Happy Meal Toy "Insults Mohammed"- Saudis Demand McDonald's Be Punished

The Saudi people are pretty pissed off with Mickey D's after they claim the toy in some of the 'Happy Meals' mocks their beloved Mohammed. Apparently the  squiggly lines (which are part of the design) at the bottom of the Power Ranger Samurai's feet spell Mohammed. Go figure.

And when you push the lever on the toy, the uplifted foot stamps on the alleged name 'Mohammed'.
As we all know, the bottom of a shoe is a major insult to a Muslim. Who can forget the journalist who hurled his shoes at George W. Bush in 2008?

 According to Gatestone Institute, Kermalkom.com (an Arabic language online news site) has detailed photos of those squiggly lines that really mean:

"Muhammad" written several times in circles.

I suppose if people can see the face of the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich, why not the name "Mohammed" in some squiggly lines on the base of a Happy Meal Toy.

Gatestone says:

The toy had been distributed a few days before Saudi children and their parents began to take note of the name. Soon thereafter, Saudi Muslims launched several campaigns against McDonald's in "response to the savage attacks on the noble Prophet," under banners like "Help your Prophet!" and "Together in support of the Prophet."

Saudis, "demanding the strongest possible punishment for the restaurant" and insisting that "they will not be silent until this is realized," further complained how such an obvious insult could pass the supervision of the management at McDonalds.

In response, "Saudi McDonald's" has withdrawn the toy from all its restaurants, "in order to safeguard against any accusations or misunderstandings."

Do you blame them?  I'm sure they don't want their restaurants to go up in flames.

H/T LB

Saudi Woman Fights Back At Morality Police Harassing Her

There's something righteous about a harassed Muslim woman fighting back. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it's terribly satisfying.

The Saudi woman who taped the following on her cell phone apparently was being harassed by the morality police (mutaween) in the Hayat Mall in Riyadh for wearing nail polish. She emphatically refuses to leave after they tell her to get out, and tells them she is posting the video on Twitter and Youtube, which she did. I guess those fingernails were just too darn sexy.

According to the Saudi Gazette, there will be an inquiry into the incident.

This Iranian woman fighting back, though, is a classic.

Gotta love social media.



UPDATE 6/4/12

Sheikh Abdullatiff Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh, the somewhat 'moderate' chief of the Saudi Vice Police, has publicly criticized the agent who harassed the Saudi nail-polish woman. He said "...even if the girl had gone too far. He should have offered her advice and left instead of arguing with her and escalating.”

Oddities in Saudi Arabia: Body Piercing and an All Women's Village

There's always something bizarre and surprising going on in Saudi Arabia, one of the most repressive, oppressive countries in the world. At least for women. But in spite of women having most of their freedoms restricted in the Kingdom, they do find ways of rebelling- like the women who are now getting body piercings. We're not talking about holes in the ears for those dangles or gold studs, we're talking lip, tongue, naval piercing and who knows what else. The trend is on an upswing, though there are differing views as to its attractiveness. I was actually rather surprised to read about this, since piercings are a mostly Western fancy. I'm sure it will eventually be banned for being un-Islamic.

Then there's that Saudi village that just banned women who  dress "indecently" (read- tart) and manly women (read- probably gay) from entering the Women's Village in Sakakah.   The women-only villagers want to make sure their hamlet remains normal (like an all-female village is normal.) They want women to dress like women and conservatively, to boot.  Though if there are no men around, why the need to dress modestly?  The abaya and hijab/niqab (veils) are supposedly worn to prevent men from lusting after them, because Muslim men have no control over their passions.  If there are no men there, what's the point? 

But the village administration wants to make sure that all Western, "alien" phenomena is curtailed, so the banning statement was texted to everyone's cell phone (isn't that a Western phenomenon?)  The ban came after some girls were discovered doing bad things at women-only parties, like dressing like men (probably wearing jeans), or dressing provocatively (maybe a little cleavage), and the worst part- engaging in some "provocative" dancing.

“Those phenomena are alien to our society and do not reflect its conservative character. That is why they need to combated and have their causes uprooted,” said the statement.

Earlier, there was a fatwa against bringing cell phones with cameras and noisy partying. And they have their own security force to ensure all the strict rules and regulations are adhered to.

Not sure what's with an all-female village, but it's pretty bizarre.

According to Al Arabiya, targeting masculine women and feminine looking/acting men (and those pesky 'punks') isn't anything new.  They've been banned from public schools and universities.

Religious Talk Radio Host Tells Saudi Man To Divorce Wife and He Does- Live On Air

Chauvinism is rampant in the Muslim world, particularly in countries like Saudi Arabia where women aren't even allowed to drive. Like children and animals, women are expected to be obedient or there are consequences. Severe, at times. Women have been beaten and divorced for as little as putting cheese instead of meat into a samosa. They are even killed for 'disobedience."

And divorcing a woman is as simple as texting from a cell phone or loudspeaker at a mall. So it's not really surprising to hear that a Saudi man divorced his wife over the airwaves, after calling in to a radio talk show hosted by religious scholar, Sheikh Ghazi al-Shammari.   Apparently the man was fed up with his wife disobeying him by working and traveling alone, and this "offended his manhood."

The man phoned the program to complain to that his wife disobeyed him by travelling without his approval from the Saudi port city of Jeddah to the capital Riyadh for a business conference.

He told Shammari that before his marriage he had accepted his wife’s demands to work on condition that work would not interfere with their marital life.

Shammari advised the man to divorce his wife as a punitive measure for “committing such a mistake against her home and husband.”
The husband immediately heeded the advice and divorced her during the live program although Shammari advised him to remarry her if she repents.

Yes, it's that easy.
Shammari defended his advice telling Al Arabiya that

“The husband called me in my program this afternoon and told me that he was financially capable and did not want his wife to work and that he is having problems with her about this issue for more than 10 years and that he has been patient for long. But the issue has developed to the extent that she would travel without his approval,” Shammari said.

“He was surprised that she sent him a text message from the airport telling him that she was traveling alone... and this is why I advised him to divorce her because she was not obeying her husband, a matter that is very important in Islam.”

“I did not make a mistake with my advice to the man, because what the wife did, travelling without his consent from Jeddah to Riyadh, is a serious matter and a cause for doubt,” He said.

“Such a wife is suspicious because she insisted to travel alone to Riyadh and without ample reason,” the scholar said. I did not rush with the advice because I saw that the issue was dangerous and we should not remain silent more about it.”

The woman is obviously better off without a husband that expects blind obedience, because Islam says that's what women should do. I think the Sheikh, as much of an idiot as he is, actually did her a favor. And more than likely, she feels the same way.

Saudi Grand Mufti Says Okay For 10-Year-Olds To Marry

If marrying a child is good enough for the Prophet Mohammad it's good enough for Muslims so says Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Al al-Sheikh (Saudi Arabia's Grand Mufti). Well, he didn't quite put it that way, but it was certainly implied when he stated (in response to some woman's question about forcing underage girls to marry) that according to Islam 10 and 12 year-olds are ready for marriage.  Mohammad married his prized child-bride Aisha at the tender age of 9. He probably thinks 10 is ancient, in comparison. And he definitely does not support those who are trying to make the legal age for marrying 25.

"Those who call for raising the age of marriage to 25 are absolutely mistaken," al-Sheikh said in a lecture he gave at the faculty housing mosque of Imam Mohamed bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh.

"Our mothers and grandmothers got married when they were barely 12. Good upbringing makes a girl ready to perform all marital duties at that age."

Good upbringing? More like ignorance and lack of education.

Of course it matters not that Saudi Arabia is a party to the UN Child Rights Treaty which prohibits child marriages. Their religious laws and interpretations of those laws take precedence over anything else. At least young girls have a reprieve of one year.

Sri Lankan In Saudi Arabia Faces Beheading For "Casting Spell" On 13-Year-Old Shopper

In Saudi Arabia dabbling in witchcraft will get you beheaded. Trouble is, the definition of what constitutes 'witchcraft' is vague, at best.  One Saudi woman in her 60s, Amina bint Abdul Halim bin Salem Nasser,  was executed last December for  'witchcraft and sorcery".  There were no specific details regarding the case other than the fact that she allegedly took money ($800, so they say) from people claiming she could heal them. Did she give them herbal remedies, or just wave a magic wand or wiggle her nose and say they were cured?  And how many people actually accused her?  It only takes one person to finger an individual as a witch in Saudi Arabia and they can face execution.  That's what's happened to a poor woman after a Saudi man claimed she cast a spell on his daughter at a shopping mall.

A Sri Lankan woman could face the death penalty by beheading after she was arrested on suspicion of casting a spell on a 13-year-old girl during a family shopping trip, a police spokesman said on Wednesday. The daily Okaz reported that a Saudi man had complained his daughter had "suddenly started acting in an abnormal way, and that happened after she came close to the Sri Lankan woman" in a shopping mall in the port city of Jeddah.

"He reported her to the security forces, asking for her arrest and the specialised units dealt with the situation swiftly and succeeded in arresting her," Okaz reported.

What?  So, let me get this straight- a Sri Lankan woman is in a mall, minding her own business I assume, and this Saudi man's little girl starts acting up (as 13 year-olds are apt to do) as she walks by, and the woman could lose her head over this?

Ironically, although Saudi Arabia has no penal code (it's a monarchy, and a backwards one at that), according to Peter Luther of Amnesty International:

"The charges of 'witchcraft and sorcery' are not defined as crimes in Saudi Arabia and to use them to subject someone to the cruel and extreme penalty of execution is truly appalling."

Amnesty also states that  charges of witchcraft are often a means of  punishing people ".. after unfair trials, for exercising their right to freedom of speech or religion." And according to Human Rights Watch, it's foreigners who are usually the major targets "... because of their traditional practices or, occasionally, because Saudi men facing charges of sexual harassment by domestic workers want to discredit their accusers."

But it's all so very arbitrary, and anyone can get the short end of the stick.  A Sudanese man was also executed in 2011 for sorcery. Then there's Ali Sibat, the Lebanese fortune-telling TV personality, who almost lost his head, while on a pilgrimage to Mecca. And Mustafa Ibrahiman, an Egyptian pharmacist working in Saudi Arabia, executed in 2007  for trying "to separate a married couple, through sorcery."

God knows why anyone visits there.

The Saudi Art Scene: Pushing art's limits in the Kingdom

Who knew Saudi Arabia had an art scene. Pretty darn progressive, considering, although none of the art projects looked that controversial.

"Edge of Arabia" Exhibit, in Jeddah, is the first major contemporary art show held in the ultra conservative Kingdom.

Check out artist Ahmad Angawi's dreadlocks. Who would have thought.