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creepingsharia · 5 years ago

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Sec of State Pompeo adds anti-American Muslim to Commission on Unalienable Rights

Michael R. Pompeo, Secretary of State

Press Briefing Room

Washington, DC

July 8, 2019

SECRETARY POMPEO: Good morning, everyone. In my address at the Claremont Institute back in May, called “A Foreign Policy from the Founding,” I made clear that the Trump administration has embarked on a foreign policy that takes seriously the founders’ ideas of individual liberty and constitutional government. Those principles have long played a prominent role in our country’s foreign policy, and rightly so. But as that great admirer of the American experiment Alex de Tocqueville noted, democracies have a tendency to lose sight of the big picture in the hurly-burly of everyday affairs. Every once in a while, we need to step back and reflect seriously on where we are, where we’ve been, and whether we’re headed in the right direction, and that’s why I’m pleased to announce today the formation of a Commission on Unalienable Rights.

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I’m also proud to announce today the other members of the commission. They include Russell Berman, Peter Berkowitz, Paolo Carozza, Hamza Yusuf Hanson, Jacqueline Rivers, Meir Soloveichik, Katrina Lantos Swett, Christopher Tollefsen, and David Tse-Chien Pan.

These individuals will provide the intellectual grist for what I hope will be one of the most profound reexaminations of the unalienable rights in the world since the 1948 Universal Declaration. Our own Kiron Skinner will serve as the head of the executive secretary of the committee, and Cartright Weiland will serve as Rapporteur.

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Did Pompeo or anyone on Trump’s staff vet the self-proclaimed sheik Hamza Yusuf, formerly Mark Hanson? via Discover the Networks:

Hamza Yusuf was born (in Washington State) as Mark Hanson in 1959, to parents who were American academics. He became a Muslim at age seventeen and then spent ten years studying Islam in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Morocco, and elsewhere.

In 1995, Yusuf described Judaism as “a most racist religion.” In 1996 he expressed his contempt for the United States:

“[America] a country that has little to be proud of in its past and less to be proud of in the present. I am a citizen of this country not by choice but by birth. I reside in this country not by choice but by conviction in attempting to spread the message of Islam in this country. I became Muslim in part because I did not believe in the false gods of this society whether we call them Jesus or democracy or the Bill of Rights.”

On September 9, 2001 – just two days before the al Qaeda attacks against America – UCLA’s Al-Talib magazine co-sponsored a benefit dinner titled “Justice for Imam Jamil Al-Amin” (a convicted cop-killer formerly known as H. Rap Brown) at UC Irvine. Among the speakers at this benefit was Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, who spoke about the fate he foresaw for America:

“They [Americans] were ungrateful for the bounties of Allah, and so Allah caused them to taste fear and hunger. That is one reason and, I would say, that this country is facing a very terrible fate. The reason for that is that this country stands condemned. It stands condemned like Europe stood condemned for what it did…. This country [America] unfortunately has a great, a great tribulation coming to it. And much of it is already here, yet people are too to illiterate to read the writing on the wall.”

At this same rally, Yusuf lamented that Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind Egyptian cleric convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing as well as unfulfilled plans to destroy various Manhattan bridges and tunnels, had been “unjustly tried” and “condemned against any standards of justice in any legal system.”

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More on Yusuf/Hanson via the Investigative Project:

On July 20, 1991, he was a featured speaker at the International Islamic Conference, held at the University of Southern California by the Los Angeles unit of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) – an organization with a long record of ideologically promoting jihad and martyrdom on behalf of Islam.

The Message International, an ICNA publication, reported on Yusuf’s remarks:

“...In the afternoon session, the focus switched to the always exciting topic of Jihad. Hamza Yusuf gave a provoking speech about why ‘Jihad is the only way.’”

In the speech, Yusuf did not define “jihad,” but referred to a series of places in which violence and armed insurgencies were occurring.

In a speech delivered at the 1993 annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America in Kansas City, Mo., Yusuf praised the idea that Islam could be a “threat to this society:”

“But Allah is calling us to jihad. And I, in all honesty, have to say that if Islam is not a threat to this society, than I am in the wrong religion. I don’t believe that. I believe that Islam is in fact a threat to this society. It is not a threat in that we are going to blow up ourselves. This is my disclaimer. We’re not going to blow up ourselves. You can rest assured people of Kansas [sic] or wherever we are, we are not going to blow up ourselves. We are not going to blow up ourselves but we are keeping a jihad. And Jihad is struggling in the way of Allah to bring down the warriors of injustice humanity from realizing their true potential which is to be slaves to Allah.”

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Hamza Yusuf in his own words - click to watch the video:

youtube

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And we’ll leave readers with this:

Hanson remains an inexhaustible self-promoter. He was embarrassed in 2006 when the Saudi daily Okaz inaccurately described him as the "mufti" - i.e. the chief Islamic religious official - of California. But the Hamza Yusuf show has few original tricks to offer; he inevitably falls back on his associations with fundamentalists and radicals.

#Legal #Sharia #Jihad

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expatimes · 4 years ago

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Saudi Arabia eventually congratulates Biden on US election win

Saudi Arabia finally congratulated Joe Biden on Sunday over his victory in the United States presidential election, more than 24 hours after he defeated Donald Trump, who had close personal ties with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).

The former US vice president pledged in his campaign to reassess ties with the kingdom, demanding more accountability over the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Riyadh's Istanbul consulate and calling for an end to US support for the Yemen war.

As other Arab states raced to applaud the Democrat challenger, MBS, the kingdom's de facto ruler, remained silent on the US vote even as he sent warm words to the president of Tanzania on his re-election. Trump has refused to concede the race and vowed to challenge the result.

At 19:32 GMT on Sunday, Saudi Arabia's King Salman and his son, MBS, congratulated Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on winning the election, state news agency SPA reported.

“King Salman praised the distinguished, historic and close relations between the two friendly countries and their people which everyone looks to strengthen and develop at all levels,” SPA added.

MBS's relationship with Trump had provided a buffer against international criticism over Riyadh's rights record sparked by Khashoggi's murder, Riyadh's role in Yemen's war and the detention of women activists.

Those areas may now become points of friction between Biden and Saudi Arabia, a major oil exporter and buyer of US arms.

“The only thing worse than COVID-19 would be BIDEN-20,” wrote Saudi Twitter user Dr Muna, while many other Saudi users of the social media platform simply ignored the result in the initial hours after US networks called the election for Biden.

A Saudi political source played down the risk of a falling out between the kingdom and the United States, pointing to Riyadh's historic ties with Washington.

But Saudi Arabia's Okaz newspaper offered a sense of the uncertainty about how the future plays out for the kingdom. “The region is waiting… and preparing… for what happens after Biden's victory,” it wrote in a front-page article.

US President-elect Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump on Saturday [Andrew Harnik/AP Photo]

Saudi concerns

The kingdom may not have to wait long. Neil Quilliam, associate fellow at Britain's Chatham House think-tank, said the Biden administration would likely seek to signal early on its discontent with Saudi domestic and foreign policies.

“The Saudi leadership is concerned that a Biden administration and a hostile Congress will carry out a full review of relations, including re-evaluating defense ties and therefore will likely make positive sounds and moves towards ending the Yemen conflict,” he said.

Saudi Arabia was an enthusiastic backer of Trump's “maximum pressure” of tough sanctions on regional rival Iran. But Biden has said he would return to a 2015 nuclear pact between world powers and Tehran, a deal negotiated when Biden was vice president in the administration of former US President Barack Obama.

Abu Zaid, a cashier at a supermarket in Riyadh, said he hoped Biden would take a different approach. “I am not happy with the Biden win, but I hope he learns from Obama's mistakes and realises that Iran is a common enemy,” he said.

A Saudi political source said the kingdom had "the ability to deal with any president because the US is a country of institutions and there is a lot of institutional work between Saudi Arabia and the United States."

“Saudi-US relations are deep, sustainable, and strategic and not prone to change because a president changes,” he said.

MBS had denied ordering Khashoggi's killing, but in 2019 he acknowledged some personal accountability by saying that it happened on his watch. Riyadh has jailed eight people for between seven and 20 years in the case.

. #world Read full article: https://expatimes.com/?p=13624&feed_id=15410

#JoeBiden #MiddleEast #MohammedbinSalman #News #SaudiArabia #UnitedStates #USampCanada #USElections2020

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mideastsoccer · 4 years ago

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Confronting a Pandemic of Crises, Few Middle Eastern Leaders Step Up

by James M. Dorsey | June 9, 2020

This story was first published in Inside Arabia

A podcast version of this story is available on Soundcloud, Itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn, Spreaker, Pocket Casts, Tumblr, Podbean, Audecibel, Patreon and Castbox.

The Middle East is at a crossroads. The coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout confronts regional leaders with a stark choice: dial down tensions to open the door toward cooperation in tackling existential challenges or risk ever more aggravated political and economic threats enhanced by a potential wave of social protest.

Beirut, Lebanon, a day before the government begins to ease coronavirus restrictions. Sunday, May 3, 2020 (AP Photo Hassan Ammar)

A second wave of the coronavirus pandemic is raising its ugly head. It is putting Middle Eastern leaders at a crossroads as they struggle to contain the disease and tackle its economic fallout.

The question is whether they are getting the message: neither containing and controlling the virus nor economic recovery is a straight shot. Both are likely to involve a process of two steps forward, one step backwards, and no state can successfully tackle the multiples crises on its own.

The Middle East is a part of the world in which conflicts and problems are not just complex but inherently inter-connected. The pandemic poses not only political, economic, and social challenges. It also calls into question regional security arrangements that reinforce fault lines rather than create an environment that allows rivals to collectively manage disputes as well as diseases whose spread is not halted by physical and other boundaries.

At stake is not just regional but also global security. Focused on their own healthcare and economic crises, Western nations ignore Middle Eastern and North African instability at their peril. They risk waking up to threats that could have been anticipated.

Suspected Russian hopes that an end to the Libyan war would allow for the creation of a Russian military base on the southern shore of the Mediterranean that would complement facilities in Syria would be one such impending threat.

“Russia wants a foothold in Libya, and that’s a fact,” said Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian military analyist at the Jamestown Foundation. US officials warned that a permanent Russian presence would enhance Russia’s efforts to weaken the already strained trans-Atlantic alliance.

The prospect of increased Russian influence in the Mediterranean coupled with China’s expanding sway over ports in the Eastern Mediterranean raises the specter of emboldening Turkey as it aggressively seeks to grow its control of energy-rich waters in the region in violation of international law.

“To avoid the worst outcomes for an already fraught region, there is no substitute and frankly no alternative to some form of cooperation among regional actors. . . . With the Middle East likely to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis more fragile and potentially explosive than before, a cooperative architecture that can build regional resilience is an imperative,” said strategist Steven Kenney and international relations scholar Ross Harrison in a just released Washington-based Middle East Institute report.

The economic part of the message is already evident: Putting an end to the pandemic and economic recovery will be a painful and long-drawn-out process.

Countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Lebanon, and Israel are witnessing first signs of the pandemic’s second wave.

Increasing the likelihood of a cancellation of this year’s Muslim pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca scheduled for late July, Saudi Arabia re-imposed a lockdown in the Red Sea port of Jeddah, the haj’s major gateway, after a spike in coronavirus infections. The lockdown involves a two-week, 15-hour curfew from 15:00 p.m. to 06:00 a.m.

A dramatic surge in infections in Iran, averaging 3,000 new cases a day, has rekindled the Middle East’s largest outbreak, weeks after the country appeared to have tamed the virus.

Israel closed dozens of schools and ordered any school reporting a virus case to shut down following a surge in coronavirus cases that swept through classrooms two weeks after they were allowed to reopen.

Mass social and economic protests in Lebanon, a country on the brink of financial collapse, have heightened the risk of a second wave of the pandemic.

The surge bodes ill for economic recovery.

Based on a survey of 1,228 CEOs, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce warned that a staggering 70 percent of businesses in the emirate expect to close their doors within the next six months.

The warning came as the UAE government extended a nightly curfew following a doubling of infections after it eased lockdown restrictions.

Government-backed UAE carriers Emirates and Etihad Airways have since extended reduced pay for staff until September as they try to preserve cash.

Austerity measures threaten to bring the social unrest that has swept the Middle East and North Africa for the past decade closer to the Gulf.

“If it’s temporary, one or two years, I can adapt. My concern is that more taxes will be permanent — and that will be an issue,” said Mohammed, a Saudi government worker after his $266 USD a month cost of living allowance was cancelled and sales taxes were tripled as part of painful austerity measures announced by Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan.

Mr. Mohammed’s words were echoed in a rare pushback against the government by columnist Khalid Al-Sulaiman, writing in the Okaz daily, one of the kingdom’s tightly controlled media outlets.

“I was hoping [the minister] would say [the tax hike] would be reviewed after the coronavirus crisis is gone or contained, or when oil prices improve, but he did not say that. Citizens are feeling concerned that pressure on their living standards will last longer than the current crisis,” Mr. Al-Sulaiman said.

The challenges Gulf states face of an ongoing healthcare crisis and a painful, protracted, and complex road toward economic recovery, coupled with debilitating regional conflicts that not only fester but appear to be expanding, are almost insurmountable obstacles.

Kuwaiti efforts to resolve the rift in the Gulf and pressure by US President Donald J. Trump on Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain to lift their three-year-old air embargo of Qatar have raised, perhaps prematurely, the hope of an end to the conflict. Although there is no public indication that the parties are willing to seriously engage.

The proxy war in Libya, in which the UAE-backed forces of rebel commander Khalifa Haftar are on the defensive, is extending into the Eastern Mediterranean as Turkey claims rights in energy-rich territorial waters in violation of international law.

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi-based English language newspaper The National, despite UAE efforts to reduce tension with Iran, seemed, to stop just short of inviting Israel to attack an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ command and control center on the outskirts of the main airport of Damascus, the capital of Syria.

“For now, the Glass House remains unshattered,” The National said in a detailed expose of the center dubbed The Glass House.

Middle Eastern leaders are confronting the worst pandemic of crises since independence.

Addressing those predicaments requires regional and global leadership which looks beyond immediate survival and ideological and geopolitical rivalries; a leadership which recognizes that stability and solutions to shared threats must be vested in longer term managing and cooperation in tackling common challenges rather than maintaining conflict.

The problem is that few leaders seem willing or able to step up to the plate.

Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He is also an adjunct senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute and co-director of the University of Wuerzburg’s Institute of Fan Culture in Germany

#coronavirus #coronavid19 #pandemic #middle east #saudi arabia #uae #iran #syria #libya #lebanon #Israel #Russia #mediterranean #china

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three-continents-md · 7 years ago

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Gregmolly sooooo good. Warm drybed. Miss sherloc he hatea me...... Ouise tool hope she talr her medicatuob okaz. She nrrtf help

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programsbos · 5 years ago

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The migration of the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him

Migration of the Prophet is a historical event and a memory of the status of Muslims, and is intended to migrate the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.svg and his companions from Mecca to Yathrib, which was named after the city of Medina; In 1 AH, corresponding to 622 AD, the Prophet's immigration was taken as the beginning of the Hijri calendar, by order of the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab after consulting the rest of the companions at the time of his succession. And revealed many verses urging Muslims to emigrate, until the conquest of Mecca in 8 e - Yes. Reboot Go out to Taif

After the harshness of the Quraysh on the Prophet Muhammad and his companions intensified after the death of Abu Talib, the Prophet Muhammad decided to go out to Taif, where a tribe of Taqeef lives, seeking support and immunity from his people, and hope to surrender. He went out on foot, and with him Zaid ibn Haritha, and in the remaining three nights of Shawwaal ten years of the mission (3 BC e), corresponding to late May in 619 AD, and stayed in Taif ten days does not let any of their supervisors only came and spoke, did not answer, and responded It was a severe response, and seduced his fools made him throw stones so that his legs were bloody and Zaid bin Haritha protect himself until he was wounded in the head, and departed the Prophet Muhammad and returned to Mecca. The Prophet presented himself to the Arab tribes The Prophet followed the pilgrims in Mina, and asked about the tribe tribe tribes, and asked about their homes and come to them in the markets of the seasons, namely: Okaz, and the Commission, and metaphor, no one answered. Jabir ibn Abdullah said: «The Prophet Mohamed peace be upon him.svg expose himself to the people in the situation and says: not a man offering me his people, the Quraish has prevented me to tell the words of my Lord», and al-Waqidi said that he came Bani Abs and Bani Selim and Ghassan And the sons of a warrior and the sons of Nadar and once and excuse and civilization, they respond to the ugliest reply, and say: «Your family and your clan know you where they did not follow you». The first obstacle allegiance While the Prophet presented himself to the tribes at the "Aqaba" in Mina, six people from al-Khazraj from Yathrib were killed: As'ad ibn Zararah, 'Uf ibn al-Harith, Raf'ah ibn Malik, Qutubah ibn' Aamir ibn Hudaydah, 'Uqbah ibn' Aamir ibn Nabi, and Jabir ibn. Abdullah, he invited them to Islam, and said to each other «O people, you know, God that the Prophet promised you Jews, do not Tbakonkm to him». The Jews were threatening Khazraj to kill them by the Prophet of the end of time. He surrendered those people, and then turned back to their country. When they introduced the city reminded their people of the news of the Prophet Muhammad, and invited them to Islam, even Fsha them there was not left the role of the role of the supporters only where the mention of the Prophet Muhammad. Even if the next year, and the season of the supporters of twelve men, they met him hurdle in Mina, Vbayoh, was the sale of the first obstacle. Islam Ansar The prophet Mus'ab ibn 'Umar sent with those who pledged allegiance to Yathrib, who read them the Koran and taught them Islam. He stayed in the house of Asaad ibn Zaraara calling people to Islam, and pray them. He turned to Sa'ad ibn 'Ubaydah and' Ubayd ibn Hudayr. From the house of the Umayyad ibn Zayd, Khatma, Wael, Waqif. Second pledge of allegiance Mus'ab bin Omair returned to Mecca, and seventy-three men and two women went out of the Ansar during the pilgrimage season, and said to him, "O Messenger of God, we are telling you?" And to say in God do not be afraid in God blame blame, and that Tnzroni Vtmona if you made what you prohibit yourselves and your spouses and your children, and you paradise », Vbayoh a man a man starting from the happiest bin Zaraara, the youngest. It was the second sale of Aqaba and was in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah three months before the migration to the city, corresponding (June 622 AD), and then said to them: «Take me out of you twelve captains shall be on their people, including», and took out twelve of them, nine of them Khazraj and three of the Aws, and told the captains: «You are on your people, including sponsors as sponsors dialogues to Isa bin Mary, and I am a guarantor of my people». Immigration permission When the scourge intensified on Muslims in Mecca after the second pledge of allegiance to Aqaba, Muhammad authorized his companions to migrate to Medina, and ordered them to catch up with their fellow Ansar, Aisha said: Prophet peace be upon him said the Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him.svg that day in Mecca: «I have seen the house of your migration, I saw a sabkha with a palm tree between two lattes» the two free, he emigrated from Hajar before the city when he mentioned that the Messenger of God Mohamed peace be upon him.svg Some of those who emigrated to the land of Abyssinia returned to the city, and prepared Abu Bakr immigrant, said the Messenger of God to him Mohamed peace be upon him.svg: «On your messenger, I hope to be authorized to me» Abu Bakr said: «Do you hope that Abu you?» He said: «Yes» Abu Bakr locked himself on the Messenger of God Mohamed peace be upon him.svg to accompany him, and fed two trips had paper Samar four Month. Prophet's migration Ibn Isaac stated: «That the Messenger of God Mohamed peace be upon him.svg said« that God has made you brothers and a house you believe in »So they went out to send». Migration of the companions to the city After the immigration permission began to go out to the companions of Yathrib and conceal it, was the first to submit to Abu Salamah bin Abdul Assad, and then Muslims sent a message and landed on the partisans in their role Fawoh and Nasrohm, leaving only the Prophet Muhammad, Abu Bakr and Ali bin Abi Talib, or imprisoned , Or weak all out. Muslims began to leave Mecca, infiltrating them hidden, individually and in groups, lest they learn Quraish ordered them to prevent them, leaving behind everything they have houses, money and trade, to flee their religion and faith. The migration of the Abu Salama family He was the first to emigrate to the city Abu Salamah bin Abdul Assad, and was emigrated to it before the second sale of Aqaba a year because Quraish hurt him after his reference from Abyssinia he decided to return to it, then Islam reached some of the people of Yathrib and determined to emigrate to it, when Abu Salamah united to go out to the city The men of the sons of Mughira (Folk or Salamah) prevented his wife Umm Salamah from emigrating with him, and the sons of Abdul Asad (Folk Abu Salamah) prevented his son from emigrating with him. Until a man of my cousins passed me, one of the sons of Mughira saw what Farahmni, he said to the sons of Mughira: Do not you go out of this poor? Vtqtm between her and her husband and her son, they said to me: the right to your husband if you want. », I took her son and traveled to Yathrib, until I met Osman bin Talha smoothing brought to Yathrib. Then the migration of the companions after Abu Salamah, Amer migrated Rabia and his wife Laila bint Abi Hathma, then Abdullah bin Jahsh, and his brother Abu Ahmed bin Jahsh, and encamped on the missionary bin Abdul Munther. The migration of Omar bin al - Khattab It was narrated that 'Umar ibn al-Khattab when he emigrated, did not immigrate undercover, but imitated his sword and put his bow on his shoulder and carrying arrows, and went to the Kaaba where he cruised seven times, then went to the shrine of Abraham quarterly, then said to the Quraysh combined: Except these mawtas, who wanted to be bothered by his mother and orphaned his son or widowed his wife let me behind this valley ». None of them followed him, then went to Yathrib and with him about twenty people from his family and his people, including his brother Zaid bin al-Khattab, Amr bin Saraka and his brother Abdullah, and Khanis bin Huzafa, and his cousin Said bin Zaid, and encamped when they arrived in Quba at Rafa bin Abdul Al-Mundhir, had been preceded by Musab bin Omair and Ibn Umm Maktoum and Bilal bin Rabah and Saad bin Abi Waqas and Ammar bin Yasser. The migration of Suhaib bin Sinan Rumi Ibn Hisham said: When Zuhaib wanted to emigrate, the Quraish said to him: «You have come to Tsaalk despicable Vkther Malik and reached who reached, and then want to go out with your money and yourself, God does not have that.», Suhaib said to them: They said: «Yes» He said: «I have made you financial» and the Messenger of God said: «Suhaib profit, Suhaib profit». Prophetic immigration events The Prophet Muhammad remained in Mecca waiting to be authorized in the migration and did not fall behind with him in Mecca, only Ali bin Abi Talib and Abu Bakr, and Abu Bakr was asking permission to go out to Medina, but was saying to him: «Do not hurry may God make you owner», Abu wanted The firstborn to be the prophet The night of the Prophet's migration When the Quraysh saw the exit of the Muslims, they feared the departure of the Prophet Muhammad. Gabriel told Muhammad the news and ordered him not to sleep in his bed that night. These people met at his door, but he came out of their hands that no one had seen them, urging their heads to the dust next: Ra bracket.png and made us from among their hands a dam and from behind them a damn, and he was swept away. 9 And when they went to Ali, the prophet counted him, and when they saw me, they said, "Where is thy friend?" He said, "I do not know," and the verse was revealed: Ra bracket.png. The best of the makrins Aya-30.png La bracket.png, it was said that his Tonight was his on Saturday, a non-static. Muhammad had ordered me to lead the secretariats to its people, so he did, where the people of Quraish put their secretariats to Muhammad. In Mecca they knew that Ali followed Muhammad wherever he went, so his stay in Mecca was a disguise to make people doubt the Prophet's emigration because they believed that if he emigrated, Ali would have been taken with him. For the city. Laurel Thor The Prophet came to Abu Bakr, and Abu Bakr had prepared two trips to travel, and the Prophet Muhammad gave it to Abdullah bin Ariqit, to provide them in Ghar Thor after three nights, and be a guide for them, and went out the night of 27 Safar 14 of the Prophet's mission, corresponding to 12 September 622 AD, and Abu Bakr carried all his money and with him five thousand dirhams or six thousand, and went out of Khokha Abu Bakr in the back of his house, and then deliberately to the cave of Thor, a cave in a mountain at the bottom of Mecca Vdakhlh. Abu Bakr ordered his son Abdullah to hear from them what people say during the day, and then come to them if he becomes what is that day of the news, and ordered Mawla Amer bin Fahira to graze his sheep day, then come them if he became in the laurel, was Abdullah bin Abi Bakr In Quraish during the day with them, hear what they are doing and what they say about the Prophet Muhammad and Abu Bakr, and then come to them if he becomes evening tell them the news. Amer bin Fahira was grazing in the shepherds of the people of Mecca, if he became rested on the sheep of Abu Bakr Vahlba and slaughter, if tomorrow Abdullah bin Abi Bakr from them to Mecca follow Amer bin Fahira effect of sheep exempt him. As they fit, Asma said: «When the Messenger of Allah and Abu Bakr came to us from the Quraish, including Abu Jahl bin Hisham, they stood at the door of Abu Bakr, I went out to them and said:« Where is your father, daughter of Abu Bakr? », I said:« I do not know God where Dad », Abu Jahl raised his hand and was obscene malicious, Vtmt my cheeks a blow put my earrings and then left». Asma bint Abi Bakr said: «When the Messenger of Allah came out and Abu Bakr with him, Abu Bakr endured all his money with him: five thousand dirhams or six thousand dirhams, so he started with him, and entered my grandfather Abu Qahfa has gone his gaze, he said:« God I see I said: «No, father, he has left us a lot of good», she said: I took stones and put them in a niche in the house where my father was putting his money, and then put a dress, and then took his hand and I said: «Oh Abt put your hand on this money, "she said: put his hand on him and said:« It is OK, if he has left you this has better, and in this communication to you », she said: God does not leave us anything, but I wanted to live Sheikh When they arrived in the laurel Abu Bakr said to the Prophet: «and who sent you the right do not enter until you enter it, if there was something came down before me», and he entered and make a petition in his hand whenever he saw a burrow said his garment and his pity, and then bitten the burrow until he did it with all his garment , And remained a burrow, and it was alive and he put his heel on him, his sting and his tears are descending Quraish chasing the Prophet Ibn Hisham said that the Prophet and Abu Bakr when they entered the cave of Thor hit the spider on his door Baash, so Quraish came out in his request until they reached the door of the laurel, some of them said: «that the spider before the birth of Muhammad» Vansrova. The story of the spider and the two pigeons has been weakened by some of the modernists and some of them are good. «I looked at the feet of the infidels on our heads and we are in the laurel, I said: O Messenger of God! If someone looked at his feet, he would see us under his feet, and he said, “O firstborn! What do you think of God third? » God said: only Tnasroh may God assist him, as narrated by those who disbelieve the second two as they are in the cave he says to his neighbor, do not be sad that God is with us Allah revealed his knife on it and supported soldiers did not see her and make the word of those who disbelieve the lower and the word of God is supreme, and Allah is Mighty, Wise))) Repentance: Mohammed and Abu Bakr stayed in the laur three nights staying with Abdullah bin Abi Bakr, until they came out of the laurel on Monday 1 Rabi I 1 AH, and was told 4 Rabi I. The stance of the son of Malik The Prophet Muhammad and his companion came out of the laurel to Yathrib, and the Quraysh had made the prize of 100 camels for those who returned Muhammad. And while they were on the way, when he offered them the theft of the son of Malik on his horse, Muhammad called him Vsakht lists of his horse, he said: «O Muhammad I pray to God to release my horse and return from you», and he did and released and returned and found people seeking Muhammad said: « Come back, I have healed for you what is here »and returned from him. He tells the story of his catching up with the Prophet and says: The Prophet's immigration came to us the messengers of the infidels of Quraish make in the Messenger of Allah and Abu Bakr, each friendly to those killed or captured, while I am sitting in a council of national councils Bani Medlej, as I accept a man of them until we rose, we said: O stealing . On the coast I see Muhammad and his companions, Saraka said: I knew that they are: I told him: they are not with them, but you saw so and so they set off with our eyes, and then stayed in the Council an hour, and then I entered and ordered my neighbor to go out of my horse, which is behind the hill Vtbsa Ali, and took my spear So I went out of the back of the house and I planned to stick it to the ground and lowered it high until I came to my horse, so I lifted it, so I lifted it closer to me, so I found my horse, and I was proud of it, so I gave my hands to my knives, and I took them out of them, and I divided them, damaged them, Approach me, even if you hear the reading of the Messenger of Allah does not pay attention, and Abu Bakr frequently abound For a few hours, a knight's hand was thrown into the ground, until they reached the knees, so she fell on her, and then she rose. In myself when I received what I received from imprisonment for them, that will appear is the Messenger of Allah, I said to him: that your people have made you friendly, and told them the news of what people want them, and offered them more and baggage did not see me. He did not ask me, but that said: lighter than us, I asked him to write to me in a safe book, ordered Amer bin Fahira wrote in a patch of Adam and then went the Messenger of Allah. When he returned to the robbery has become a response to them the request, no one receives only his response, he tells them: «Siirt - I tested - the way I did not want anyone». The position of a temple mother The Prophet Muhammad and Abu Bakr and Amer bin Fahira passed, and their guide Abdullah bin Arqit on the way tent or a temple named "Atka", and asked her to buy something to eat, she said: «God does not have food and we have no grant or we have a sheep only Hail», Ibn Ishaq said: And the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) called upon some of her sheep, and he wiped his rib in his hand, and called on God and milk in the lentil, until he was forced to say: Drink, O mother of a temple. He watered his guide and then called for another barrier. . Then came Quraish company to the mother of the temple and asked her about the Messenger of Allah, and I denied seeing him; she said: «You ask me about what I heard this year ago», and then said: «If you did not leave me to scream in my people» . When her husband came to him told him the story and said to her: «Describe me, O mother of the temple», she said: «I saw a man visible ablution, sweet logic chapter is not lacking or Hzr, as if the logic beads systems descend». Getting to the city Muhammad Quba arrived on Monday 8 Rabi I, or 12 Rabi I, descended on Kalthoum bin demolition, and Muslims came to him, and Abu Bakr descended on Khubaib bin Isaf. Ali ibn Abi Talib stayed in Makkah for three nights and its days until he paid the deposits that Muhammad had for the people, even if he left for Muhammad. Muhammad and his companions stayed in Quba at Bani Amr ibn Auf for 4 days. He was 53 years old. From that day it was named the city of the Prophet It was called Yathrib, Reception The proponents went out every day to the free waiting for the Prophet, if the heat of the sun intensified they returned to their homes, when it was on the 12th of Rabi I when they went out of their habit when the sun protect them returned, and went up a man of the Jews on the Otam of the ruins of the city, and saw the Prophet Muhammad and his companions said: «O Bani Qila! This is your companion, this is your grandfather, which you are waiting for »and the proponents rose up to arms to receive the prophet. «That the Messenger of Allah met Zubair in the knees of the Muslims were traders convoy from the Levant (to Mecca), Zubair Zbir Messenger of Allah and Abu Bakr blank clothes, and heard the city's Muslims in the exit of the Messenger of Allah from Mecca, they were every morning to the free waiting for them to return them free afternoon, They turned one day after prolonging their wait, and when they took refuge in their homes, a man of the Jews fulfilled more than the rest of their sins for a matter to be seen. Muslims raised to arms, and they received the Messenger of Allah in the back of the free, and adjusted the same right Yen even came down to them in the sons of Amr ibn Auf, and that on Monday of the first month of spring, Abu Bakr rose to the people and sat the Messenger of God silent, Vtfq came from the supporters who did not see the Messenger of God greet Abu Bakr, until the sun hit the Messenger of Allah, so I accept Abu Bakr So the shadow of his robe, people knew the Messenger of Allah at that time, so the Messenger of God stayed in the sons of Amr ibn Auf a few nights, and founded the mosque, which was founded on piety, and prayed the Messenger of Allah, then rode his journey and walked with people until blessed at the mosque of the Messenger of Allah in the city He was praying there on that day, Muslim men, and he was a pioneer of dates for Suhail and Sahil, two orphans in the stone of As'ad ibn Zaraara. When God blessed his journey: «This inshaAllah home», and then returned the Messenger of Allah Ghulamin Vsawahm Balmbad to take a mosque, they said: «but we looted you, O Messenger of God», the Messenger of Allah refused to accept them a gift until he bought them, then built a mosque, The Messenger of Allah conveys with them the milk in its structure. This porter is not a porter of Khyber and say: Oh God, the reward of the reward of the other Farah supporters and immigrants It was the hair of a Muslim man who was not named for me. '' Continued migration of Muslims to the city The migration of Muslims to Medina continued until the conquest of Mecca in 8 AH, and remained immigration to the city is obligatory for Muslims, and revealed many verses urging Muslims to migrate to the city until the conquest of Mecca, when opened Mecca became Dar Islam, said the Prophet Muhammad: «No migration yet Some scholars stated that migration was conquered after the conquest of Mecca, and that what remained of the concept of immigration is moral immigration, meaning the immigration of God is what is left of the concept of immigration, and it was said that its rule was not copied, which is What is copied is the migration to Medina, but the migration from Dar al-Harb to Dar Islam lingers, which is the saying of al-Nawawi, Ibn Hajar al-Askalani, Ibn Katheer, and others. The return of Abyssinian migrants The rest of the immigrants returned Abyssinia with Jaafar ibn Abi Talib to the city; after the Prophet Muhammad wrote to Najashi to marry Umm Habiba bint Abi Sufyan and her husband Obeidullah bin Jahsh had died in Abyssinia. He also wrote to him to send him to the rest of his companions, his wife Najashi Umm Habiba and ratified him four hundred dinars and carried the rest of his companions in two ships arrived in the city after the invasion of Khyber in 7 AH. Another who emigrated to the city The last of the emigrated from Mecca is Abbas bin Abdulmutallab, he emigrated with his family in Ramadan in the eighth year of migration, and on the way the Prophet met with his army wants to open Mecca after the overturn of Quraish to reconcile Hudaybiyah, his family continued immigration and returned with the Prophet. Immigration and the beginning of the Hijri date The Prophet Muhammad had ordered the date after his arrival in Yathrib, and it happened since the first year of the Hijra. In the year 17 AH caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab adopted the date from the beginning of the month of Muharram of the first year of the Prophet's migration, and it is mentioned in the reason for the adoption of Omar for history that Abu Musa wrote to Omar that he comes to us books have no history, he gathered the age of people, some said: « When he agreed, some of them said: "Start Ramadan," Omar said: "But Muharram, it is spent people from their pilgrimage," they agreed. . In another version, one of them raised an instrument for the age of the month of Shaaban, he said: «Any Shaaban, the past or where we are, or the next? Put people to something that they know the solutions of their debts », it is said that some wanted to date as the Persians chronicle their kings, whenever the king perished dating from the history of the mandate after which, they hated it, and some of them said:« chronicle the history of the Roman from the time of Alexander », they thought that, and said Saying: «Chronicle of the birth of the Messenger of Allah», and others said: «from the peace be upon him», and pointed out Ali bin Abi Talib and others to date from his migration from Mecca to Medina for his appearance to each one it showed the birth and the emitter. It is recommended that Omar and the companions, Omar ordered to date from the migration of the Prophet and chronicled from the beginning of that year of Muharram. The way of the prophetic migration The path of prophetic migration The Prophet Muhammad and his companions took the road to Medina starting from the house of the wife of Mrs. Khadija bint Khuwaylid in Makkah to the home of Amr ibn Auf in Quba in Medina, after drawing the approved road for the first three days. The journey to the city lasted for eight days on the first day of Rabi I of the first year of migration until the eighth day of Rabi I of the first year of migration, at an estimated distance of 380 kilometers through 29 agreed landmarks and varies in number from narrator to another.

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wionews · 7 years ago

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Saudi women will drive but face bumpy road to empowerment

Mervat Bukhari, a force of nature draped head-to-toe in Islamic niqab, braved insults and taunts to become the first Saudi woman to work at a gas station, something unimaginable not long ago.

The kingdom, where conservatives once bridled at even limited freedoms for women, is in the midst of reforms that mark the biggest cultural shake-up in its modern history.

Kickstarted by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the reforms include the historic decision allowing women to drive from June, attend soccer games and take on jobs that once fell outside the narrow confines of traditional gender roles.

But the backlash faced by women like Bukhari illustrates how newfound empowerment is a potential social lightning rod in a country unaccustomed to such visibility for women.

When Bukhari, 43 and a mother of four, was promoted as supervisor of a gas station in the eastern Khobar city last October, insults began pouring in on social media with the hashtag "Saudi women don't work at gas stations".

Bukhari, previously employed in a junior role by the same parent company, was forced to go on the defensive, telling critics she was in a managerial position and not physically handling fuel nozzles.

"I am a supervisor. I don't fill gas myself," she reasoned, seeking to win a modicum of respectability for a job that class-conscious Saudi men disdain.

"Women today have the right to do any work."Prince Mohammed's Vision 2030 reform plan for a post-oil era seeks to elevate women to nearly one-third of the workforce, up from about 22 percent now.

Government statistics also put more than one million Saudi women as currently looking to enter the workforce.

The reforms have seen the Saudi labour market slowly open up to women, introducing them to jobs that were once firmly the preserve of men.

The social change, catalysed in large measure by what experts characterise as economic pain owing to a protracted oil slump, has introduced a series of firsts.

Saudi media has championed in recent months the first woman restaurant chef, first woman veterinarian and even the first woman tour guide.

But women face sobering realities -- despite often being better qualified than men.

"Saudi women are better educated but less mobile, less employed and vastly underpaid," Karen Young, a scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told AFP.

Average monthly salaries in the private sector are close to 8,000 Saudi riyals ($2,134, 1,748 euros) for men, and only 5,000 riyals for women, according to research firm Jadwa.

Saudi Arabia ranked a low of 138 out of 144 countries in the 2017 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum on gender parity.

But Riyadh is seeking to change that through what appears to be social engineering.

The decision to allow women to drive after a decades-long ban could give women the much-needed mobility to join the workforce.

For the first time, women are seen alongside men in jazz music concerts and in mixed-gender restaurants, as the influence of the once-feared religious police -- notorious for enforcing gender segregation -- appears to be waning.

"The well-known expression: 'You are a woman, cover your face' seems to be disappearing from our society," human rights lawyer Abdulrahman al-Lahim wrote recently in the pro-government Okaz newspaper.The reforms have had an unwitting consequence, observers note -- competition with arch-nemesis Iran to be more liberal over women's rights.

Tehran recently relaxed its crackdown on women failing to wear the compulsory headscarf.

But Saudi activists say social change will only be cosmetic without dismantling the kingdom's rigid guardianship system, which requires that women seek permission from a male relative to study, travel and other activities.

That leaves many vulnerable to the whims of a controlling father, a violent husband or a vengeful son.

Horror stories have regularly surfaced.

Women inmates are often reported to be stuck in prisons after completing their terms because they were not claimed by their guardians.

One Saudi woman told AFP how she was stuck in limbo, unable to even renew her passport, when her father, her only male guardian, slipped into a coma after an accident.

"If I could choose between the right to drive or the right to end guardianship, I would choose the latter," a women`s activist said on the condition of anonymity.Authorities appear to be slowly dismantling the many injustices against women ingrained in the law.

Saudi women now no longer need male permission to start business.

Saudi Arabia also recently annulled the "house of obedience" article in the marriage law, which grants a husband the right to summon his wife to his home against her will.

The reform introduces a novel concept in married life: mutual consent.

"This is not a revolution, this is evolution," Hoda al-Helaissi, a member of the advisory Shura Council, told AFP, referring to newfound social liberties.

"It's a rite of passage for women."

Back at Bukhari's home in neighbouring Dammam city, she embraced her youngest son Mohammed -- who stood by her even as her brothers decried her gas station job as a shocking breach of tradition.

But the 16-year-old prefers to hide his mother's job from his peers, hoping to protect her from even more insults.

"Maybe five years from now it will be normal to see women at gas stations," he said, kissing his mother's hand.

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businessweekme · 7 years ago

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Two Saudi Princes Released After Graft Probe

Two Saudi princes, sons of Saudi Arabia’s late King Abdullah, have been released after being detained in the kingdom’s declared crackdown on corruption, according to a person familiar with the matter and a Saudi royal who celebrated their freedom on social media.

Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah, former governor of Mecca province, and the former head of the Saudi Red Crescent Authority, Prince Faisal bin Abdullah, have left the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh where detainees were being held, the person said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Princess Nouf bint Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud, a close relative of the late monarch, posted photos of the two and confirmed their release on her verified Twitter account.

Saudi authorities have said that they hope to collect as much as $100 billion from the princes, businessmen and officials who were detained in the Nov. 4 crackdown, which included one of the world’s richest men — Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. The government is now trying to wrap up the probe, and the attorney general said in a statement earlier this month that settlement talks are “expected to be concluded within a few weeks.”

More than 20 of the dozens of detainees have been released recently after agreeing financial settlements to avoid trial, the Okaz newspaper reported on Dec. 26. It wasn’t clear whether the two princes were released as part of a settlement or due to lack of evidence. Saudi officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, another son of the late monarch, secured his freedom last month after agreeing to pay more than the equivalent of $1 billion, a senior Saudi official said at the time. Prince Miteb was the head of the powerful National Guard until his detention.

Detainees who refuse a deal will have their cases transferred to public prosecution and could be held for six months while authorities investigate, with the potential for longer detentions “if warranted,” the attorney general said.

The post Two Saudi Princes Released After Graft Probe appeared first on Bloomberg Businessweek Middle East.

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fllawi-blog · 7 years ago

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online tourism websites

Saudi Arabia is the most priligream place of Muslims where the people from all over online tourism websites the world visit Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj and Umra. Because it is to be done by every Muslim in his lifetime at least for once and it is the holistic place of Muslims where the prophet Mohammed(sws) has born before 1400years ago so every Muslim will have a desire to visit Saudi Arabia once in his life there are many places to be visited by them travel agency because those all places have historic stories the person who goes for Hajj and Umra will definitely visit Mecca and Madina where masjid-e-haram and Masjid-e-nabavi is located in this place other than these people wanted to visit thayaf,ohood mountain which are the most historic places the hajis will be visiting here for more than a month who will be there in the hotel booking sites cities of Mecca and Madina the people who are performing umra will be there for 15 to 20 days in these cities so there accommodation and travelling will be arranged in hotels around these cities. Not only for this but people move to this country for job and study purposes some people go with company visa some go with Azad visa this country main resource is petrol where petrol is heavily found in many areas of Saudi Arabia The Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage has announced a SAR8bn ($2.1bn) plan for the Souq Okaz tourism travel agencies in Saudi Arabia

development in Taif with the private sector expected to pick up most of the bill.Through the project, the tourism commission is hoping to develop the kingdom’s first integrated cultural tourism destination with facilities including cultural centers, museums, recreational areas and a conference center.It also aims to make the city of Okaz, which has a history of hosting visitors in guesthouses, into a business center.The plan covers a total area of 10 million square meters with total investment of more than SAR8bn for all the stages best travel sites. Of this, the government is expected to provide 11 percent and the private sector 89 percent.The funds will be allocated to infrastructure, including the road linking Taif Al-Jadeed Airport to the Riyadh-Ta’if highway, water and electricity works and the Okaz National Park, and several portfolios put forward for private sector participation amounting to more than SAR7bn ($1.86bn).There will also be five main projects: the Okaz Museum, Exhibition and Conference Centre, the Arab Poetry Academy, which will host festivals and events, the Okaz Souk itself, travel booking sites an Art and Creativity Centre and Okaz Park.A further 18 major projects are targeted at the private sector, according to Saudi Press Agency.Among them are recreational parks, heritage shopping villages, open markets, accommodation lodges, environmental camps, heritage inns, shopping complexes, spa resorts, heritage hotels, hotels and business centers.A social club, international schools, health clubs, sports facilities, tourist apartments best travel websites, tourist and treatment tourism complexes and tourist lodges complete the list.The project is the second major tourism announcement this week after the kingdom revealed plans for a major new international resort area encompassing a 30,000 square kilometer stretch of islands, beaches and other attractions on the Red Sea. fllawi travel service is the best traveling service will provide you all kinds of the facility to see all the historic places of the Saudi Arabia travel agency website

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wionews · 7 years ago

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Saudi rift with Qatar exposes growing division in the anti-Iran alliance

This is the worst diplomatic crisis in the Gulf region in decades.

On June 5, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt decided to break off ties with Qatar, accusing the Gulf state of supporting terrorism and of destabilising the whole region.

Qatar had fired the opening shot by what seemed to be open criticism of the Saudi-led and US-assisted anti-Iran alliance pushed by Donald Trump after his visit to Riyadh on May 21.

On May 24, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar, allegedly criticised the US-Saudi move and described Iran as an “Islamic power”. The Qatar News Agency quoted the emir as saying, “There is no wisdom in harbouring hostility towards Iran”. This infuriated Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

Qatar then questioned the veracity of the comments and said its news agency was hacked. Nevertheless, the diplomatic rift been deepening, culminating in the current crisis.

Not the first diplomatic imbroglio

This is not the first time that Qatar, a thumb-shaped emirate of the size of the US state of Connecticut, has become embroiled a diplomatic imbroglio with its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) partners Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

These three Gulf Arab states withdrew their ambassadors from Qatar’s capital Doha in early 2014, on the pretext that the country had links to the Muslim Brotherhood and gave refuge to its leaders after the fall of Egypt’s first democratically elected government in July 2013.

Saudi Arabia declared the Muslim Brotherhood, which it views as an alternative source of authority that’s opposed to hereditary monarchical rule, a terrorist organisation in early March 2014.

But the current crisis is much more serious than the 2014 diplomatic spat, which was resolved after eight months, with Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini ambassadors returning to Doha in November of the same year on the condition that Qatar would never allow the Muslim Brotherhood to operate from its territory.

Iran in the centre

Unlike the 2014 crisis, the current Qatari–Saudi rift is not just an intra-GCC falling out, as it involves Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran.

Qatar is seen by the Saudi government and its Emirati and Bahraini counterparts as a spoiler of efforts to forge a unified Arab–Muslim position, undergirded by the Trump administration, against Iran’s so-called “terrorist agenda” in Arab countries.

A week before US President Donald Trump visited Riyadh to consolidate the anti-Iran alliance, the Saudi Arabic-language daily newspaper Okaz reported a secret meeting between the Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, who was officially visiting Baghdad at the time, and the Iranian Quds Force Commander Qasim Sulaimani.

The newspaper accused Qatar of exiting “early from the Arab-Islamic consensus” on Iran, adding “its defence of the Iranian terrorist regime shows the secret Doha-Tehran alliance intends to strike at Arab and Islamic solidarity.”

All of this while Qatar signed the anti-Iran Riyadh Declaration issued after the Arab-Islamic-America summit on May 21 2017.

But why would Qatar, a country that hosts the largest US air force base in the Middle East (Al-Udeid), veer off the Saudi-led GCC military and diplomatic track?

Gulf watchers know that Qatar is suspicious of Saudi goals under the GCC umbrella, and it wants an independent foreign policy, free from Saudi or Iranian influence.

Qatar hardly sees Saudi Arabia as a harmless neighbour. Tensions in Saudi-Qatar relations started right after the former emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khaifa Al Thani (1995 – 2013) came to power via a bloodless coup in 1995 by overthrowing his father Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al Thani. Sheikh Khalifa was visiting Saudi Arabia at the time, which embarrassed the Saudi government.

Sheikh Hamad’s takeover in 1995 was preceded by a Saudi attack on a Qatari border security post in September 1992, in violation of a mutual defence treaty the two states had signed in 1982.

Riyadh also thwarted Qatari initiatives to export liquefied gas to other GCC member states in the 1990s. Emir Sheikh Hamad began to pull Qatar out of the Saudi shadow, a policy that Emir Sheikh Tamim is also pursuing.

Qatari satellite news channel Al Jazeera occasionally broadcasts programs criticising Saudi Arabia and, much to the anger of Riyadh, it hosted Saudi dissidents in a popular talk show in June 2002.

The incident led to Saudi Arabia recalling its ambassador from Doha in September 2002. Full diplomatic relations between the two countries were restored five years later, in September 2007, on Qatari assurance that Al Jazeera would refrain from broadcasting anti-Saudi programs.

A big push in the region

At the same time, Qatar, with the massive amount of oil and gas-generated income in its coffers (US$191 billion GDP in 2012), has been pushing for a bigger foreign policy and diplomatic profile in the region.

Doha successfully mediated a series of conflicts in the 2000s. It broke the political impasse in Lebanon by persuading the Sunni-led Lebanese government and the opposition Hezbollah to sign the May 2008 Doha Agreement; it mediated the conflict between the Yemeni government and Houthis in February 2008 (though it failed subsequently to find a permanent solution to the conflict); and, in February 2010, it facilitated a ceasefire agreement between the Sudanese government and the opposition Justice and Equality Movement.

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These successful mediations brought the tiny country enviable diplomatic plaudits from home and abroad.

In 2011, to the surprise of many regional states, the Qatar military participated in the NATO-led intervention to dislodge the Gaddafi government in Libya. It wanted to achieve a similar goal in Syria – to topple the Bashar Al-Assad government – but did not succeed primarily due to Iranian and Russian opposition.

Despite being an autocracy, Qatar presented itself as a frontline Arab state for politically transforming the Arab world, under the rubric of the Arab Spring movements.

Its objective was to strengthen Qatari national security and foreign policy autonomy in the Gulf region, a neighbourhood dominated by giants such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

What next?

Nonetheless, the diplomatic spat with Saudi Arabia does not bode well for Qatar. The Saudi-led diplomatic offensive has isolated it from the rest of GCC and the Middle East region by cutting off air, land and sea routes to Doha.

Doha has been accused again of supporting regional terror groups – al-Qaeda and ISIL in Iraq and Syria - and cooperating with Iran.

Qatar has always denied funding extremist groups, but the small country has been accused in the last few years of allowing terrorist financiers to operate within its territory with impunity.

The Qatari government has also pledged support for Hamas, the Palestinian group regarded as a liberation force against Israeli occupation by most Muslim countries, but as a terrorist organisation by the United States, Israel, Egypt and Canada.

Qatar can expect no serious help from Iran either, as any possible Iranian political or diplomatic help runs the risk of further embittering Saudi-Qatar relations and permanently subject Doha to Saudi wrath.

The Trump administration is definitely not on Qatar’s side, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking in Australia, indirectly hoped to resolve the intra-GCC irritants and put Qatar back in the Saudi-driven GCC orbit.

Cracks in the Saudi-Qatar relationship would undercut the joint Arab-US fight against regional terror and extremist groups. It’s difficult to say how long Qatar would be in the position to resist the Saudi diplomatic offensive.

But backing down from the fight with Riyadh looks set to produce two outcomes. First, Doha would be obliged to downgrade its support to rebel groups in Syria, linked to either Muslim Brotherhood or al-Qaeda. And second, it must be willing to shed some degree of its foreign policy autonomy to participate in the Saudi-led offensive against Iran.

In either case, Qatar has undermined the anti-Iran alliance, giving Tehran more time to reassess the situation and consider its options.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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