Saturday, September 15, 2007

Are we misunderestimating Baghdad?
Saudi media is already exploiting the assassination of Iraqi tribal Shaikh Abu Reesha in al-Anbar for its own political ends. Asharq Alawsat, owned by a Saudi prince, contains two editorials by its top editors, no less, hinting that perhaps the govenment in Baghdad, or the Shi'a militias, or some 'foreign' party was responsible. They do not absolve al Qaeda outright, after all it did announce responsibility- but they do try to muddy things up. (Isn't al Qaeda a 'foreign' party as well, since most its terrorists are from other Arab states?) Now, if the hapless Baghdad government can get inside and strike this deep inside a Sunni bastion like al-Anbar, then it is being grossly 'misunderestimated', even by the man who coined this term.

A column in the same newspaper takes an interesting position on the jailing of four Egyptian journalists for not being nice enough to President Mubarak and his Dauphin. S. Attallah suggests that jailing them is harsh and perhaps they should get lesser sentences, perhaps fined, even prevented from practicing their profession. Now that is being for free speech in the New New Middle East.

A US State Dept report today notes the decline of religious freedom in the Middle East: it especially notes Iraq, Iran, and Egypt. In Iran the Baha'is are still persecuted, although Christain and Jewish faiths are recognized, probably barely tolerated by the mullahs. (Still, this is not a legit casus belli).The report does not record any decline in religious freedom in Saudi Arabia, since there is none to start with.

In fact the report notes 'some' improvement in Saudi Arabia and Sudan: these relate to promises of improvement and revising some educational texts. The odd thing is that Sudan has citizens of various religions, like Christians and animists and has had a Christian vice president, while Saudi Arabia has only Moslem citizens and does not allow other houses of worship (like churches) or celebration of other religious ceremonies; nor does it allow other religious books like the Bible, the Torah, The Teachings of Don Juan, Journey To Ixtlan or the Road Books of Jack Kerouac (in fairness the last three items are almost certainly not allowed in most other Muslim countries, especially in theocratic Iran).
The report notes that Saudi sanctions were waived due to reforms "to ensure that the rights of Muslims and non-Muslims are protected"- this last one must be news to everyone except the people at State; does that mean they are about to allow churches, temples and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in Riyadh?
Yet Cuba is castigated in the report about not easily allowing new churches. Hypocricy is not a four-letter word.

Congressman James Moron (D-Va) opined the other day on MSNBC that we should have learned from history and did as the British did in the 1920's-i.e. appointed a 'moderate' Sunni regime. What the Brits did was bomb Shi'a and Kurdish villages into submission and chose a minority regime (Sunni) to rule Iraq. The minority elite tried to join Nazi Germany as allies in 1941. After a series of bloody coups they dragged the country into three major wars. Is that what Congressman Moron has learned from history?
Cheers
Mohammed

No comments:

Blog Directory