Saud al-Balawi thinks that our Saudi idea of privacy, “which is really a form of isolation,” is one of the problems behind banning cinema theaters in Saudi Arabia. This is true, but I think the domination of the extremists on many aspects of life in the country is the main problem. We let them to control our lives in the past, but we should not allow them to enjoy that for any longer.

A young teenage boy enters Herfy Restaurant holding two large cups of Pepsi in his hands. He puts them on the counter, and starts yelling at the first employee he sees. “Change this with strawberry milkshake, and put some ice in the other one, now!” “Sorry, sir. You can’t change it like this. You have to pay one riyal more,” the employee says. “Are you a donkey? I’m telling you, do it now!” the boy yells again. “Sorry, sir. I told you I can’t,” the employee told him. “You don’t understand?! My uncle Abu Khaled owns this place, and you told me I can’t do whatever I want!” the boy yells, even louder.

I guess that boy is one of the little princes who cruise the streets of Riyadh in their fancy cars, thinking they own the whole city. And I guess by Abu Khaled he meant Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal, which the Herfy Restaurant are a part of his large group of businesses.

I am a sucker for pens. Even though I use text editors to write all my stuff now, but I still cannot resist the urge to buy more and more pens. One of the good pens I have come across recently is this Inoxcrom Short Gel Pen. I never used to like gel pens, but this little thing was really good that I started to change the way I look at gel pens.

In addition to gold and silver, it is available in black, blue, red, green, and purple. For those in Saudi Arabia and the gulf, you can find this pen at Jarir Bookstore.

I am hooked to Imogen Heap‘s song Say Goodnight And Go. The first time I heard about this singer was last summer, when a dear friend of mine told me about her. I thought the name was weird, so I did not try to Google it and find out more about her. But a few weeks ago, I accidentally stumbled upon that song, and since then I can’t get it out of my head.

“… Why’d you have to be so cute
It’s impossible to ignore you
Must you make me laugh so much
It’s bad enough we get along so well
Say goodnight and go…”

Here is a question for my Saudi readers: Have you ever been to the national museum?

One of the many problems regarding the religious police in Saudi Arabia is that they don’t know when they cross the line. I really suspect they know there is a line in the first place. They think that they can do whatsoever they want, just because they are doing it under the name of religion. What they should know is that using religion to achieve goals on their private agenda has nothing to do with religion. Actually, it is against religion.

Recently, the religious police have banned a play (Arabic) in Safwa, east of Saudi Arabia, because it has included a male actor who plays a role of a woman. As far as I know, female actors are not allowed to take part in such plays, but the law says nothing about a male actor playing the role of a woman. Moreover, this play was already permitted by the ministry of culture of information, which is the government body responsible for regulating such activities. So, how could the religious police interfere in this matter?

The religious police have justified their action saying there is a fatwa issued by the governmental Permanent Committee for Scientific Research and Fatwa, a committee that prominent Saudi scholar Abdul-Mohsen Al-Obeikan once described as the “sleeping committee,” that prohibits acting scenes which include men imitating women. Such fatwa is just another example of many fatwa’s that make no sense, and unfortunately, there are many people out there ready to defend them.

These fatwa’s, and the scholars behind them, are just making life here worse for everybody by getting their nose in every freaking side of our already messed up lives. I also got the feeling that this case, like many other previous cases where the religious police were involved, has a sectarian aspect, but I won’t comment on it, because I don’t want to get accused with sectarianism; an accusation, along with antinationalism and Americanism, that I frequently get since I started this blog less than two years ago.

Technorati tags: Saudi, Saudi Arabia, Religious Police, theatre, fatwa.

I’m back, finally. I would like to thank all of you who left comments on my posts during my absence. Also, thanks to the Blogger team for including me in their Blogs of Note list. You could see that I have made some minor design modifications. I have reorganized the sidebar and made it easier for you to add your comments. Now, let’s get some serious blogging done…