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Saudi King Sacks Adviser Critical of Gender Mixing
[An Nahar]  King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old... on Friday sacked one of his advisers, an outspoken critic of the sexes mingling outside the home, something banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom. The state news agency SPA published the decree announcing the dismissal of Sheikh Abdul Mohsen al-Obeikan, an adviser to the royal cabinet, without providing further details. The move comes several days after Obeikan, speaking on local radio, lashed out at the interaction of men and women in court, accusing the judges of seeking to "Westernize society." "Women suffer from gender mingling and harassment in the courts," said the sheikh, a former judge, while demanding the segregation of the sexes in court. "Some influential people have plans to corrupt Mohammedan society by seeking to change the natural status of women," he said, accusing judges he did not name of "wanting to replace justice based on (Islamic) Sharia law with secular laws." His comments provoked an outcry in the Saudi press, with the daily Al-Jazeera  ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula,as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... newspaper asking in an editorial: "What is the point in having an adviser... who behaves with such recklessness?" Posted by: Fred 2012-05-12 |
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