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Islamofascism: A new study confirms our "ally" Saudi Arabia is still poisoning young Muslim minds with anti-Western textbooks. So? Its hate-filled graduates are enrolling at our colleges.The Hudson Institute reviewed the 2007-08 textbooks distributed by the Saudi Ministry of Education and found that, despite promised reforms, the kingdom still teaches students to "hate the infidels." The texts assert that it's "permissible" for a Muslim to kill an "apostate," an "adulterer," a "homosexual," as well as non-Muslims practicing "polytheism," or Christianity. The violent ideology is introduced in a religion textbook in the first grade and reinforced and developed in following years...

(ANSAmed) - PARIS, JULY 17 - A "luminous and liberated" veil, in the spirit of Islam's poetics, will cover but not hide, thanks to a light transparent structure, the Visconti Court of the Louvre Museum in Paris, in the right wing, to host the new museum of Islamic arts, to be established in 2010. ¿It is a political museum¿, as explained to ANSA by Rudy Ricciotti, of Italian origins, one of the two architects, with Mario Bellini from Milan, who designed the project, selected among 52 applicants. "In the sense that it recognises all the peoples in a lay state,...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

WASHINGTON — Two years after protracted American-Saudi negotiations persuaded the State Department that the Saudis would remove religious intolerance from their national textbooks, a new study finds the books still portray non-Sunni Muslims as the enemies of true believers. The report from the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute finds that the Saudi textbooks are filled with the austere supremacism of the Wahhabi sect of Islam, despite promises from the Kingdom in 2006 to alter them. For example, a textbook for 10th graders on Islamic jurisprudence not only says it is permissible in Islam to murder a homosexual,...

LONDON: Saudis are the happiest people of all Arabs and rank 26th among the happiest people in the world, according to a study released recently by the World Values Survey, a global network of social scientists based at the University of Michigan. The yardstick of happiness according to the study was the contentment of a people with their living standard. The participants were asked questions such as if they were very happy, happy or not at all happy, Asharq Al-Awsat reported yesterday. The study ranked the Danes first among the people from 97 countries while Zimbabwe came at the bottom....

Slavery In Modern America Part 1 by pat The conviction and sentencing of Mahender and Varsha Sabhnani, for the torture and enslavement of two Indonesian maids, has once again brought to the forefront the issue of slavery in modern America. This case, which made international headlines, in part because of the International cast of characters as well as the reported wealth of the perpetrators, was colored with salacious testimony. Ms. Sabhnani, an Indonesian married to an Indian--purportedly a Hindu version of Cruella de Ville--was a very successful business woman who resided in The Long Island Gold Coast. Both she and...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia’s oil minister today will address reports that the world’s largest oil-producing country is set to raise production by about 500,000 barrels per day, his adviser said. The increase would bring Saudi Arabia’s oil production to 10 million barrels a day, the country’s highest ever, according to reports by The New York Times [NYT] and the Middle East Economic Survey, an industry publication.

Saudi Arabia's oil output increased by almost 500,000 barrels a day this quarter, to 9.54 million barrels, sources in the Saudi Oil Ministry told CNBC. The current oil prices are unreasonable and unacceptable, the sources said, adding that no date has been set for a meeting between producing and consuming countries. Oil prices retreated after the exclusive CNBC report.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Saudi Arabia says it will call for a meeting of oil producing countries and consumers to discuss soaring oil prices and work to prevent unjustified rise in prices. Information and Culture Minister Iyad Madani says the kingdom will work with OPEC to "guarantee the availability of oil supplies now and in the future." In a statement following the weekly Cabinet meeting, Monday, the minister said Saudi Arabia will also work to control "unwarranted and unnatural" price hikes. He said that the current price of oil is unjustified.

The US military has awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the US Justice Department. The contract to supply jet fuel to American bases in Afghanistan was awarded to the Attock Refinery Ltd, a Pakistani-based refinery owned by Gaith Pharaon. Pharaon is wanted in connection with his alleged role at the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the CenTrust savings and loan scandal, which cost US tax payers $1.7 billion. (ABC News Photo Illustration)The Saudi businessman was also named in a 2002 French parliamentary report as having links to...

I have come to the sad conclusion that President Bush is a Punk on the World stage. If ever a US President deserved that term, it is George W. Bush. In case you haven't been keeping up with current events, the leader of the free world made a special trip over to Saudi Arabia recently to ask them to increase oil production. They said no, Bush left with hat in hand. While some may see this as some sort of diplomatic effort to reduce the price at our pumps, I see it as surrender to the OPEC tyrants. This is...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Saudi Arabia sent Iran a sharp warning over Lebanon Tuesday, saying Tehran's support for Hezbollah will damage its relations with other Muslim and Arab countries. More soldiers fanned out through Beirut, with orders to use force to restore security to a nation shaken by nearly a week of sectarian clashes. Lebanese buried more of their dead and tried to resume life in a capital dissected by roadblocks. What began as a political struggle 1 1/2 years ago with Shiite ministers bolting from the Cabinet devolved last week into Lebanon's worst fighting since the end of the 1975-1990...

Next year, if all goes well, Saudi Arabia will turn the spigots on the largest oil field to come online anywhere in the world since the late 1970s. The Khurais complex, sprawling across a swath of red dunes and rocky plains half the size of Connecticut, is expected to add 1.2 million barrels a day to an oil market caught between growing demand and a paucity of significant new discoveries. The twin forces have led to historically high prices for crude oil, which settled at a record $117.48 on Monday.

US Ambassador Ford Fraker said in Sakaka that his country aims to double the number of student visas issued to Saudis. “Currently there are 15,000 Saudi students in the US,” he said during an event on Sunday with local business leaders to an audience at the Al-Jouf Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “We aim to increase their numbers to 30,000 over the next five years.” Fraker said Saudi Arabia should bolster its English-language programs because it is generally required for Saudis seeking to pursue higher studies in the US. Fraker also stressed the need for popularizing English teaching programs because...

ROME — The Vatican is negotiating with authorities in Saudi Arabia for permission to build the country's first Roman Catholic church, sources in the Holy See said yesterday. The move evidently heralds a major policy change toward the nearly 1 million Christians working in the unbendingly conservative Wahhabi kingdom. Riyadh and the Holy See have been holding discreet discussions on the sensitive issue for several weeks and the two sides are "locked together," said Archbishop Mounged El-Hachem, the papal nuncio, or Vatican ambassador, to the Persian Gulf states of Kuwait, Qatar, Yemen and the United Arab Emirates. A source in...

Riyadh, Mar. 25, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The president of the Middle East Center for Strategic Studies, Anwatr al Oshqi, has reported that Saudi Arabia’s royal family has decided against building a Catholic church in the kingdom. Earlier this month Vatican Radio reported that the Saudi government was weighing a proposal for the construction of a Catholic church. That report came as a surprise, since the Saudi regime does not allow public worship by any faith other than Islam. In November 2007, when King Abdullah became the first reigning Saudi king ever to visit the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI urged...

Saudi Arabia is to retrain its 40,000 prayer leaders - also known as imams - in an effort to counter militant Islam. Details of the plan were revealed in the influential Saudi newspaper Al- Sharq al-Awsat. The plan is part of a wider programme launched by the Saudi monarch a few years ago to encourage moderation and tolerance in Saudi society. The ministry of religious affairs and new centre for national dialogue will carry out the training, the paper said. The centre was created five years ago to disseminate a moderate interpretation of Islamic tradition. There is growing awareness in...

An 11-year-old boy has married his 10-year-old cousin in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Mohammed al-Rashidi and his unidentified cousin will seal the marriage they contracted under the sharia laws of Islam and move in together after a ceremony to take place in the summer, Al-Shams newspaper said. "I am ready for this marriage. It will help me study better," Mohammed, who goes to primary school in the northern province of Hail, was quoted as saying by Al-Shams. "I invite all my classmates to do like me," the boy said, adding that he...

So many mixed emotions: (1) “Great!” (2) “I’ll believe it when I see it.” (3) “Wear kevlar.” It’s the byproduct of Benedict’s Nixon-in-China liaising with King Abdullah last year plus the royals’ scrambling to check the internal jihadist threat to their own power through modernization, in ways very public and not so public. Needless to say, introducing churches would qualify as very public: Secret negotiations are taking place between the Vatican and Saudi Arabia to allow Christian churches in the strictly Muslim country, reports the Italian daily, La Stampa. The Vatican is negotiating with Saudi Arabia for “authorisation to build...

An informant who provided German authorities with data from a Liechtenstein bank that sparked a massive tax fraud probe has said his life is threatened, two news magazines are to report Monday. "You are putting my life in danger," Heinrich Kieber wrote to German intelligence services, according to German weekly Focus in an article released in advance of publication over the weekend. The informant has blamed the intelligence services for not keeping his identity secret and asked them to provide him with a new identity so that he can relocate to South America. His request has been refused, Focus reported....

<p>1. Russians Suspected in Shooting of Kremlin Critic Near D.C.</p> <p>One year ago, Kremlin critic Paul Joyal was gunned down in the driveway of his suburban Maryland home. The case remains unsolved — but some see the hand of Russia in the shooting.</p>

A London school attended by the children of notorious hate preachers was forced to shred 2,000 textbooks used to poison pupils' minds after a public outcry, an employment tribunal has heard. Colin Cook, who formerly taught English at the King Fahad Academy in Acton, told a tribunal how pupils as young as five were taught from Arabic textbooks describing Jews as " monkeys" and Christians as "pigs". Under public pressure the academy agreed to destroy the books - but not before photocopying them for future use, he told the Watford tribunal. He also claimed that headteacher Dr Sumaya Alyusuf had...

This news is from last Friday but is definitely still thread-worthy, as UK court documents have revealed that President Bush’s pal Prince Bandar threatened Britain with terror attacks unless Tony Blair quashed the BAE investigations: BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince. Saudi Arabia’s rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday. Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced “another 7/7” and the loss of “British lives on British streets” if they pressed on with their inquiries and...

A U.S. congressman is asking Georgetown University about its academic scrutiny of Saudi Arabia and its use of $20 million donated by a Saudi prince in 2005. U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) wrote to Georgetown President John DeGioia Thursday, saying he was concerned about how the money was being spent at the university's Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. Of particular concern, Wolf said, was the university's role in training current and prospective U.S. foreign service personnel. "The Saudi government continues to permit textbooks to contain inflammatory language about other religions," Wolf wrote. "Restrictions on civil society and political activists continue to...

President Bush’s appeal to the Saudis to increase oil production is more pitiful than understandable. At $100 a barrel, the United States bleeds over a billion dollars per day in order to finance its petroleum import needs. The result: ballooning trade deficits, growing unemployment, a weakened dollar and crumbling financial institutions like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch now forced to beg Persian Gulf monarchies for cash infusions. At current oil prices, the U.S. economy is melting faster than the ice caps. But despite the president’s sweet-talk, his ridiculous appearance in a traditional Arab robe, his hand-holding with the Saudi monarchs, and...

Bush expedites arms deal to supply 'smart bombs' to Saudis HERB KEINON and YAAKOV KATZ , THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 8, 2008 Amid Israeli security concerns and in an apparent effort by US President George W. Bush to go to Riyadh next week bearing gifts, the Bush administration has moved up by a day the date on which it will formally notify Congress of plans for a $20 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Although the administration had originally planned to inform Congress of the deal on January 15, it will now do so on...

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Tuesday expressed his anger about a Saudi Arabian rape victim who was sentenced to prison and 200 lashes for being alone with a man not related to her. "My first thoughts were these," Bush said, when asked about the case at a news conference. "What happens if this happens to my daughter? How would I react? And I would have been — I'd of been very emotional, of course. I'd have been angry at those who committed the crime. And I'd be angry at a state that didn't support the victim." Bush, however, said he...

The Saudi ambassador to London's allegedly colourful shopping habits have been revealed in an embarrassing expenses claim including guns, karaoke machines and "party night" girls, a report said Friday. The more than three-million-pound claim also includes expenses for top-of-the-range off-road cars, a thermal night-vision kit for his Hummer H2 and a 391-pound bill for a takeaway meal, The Guardian said. The bills were included in documents submitted to the High Court by a former employee of Prince Mohammed bin Nawwaf bin Abdul Aziz, a nephew of King Abdullah, who is claiming he was not reimbursed for the expenses. His family's...

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. military strike against Iran would have dire consequences in petroleum markets, leading U.S. newspaper Washington Post reported Friday. Many experts think the prospect of pandemonium in oil markets makes U.S. military action unlikely despite escalating economic sanctions imposed by the Bush administration, according to the report. The small amount of excess oil production capacity worldwide would provide an insufficient cushion if armed conflict disrupted supplies and petroleum prices would skyrocket, the report said. The newspaper also expressed the fear that a wounded or angry Iran could easily retaliate against oil facilities from southern...

An independent government agency that monitors worldwide religious freedom will suggest today that the State Department shut down the 23-year-old Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia on the grounds it is fomenting hate and religious extremism. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which advises Congress, the State Department and the president on religious-freedom issues, has issued a 30-page document saying the Saudi Embassy, which operates the 933-student academy, is violating U.S. law... Foreign governments can engage in nondiplomatic activity on American soil...but cannot do so via their embassy, according to the 1982 Foreign Missions Act. The State Department...

Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Last Updated: 7:29pm BST 19/09/2007 Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East. "This is a very dangerous situation for the dollar," said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas. "Saudi Arabia has $800bn (£400bn) in their future generation fund, and the entire region...

Despite concerns, security of Saudi Arabia will continue to be a U.S. priority The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is increasing its oilfield security forces from 5,000 to 35,000. This dramatic increase in security, at considerable expense, is a response to changes in the geopolitical landscape brought about by the events of 2001 and the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Saudi Arabia no longer perceives the United States as the ultimate guarantor of its security as it did back in the 1990s. When Saudi Arabia appeared to be the target of Saddam Hussein’s armies in August 1990, the United States...

Following is the personal account of Sayed Jawad Qazwini who was among those arrested and beaten by the Saudi religious police. Taken without any crime. I, Sayed Mohammad Jawad AlQazwini, a citizen of the United States of America, was praying in the grand holy mosque in Mecca on August 5, 2007 at 12:45AM when I realized that one of the appointed religious police was giving a lecture regarding Shi'a Muslims. He was attacking the belief system of the shi'a, stating that they are considered infidels.Among his comments were that the shi'a worship the dead, the shi'a worship stones and rocks,...

Remember when we heard that if only our leaders had known how to "connect the dots," the September 11 attacks could have been prevented? After nearly six years without a similar attack, the government has learned much about detecting the outlines of jihadist terror plots before they take shape. As a result, and after all the aggravations and humiliations of what I still hope are temporary safety procedures, our security has remained essentially intact. But can we say the same thing about our freedoms? At this point, I must interrupt this column to apologize to all leftists settling in for...

There is an insidious program featuring a white-washed, and thus untrue, version of Islam that has permeated our educational institutions, beginning in kindergarten, winding its way through the 12th grade, and into our universities. In circuitously slick ways, the Saudi government has managed to insinuate its own version of Middle Eastern culture and history, and strictly positive views of Islam, upon millions of American students thus indoctrinating them to a biased, pro-Islamic position when the full truth is far more complex and, not surprisingly, not quite as glowingly favorable. Journalist Stanley Kurtz has explored the depth of this interference and...

How will we lose the war against "radical Islam"? Well, it won't be in a tank battle. Or in the Sunni Triangle or the caves of Bora Bora. It won't be because terrorists fly three jets into the Oval Office, Buckingham Palace and the Basilica of St Peter's on the same Tuesday morning. The war will be lost incrementally because we are unable to reverse the ongoing radicalization of Muslim populations in South Asia, Indonesia, the Balkans, Western Europe and, yes, North America. And who's behind that radicalization? Who funds the mosques and Islamic centers that in the past 30...

Saudi Arabia has acquired a Massachusetts firm that is a leading supplier to the U.S. military. The state-owned Saudi Basic Industries Corp. has purchased GE Plastics from General Electric for $11.6 billion. Based in Pittsfield, Mass., GE Plastics, with 11,000 employees, develops and manufactures plastic polymers, composites and polycarbonates used in U.S. military platforms, including fighter-jets, submarines and engines. "SABIC's intention is to grow globally," SABIC chief executive officer Mohamed Al Mady said. In May 2007, SABIC announced the acquisition of GE Plastics, regarded as the largest transaction ever completed in the United States by a Gulf Cooperation Council state,...

It’s difficult to overstate the importance of this story. The Chronicle of Higher Education (sub. required) on Wednesday published an article about Khalid bin Mafouz, a wealthy Saudi banker, and his successful effort to persuade the Cambridge University Press to halt the publication of four books that detail how Saudi citizens use their wealth to finance global terrorism. One of those books, Alms for Jihad, was once on sale at Amazon and elsewhere, but it has been pulled from sale and copies of it are now being pulped. Cambridge has even sent out letters to libraries that stock it...

US readies arms deal with Saudis, eyeing Iran: official Jul 27, 2007 WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States is readying a major arms package for Saudi Arabia with an eye to countering a changing threat from Iran, a senior US defense official said Friday. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to discuss the US recommendations with the Saudis next week in a visit to the kingdom with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the official said. "We've been working very hard on the Saudi arms package, which we believe is critical to the overarching architecture that we believe we...

Confidential reports ...detail for the first time how Al Rajhi Bank has maintained accounts and accepted donations for Saudi charities In addition, Mr. Al Rajhi and family members have been major donors to Islamic charities that are suspected by Western intelligence agencies of funding terrorism.....a year after Sept. 11, Mr. Al Rajhi ordered Al Rajhi Bank's board "to explore financial instruments that would allow the bank's charitable contributions to avoid official Saudi scrutiny." .... Mr. Al Rajhi "transferred $1.1 billion to offshore accounts -- "Al Rajhi Bank: Conduit for Extremist Finance." Today, Mr. Al Rajhi is a reclusive octogenarian whose...

Saudis prepare to behead teenage maid By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent Last Updated: 1:19am BST 16/07/2007 The imminent execution of a teenage maid in Saudi Arabia drew fierce criticism yesterday and provoked condemnation of the kingdom's prolific use of capital punishment. The case has brought fresh attention to the draconian Saudi criminal justice system which is expected this year to set a new record in its use of the death sentence. Human rights campaigners yesterday urged the authorities not to behead a 19-year-old Sri Lankan maid found guilty of killing a baby in her care. According to the Saudi...

BAGHDAD — Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers.

Novi Pazar, Serbia, 7 July (AKI) - Although still a small group, Wahabis, followers of a fundamentalist school of Islam, are increasingly seen by officials and observers as a growing threat to the Balkans. Tensions between Wahabis and mainstream Muslims have been simmering for the past 18 months as Wahabis seek to gain influence in Bosnia-Heregovina and also in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo. In the past months, seven suspected militants were arrested in southern Serbia and a radical Islamist training camp and weapons cache uncovered. Evidence, the Serbian interior ministry says, that Wahabis are trying to recruit potential terrorists and...

After more than 20 years of research and tinkering, it was time to celebrate. Stanley Allen Meyer, his brother and two Belgian investors raised glasses in the Grove City Cracker Barrel on March 20, 1998. Meyer said his invention could do what physicists say is impossible -- turn water into hydrogen fuel efficiently enough to drive his dune buggy cross-country on 20 gallons straight from the tap. He took a sip of cranberry juice. Then he grabbed his neck, bolted out the door, dropped to his knees and vomited violently. "I ran outside and asked him, 'What's wrong?' " his...

Tariq A. Al-Maeena, talmaeena@aol.com US politics makes definite impressions upon those of us who follow its meanderings nowadays. A case in point is the vote by the US House of Representatives a week ago to deny all aid to Saudi Arabia. This in spite of assurances from the Bush administration that the Saudis are their partners in the war on terror. The primary dynamo behind this bill, New York Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner from the exclusive conclave of Forest Hills and a fervent supporter of Israel, stated, “None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available shall be obligated or...

The author of a U.S.-published book that accused a former Saudi banking executive of funding terrorism is battling a precedent that experts say could give any foreign libel law priority over U.S. free press and speech guarantees. The case involving Rachel Ehrenfeld is one of the "most important First Amendment cases of the past 25 years.."

CAIRO, Egypt - Saudi police have arrested three men suspected of links to al-Qaida, alleging they used the Internet to plan terrorist attacks, recruit supporters and publish tracts on militant ideology, the Interior Ministry said Tuesday. A ministry statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency alleged that the leading figure, identified as Abu Usaid al-Fallouji, worked as "a coordinator between the members of the deviant group and sympathizers, planning terrorist acts and directly contacting others for financial help and for actual operations." Saudi officials use the term "deviant group" in reference to al-Qaida. The statement said the leading figure,...

Manal Fageeh never liked the abaya, the long black cloak she was forced to begin wearing at 13. She resented the fact that it was obligatory for women in Saudi Arabia, and the black absorbed heat in the often-scorching climate. Saudi women have long been known in the West for their all-enveloping black attire, widely considered a mark of their oppression. But Sharif and Fageeh are among a growing number of women and girls here who are rethinking and reinventing the abaya to more closely reflect their personalities and religious beliefs. The redefinition of the abaya mirrors the greater, though...

Saudi Women, Oppressed by Husbands, Turn to Stripping in Internet Chat Rooms in Search of "Admiration" Following are excerpts from a TV report on Saudi women and web cams, which aired on LBC TV on April 18, 2007: Reporter: Behind closed doors and far from any supervising eyes, they remove their shame and turn their backs on all customs and traditions. Girls display their bodies in chat rooms on the Internet, in most cases, free of charge. As soon as one of these girls places the camera in front of her, she begins to strip, displaying her seductive charms to...

JEDDAH — The media and cultural agencies in Saudi Arabia have been urged to play a greater role in the Kingdom’s ongoing campaign to root out terrorism and terrorist ideology. “The media and cultural agencies must do more in confronting the phenomenon of terrorism, by rooting out terrorist ideology and addressing social and international factors that promote terrorism,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the Cabinet as saying. The Council of Ministers issued the call while praising Saudi security forces for killing Waleed bin Mutlaq Al Radadi, who was on a list of the 36 most-wanted terrorists. The Cabinet meeting, chaired...