saudi Arabia's reaction to September 11 and also focused on the "Clash of Civilizations" betweenIslam and the West. Following are excerpts from...
Two Saudi columnists from the Saudi government daily Al-Watan provided their insights and explanations of theinvolvement of Saudi citizens in the September 11 terrorist attacks. In their analysis they relate to the socio-economicprocesses that pushed the southern Saudi Arabian re...
The Saudi daily Al-Watan published a two-part article on "The Jewish Sense of Superiority in the World." The articlepresented a study conducted by the "American-European Center for Security and International Studies."[1] The articles were written by Abdallah Aal Malhi. The first ...
On November 14, 2001, Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah ibn Abd Al-'Aziz called for a meeting of the kingdom'sleading clerics to brief them on talks he had in recent months with U.S. President George W. Bush. Attending themeeting were Prince Sultan ibn Abd Al-'Aziz, who serves as secon...
Khaled Muhammad Batrafi, a Saudi columnist for the London daily Al-Hayat, recently published an article headlined "Why do we hate the People of the Book?" (namely – Christians and Jews) in which he tells of a religious argument he had with a friend regarding the annihilation of C...
Two Saudi columnists recently challenged Arab conspiracy theories. Both aimed their comments primarily atwell-known Islamist Egyptian journalist Fahmi Huweidi who wrote a series of articles in the Saudi press accusing"extremist American militias" or, alternatively, the "Israeli M...
When New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani rejected Saudi prince Al-Walid bin Talal's $10 million donation to New York City following the latter's comments on what he referred to as the root causes of the September 11 attacks, newspaper columnists in Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the Pale...
In a recent column, the Saudi ambassador in London and occasional columnist for the London Arabic daily Al-Hayat,Ghazi Al-Qusaibi, advised Arab regimes not to rule out the possibility of waging war against Israel. On August 9,2001 he published a scathing attack on US President Ge...
Since the outbreak of the second Intifada, at the end of September, 2000, the Egyptians and Saudis have been at theforefront of the moderate camp in the Arab world, against the cries for war coming from Iraq, Yemen, Sudan andoccasionally from Syria. Lately, however, statements by...
The UN, international organizations and local human rights NGO's constantly pressure the regimes in Arab states to improve the state of human rights in general and women's rights in particular. According to UN data, the proportion of women's representation in Arab parliaments is ...
Historical Background Two months ago, the Saudi government began to build a fence along its border with Yemen in an attempt to separate the residents along both sides of the border. The border between the two countries was set out in the 2000 Jeddah border treaty, which included ...
In recent years, a debate has surfaced in the Saudi media over the use of flogging as a punishment administered by the Saudi Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. Hundreds of Saudis are flogged every week for alleged "vice" crimes, such as harassing women,...
Saudi Arabia is the largest oil producing country among the members of the Organization of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC) and, as such, it is the dominant force in that organization. Changes in the supply equation that could diminish its role and influence in the international oi...
The leadership of the Egyptian Christian Coptic community has recently begun to express in public positions and complaints in a way uncommon in the past. The leader of Egypt's Coptic community, Patriarch Shinoda III, who in his articles, interviews, and public statements used to...
IntroductionOligarchy is a government in which a small group exercises control, especially for corrupt and selfish purposes. In Saudi Arabia, the few are the royal princes who are descendents of the founder of the modern Saudi Kingdom, King Abd Al-Aziz bin Sa'ud who, upon his de...
The Arab League summit meeting held in Beirut at the end of March was characterized by two major events - one substantive and the other symbolic. The substantive event was the unanimous vote in favor of Crown Prince Abdallah's proposals for peace between Israel and the Arab coun...
Abdallah's Peace PlanCrown Prince Abdallah bin Abd Al-Aziz,[1] Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the Saudi National Guard, carried his peace initiative to Crawford, Texas, on April 25 after declining to meet with President Bush last year.[2] Most Arabic papers underscored t...
Full Withdrawal According to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Prince Abdallah demanded a full Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders. But, according to Henry Siegman, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations, unnamed Saudi officials said Saudi Arabia would s...
IntroductionOn February 17, 2002, The New York Times published an article by columnist Thomas Friedman in which he reported about a conversation he had with Saudi Crown Prince Abdallah bin Abd Aziz Al-Saud. Prince Abdallah told Mr. Friedman that he had drafted a peace proposal wh...
On June 21, 2001 the US announced its decision to indict fourteen suspects of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, in Daharan,Saudi-Arabia, in which 19 American soldiers were killed and approximately 400 people injured. The announcement was followed byanger against the US in Iran and ...
On December 18, 2015, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula [AQAP] released a new video produced by its media company, Al-Malahim, featuring a lecture by its leader Qassem Al-Rimi.
Following are excerpts:
Qassem Al-Rimi: Allah said: "Fight the leaders of disbelief – for surely thei...
In a Saudi TV interview, anthropologist Saad Al-Sowayan called to "accept change, rather than fight it," or else "become extinct." Stating that "our necks are sore from constantly looking back to the past," Al-Sowayan added, "If we encounter a problem, we must not look for the so...
During an Islamic-theme reality show on the Saudi Bedaya TV channel, Abdullah Al-Suwailem said that women should not go out to work. "Why does a woman need money?" he asked. "A woman's real life is to live under the wing of her husband and her son." Al-Suwailem went on to say: "I...
In a recent TV interview, Saudi Shura Council member Ibrahim Al-Buleihi said: "We produce this kind of people [who carried out the Paris attacks and 9/11], this kind of hostility." "We are immersed in this violence, because we are immersed in the hatred of the other," he said in ...
In a TV interview, Saudi author Turki Al-Hamad said that there was a need for "a real revolution in our education" and for the "humanization of religion," because "our religion has been hijacked by many and has been made savage." He further said that "ISIS is an organization that...
Saudi TV host Abdulellah Al-Dosari recently praised Allah for the death of some 300 Iranians in the recent Hajj stampede in Mecca. "Praise be to Allah, who relieved Islam and the Muslims from their evil," he said. "We pray that Allah will usher them into Hell for all eternities."...
In a TV interview, Saudi cleric Sheikh Fawzan Al-Fawzan said that Saudi Arabia had weapons "which can erase Tehran in a matter of seconds if it dares to [attack] us." Al-Fawzan was responding to Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei's threats of a "harsh" response following the stamped...
Saudi-born singer Shams Bandar, also known as "Shams the Kuwaiti," recently declared that she was renouncing her Saudi and Kuwaiti nationalities for the sake of European citizenship. In a September 22 interview with the Egyptian Dream TV channel, she defended her decision, saying...
In a lesson posted on the Internet on September 1, 2015, Saudi Sheik Yahya Al-Jana' talks about the joys of Paradise, saying that men will have the strength of a hundred men in Paradise and will be busy "tearing hymens," while the virgins of Paradise, whose breasts are "like pome...
In a 2005 address, Saudi writer Zuhair Kutbi said that the Saudi education system and media preached hatred toward others - toward Jews, Christians, and Shiites. Kutbi said: "We must stop fooling ourselves, and we must stop saying: Thus said Allah, and thus said the Prophet." Hat...
In a lecture delivered on June 5, 2014, Saudi Cleric Sheikh Sa'd bin Ateeq Al-Ateeq discussed the Islamic principle of respectful behavior towards one's parents. Sheikh Al-Ateeq said that children should be like shoes on their parents' feet, before moving on to recount a story ab...
In a recent TV interview, Yemeni MP Muhammad Muqbil Al-Himyari broke down in tears when describing the situation in Taiz, Yemen. "I am not speaking metaphorically when I say that the city is being annihilated," said Al-Himyari, appealing to the Saudi king to "come to our rescue."...
In a report posted on the Internet on August 20, makeshift classrooms in a remote village in Burkina Faso are shown in which the textbooks used bear the logo of the Ministry of Education of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. One of the textbooks is titled ""Monotheism and Jurisprudence...
Saudi Sheikh Salah Al-Budair, Imam of the Grand Mosque in Medina and former Imam of the Haram Mosque in Mecca, posted on his twitter account a video in which he is shown firing a cannon while visiting Saudi troops on the front lines....
In a July 13 interview with the Dubai-based Saudi TV network Al-Arabiya TV, Saudi author Turki Al-Hamad said that "most of our sheikhs and preachers" are incapable of producing a moderate discourse because they draw upon the same ideological sources as ISIS. He further stated tha...
In a recent TV interview, Saudi author Turki Al-Hamad talked about the extremist discourse prevalent in Saudi Arabia, leading many of its youth to join ISIS, and said: "In order to stop ISIS, you must first dry up this ideology at the source."
Following are excerpts from the inte...
In an Egyptian TV interview, cleric Muhammad Abdallah Nasr, who is known as "Sheik Mizo," said that sex between single people "should be considered an abomination," but was not fornication. He was speaking on Al-Kahera Wal-Nas TV on July 1, 2015.
Following are excerpts:
Intervi...
In a June 29 interview on Rotana Khalijiya TV, Saudi cleric and political activist Mohsen Al-Awaji criticized the reign of the late King Abdullah. "You, the king, the crown prince, the deputy crown prince, and all the Saudi citizens know that we had suffered under the previous ki...
In a TV interview, Saudi author Zuhair Kutbi criticized the Saudi regime’s efforts at national dialogue with the public, saying: "It was nothing but hot air, a waste of public funds." Recounting that he had been imprisoned and committed to an asylum for his reformist beliefs, Kut...
In a Saudi TV program, Professor Khalid Al-Mosleh said that a Muslim should not greet a Christian in a way that implied acceptance of infidel holidays, like saying "Merry Christmas." Drawing a distinction between religious and other holidays, he said: "it is better to avoid initi...
With his recent Ramadhan TV show "Selfie," Saudi comedian Nasser Al-Qasabi incurred the wrath of cleric Saeed bin Farwah, who pronounced him an infidel and prayed "that Allah leave no bone unbroken in the body of that piece of filth." The show, which aired on the Saudi MBC TV cha...
In a recent Saudi TV interview, Abdul Rahman Al-Otaiby, a dean at the Naif Arab University for Security Sciences, said that Saudi Arabia had to develop nuclear weapons in order to create a balance of power with Iran. Al-Otaiby, speaking on the Saudi 2 TV channel on May 19, advoca...
In a May 15 address aired on Al-Manar TV, Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah criticized Saudi Arabia for its recent airstrikes in Yemen. Nasrallah accused Saudi Arabia of bombing tombs and pilgrimage sites and attributed this to the Saudis' "Bedouin" mentality. He added...
In an Iranian TV interview, Iranian Deputy Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Masoud Jazayeri threatened the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, saying: "There is a limit to Iran's self-restraint." Sending humanitarian aid to the region would "spark a strong fire, which they will not be able to exting...
On May 10, former Yemeni president Ali Abdallah Saleh denounced the Saudi bombardment of his home, saying: "An attack on me is an attack on our country and on all its citizens." Saleh pledged that the Al-Saleh Foundation would donate a million dollars to help Yemeni refugees retu...
In an Iraqi TV interview, former MP Mithal Alusi slammed Saudi Arabia, claiming that it was interfering in Iraqi affairs and saying that when Saudi Arabia becomes a democracy, it could pass judgment on Iraq. Alusi called on the Iraqi government not to prevent ISIS cells from stri...
In an address posted on the Internet on May 3, Saudi Islamist preacher Abdulla Ba Neema (sometimes spelled Baneameh) said that the Jews "put poison into things that the Muslims like." According to him, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Facebook are tools used by the Jews to poison and heart...
In a TV interview on April 20, former Yemeni finance minister Dr. Seif Al-Asli criticized Houthi leader Abdel Malik Al-Houthi, saying that the Yemenis had not granted him "legitimacy to speak on their behalf." Speaking on Yemen Today TV, a channel affiliated with former president...
In a recent TV interview, Brigadier-General Ahmad Reza Pourdestan, Commander of the Iranian Ground Forces, said: "If Saudi cities were targeted by bombings and missiles, it would be difficult for the officials there to withstand this." He further said that in order to prevent a S...
In a TV interview, Yemeni politician and tribal leader Mujahed Haidar refused, time and again, to criticize Egypt's role in Operation Decisive Storm, denying that it was part of the campaign. "Anyone who comes as an invader will meet his death," he said in the interview, which ai...
During a recent interview with the Hizbullah-owned Al-Manar TV channel, leading Lebanese journalist Ibrahim Al-Amin called Saudi Arabia the "kingdom of evil" and said that "getting rid of the rule of the Saud clan was no less important than wiping Israel out of existence." Al-Ami...
On March 25, during an interview on Hiwar TV, broadcasting from London, Syrian writer Muhydin Lazikani said that "all the childhood memories of the man who rules the White House are Shiite memories" and that "that is why he is so anxious for Iran to emerge victorious." On April 1...
Syrian Islamic scholar in exile Muhammad Surour Zein Al-Abideen welcomed the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen. Addressing the Iranians, whom he called "neo-caesars" whose barbarity "is unparalleled in history," Zein Al-Abideen said: "We have run out of patience. Know your true size. Y...
Against the backdrop of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, Lebanese TV anchor Hanadi Zaidan harshly criticized Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, saying: "Hizbullah and its secretary-general are the only ones who swim against the Arab and Lebanese current, declaring thei...