Eid al-Adha prayers in a typical Hijazi mountain village in Saudi Arabia

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Maraya concert hall in ancient Al-Ula (northern Hijaz) and prayers but cannot find the amazing photo so this must do.

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

Beautiful. Stunning.

Would non Muslims be allowed in such areas ?

 

[Nefarious]

Wow

 

[MBilal106]

Beautiful. Stunning.

Would non Muslims be allowed in such areas ?

Yes non-Muslims are allowed in this area.
non-Muslims not allowed only in the Holy Cities of Makkah and Madinah.

Beautiful. Stunning.

Would non Muslims be allowed in such areas ?

Yes non-Muslims are allowed in this area.
non-Muslims not allowed only in the Holy Cities of Makkah and Madinah.

 

[BATMAN]

Beautiful. Stunning.

Would non Muslims be allowed in such areas ?

Non Muslims are all over Saudi Arabia... I have seen many hindus in Saudi Arabia with green residence permit!
Example of Mubarik Hussein Patel is in front of us and there are 100's of those, specially in Mecca and eastern province, they are doing all sort of services for Iran.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Non Muslims are all over Saudi Arabia... I have seen many hindus in Saudi Arabia with green residence permit!
Example of Mubarik Hussein Patel is in front of us and there are 100's of those, specially in Mecca and eastern province, they are doing all sort of services for Iran.

There are not "many" non-Muslims in KSA. Most of the non-Arab diaspora are Muslims as well. Most of the Indian expats working and living in KSA are Muslim. Not aware of any "Hindus" in Makkah either or the Eastern Province. Poodles for the Iranian regime inside KSA can be counted on a few hands and those who come from the outside are dealt with an iron fist as you already know.

The biggest non-Muslim community in KSA are the peaceful Filipino community. Most of them are Catholics although there are also Muslim Filipinos from Mindanao, Sulu and the South in general.

KSA basically hosts every single community. Can't think of a group of people who are somewhere not living in KSA even in small numbers. That is how cosmopolitan KSA is in terms of expats.

 

[BATMAN]

There are not "many" non-Muslims in KSA. Most of the non-Arab diaspora are Muslims as well. Most of the Indian expats working and living in KSA are Muslim. Not aware of any "Hindus" in Makkah either or the Eastern Province. Poodles for the Iranian regime inside KSA can be counted on a few hands and those who come from the outside are dealt with an iron fist as you already know.

Sure you will never be aware of them... because their state give them Passport with religion Islam, even USA /UK /Canada will give issue them passport with Muslim names.
Indian state would not issue a passport to a Muslim, but they need to have a blend so in greater interest they issue passports to selected and some times random Muslims.

I once was waiting for my entrance, at the gate of one of Sabic industry and their were some Indian labor waiting and those were hired by a Palestinian contractor.
Since i was close by... that Palestinian old man was in flirting with those Indians and asked them to recite lailaha illalah etc. those were all blank but all of them had green Iqama. That moment i engaged the Palestinian, where upon he told me it's not the first time, many of them are non Muslims in reality.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Sure you will never be aware of them... because their state give them Passport with religion Islam.
Indian state would not issue a passport to a Muslim, but they need to have a blend so in greater interest they issue passports to selected and some times random Muslims.

I have not had many dealings with Indians in KSA and those I had dealings with were Muslims. Often from Kerala.

In any case KSA-India relations are limited to Indian expats (vast majority Muslim) and trade. A positive trade for KSA so basically KSA is getting more money from India than it spends in India.

Only KSA and China (ironically KSA's largest trade partner) are receiving more Indian money than what they are spending in India.

Have to admit that I was not aware of China being the largest trade partner of India. A bit of a surprise given their rivalry but after all most state-to-state relations (if not all) evolve around money. The whole world in fact.

BTW India does not have any ability to cause any mischief in KSA!

Beautiful. Stunning.

Would non Muslims be allowed in such areas ?

There is no ban on non-Muslims visiting KSA (KSA is in the top 15 of most visited countries in the world out of almost 200 sovereign nations in the world). Not sure what made you believe that. Makkah and Madinah are the exceptions.

However if you come in peace, of course you will be welcomed like any other foreigner visiting. Arabian hospitality and generosity is well-known for a reason. In particular rural/village people will go a long way to make a foreigner comfortable.

Anyway having quickly visited the Indian equivalent of PDF for the first time yesterday, I am shocked to learn why any Indian would want to visit a single Muslim-majority country given the hatred that I witnessed against Muslims.

@Metanoia

 

[Gandhi G in da house]

I have not had many dealings with Indians in KSA and those I had dealings with were Muslims. Often from Kerala.

In any case KSA-India relations are limited to Indian expats (vast majority Muslim) and trade. A positive trade for KSA so basically KSA is getting more money from India than it spends in India.

Only KSA and China (ironically KSA's largest trade partner) are receiving more Indian money than what they are spending in India.

Have to admit that I was not aware of China being the largest trade partner of India. A bit of a surprise given their rivalry but after all most state-to-state relations (if not all) evolve around money. The whole world in fact.

BTW India does not have any ability to cause any mischief in KSA!



There is no ban on non-Muslims visiting KSA (KSA is in the top 15 of most visited countries in the world out of almost 200 sovereign nations in the world). Not sure what made you believe that. Makkah and Madinah are the exceptions.

However if you come in peace, of course you will be welcomed like any other foreigner visiting. Arabian hospitality and generosity is well-known for a reason. In particular rural/village people will go a long way to make a foreigner comfortable.

Anyway having quickly visited the Indian equivalent of PDF for the first time yesterday, I am shocked to learn why any Indian would want to visit a single Muslim-majority country given the hatred that I witnessed against Muslims.

@Metanoia

I know non-Muslims can visit KSA. I was referring to religious places like the ones you posted above. Anyway, good to know that we can visit.

As for the Indian defence forums well, let's just say that decent Indians also don't go to those forums. I left the first day I became a member on one. They are usually full of hardcore rightwingers who dont represent the majority of India

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

I know non-Muslims can visit KSA. I was referring to religious places like the ones you posted above. Anyway, good to know that we can visit.

As for the Indian defence forums well, let's just say that decent Indians also don't go to those forums. I left the first day I became a member on one. They are usually full of hardcore rightwingers who dont represent the majority of India

What I posted is a normal Hijazi mountain village. There is nothing religious about it. Just local villagers praying (Muslims don't need mosques to pray in). As a non-Muslim you could stand next to them without any problem. The 2 last photos are from a music concert hall called Maraya in the ancient town of Al-Ula in Northern Hijaz.

Well, let us hope so.

I prefer this kind of India.

1.3 million views.

BTW online forums, especially military ones (country), tend to be overly represented by such people but that Indian forum was outside of any pedagogical reach. You should praise yourself lucky that such people are not representing your country and people in the international sphere.

 

[Metanoia]

There is no ban on non-Muslims visiting KSA (KSA is in the top 15 of most visited countries in the world out of almost 200 sovereign nations in the world). Not sure what made you believe that. Makkah and Madinah are the exceptions.

However if you come in peace, of course you will be welcomed like any other foreigner visiting. Arabian hospitality and generosity is well-known for a reason. In particular rural/village people will go a long way to make a foreigner comfortable.

Anyway having quickly visited the Indian equivalent of PDF for the first time yesterday, I am shocked to learn why any Indian would want to visit a single Muslim-majority country given the hatred that I witnessed against Muslims.

I knew a doctor who resided in US and then moved to Madinah...a very adventurous type. One day he decided to just sit in his newly bought car and go on a road trip whereby he ended up in a bedouine village in a semi-remote area. According to that doctor, the hospitality the people of that showed him was really something unique.

As for the Indian(s) who harbour hatred against Islam and Muslims....really....who cares. They are mostly irrelevant, inessential, as well as insignificant.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

I knew a doctor who resided in US and then moved to Madinah...a very adventurous type. One day he decided to just sit in his newly bought car and go on a road trip whereby he ended up in a bedouine village in a semi-remote area. According to that doctor, the hospitality the people of that showed him was really something unique.

As for the Indian(s) who harbour hatred against Islam and Muslims....really....who cares. They are mostly irrelevant, inessential, as well as insignificant.

Yes, Arabian hospitality is really something else. No wonder that foreigners (non-Muslims as well) praised it and recorded it since ancient times. The problem is that the modernity of the world and increasing urbanization (KSA is one of the most urbanized countries on the planet with almost 80% of the population living in cites) this kind of rural attitude and approach to strangers, is dying a bit in the traditional fashion that is. In other words times are changing. Hospitality as a whole is not dying it is just being expressed in another way and in a more modern context. I prefer the old school hospitality. Receiving such hospitality amidst nature is also a totally different experience than saying being invited to some Jeddawi villa or a villa in the outskirts of Riyadh or a flat in Buraydah.

Luckily KSA has enormous wild areas where there are not many humans so you are often not very far from nature, in fact it is all around you. The problem is that the modern human loves to live in huge modern cities and this is also where most of the opportunities are today.

Hopefully as KSA will improve the infrastructure and the population increases, some of the dying villages and towns can be repopulated again so their population can increase.

I fear that such Hijazi mountain villages are in danger of dying out when all the youth will leave and not return.

As for the Indian vitriol, Modi was elected for a reason so not sure if they are a minority among Indians. Please correct me here.

 

[Metanoia]

Yes, Arabian hospitality is really something else. No wonder that foreigners (non-Muslims as well) praised it and recorded it since ancient times. The problem is that the modernity of the world and increasing urbanization (KSA is one of the most urbanized countries on the planet with almost 80% of the population living in cites) this kind of rural attitude and approach to strangers, is dying a bit in the traditional fashion that is. In other words times are changing. Hospitality as a whole is not dying it is just being expressed in another way and in a more modern context. I prefer the old school hospitality. Receiving such hospitality amidst nature is also a totally different experience than saying being invited to some Jeddawi villa or a villa in the outskirts of Riyadh or a flat in Buraydah.

Luckily KSA has enormous wild areas where there are not many humans so you are often not very far from nature, in fact it is all around you. The problem is that the modern human loves to live in huge modern cities and this is also where most of the opportunities are today.

Hopefully as KSA will improve the infrastructure and the population increases, some of the dying villages and towns can be repopulated again so their population can increase.

I fear that such Hijazi mountain villages are in danger of dying out when all the youth will leave and not return.

As for the Indian vitriol, Modi was elected for a reason so not sure if they are a minority among Indians. Please correct me here.

1) Protect your nature. 2) Protect your nature.....and again, 3) Protect your nature. It's a huge blessing from Allah.

As far as Modi is concerned, India does have a problem with vehement anti-Islam/anti-Muslim attitude.

 

[Reddington]

You should praise yourself lucky that such people are not representing your country and people in the international sphere.

Bro @ArabianEmpires&Caliphates
Such people are representing India. Their Prime Minister Modi slaughtered more than 5000 Muslims when he was a Chief Minister in Gujrat state and entire world had banned visas on him even USA. Right now they are planning on doing a mass genocide of Muslims in India including Kashmir. Right now entire Indian society or Hindus hate Muslims to the core.
Entire India has become a fascist/Nazi lynchistan, rapistan sh1thole.

 

[ArabianEmpires&Caliphates]

Bro @ArabianEmpires&Caliphates
Such people are representing India. Their Prime Minister Modi slaughtered more than 5000 Muslims when he was a Chief Minister in Gujrat state and entire world had banned visas on him even USA. Right now they are planning on doing a mass genocide of Muslims in India including Kashmir. Right now entire Indian society or Hindus hate Muslims to the core.
Entire India has become a fascist/Nazi lynchistan, rapistan sh1thole.

I have no doubt that anti-Muslim sentiments are growing in India and I am saying that as a person that has never set foot in Indian, that has no ties to Indian and whose only dealings with India has been dealing with a few Indians as a chemical engineer student home and abroad. That and naturally meeting some of the Indian expats in KSA that do all kinds of work. Befriended a couple of Indians (Muslims) from Kerala, one guy was from Hyderabad and another from Gujarat. That is all.

From the perspective of Arabs, (I will here mostly focus on Arabia as that is geographically the closest area of the Arab world to South Asia and the region that has had most dealings with that region of the world historically alongside Iraq and to a smaller extent Egypt), what is made up of India today was made up by 100's of different entities (not united) and Arabs had close and good trade ties with some of those regions (Kerala, Gujarat, Western India in general and the South) and some regions where we had little to no interaction (Bihar, Bengal etc.). That relationship was mostly a relationship of trade (based on ancient trade routes through the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean) and exchange of ideas etc. It occurred in pre-Islamic and Islamic times. With Indian Muslims and Indian non-Muslims. The ties (historical) with Pakistan next door were even closer. In other words our main focus in South Asia was Western, Northwestern and Southwestern South Asia and the people that lived there. Extending all the way to Sri Lanka hence the legacy of the Sri Lankan Moors who claim partial Arab ancestry due to old Arab settlements.

Since most of the GCC countries were and remain monarchies being more aligned to capitalism and the West than USSR (Cold war era) than socialism/nationalism (Arab included) we remained more close (also due to religion, culture, history and geography) with Pakistan than India unlike say Egypt, Iraq and other Arab countries that had closer ties to India due to ideology (political). India for instance used to support the Palestinian cause a lot initially before they became pro-Israel.

At the same time the economic rise of India, huge workforce that was ready to move to the GCC, created an economic bond that continued the old bond that was bound on trade that I talked about earlier.

Later to today's situation where India remains one of the largest trade partners of the GCC states (KSA has a trade surplus though with India unlike UAE so we are taking money out of India and not the other way around). That and the GCC knowing that India is here to stay (much like Pakistan) and that it most likely will become more powerful in the future due to population size and economic size if it remains as a union.

Since national states (every state) operates based on interests first and foremost, it is not a wise move for the GCC to declare India a non grata state and cut all ties (even Pakistan is not doing that despite the much, much greater rivalry) economically, politically or in terms of the future. So while the GCC, in particular KSA, will remain favoring Pakistan in all crucial areas, you will not see KSA cutting economic ties with India. I mean none of the Muslim countries are doing it.

I understand that this leads to some frustration from certain Pakistani users and talk of "Ummah being" dead but that is an extremely wrong and simplistic view point. I mean similarly what to tell the poor Palestinians, Iraqis, Libyans etc. that where invaded by the US, Russia and Israel? Where was 220 million big and the sole nuclear power in the Muslim world, Pakistan? I think every sane Muslim understands the political realities of the world and that the world is not as simple or black and fight. Unfortunately many users on nationalistic forums and on the internet in general tend to be keyboard warriors.

Problem is that India is a nuclear power, soon to be the most populous country on the planet and a top 3 economy just due to sheer population alone. The onus to act to protect Indian Muslims (in case of wide scale massacres) will first and foremost be on Pakistan and Bangladesh (the two Muslim neighbors of India) similar to how the onus on the Palestinian cause is on the Arabs due to history, geography and likewise elsewhere. For instance what is KSA supposed to do for the Uyghur's when no Muslim countries in the neighborhood are doing anything? What is Kazakhstan doing for instance? The reality is also that KSA is not going to turn China into an enemy and meddle into internal affairs of China (even though most Saudi Arabians are against the reports that claim that Uyghur's are taken advantage of and oppressed) when China is our largest trade partner. Similar with every other Muslim country hence the silence.

1) Protect your nature. 2) Protect your nature.....and again, 3) Protect your nature. It's a huge blessing from Allah.

As far as Modi is concerned, India does have a problem with vehement anti-Islam/anti-Muslim attitude.

If Modi does not have a problem with anti-Muslim fascists how come you hear so much news about Muslims (Indian Muslims moreover!) being lynched in broad daylight in India? How otherwise explain India's decision to allow non-Kashmiris to buy property in Kashmir and settle? That is obviously a deliberate attempt to change the demographics of Kashmir and turn the local Muslim population into a minority in their own region. That coupled with the vitriol (anti-Islam) of Indian nationalists and an ugly picture starts developing.

Of course I know that this is a minority, nevertheless a loud one.

Maybe I am wrong but I actually don't think that there are any other Muslim-majority country with more and larger national parks/reserves and protected natural areas than KSA? Surely not in the MENA.

For instance take a look at this map.


The southeast is the Rub' al Khalil, basically a big natural reserve with hardly any population and permanent habitation.

Of course much more needs to be done. Protect the endangered animal, marine and plant life, try to reintroduce extinct animals, plant and marine life (luckily few of the latter two), increase the forestation and plant cover in KSA, stop cutting off tress, pollute less in the nature, use recycling more and better, develop a better collective ability to protect nature, use less oil and gas and increase renewables etc.

Basically what every country should be doing, including Pakistan.