No difference between men and women in Islam, says Prince Mohammed bin Salman

[BATMAN]

I had to thats y icame here.

No you mafia is here to curse and accuse.

 

[Ocean]

No you mafia is here to curse and accuse.

Chalo aisay hee sahi. But u didnt tell what are ur views on allowing Indian airlines access to saudi airspace for flights to Israel.

Blood pressure ki dawai kha kay jawab dena tassalli say.

Hum tau mafia hain Israel tau naik pak saaf hai iski baray may share ur point of view.

 

[MultaniGuy]

I think Mohammad Bin Salman is a good leader for his country.

I wish the best for him and his country.

 

[BATMAN]

Chalo aisay hee sahi. But u didnt tell what are ur views on allowing Indian airlines access to saudi airspace for flights to Israel.

Blood pressure ki dawai kha kay jawab dena tassalli say.

Hum tau mafia hain Israel tau naik pak saaf hai iski baray may share ur point of view.

you should have started a separate discussion and than my replies would come automatically!

 

[Taimoor Khan]

Our differences that make us attractive to each other. They should be cherished, not source of argument.

 

[Rusty]

Since he is answering questions, I would love to hear his views on justice in his country for non Saudis.
Islam says everyone is equal in front of the law, but in Saudi (and the rest of the gulf) you are more equal when you have more wasta, and if you are a non Saudi, you basically have no rights in front of a Saudi.

Would also like to hear from Saudi fanboys here too on how they feel about the legal system there and it's inherit lack of Islamic value.

 

[niaz]

Roots of Saudi extremism
The prince acknowledged Saudi society was dominated by particularly harsh strain of conservative Islam, which he traces back to 1979, the year of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the seizure by extremists of the Grand Mosque in Makkah.

“We were victims, especially my generation that suffered from this a great deal,” he said.

“This is not the real Saudi Arabia. I would ask your viewers to use their smart phones to find out. And they can google Saudi Arabia in the 70s and 60s, and they will see the real Saudi Arabia easily in the pictures.

“We were living a very normal life like the rest of the Gulf countries.

"Women were driving cars. There were movie theatres in Saudi Arabia. Women worked everywhere. We were just normal people developing like any other country in the world until the events of 1979.”

Many forum members may not have been born in 1979 but I was working in Kuwait when both the events, being the Iranian revolution & seizure of Mecca took place.

In my opinion, the Prince is talking complete non - sense. By speaking of the two together he is trying to spin the facts to look that those two events were somehow connected!!! Iranian revolution & the seizure of Mecca are totally unrelated events as the ultra-strict Wahabi Islam has always been practised there.

Reza Khan was a Brigadier commanding the Iranian Cossack Brigade when on 21 February 1921, he seized power and appointed himself the Prime Minister of Iran. Later he deposed that last Qajar King Ahmed Shah at the end of 1925 when he was holidaying in Paris and manipulated the Iranian Assembly (Majlis) to vote him the Kingship of Iran.

Pahlavis did not have any claim to even the remotest connection with the Royals of Iran. There had been resentment against the Pahlavi rule since the beginning led by the Shia clergy who disliked their secular stance. Reza Shah had been overthrown by then Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 but after Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo Iranian oil company; Reza Shah was reinstated through a military Coup engineered by the US & the UK (Operation Ajax) who bribed Gen Fazalullah Zahedi to arrest Mossadeqh and re-instate the Pahlavi Mohammed Reza Shah. Hence, the Iranian revolution was the result of a general discontent that had been simmering for a very long time.

Seizure of Mecca was perpetrated by about 500 Saudi dissidents on Nov. 20, 1979. The force was led by Juhayman al-Oteibi, a fundamentalist preacher and former member of the Saudi National Guard, and Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani, who claimed to be the Mahdi. Both belonged to the influential families of Najd.

The siege ended after 2 weeks with the help of French Commandos from French commandos from the Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale (GIGN) and Pakistan’s’ SSG. In the aftermath 63 Grand Mosque militants were beheaded by sword on orders of the king in the public squares of large Saudi cities on Jan 9, 1980.

For the record, House of Saud did not participate in the Arab revolt against the Ottomans during the first 2 years of the WWI. After being bribed and armed by the British, Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud agreed to take action against the pro-Ottoman Ha’ils of Jabal Shammar. After the end of the WWI, House of Saudi clashed with the Hashemites in May 1919 and advanced on Mecca but following an ultimatum from the British, returned to Riyadh (Nejd).

However, Abdul Aziz renewed his campaign in 1924 and captured Hejaz in 1926.

The factual situation is that House of Saud has imposed the strictest interpretation of Islam ever since they captured the lands known as Saudi Arabia.

In the early days of the Saudi rule, there was a roll call for prayers and habitual absentees were punished. The enforcers (Mutawwi’a) had the authority to arrest citizens suspected of breaking their strict code of conduct. All shops were forcibly closed during prayer times.

The Prince's statement that the extremism dates back to 1979 is a complete package of lies. I personally visited Dammam in 1978 and can vouch that the things were worse than what I found during my second visit in 2002.

 

[BATMAN]

Seizure of Mecca was perpetrated by about 500 Saudi dissidents

Dissidents should have seized Riyadh, instead of hijacking Kaaba.

In the early days of the Saudi rule, there was a roll call for prayers and habitual absentees were punished. The enforcers (Mutawwi’a) had the authority to arrest citizens suspected of breaking their strict code of conduct. All shops were forcibly closed during prayer times.

Many millions from around the globe incl. Christians and Hindus know the exact practice....
Indeed during prayers it's a rule to suspend business. However, (non praying) public continue business in self lockup state... this explains the state of enforcing of this general rule. Punishing absentees... is pure falsification.
People can stay out, smoke, wander, eat, talk, drive, sport... do pretty much everything, which is allowed generally.
However, if any one don't close the front doors of his shop and continue conducting business openly, might caught attention of vigilantes eventually involving police, followed by warning, insult but no jail or expulsion. It's possible that the name and number of such person is recorded to monitor him in future, what happens than... i don't know! but never heard people being expelled or punished at all for skipping prayers.

Public should consult their acquaintances, who had been to Saudi Arabia for work, or pilgrim to confirm rather than believing falsification.

The factual situation is that House of Saud has imposed the strictest interpretation of Islam ever since they captured the lands known as Saudi Arabia.

Factual thing is that.... its the society which has adopted conservative life style in late 70's. It was the time when local society (under 10 million) started to face societal problems from the influx of foreign labor.... most of which was the illegals, who came for pilgrim but overstayed to seize their share from the over whelming fortunes of Saudi Arabia.
Today, local population is increased manifolds and they are going to be a dominant demography in their own society, it's natural that they would be looking to shed off the conservative rules which were adopted, when they were minority.
Govt. will not remain popular if they go against public sentiments, changes in customs what we see are quite natural.
It's wrong to connect social adaptations to Islam.
What MBS stated in OP are his views on Islam and people may disagree and argue against.

 

[Proudpakistaniguy]

These saudi princes/kings are big jokes..They use Islam for their own political motives .they were ultra conservative before because of Islam and now they are reforming themselves because of Islam..whom they are fooling? Dumb public?

Islam k naam par kuch be kar lein ghey ..

 

[Avicenna]

This guy is a reckless putz. He thinks he's more clever than he actually is.

The West is going to use and abuse him.

 

[Śakra]

Great statement! MbS is a feminist!!

 

[Clutch]

Great statement! MbS is a feminist!!

He is Muslim... The middle path has always been Islam.

 

[Lucky Breeze]

Yes there is no difference between man and woman but roles.

 

[Yaseen1]

he only wants to remain in power for next 50 yrs for which he can do anything to get u.s support

 

[TheLahoriGuy]

It's interesting to see that the crown prince has realised that the Saudi model of life isn't compatible anymore in the times of globalization. Theres no sugarcoating it that he's cucking up to the West in order to improve relations with them (I fully support his changes but this is just what it is). But this is how it's always been. The weak have always had to adapt according to the demands of the strong and having oil pouring from under your feet makes you no exception.