Thursday, April 26, 2012

Norwegians sing song that mass murderer hates

"Some 40,000 people gathered on the streets of Oslo on Thursday to sing a Norwegian nursery rhyme that mass murderer Anders Breivik says he hates."

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Usama bin Ladin's widows & kids go back to KSA

'The government spokesman confirmed to NBC News producer Fakhar Rehman that 14 members of the family had been deported on court orders "to the country of their choice, Saudi Arabia." '

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Attacks against Pakistani minorities have spiked in recent years

"Attacks against Sikhs, Christians and Hindus have spiked in Pakistan in recent years as the Taliban and their allies gained strength. Atrocities by Muslim extremists against religious minorities now are so common that they rarely illicit more than routine condemnation by officials, much less collective contrition or shame."

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Nepali slaves in the Middle East

Very sad how some people (these are Muslims?) take advantage of the poor people of Nepal. Thanks Ghassan for sharing.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Mecca has skyscrapers

I did not realize that Mecca has skyscrapers until I read this post: "Looming large over the Grand Mosque and the Kaaba (the black cube-shaped building that is the holiest site in Islam) is the largest and second tallest building in the world, called the Royal Mecca Clock Tower complex."

 Now Mecca has the second tallest building in the world.

Thanks Haydar for sharing.

 Remember when I posted Starbucks in the Arab World? That was Christmas 2009, and I reported there were 26 Starbucks in Mecca. I wanted to verify that number again and found that Starbucks has changed its website since then, and the pages that showed the number of Starbucks in each location no longer exist. I had to use Google to find the number is still 26, and I learned that these 26 Starbucks are in Mecca province, which includes Jeddah, and there are many more Starbucks in Jeddah than Mecca. In 2009 I thought all of them were in the city of Mecca. I should have realized how improbable that would be.

While searching for these facts I read an interesting post about Saudi's rejection of Starbucks' new logo, which has been deemed too sexy for Islam. But a giant hotel with shopping malls and with a giant clock on top of it is kosher!

 PS: "The developer and contractor of the complex is the Saudi Binladin Group, the Kingdom's largest construction company"

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

5,000 "honor" killings every year!

"The UN estimates that around 5,000 women and girls are murdered each year in so-called “honor killings” by members of their families"

Friday, April 06, 2012

Corruption in America not as visible, but is disgusting

"The U.S. was one of 29 countries out of a 31-nation sample to score below 60 on a 100-point scale on questions regarding the enforcement of political finance laws, regardless of how strong or weak the country’s regulations were, according to the new report."

 We're tied with Tajikistan! And then there's this:

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Corruption in Iraq is visible and disgusting

'The manager of one of the conference hotels said the summit reeked of corruption. The hotel he oversaw had cost more than $20 million to renovate, but there was no way all that money had gone into the project, he said, pointing out the many imperfections. He said his company could've built an 800-room deluxe hotel in Dubai for that price.

"So where did all the money go? In the bellies!" he said with a laugh, patting his midsection for emphasis.

On social media platforms, Iraqi leaders were ripped as tasteless for serving VIP guests a dessert of dates dipped in 24-karat gold in a war-ravaged country where thousands of women were forced to sell off their gold to pay their husbands' and sons' kidnap ransoms.'

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/05/2733854_p2/iraq-unstable-sectarian-with-signs.html#storylink=cpy

Conservative Shia rulers taking Iraq backwards

"The constantly expanding powers of conservative Shiite Islamists have inspired a backlash among some concerned Iraqi communities; not just Sunnis, but also secular Shiites, liberals and artists, as well as the few remaining Christians.

They wonder what happened to all those promises from 2003 about Iraq becoming a pluralistic nation with Western-style guarantees of civil liberties. Instead, they say, Iraqis got a country where the once-treasured national orchestra can't even play for fans in the southern Shiite cities of Najaf and Karbala because religious authorities have deemed musical performances un-Islamic."

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/05/2733854_p3/iraq-unstable-sectarian-with-signs.html#storylink=cpy

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Maliki defends Assad, KSA to fund Syrian rebels

'On Sunday, Maliki issued a forceful defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, saying his ouster would destabilize the region. On the same day, at a U.S.-backed gathering of “Friends of Syria” in Istanbul, Saudi Arabia endorsed a plan to fund and equip Syrian rebels.'