Mission & Justice

Yusuf Muhammad; 15/5/08

Two members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice who were arrested in connection with the deaths of four people in an accident on Khaleel Road near Madinah were released yesterday, their lawyer said. “The two commission members were released on Wednesday after 36 days in detention as there is no legal basis to continue detaining them at the present stage of the case,” said Sultan ibn Zahim, the lawyer representing the two men. Earlier Zahim criticized the General Investigation and Prosecution Board (GIPB) for detaining his clients, claiming it violated clause 37 of the criminal procedures law that states that no one should be jailed without valid legal reasons.

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Yusuf Muhammad; 15/5/08

The Health Affairs Administration in Madinah has denied that an intermingling of sexes took place at a function organized by the city’s Maternity and Children’s Hospital to celebrate World Thalassemia Day on May 9. “An investigation committee found that men and women attending the function were seated separately as mandated by law, although a few women photographers crossed over to the men’s section to get a better view of stage events,” Adil Ashraf, a spokesman for the Health Affairs Administration in Madinah, told Arab News.

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Badea Abu Al-Naja; 14/5/08

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice arrested two Nigerian nationals on charges of practicing sorcery in the Mansura district of Makkah yesterday. Zainab, 37, and Nufa, 16, confessed that they claimed to have the power to break up relationships and make people impotent, Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, the commission’s director in Makkah, told Arab News. Nuha is the youngest witch to be caught ever by the commission in the Kingdom. After receiving several complaints, the commission on Saturday sent a woman to the two Nigerians to request their help to foil her husband’s plan to marry a second time. The duo demanded SR,3000 in remuneration from the woman, who paid an advance of SR1,000.

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Samir Khalil Samir, SJ; 14/5/08

Last 20 March various news agencies reported the following news from Riyadh: “No churches should be permitted in Saudi Arabia, unless Pope Benedict XVI recognised the prophet Mohammed.” This is the proposal put forward by some mediators in Riyadh who are negotiating with Vatican authorities the possibility of building a Catholic place of worship in the kingdom. Anwar Ashiqi, president of the Saudi Centre for Middle East Strategic Studies, expressed this view in an interview on the site of Arab satellite TV network, al-Arabiya. “I haven taken part in several meetings related to Islamic-Christian dialogue and there have been negotiations on this issue,” he said. “It would be possible to launch official negotiations to construct a church in Saudi Arabia only after the Pope and all the Christian Churches recognise the prophet Mohammed.”

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Najah Alosaimi, 12/5/08

Several months after the government’s decision to allow women to stay in hotels without guardians, businesswomen and other travelers started taking advantage of this new freedom. But many say that they sometimes feel discriminated against by hotel regulations. Nada, 29, works for a media corporation. She told Arab News that the new regulation has made her life easier, especially since she frequently travels on work-related business. But she added that she often notices people looking at her with an eye of mistrust when she introduces herself as a single woman wanting to book a room. “People don’t look at me with respect because there is no man accompanying me,” she said.

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11/5/08

Saudi Arabia on Sunday beheaded a national convicted of killing a compatriot, the Interior Ministry said. Eid Bin Hamjahuj Al Shimari was found guilty of shooting dead a fellow national with a machine gun, the ministry said in a statement published on the SPA news agency. Al Shimari was executed in Arar town near the border with Iraq; becoming the 57th person to be executed in the kingdom this year.

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11/5/08; http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=109781&d=11&m=5&y=2008

A group of tribesmen in the southern Taif area have rallied together and developed a novel way of ensuring that spinsters find grooms. In order to encourage men to take second wives, the tribesmen, who belong to one of the largest tribes in the area, have decided to offer SR20,000 to anyone who takes a second wife. Awad Al-Lahiby told Al-Madinah newspaper that he and a couple of his cousins are funding the award, which will be given two months before the wedding. He added that the purpose of the award is to make marriage easy in order to reduce the number of single women in their tribe.

Walaa Hawari; 11/5/08
The National Society for Human Rights has urged officials to take urgent steps to save more than 900 children between 7 and 18 currently in juvenile homes across the Kingdom on drug related charges. There are 280 youngsters in juvenile homes in Jizan, 216 in Riyadh, 213 in Jeddah and nine in Hail. As part of efforts to prevent drug addiction, the Ministry of Interior and the General Directorate for Combating Drugs have developed a school program. The program, which aims to educate students about the harmful effects of drugs, is expected to be implemented in all academic levels starting next year.

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Nuha Adlan; 8/5/08

A two-day conference on domestic violence ended yesterday with participants saying there is no justification in Islam for abuse of women and children. They also came up with a list of demands and recommendations to tackle the problem. Experts from across the Kingdom participated in five sessions of discussions at the first National Experts Meeting to Fight Domestic Abuse Against Women and Children, with all participants agreeing that Islam does not condone abuse and that the problem should be brought to an end. “Traditions that allow abuse should be brought to an end,” said Dr. Maha Al-Munief, executive director of the National Family Safety Program (NFSP), which organized the event. “We will start training courses for people who work with abuse victims… We need cooperation from all NGOs,” she said in a press conference held to announce the recommendations.

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Raid Qusti; 2/5/08

According to medical findings made public recently, 20 percent of Saudi men suffer from erectile dysfunction (ED). “It has been evident from these medical studies that 20 percent of erectile dysfunction cases (in Saudi Arabia) are caused by psychological problems, while 80 percent are related to organic causes,” andrologist Dr. Yasser Al-Khayat told a press conference here on Wednesday. According to the findings, the main causes for ED in Saudi Arabia were linked to diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, obesity and lack of exercise.

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