A video of the Zamzam Tower (one of the buidlings part of the Abraj al Bait)

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Intersting how the King can make dua raising his hands at the grave but when other Muslims try this, the brothers of the office of promoting the good and forbidding the evil stops them.  Skip to 1:30 in the video to see it.

May the blessings, peace and mercy be upon the Prophet Muhammad.

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King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has sacked a senior cleric who criticised a new science and technology university which opened in September.

The cleric, Sheikh Saad al-Shethry, said the mixing of sexes in any university was evil and a great sin.

He demanded the curriculum should be vetted by Islamic scholars to prevent teaching of “alien ideologies”.

The $7bn university near Jeddah, named after King Abdullah, is a key project of the reform-minded Saudi monarch.

In what is being seen as a rare intervention, a royal decree removed Sheikh Saad from Saudi Arabia’s most senior council of religious scholars, or ulema.

No reason was given publicly for the removal.

The timing follows the sheikh’s stringent criticism of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), whose administration lies outside the control of the cleric-dominated ministry of education.

“The recommendation is to set up Sharia (Islamic law) committees at this university to oversee these studies and look into what violates the Sharia,” Sheikh Saad was quoted saying last week in the Saudi press.

The government hopes the technologically advanced centre with its relaxed social constraints will help modernise the kingdom’s deeply conservative society.

In contrast to the strict rules outside the sprawling campus, women are allowed to drive and are not required to wear veils in classes.

Source

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“If a person gives SR1,200 to his wife and she spends SR900 to purchase an abaya (the black gown) from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment,” said Judge Hamad Al-Razine.

…

Al-Razine’s comment evoked an immediate reaction from the women in the audience who loudly protested. They were all the more surprised when they learned that the man who made the comment was a judge.

Props to the sisters that protested.

Source: Arab News (also on CNN)

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In Saudi Arabia small changes carry deep meaning, so the appointment earlier this year of Norah al-Faiz as Deputy Minister for Women’s Education was nothing short of an earthquake. Educated at King Saud University and Utah State, al-Faiz is the first woman minister in Saudi history. The appointment of al-Faiz, in her early 50s, was the most significant sign yet of the quiet revolution under way since King Abdullah ascended the throne in 2005. The King also replaced his Minister of Justice, head of the religious police and Minister of Education with more moderate, reform-minded leaders.

Saudi reformers welcomed the changes, especially the appointment of al-Faiz, but the real test will be whether she is allowed the authority to get things done. The education of girls has long been a battleground within the kingdom. Al-Faiz faces practical difficulties too. She can’t, for example, work face to face with male counterparts without violating the kingdom’s strict religious code — so she has said she will conduct meetings through closed-circuit television. Her presence at the ministry has had an immediate impact on Saudi women, who had been unable to enter the building. No longer. “Now I am the deputy minister, and my door is open and accessible,” alFaiz said after her appointment.

The path for al-Faiz will not be easy. But something important is under way in Saudi Arabia, and al-Faiz, and her King, are two people to watch.

May Allah (swt) bless her and protect her.

Source

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TWO years ago, Sheik Adil Kalbani dreamed that he had become an imam at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

Waking up, he dismissed the dream as a temptation to vanity. Although he is known for his fine voice, Sheik Adil is black, and the son of a poor immigrant from the Persian Gulf. Leading prayers at the Grand Mosque is an extraordinary honor, usually reserved for pure-blooded Arabs from the Saudi heartland.

So he was taken aback when the phone rang last September and a voice told him that King Abdullah had chosen him as the first black man to lead prayers in Mecca. Days later Sheik Adil’s unmistakably African features and his deep baritone voice, echoing musically through the Grand Mosque, were broadcast by satellite TV to hundreds of millions of Muslims around the world.

Since then, Sheik Adil has been half-jokingly dubbed the “Saudi Obama.” Prominent imams are celebrities in this deeply religious country, and many have hailed his selection as more evidence of King Abdullah’s cautious efforts to move Saudi Arabia toward greater openness and tolerance in the past few years.

“The king is trying to tell everybody that he wants to rule this land as one nation, with no racism and no segregation,” said Sheik Adil, a heavyset and long-bearded man of 49 who has been an imam at a Riyadh mosque for 20 years. “Any qualified individual, no matter what his color, no matter where from, will have a chance to be a leader, for his good and his country’s good.”

Officially, it was his skill at reciting the Koran that won him the position, which he carries out — like the Grand Mosque’s eight other prayer leaders — only during the holy month of Ramadan. But the racial significance of the king’s gesture was unmistakable.

Sheik Adil, like most Saudis, is quick to caution that any racism here is not the fault of Islam, which preaches egalitarianism. The Prophet Muhammad himself, who founded the religion here 1,400 years ago, had black companions.

“Our Islamic history has so many famous black people,” said the imam, as he sat leaning his arm on a cushion in the reception room of his home. “It is not like the West.”

It is also true that Saudi Arabia is far more ethnically diverse than most Westerners realize. Saudis with Malaysian or African features are a common sight along the kingdom’s west coast, the descendants of pilgrims who came here over the centuries and ended up staying. Many have prospered and even attained high positions through links to the royal family. Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States, is the son of Prince Sultan and a dark-skinned concubine from southern Saudi Arabia.

But slavery was practiced here too, and was abolished only in 1962. Many traditional Arabs from Nejd, the central Saudi heartland, used to refer to all outsiders as “tarsh al bahr” — vomit from the sea. People of African descent still face some discrimination, as do most immigrants, even from other Arab countries. Many Saudis complain that the kingdom is still far too dominated by Nejd, the homeland of the royal family. There are nonracial forms of discrimination too, and many Shiite Muslims, a substantial minority, say they are not treated fairly.

“The prophet told us that social classes will remain, because of human nature,” Sheik Adil said gravely. “These are part of the pre-Islamic practices that persist.”

BLACK skin is not the only social obstacle Sheik Adil has overcome. His father came to Saudi Arabia in the 1950s from Ras al Khaima, in what is now the United Arab Emirates, and obtained a job as a low-level government clerk. The family had little money, and after finishing high school, Adil took a job with Saudi Arabian Airlines while attending night classes at King Saud University.

Only later did he study religion, laboriously memorizing the Koran and studying Islamic jurisprudence. In 1984 he passed the government exam to become an imam, and worked briefly at the mosque in the Riyadh airport. Four years later he won a more prominent position as the imam of the King Khalid mosque, a tall white building that is not far from one of the Intelligence Ministry’s offices.

Theologically, Sheik Adil reflects the general evolution of Saudi thinking over the last two decades. During the 1980s he met Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam, a leader of the jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan. He initially sympathized with their radical position and anger toward the West. Later, he said, he began to find their views narrow, especially after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Now he speaks warmly of King Abdullah’s new initiatives, which include efforts to moderate the power of the hard-line religious establishment and to modernize Saudi Arabia’s judiciary and educational establishment. He reads Al Watan, a liberal newspaper.

“Some people in this country want everyone to be a carbon copy,” Sheik Adil said. “This is not my way of thinking. You can learn from the person who is willing to criticize, to give a different point of view.”

His life, like that of most imams, follows a rigid routine: he leads prayers five times a day at the mosque, then walks across the parking lot to his home, which he shares with two wives and 12 children. On Fridays, he gives a sermon as well.

HE expected it to continue that way for the rest of his life. Then in early September he woke up to hear his cellphone and land line, both ringing continuously. Stirring from bed, he heard the administrator of the Grand Mosque leaving a message. He picked up one of the phones, and heard the news that the king had selected him.

Two days later he walked into a grand reception room where he was greeted by Prince Khalid al-Faisal, the governor of Mecca Province. Sheik Adil tried to introduce himself, but the prince cut him off with a smile: “You are known,” he said.

Next, Sheik Adil was led to a table where he sat with King Abdullah and other ministers. He was too shy to address the king directly, but as he left the room he thanked him and kissed him on the nose, a traditional sign of deference.

Remembering the moment, Sheik Adil smiled and went silent. Then he pulled out his laptop and showed a visitor a YouTube clip of him reciting the Koran at the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

“To recite before thousands of people, this is no problem for me,” he said. “But the place, its holiness, is so different from praying anywhere else. In that shrine, there are kings, presidents and ordinary people, all being led in prayer by you as imam. It gives you a feeling of honor, and a fear of almighty God.”

Muhammad al-Milfy contributed reporting.

Source

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News articles:

MADINAH: Madinah Gov. Prince Abdul Aziz bin Majed ordered yesterday the release of all youths under 18 detained in connection with a fight near the Prophet’s Mosque early this week.

The order was issued on the directive of Interior Minister Prince Naif.

The youths are to be released on guarantees from their guardians.

The investigation into the involvement of other detainees in the fight would continue, Col.

Mohsin Al-Radadi, Madinah police spokesman, told Arab News yesterday.

The youths clashed with worshippers at the mosque on Monday evening but there were no casualties.

Source

Another source claims it was a Sunni vs. Shia fight. The Shia were pilgrims, while the Sunnis were the mutawwa or religious police:

Nine held in clashes at Madinah

RIYADH: Saudi authorities have arrested nine people following clashes at the Prophet Muhammad’s mosque in Madinah, an official said yesterday. Some pilgrims clashed with worshippers at the mosque but there were no casualties, interior ministry spokesman Mansur al-Turki said.
Turki declined to comment on reports on Shia websites that the clashes were sectarian and pitted Shias against Sunnis.
“The security authorities will issue a statement later to clarify what happened, the nationalities of the participants in the fight and their motives, once the investigation is over,” Turki said.
Saudi newspapers have reported that on Friday religious police at a shrine in Madinah clashed with pilgrims, who responded by hurling stones at a police station.
Iran’s Arab-language satellite channel quoted witnesses as saying that on Monday evening two Saudi Shias from Al-Qatif in the oil-rich east of the kingdom were killed and four others wounded by anti-riot police.
Saudi group Human Rights First said religious police had attacked Shia pilgrims in Madinah. They condemned the attack, calling on the government to launch an investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. – AFP

Source

I don’t really know where the truth is, but I’ll update as I find reliable sources, inshaAllah.

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — The Saudi king on Saturday dismissed the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing the owners of TV networks that broadcast “immoral” content, signaling an effort to weaken the country’s hard-line Sunni establishment.

…

The king also changed the makeup of an influential body of religious scholars, for the first time giving more moderate Sunnis representation to the group whose duties include issuing the religious edicts known as fatwas.

Not really sure if these are good things or bad things, but at least promotion of violence and killing are not tolerated anymore by the Saudi government.

Source

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