Saud tribe struggles for its survival

[Bengal_Tiger]

Asian man is beaten for 'talking to employer's wife' - YouTube

This video has caused a worldwide outrage against the "Saudi" regime of tribal chief and dictator, "King" Abdullah.

On this Daily Express article in Britain there are 451 comments.



Horrific video shows Saudi husband beating Asian man with a belt 'because he spoke to his wife' | Mail Online


In the link above are some of the comments from Britons, e.g.

SAFC2012, London, United Kingdom, 4 hours ago

One of the worst things I've ever watched.


"Saudi" dictator and tribal chief, Abdullah Al-Saud styles himself as "Khadimul Haramain as-Sharafain" (Custodian of the two holy places) in reference to the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina.

However traditional Islam says that one Muslim is more important to Allah than the Ka'ba.

So whilst boasting of being the custodian of the two holy places, Abdullah rules over a country where de facto slave labour and socially-accepted brutality against foreign workers is common place.

Abdullah must do something against this or he will face severe consequences as other Arab tyrants have, such as Saddam, Qaddafi, Mubarak and Bin Ali.



Saudi dictator, Abdullah Al-Saud, his regime presides over one of the most brutal and backwards societies in the middle east.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Saudi teen raped by 3 soldiers for one month

Three Saudi soldiers forced a local teen age girl to give her parents sleeping pills every night and go to a rest house where they took turns in raping her for nearly a month.

The three had obtained private pictures of the girl and threatened to publicise them unless she let them sleep with her.
The unnamed girl later reported the three to the gulf Kingdom’s feared religious police, who raided the rest house and arrested them.

“The three forced the girl to give sleeping pills to her family in their drinks every night before she was taken to the rest house until the early hours of the morning. They raped her for nearly a month before they were arrested,” Al Weam Arabic language daily said in a report from the northern town of Arar.


3-year-old Saudi girl gang-raped - Emirates 24/7






1. "Saudi" Arabia is a country where Wahabism has been pumped to the people, as well as being spread through out the world with Saudi petro-dollars.

However there is definitely something wrong with the "Saudi" army, state and society, and Wahabism.

The Muslim armies of Indonesia, Bangladesh, Turkey, Malaysia, Morocco would not do something like this.

One could say it is a one off incident and bad apples and could happen anywhere. However rape of Filipino maids, beating of powerless expatriate workers - who are made powerless by Saudi laws which deprive them of rights and passports - are common place in "Saudi" Arabia.

2. I lived in Syria, and the Syrians used to say of the Saudis "Athar al balad, wa anjas al qawm" meaning "the purest of lands and the filthiest/dirtiest of peoples".

[Athar = most "Tahir" (pure), and Anjas = most "Najis" (filthy, dirty) ]

3. Arabia is a blessed land and the land of our holy prophet Muhammad solAllahu 'alaihi wa sallam, who is the best of creation and known for his gentleness, soft nature, kindess and honesty. Some Islamic ulama (scholars) say the reason why Arabs recieved Islam is because they needed it as a sick man needs a doctor.

We can criticize the west but in the west, mainly the Anglo-Saxon or protestant countries, there are the following:

- Respect for human rights.
- Belief in the equality of citizens.
- Freedom for women (not complete but better than "Muslim countries) as opposed to the so-called "Muslim" countries where women are second class citizens.
- Official policies against racism. Even if there is racism no one would brutally torture non-whites as Saudis do to non-Saudis on a daily basis, and as the rest of the gulf does including UAE (where the newspaper article above was printed, presumably to look down on the Saudis).

Most Muslims would prefer to live in civilized western countries as opposed to the backwards "Muslim" countries. I include Bangladeshis, Afghans, Arabs, Turks etc in that.

I ask Allah to restore this ummah to its previous levels of morality and for Allah to aid the awliya (saints) in spreading morality (akhlaaq) and purifying the filthy minds and diseases of many of the "Muslims" out there (tazkiyatul nafs).

Ameen, wa sallee 'alaa khairul khalqi Muhammad, saadiqul ameen.



*PS, by the way if anyone follows my link, there is a false story of a 3 year old Saudi girl being raped (Au'dhubillah), which has been rejected as a false story and being used by Islamophobes online to attack Muslims, as if Americans and others do not rape children. The west is also full of perverts and sick men as well.



Josef Frietzl, who imprisoned and raped his daughter for 24 years, though no one connected it to Catholicism or Christianity and rightly so as Christianity has nothing to do with this.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Saudi Air Force sergeant found guilty of raping 13-year-old boy at Vegas hotel on New Year's Eve

Alotaibi decided not to testify in his defense

Alotaibi had been charged with nine felonies, but was found guilty of six felonies and one misdemeanor

He faces a minimum mandatory 35 years in state prison
By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 15:15, 24 October 2013 | UPDATED: 15:17, 24 October 2013

A Saudi Arabian air force sergeant faces a minimum mandatory 35 years in state prison after a jury found him guilty of raping a 13-year-old boy at a Las Vegas Strip hotel last New Year's Eve.

Defendant Mazen Alotaibi, 24, remained seated, clenching his jaw but showing no outward emotion as the verdict was read in Nevada state court yesterday.
Sentencing for the 24-year-old Royal Saudi Air Force mechanic, who had been in the U.S. for military training, is set for Dec. 16...

Jurors instead saw a 70-minute videotaped police interview in which Alotaibi told detectives the boy offered sex for marijuana or money.
After several minutes of denials, Alotaibi acknowledged to police that he engaged in sex with the boy.
The Associated Press is withholding the boy's name because of his age and the nature of the case.
Nevada state law says a child under 16 can't give consent. But Alotaibi's lawyer, Don Chairez, said Alotaibi was too intoxicated after drinking all night at a strip club to know if he was doing anything wrong.




Read more: Mazen Alotaibi found guilty of raping boy, 13, at Vegas hotel | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[Bengal_Tiger]

Abuse video shocks Saudi Arabia

By Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN

October 31, 2013 -- Updated 1102 GMT (1902 HKT)

Saudi man beats servant

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Amateur video apparently shows a Saudi man berating and beating a migrant worker
The man appears to be angry because he thinks the worker has spoken to his wife
Saudi government-backed Human Rights Commission says it's investigating the video
Rights groups have documented widespread abuse of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia


(CNN) -- A video that appears to show a Saudi man beating a migrant worker is causing growing outrage in Saudi Arabia.
In the amateur video, which went viral after it was posted on YouTube, a male worker in an orange jumpsuit is first seen sitting on a floor, scared and submissive.

A man who government officials believe is Saudi begins tormenting the victim, angry because he thinks the worker has spoken to his wife.
"Why did you come here when she was here?" he asks in what sounds like Saudi-accented Arabic.

"I swear I didn't mean it," pleads the man, who from his clothes and accent appears to be a migrant laborer, adding, "I swear to God I didn't know."
The abuser begins slapping his victim as he continues questioning him, demanding to know why the worker would dare contact his wife.
Officials aren't sure where it happened, but they're looking into it.
The Saudi government-backed Human Rights Commission has condemned the video, telling CNN it launched an immediate investigation.

"We are taking this very seriously and are looking into it with Saudi security," said the commission's Mohammed Al-Madi. "We are doing our utmost to ensure the accused abuser is arrested and tried. We are also doing everything we can to find the abused man, so that we can help him in any way."
CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the video, but another Saudi government-backed human rights group, the National Society for Human Rights, is also investigating.

"We don't know where it took place, but it is under investigation and we'll release details in a few days' time," said Mifleh Al-Qahtani, president of the society.
As awful as the incident captured on video is, it is not an isolated one. Global human rights groups have documented widespread abuse of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia.

According to Human Rights Watch, there are "over nine million migrant workers in Saudi Arabia -- more than half the work force."
In July, the rights group issued a statement saying that "many suffer multiple abuses and labor exploitation, sometimes amounting to slavery-like conditions."

The group added: "The kafala, or sponsorship, system ties migrant workers' residency permits to 'sponsoring' employers, whose written consent is required for workers to change employers or leave the country. Employers often abuse this power in violation of Saudi law to confiscate passports, withhold wages and force migrants to work against their will or on exploitative terms."
Human Rights Watch Saudi researcher Adam Coogle said that "Saudi Arabia needs to get serious about protecting migrant workers by providing adequate avenues to justice and mechanisms of redress."

The sponsorship system isn't limited to Saudi Arabia -- migrant laborers throughout the Middle East face similar problems.
"Nobody can come into the Arab states or in the Middle East without a sponsor," says Azfar Khan, with the International Labor Organization.
According to Khan, many migrant workers are asked to surrender their passports upon entering countries in the Middle East, which can make them vulnerable to abuse.

"When the employer has that kind of power, then they can dictate the working conditions," explains Khan. "Whether it's a question of the wage rates, whether it's a question of the work time."
Adds Khan, "what is lacking in the Middle East and many of these countries is that the workers don't have representation."
Rights activists say it's a huge problem that's only getting worse -- this latest case being a prime example.

Toward the end of the video, the real brutality begins.
"Sit down! Kneel down!" yells the Saudi man, as he begins to flog the victim with a belt. Standing above him, the Saudi man also repeatedly slaps and kicks the worker.

The screams of "no" are bloodcurdling. Before the end of the nearly two-minute video, the Saudi man asks the worker if he wants to die.
Many are asking if the beating went on and what happened to the victim afterward. Apparently, like the fate of so many abused and forgotten foreign workers, for now, hardly anyone knows.

Abuse video shocks Saudi Arabia - CNN.com



1. This barbarism is not just in Saudi but in the rest of the gulf including the UAE, Kuwait etc

A UAE Royal Family Member,Sheikh Issa, Tortures a Afghani businessman - YouTube

2. Saudis, Emiratis, Kuwaitis would not care about either of those two man being tortured (the Afghani in the video above and the other Asian man in the orange suit) if it hadn't been for the fact that this has been recorded and spread.

That is the problem and not torture of workers.

3. Whilst they shed (crocodile) tears for "democracy" in Syria, they torture foreign workers.

The problem for the Saudi, Emirati and other regimes is that this barbarism cannot go on for ever.

FIFA for one, should remove the 2022 world cup from Qatar.

I as a practising Muslim who prays 5 times a day will only welcome any FIFA decision to remove the world cup from Qatar. No major sporting event should be given to any of the barbaric gulf Arab states.



Previous Sultan of Qatar (before he was overthrown in a Saudi-US instigated coup) recieving the FIFA award for Qatar to host the 2022 world cup.


If there is a world cup in Qatar, I for one will not watch a single game.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Saudi Suicide

(Voltairenet By Thierry Meyssan) – While Saudi Arabia has adopted the Qatari plan to overthrow the Syrian secular regime, Riyadh seems unable to adapt to the sudden withdrawal of the U.S. Not only did the Saudis reject the Russian-American accord but they pursue the war and announce retaliation to "punish" the United States. For Thierry Meyssan, this stubborness is equivalent to collective suicide by the family of Saud.


Unleashed by the United States against Syria, will Saudi Arabia commit suicide if defeated? This is what one might conclude from the following events:
On July 31st, 2013, Prince Bandar bin Sultan visited Russia, where he not only met his counterpart, the intelligence chief , but also President Vladimir Putin. There are two versions of this meeting. For the Saudis, Bandar spoke on behalf of the Kingdom and the United States. He offered to buy 15 billion dollars worth of Russian weapons if Moscow dropped Syria. For the Russians, he spoke arrogantly, first threatening to send jihadists to disrupt the Olympic Games in Sochi if Moscow persisted in supporting the secular regime in Damascus, then trying to bribe him. Whatever the truth, Putin felt that his interlocutor was insulting Russia.
On September 30th, Prince Saud Al -Faisal had been included on the agenda of the general debate of the 68th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, but, enraged by the warming of relations between Iran and the U.S., the Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs left without excusing himself. In his anger, he refused to have his pre-printed speech distributed to delegates.
On October 11th, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations and former head of the Department of State for the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, received a Lebanese delegation. Speaking on behalf of Mr. Ban, but probably even more on behalf of President Obama, he had no words strong enough to criticize Saudi foreign policy, built on grudges and unable to adapt to a changing world.
On the 18th of October, the General Assembly of the United Nations, with 176 votes out of 193, elected Saudi Arabia as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for two years from January 1st, 2014. Ambassador Abdallah El- Mouallemi congratulated himself for this victory that reflects "the effectiveness of Saudi policy marked by moderation". (sic) But a few hours later, Prince Saud Al-Faisan issued a press release with Nasserist overtones on the incapacity of the Security Council and the refusal of the Kingdom to take its seat. If the main official reason given was the Syrian issue, the minister offered hiself the luxury of also denouncing the Palestinian issue and the weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East, that is to say, to designate as enemies of peace both Iran and Israel. Knowing that the criticism of the Syrian UN policy is a challenge directly to Russia and China, who made use of their vetoes three times, this press release was an insult to Beijing, although China is currently the main customer for Saudi oil. This about face, which plunged the United Nations into dismay, however, was loudly applauded by the presidents of Turkey and France declaring that they share the "frustrations" of Saudi Arabia on Syria.
On October 21st, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Prince Bandar bin Sultan had invited European diplomats posted in Riyadh to his home. There the head of the secret services narrated Saudi fury against Iranian rapprochement with the U.S. and U.S. military withdrawal from Syria. He is said to have announced to his guests that the kingdom would retaliate by divesting from America. Returning to the episode of the seat on the Security Council, the newspaper clarified that according to Prince Bandar, the statement was not directed against Beijing but against Washington; such a clarification being all the more interesting for not corresponding to the situation.
Faced with the disbelief generated by these statements and soothing comments from the State Department, Prince Turki bin Faisal explained to Reuters that the words of his personal enemy, Bandar, committed the kingdom and that the new policy would not be questioned. There is therefore no longer a question of a division of power between the two rival branches of the ruling family, the Sudairi against the Shuraim, but of their common vision.

In summary, Saudi Arabia insulted Russia in July, China two weeks ago, and now the United States. The Kingdom announced that it will withdraw its investments from America likely in favour of Turkey and France, even though no expert can see how this would be possible. Two explanations for this behavior are possible: either Riyadh feigned anger to allow Washington to continue the war in Syria without taking responsibility, or the family of Saud committed political suicide.

The first hypothesis seems contradicted by the declarations of Prince Bandar before the European ambassadors. If he was playing under the table for the United States, he would have refrained from coming to preach revolution to its allies.

The second hypothesis recalls the behavior of camels, animal fetishes of the Saudi Bedouins. They are reputed to be capable of carrying a grudge for years, not finding peace until they have satisfied their revenge whatever the cost.

However, the survival of Saudi Arabia is at stake since the appointment of John O. Brennan at the head of the CIA in March 2013. Formerly stationed in Saudi Arabia, he is a staunch opponent of the system put in place with Riyadh by his predecessors: international jihadism. Brennan believes that even if these fighters once did a good job in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia and Chechnya, they have become too numerous and unmanageable. What started as a few Arab extremists taking pot shots at the Red Army became a constellation of groups present from Morocco to China, fighting ultimately much more for the triumph of the Saudi model of society than to defeat adversaries of the United States. Already in 2001, the United States had thought to eliminate Al Qaeda by blaming it for the attacks of September 11th. However, with the official Osama Bin Laden assassination in May of 2011, they decided to rehabilitate the system and made great use of it in Libya and Syria. Without Al Qaeda Muammar el- Qaddafi could never have been overthrown. This is evident today by the presence of Abdelhakim Belhaj, former number two of the organization, as military governor of Tripoli. Anyway in the eyes of John O. Brennan, international jihadism should be reduced to low levels and be kept only as a special lever of the CIA for some occasions.
Jihadism is not only the only effective force in Saudi Arabia, whose army is divided into two units obeying the two clans of the Saud family, but also its sole purpose. Washington does not need the kingdom to provide it with oil nor to plead the cause of peace with Israel. Hence the return to the old neocon Pentagon plan: "Throw the Saudis out of Saudi Arabia," the title of a July, 2002 powerpoint presentation to the Political Council of the Department of Defense. This project foresees the dismantling of the country into five distinct areas, three of which are to form independent states from each other and two of which would be attached to other states.

By choosing a showdown with the United States, the family of Saud doesn’t give them a choice. It is unlikely that Washington will allow itself to be dictated to by a few wealthy Bedouins but predictable that it will have them fall in line. In 1975, they did not hesitate to have King Faysal assassinated. This time, they will likely be even more radical.

http://whatsupic.com/news-politics-world/1383254613.html

King Faisal on the left with war criminal and the man blamed by most Pakistanis as the chief culprit behind the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh, Ali Bhutto. A Wahabi and a Shia sitting together, both ended up killed.



1. I do not support the division of "Saudi" Arabia or to be honest their removal, just that they abandon supporting Pakistan and bullying Bangladesh. However if they continue to do that i.e. bully Bangladesh and harass Bangladeshi workers in addition to supporting Bangladeshi war criminals and Jamaatis, there will be severe consequences.

2. My advice to the Saudis including some of their officials who post on defence.pk and might read this forum is simple:

COOL IT!

You are playing with fire and not in the big league.

You cannot afford to alienate and provoke 3 nuclear superpowers, Russia, China and the USA all at the same time. You are not that powerful.

If you anger the Americans the consequences can be devastating as:

- Saddam
- Qaddafi
- Bhutto

and others all found out.

So stop your ridiculous Syria-project or instead of Assad being overthrown it will be you.

Even the Turks have recently kicked you out of Turkey i.e. your spies who were organizing anti-Assad operations.

So just cool it and don't bite more than you can chew.

Also Bandar is heading you to disaster and you need to abandon this war-hungry mad man.



The Saudi "royal" family is divided in to two big factions, the "Sudairi seven" (sons of Abdul Aziz's wife from the Sudairi family) and the Shuraims.

The Sudairi Seven include previous "King" Fahd and most likely next "King", Salman.

The Shuraim include the current "King", Abdullah as well as the current Saudi spychief, Bandar bin Sultan.

There is speculation that the removal of Assad is Bandar's personal obsession and goal which he is fixated with. However trying to achieve this goal is alienating Saudi from:

- Nuclear power, Russia.
- Nuclear power, China.
- Nuclear power and global bully, the USA.



Bandar on the far left.







Bandar and other clowns need to start living in the real world and stop thinking that they can take on the whole world and threaten and provoke global giants with trillion dollar economies, thousands of nuclear missiles and massive militaries and all at the same time, such as China, Russia and America.

They need to start living in the real world and engage in real meaningful discussion with Saudi society and the Saudi middle class (who are more liberal than the conservative majority) and start democratizing, or otherwise like Mubarak, Bin Ali, Qaddafi, Saddam, Saleh and other Arab dictators they will face ruin.

[Bengal_Tiger]

Just to make it clear.

1. I do not support the division of Saudi Arabia and would regard such a thing as a catastrophe.

In the same way I do not support the break up of Syria, I also do not support the break of Saudi Arabia which will just lead to pain, suffering and instability.

2. I think Saudi Arabia does need a unifying force and the only thing which unites them is the Saudi family.

However the Saudi family need to do these things.

a: Stop destabilizing Syria.
b: Engage with their citizenry and gradually devolve power or otherwise when they fail to satisfy the economic needs of their people, there will be a bloody revolt.
c: Stop working with Pakistan and Jamaat e Islami to target Bangladesh.

Other than that Saudi Arabia is actually regarded positively by most Bangladeshis and as regarded as an ally and a friend by us.

Saudi Arabia just needs to be more responsible and moderate in its foreign policy, and also more reconciliatory in its domestic policies.

If Saudi Arabia were to be attacked as a country, 150 million Muslims of Bangladesh would be there to support it (not if provokes the attack but if it is the victim.)

[Karachi]

If it wasnt for the holy cities, the entire bull**** country of saudi arabia (and uae, qatar, bahrain, kuwait etc.) should be bombed until nothing but sand is left. ****ing unclivilized *******s.

somebody i know told me his colleague (who was a man) got raped in jeddah. a man got raped. that just shows you how jahil these faggots are.

obviously they also rape women too. the same person told me another one of his colleague's wife got raped in her own house when someone posing as an employee of a telephone company came in to check their phones.

both of these were white american and british people, not even indian/paki/afghan/filipino/african or whatever usually gets abused out there.

every gulf country should be bombed instead of the twin towers, they should have bombed burj khalifa. charity begins at home.

you are back killzai, wsup man?

[Karachi]

This guy must have billions of dollars, but why does he look like such a big idiot?



Also Fifa should be ashamed of it self, for selling the world cup to them. I hope everyone boycotts the cup and it is a big failure

[Bengal_Tiger]

Killzai, before I block you and place you on ignore, I will kindly ask you to refrain from posting in, and thus ruining my threads.

Serious issues are being discussed here in this thread which I have started.

Apart from your general anti-Arab racism and crude comments, you offer nothing constructive and merely promote hatred (though I am sure your main intention on this forum is merely to troll and pass the time) as a Pakistani nationalist Red&White did when he was encouraging people to hate Arabs.

1. Arabs like any race have their flaws (some are racist, they are generally disorganized, hot tempered and prone to violence) as well as strengths (they are generous, many of the religious ones are fundamentally good people) but instead of saying that they are evil we must accept there are millions of Arabs and they will always be here. So in light of that fact the question is proposing a way forward for them.

2. This thread is about the Saud tribe and it's struggle for survival. I do not advocate the abolition of Saudi Arabia e.g. its division or even the removal of the Saudi tribe from power but for them to start working on correcting their behaviour and policies.

I would not condone or encourage the nonsense that you are posting here e.g. bombing gulf Arab countries and despite their defects these Arabs are human beings and do not deserve to be bombed.

Instead of posting racism and talking about bombing and killing Arabs, let us use our energy in a positive direction and try to whilst highlighting the injustices in Saudi society and their regime suggest constructive steps they can take to move forward.

BYE.

[Bengal_Tiger]

The following article is from earlier in the year but relevant since the fundamental reality it highlights has not changed i.e. the high levels of poverty in oil-rich "Saudi" Arabia.

If the "Saudi" regime cannot address this poverty then it may follow in the footsteps of Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia etc.


Saudi Arabia's riches conceal a growing problem of poverty

In a country with vast oil wealth and lavish royalty, an estimated quarter of Saudis live below the poverty line


Saudi Poverty



The children of Souad Al-Shamir watch television in their living room in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photograph


A few kilometres from the blinged-out shopping malls of Saudi Arabia's capital, Souad al-Shamir lives in a concrete house on a trash-strewn alley. She has no job, no money, five children under 14 and an unemployed husband who is laid up with chronic heart problems.

"We are at the bottom," she said, sobbing hard behind a black veil that left only her eyes visible. "My kids are crying and I can't provide for them."

Millions of Saudis struggle on the fringes of one of the world's most powerful economies, where jobs and welfare programmes have failed to keep pace with a population that has soared from 6 million in 1970 to 28 million today.

Under King Abdullah, the Saudi government has spent billions to help the growing numbers of poor, estimated to be as much as a quarter of the native Saudi population. But critics complain that those programmes are inadequate, and that some royals seem more concerned with the country's image than with helping the needy. In 2011, for example, three Saudi video bloggers were jailed for two weeks after they made an online film about poverty in Saudi Arabia.

"The state hides the poor very well," said Rosie Bsheer, a Saudi scholar who has written extensively on development and poverty. "The elite don't see the suffering of the poor. People are hungry."

The Saudi government discloses little official data about its poorest citizens. But press reports and private estimates suggest that between 2 million and 4 million of the country's native Saudis live on less than about $530 a month – about $17 a day – considered the poverty line in Saudi Arabia.

The kingdom has a two-tier economy made up of about 16 million Saudis, with most of the rest foreign workers. The poverty rate among Saudis continues to rise as youth unemployment skyrockets. More than two-thirds of Saudis are under 30, and nearly three-quarters of all unemployed Saudis are in their 20s, according to government statistics.

In just seven decades as a nation, Saudi Arabia has grown from an impoverished backwater of desert nomads to an economic powerhouse with an oil industry that brought in $300bn last year.

Forbes magazine estimates King Abdullah's personal fortune at $18bn, making him the world's third-richest royal, behind the rulers of Thailand and Brunei. He has spent government funds freely on high-profile projects, most recently a nearly $70bn plan to build four "economic cities", where government literature says "up to 5 million residents will live, work and play".

The king last year also announced plans to spend $37bn on housing, wage increases, unemployment benefits and other programmes, which was widely seen as an effort to placate middle-class Saudis and head off any Arab Spring-style discontent. Abdullah and many of the royals are also famous for their extensive charitable giving.

For many years, image-conscious Saudi officials denied the existence of poverty. It was a taboo subject avoided by state-run media until 2002, when Abdullah, then the crown prince, visited a Riyadh slum. News coverage was the first time many Saudis saw poverty in their country.

Prince Sultan bin Salman, a son of Crown Prince Salman, said in an interview that the government has acknowledged the existence of poverty and is working to "meet its obligations to its own people".

Prince Sultan said the Saudi government was "three to five years" away from dramatically reducing poverty through economic development, micro-lending, job training and creation of new jobs for the poor.

The Saudi government spends several billion dollars each year to provide free education and health care to all citizens, as well as a variety of social welfare programmes – even free burials. The government also provides pensions, monthly benefits and payments for food and utility bills to the poor, elderly, disabled, orphans and workers who are injured on the job.

Much of the welfare spending comes from the Islamic system of zakat, a religious requirement that individuals and corporations donate to charity 2.5% of their wealth; the money is paid to the government and distributed to the needy.

"Living in Saudi Arabia is like living in a charitable foundation; it is part and parcel of the way we're made up," Prince Sultan said. "If you are not charitable, you are not a Muslim."

Despite those efforts, poverty and anger over corruption continue to grow. Vast sums of money end up in the pockets of the royal family through a web of nepotism, corruption and cozy government contracts, according to Saudi and US analysts.Bsheer said some Saudi royals enrich themselves through corrupt schemes, such as confiscating land from often-poor private owners, then selling it to the government at exorbitant prices.

At the other end of the spectrum, many of the poorest Saudis are in families headed by women such as Shamir, who are either widowed, divorced or have a husband who cannot work. Under Islamic law, men are required to financially support women and their children. So women who find themselves without a man's income struggle, especially because the kingdom's strict religious and cultural constraints make it hard for women to find jobs.

The situation for many families, including Shamir's, is worse because they are "stateless" and not officially recognised as Saudi citizens, even though they were born in the country.

The UN estimates that there are 70,000 stateless people in Saudi Arabia, most of them descended from nomadic tribes whose traditional territory included parts of several countries. Their legal limbo makes it harder for them to receive government benefits.

Shamir, 35, lives in the shadow of a huge cement factory. The houses and streets are covered in a haze of smoke and dust. Her concrete house is down a narrow alley, where graffiti covers the cracked walls and litter piles up in the street. Her landlord is threatening to kick her out, and a local shop owner has cut off her credit for food and gas for her stove. She lives mainly on charity from wealthy Saudis who show up with food and clothes.

One recent morning, her children ran to the door to help unload food being dropped off by a middle-class Riyadh couple in an SUV. Shamir said donations help her pay for the electricity to run an air conditioner, but she does not have enough to buy school supplies for her children.

While middle-class Saudi youths have all the latest gadgets, Shamir's 14-year-old daughter, Norah, has never sent an email or seen Facebook. Her husband has a second wife who has another 10 children. Most of them are unemployed.

Shamir said her husband earned about $500 a month as a security guard until his health forced him to quit five years ago. She said she has tried in vain to find work as a seamstress or a cleaner.

"I've been patient all these years," Shamir said. "I hope that God will reward me with a better life for my children."

Saudi Arabia's riches conceal a growing problem of poverty | World news | Guardian Weekly

[Bengal_Tiger]

Saudi police kill Ethiopian, arrest foreigners


Saudi authorities are launching intensive nationwide security sweeps on businesses and setting up checkpoints in efforts to detain and deport an estimated 1.5 million foreign workers without proper documentation. The crackdown reflects wider efforts by the kingdom to clear out slums and create jobs for its local workforce as leaders worry that rising unemployment could feed dissent and challenges to their rule by their own people.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi police killed an Ethiopian migrant who tried to flee arrest, authorities said Wednesday, as a crackdown on foreigners working illegally in the kingdom widens with more than 16,000 arrests.

The security sweep comes after seven months of warnings by Saudi Arabia's government, which has created a special task force of 1,200 Labor Ministry officials who are combing shops, construction sites, restaurants and businesses in search of foreign workers employed without proper permits.

Police have also erected checkpoints to enforce the kingdom's strict labor rules that make it virtually impossible to remain in the country without official sponsorship by an employer.

Residents said most shops have been closed since the sweep began Monday, with many of the country's migrants avoiding the streets where they face possible arrest. State-backed Saudi Gazette reported Wednesday that residents are already feeling the brunt of the everyday work the migrants provided, from ritual washings of corpses before burial to food delivery and bagging groceries.

Authorities say that since warnings were issued earlier this year, almost 7 million foreigners in Saudi Arabia corrected their paperwork to accurately reflect their occupation and workplace. The kingdom also issued more than 1 million final exit visas, which ban people from ever returning.

The Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported that authorities detained around 16,500 workers in the first 48 hours of the nationwide crackdown. The newspaper quoted Saudi officials as saying that nearly half of the migrants were arrested near the southern border with Yemen. Another 5,000 had been detained in Mecca, where some Muslims stay on illegally after pilgrimage. Less than 1,000 were detained in the main city of Riyadh.

A resident in the poorer neighborhood of el-Manhoufa in Riyadh told The Associated Press he saw police stopping people outside a mosque after prayers and arresting those who did not have the correct papers on them.

The statement Wednesday by Riyadh police chief Nasser el-Qahtani said security forces killed the African migrant worker in el-Manhoufa a day earlier when he and others tried to resist arrest. Those detained will eventually be deported.

The sweep is aimed largely at creating more job opportunities for the kingdom's own citizens, who comprise less than half of the country's work force.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: Saudi police kill Ethiopian, arrest foreigners - World Wires - MiamiHerald.com

[Bengal_Tiger]

The Saudis killing an Ethiopian is no surprise as in general they hate black Africans and consider them inferior.

The Saudi regime and the Wahabis are at fault here because despite spending billions on destabilizing countries such as Syria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh etc, they have failed to instruct their police forces and citizenry to treat Ethiopians with basic human decency.

Ethopian beaten in Saudi Arabia - YouTube

[Bengal_Tiger]

In this video, the Ethiopian is bleeding but the Saudis treat him like an animal.

Such events are common place in "Saudi" Arabia.

However with more and more social media and "Saudis" travelling abroad for study and tourism, they face questions from foreigners about the nature of their brutal and backwards society. Thus they face embarrassment. It is this embarrassment which they wish to avoid and not genuine concern for the suffering of others which is making them take some action against brutality to foreigners.

Ethiopian Refugees tortured in Saudi Arabia - YouTube



Saudi dictator, Abdullah al-Saud the head of one of the most backwards, racist and savage societies on earth, whose regime spends billions through out the world destabilizing Muslim countries, sponsoring terrorism and extremism including in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and other states. His regime is a racist one which virtually encourages brutality to foreign workers.

[Bengal_Tiger]

‫بالفيديو..Ù‚Ø ·Ø¹ الأثيوبيين للطرق واقتØ*ام منازل الاثيوبيين فى الرياض وتسليمهم للأمن فى منفوØ*Ù‡‬‎ - YouTube

Ethiopians riot in Riyadh.


Saudi police clash with foreign workers after visa raids


RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian police clashed with foreign workers in a poor district of Riyadh on Saturday, nearly a week into a visa crackdown in which thousands have been detained and one man killed by police.

Security forces in riot gear fired into the air and used truncheons to disperse large crowds as scores of men ran through the streets, some throwing stones and other missiles at cars and police, according to Reuters witnesses.

It was not clear if many people had been injured in the disturbances in the Manfuhah neighborhood of southern Riyadh, but there were ambulances among the emergency vehicles at one location. Most of the foreign workers involved in the clashes appeared to be Africans.

Authorities this year said they would no longer turn a blind eye to foreign workers breaking visa rules by working for companies that had not sponsored their entry into the world's top oil exporter.

The intention is to end a black market for cheap imported workers, cut the foreign labor force, reduce the flow of remittances to other countries and make more private sector jobs available for Saudi citizens.

A seven-month amnesty for foreigners to rectify their visa status without penalty or leave the country - which prompted an exodus of hundreds of thousands of foreigners - expired on Monday, prompting the start of the crackdown. Thousands have been arrested.

A police statement carried on state media did not refer directly to Saturday's clashes, or say how many had been injured or detained, but said that in light of "what has happened", the authorities had assigned a location for people to surrender voluntarily. A government spokesman said another statement would be issued later.

On Wednesday, an Ethiopian was killed in a raid after he tried to grab a policeman's weapon, the Arab News English-language daily reported on Friday.

Many of those caught in raids on shops, marketplaces, businesses and low-income residential areas are likely to be deported.

Many expatriate workers say they were unable to take advantage of the amnesty because of bureaucratic difficulties or disputes with their original sponsors.

In some streets in Manfuhah, men in Saudi dress had also gathered in small groups, some of them carrying knives and iron bars, saying they were protecting their property. Other people watched from rooftops.

Saudi police clash with foreign workers after visa raids | GlobalPost

[Bengal_Tiger]

Saudis have long been humiliating and torturing Ethiopians and so may be this was inevitable.

innocent Ethiopian men suffers on the hand of Saudi Arabians - YouTube

Saudis humiliate and abuse Ethiopian men.

The next video is presumably in Amharic (or some other Ethiopian language) about the killing of an Ethiopian man in Saudi.

Ethiopians Killed in Saudi - YouTube

The slavery and torture of foreigners in the Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait etc has gone on for too long and must be ended.

If these gulf Arabs do not stop their evil then they may face a severe punishment like their fellow Arabs in Palestine, Iraq, Libya, Syria etc are facing.

Arbi Man beating an overseas man - YouTube