| Submit your comments on this article |
| Arabia |
| Saudis still cheesed over Al-Jazeera programme |
| 2002-12-31 |
| Middle East Online Top Saudi singers have decided to boycott the third Doha music festival concert in Qatar next month in a new sign of strained ties between the two Gulf Arab states. The Saudi Al-Riyadh daily said Saudi pop singers Abdulmajeed Abdullah, Rabeh Sager, Rashed al-Majed, Mohammad Abdo and Khaled Abdulrahman, whose names where listed as participants, have given different reasons for not going. Most of them said they were not attending because of "private reasons," Al-Riyadh said. They mean that either some prince told them not to, or that some thugs came around and chatted about exploding cars... Relations between Saudi Arabia and neighbour Qatar, both members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), have been strained recently over the Doha-based Al-Jazeera satellite channel's airing a programme last June deemed offensive to the founder of Saudi Arabia, king Abdul Aziz. How could he be offended? He's dead. Riyadh downgraded its representation at the GCC summit in Doha last week, sending Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in place of Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the kingdom's de facto ruler. If it'd been the Doha Arms and Ammunition Exposition, I'll be they'd have gone... Reports said that Saudi Arabia has demanded a formal apology from Qatar over the programme, but Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani denied on Sunday that such a request was received. Prince Saud told reporters on Tuesday that Qatar knows what it ought to do to repair bilateral ties. But al-Thani doesn't want to toss the Americans... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 Dont forget the Classics: Tie a Yellow Turbin 'round the old Infidel and Dirty Deeds Done With Sheep |
| Posted by: Richard 2002-12-31 21:52:17 |
| #1 The third Doha music festival will thus be denyed stirring renditions of such Saudi favorites as: "Blowing in the Sand" "Ghost Camels in the Sky" "He's Got the whole Dune in His Hands" "Let There Be Jihad on Earth" "Dying on a Jet Plane" "Money Makes the Jihad Go Round" |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-12-31 11:06:14 |