Everything is going great in the awesomest Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Well, almost everything. Today I read three disturbing news stories which shed the light on some serious problems that we should immediately take care of. Otherwise, the whole fabric of society might disintegrate under the pressure of these most horrendous disasters…
First, let’s give it to Dr. Omaima al-Jalahma who has discovered a huge flaw within the healthcare system that has apparently held our hospitals back all these years: no rooms for ruqyah. Al-Jalahma suggests opening ruqyah rooms in all hospitals in the country, and facilitating the work of ruqyah practitioners, who, according to her, have no problem entering any hospital at present but would benefit from having dedicated rooms where they can offer their much-needed services.
Meanwhile, the Grand Mufti has said that wearing graduation gowns is haram because apparently it is part of the infidels’ rituals and customs that no God-fearing Muslim should ever imitate or even consider getting near them. The Grand Mufti, of course, does not use the cars invented and manufactured by the aforementioned infidels. He also does not appear on TV or use a mobile phone, because these, too, are invented and made by those nasty infidels.
Last but not least, a committee in Ministry of Interior has concluded that enough is enough and so they decided it is time to raid the market looking for what they described as “illegal abayas.” The committee, which included members of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and the General Intelligence Service said those who sell illegal abayas have two choices: either modify them in a way that makes them Sharia-compliant or destroy them under the supervision of an official body without any compensation.
The committee, however, has not said what they are going to do about women who have already bought some of these abays and are wearing them. Rumor has it that they plan to open kiosks in every corner of every city in the country where these women can exchange their haram abayas with halal abayas at no charge.
Saudi Jeans 
every article this lady -Dr. Omaima al-Jalahma- has written has shown her ignorance and where she is going, so no surprise here. it was riduiclus.
as for the graduation gown, this is not the first time they say it’s haram, but they probably think that repeating may be affective this time.
the abbaya issue, shows how stupid of a country is and the road its leading.do you think they are issuing this to give “alhya” and the “religious people” something else to be busy with after KAUST ??
I am really not sure whether to laugh or cry? Are these initiatives serious, or is Ashton gonna come out soon and say hey “you’ve all been punked!, you seriously cant all believe that people make laws like this!”
The worst thing is, nothing will change… and we will just watch… god bless you Ahmed in telling the world about the gross “misconduct” that happens in our country! And I don’t use that world lightly!
The problem is the large group of “Blind” people in Saudi today that truly believe we are taking a step forward.. maybe so, but we also take ten fold those steps back!
we’ve nothing else worth our 3 second attention span, paired with intelligence akin to that of a doorknob.
Weird that the graduation gowns are so disliked, after all, they loomk exactely like abaya’s.
At least mine did.
Getting more room in hospitals (and consequently less room for medical treatment) must be very re-assuring for everybody in dire need of medical attention.
So they are not going to rip off offending abayas from women actually wearing them on the street?
I wonder how many women will be happy to exchange their expensive beautiful abayas for grotty cheap horribly ugly ones…
shit….i get depressed after reading these kinda things :S :S
Alweeam news article? its now blocked because its pornography.. gotta love how those coons abuse the website reporting feature.. anything that doesn’t fly their way.. just report it as pornography.
Seriously.. I am so pissed right now.. Its not hard to see this type of provocative actions will not sit well with many.. Messing with money and businessmen is not a good idea.. their fingers will get burnt eventually. As in Ruqya and hospitals.. seriously now.. if you want to bring your own priest/clerk for a couple of recites.. be my guest… but never allow a patient to be even exposed to a person who spits on them or in their drinks a privilege to give health care.. I don’t even want to start about how awful that idea is and I believe it should be a crime for any physician to even suggest that.. seriously.. the mouth is infested with all types of bacteria.
what a surprise! Today I was told that wedding bands are (haram) because it’s a tradition associated with the reputed infidels
As for the Ruqya matter, I remember the first time I had depression, my parents, who are educated people by the way, totally rejected the thought of psychiatry and sought (ruqya) instead.
I’m not saying it doesn’t work, but I always viewed (Ruqya) in certain cases as (twakul) which means waiting for god to cure you without doing something about the illness or trying to cure it.
As for Illegal abayas, do they honestly believe that forcing someone to follow their example would make him or her comply? Honestly, whenever someone criticizes me for something, I go ahead and do it just for spite
In addition, this year we see the vice police play tango with the Interior Ministry.. they reaffirm each other to the vice police view… The major legislation is about dress code. Last year I think they tried to pitch to the Shoura council the idea of a national dress code.. but when that shot down.. I guess they are trying to mold it to allow through the shakedown on “inappropriate” items to gain more authority on what people wear. You see they started with the Afro and the low rider jeans.. now illegal abayas…it will not stop there until the situation explodes.
With regard to graduation gowns being haram, I applaud the logical consistency of the Grand Mufti in also abjuring TV or mobile phones.
I would recommend that such consistency follow all his actions, and that he abstain from all modern medicine, inasmuch as the infidels Pasteur and Lister developed the germ theory.
He should also abstain from all electricity and electrical devices, as their origin is similarly with the non-believers.
And, of course, he should certainly stay away from all machine woven textiles, created by the non-believers using machines developed by non-believers.
A simple life back in the 9th century would suit him well.
Yet, for others who do not seek life as it was lived one thousand years in the past, we should clearly see such bizarre views as emblematic of what is wrong with a clerical establishment with governmental power.
What is even more bizarre than his beliefs is that he holds and regularly wields governmental power.
Ha, ha…..boy, this was hilarious!
Why are you covering this? You are just giving them a platform. Seriously, if I was you, I’d just leave this shithole and live elsewhere.
no gowns? no graduation caps? :O
totally ruins the experience :P
but graduation gowns are more similar to middle eastern garb than western garb..
re the hospitals.. there appears to be a global crisis going on here.. i dont know any country that is happy with their health system right now..
Most hospital in KSA have a space issue, and can not accomodate important procedures because of this.. and she wants us to specify rooms for ruqia.. Allah helps us all.
I think your making a big deal out of nothing. Everyone knows that the grand Mufti is a crazy just like the one in Egypt. As for the Ruqyah rooms, if she believes they are necessary, so what ?!! it’s not gonna change anything will it? People (including crazy muftis) have a right to express their views freely (it’s called freedom of expression : )
Sorry, I really like your blog, but this time, i can’t the POINT your trying to reach to.
The citizens of the KSA shouldn’t have to put up with time wasting nonsense, obviously.
That’s the whole point.
There is nothing wrong in encouraging the women to wear shariah compliant abayas. After all, an abaya not shariah compliant is not an abaya but a fashional dress.
Freedom of expression should allow Omaima Al Jalamah to speak what she wants to without being criticized. It is possible that ruqya might be an effective way of treatment.
Freedom of expression does not mean that you can say any sort of nonsense without people criticizing you.
It just means that you can be an idiot in public when you open your mouth if you wish.
It also means that others have the right to say that you are an idiot, ALSO.
That is true freedom of speech. Saying that a special set of people get to say whatever and others should just shut up and accept their words isn’t freedom.
And Ahmed has already stated in his post that ruqya practitioners already have free access into hospitals and patients.
What makes them so special that they need whole rooms?
Surgeons who need to do operations should have higher precedence than that, definitely!
They treat the Evil Eye! What is such a superstition compared to a triple bypass surgery? Nonsense, that’s what it is.
This kinda crap would actually get to me in the past, now I’m not so surprised. I’m actually amused by the thought process of some of these scholars, now they’re hunting down colorful Abayas…seriously?
Don’t you think Saudi hospitals would do better by designating a small area as an interfaith chapel to be used by Jewish and Christian staff and patients?
Maybe so, lets just put them in the empty quarter and then they can rule and make whatever nonsense laws amongst themselves!… Simplezz!
Solomon2:
Saudi society would be better by allowing its foreign workers to have a place for their own religious practices.
The furtiveness and hypocrisy that exists regarding this topic is another sad feature of our society.
MARHABA – ZORO ALBLOG TABA3Y
:*)
nice post – hope u guys visit my website – its not as grim and rigid as it may seem at first sight
what’s the problem with ruqyah? isnt it a part of Islam? but yeah i do think FIRST everything should be cleared out medically before moving onto the spiritual healing.
and Re the colored abayahs: lol, im going to be wearing a beige abayah in saudi, are they gonna rip it off me? lol. wearing colored abayahs is not haram (heck, even the Prophet’s wives wore them). you are not allowed to wear clothes or abyahs that appear attractive which totally destroys the purpose of hijab to begin with.
oh and i gotta admit, a lot of abayahs worn these days are nothing more of a fashion statement. totally destroys the purpose of modesty.
One time,I was watching one guy walking around a swimming pool in hotel area in Kuwait.His pool sandals accidentally hit the water of the pool..The life guard jumped up to tell him : Keep your sandals away from the pool water ..The sandal guy was irritated by the life Guard directive remarks…He immediately answered him back : What is wrong with you ..Your brain is only in my shoes !! ..We have similar incident here where the The Mutawaeen brains are only in women shoes and Abayas ..According to them , the hell with world problem..lets just fix Abayas …We have a big problem in Saudi Arabia .We need to set priorities right .
i dont have a problem with ppl saying such things .. i have a problem with ppl listening to them
a lot of saudi men dont wear islamically acceptable clothes too. what about them? did the scholars talk about that?
Muslimah,
The government has taken action on Saudi men as well for dressing inappropriately. Many Saudi men have been dealt with for wearing low waist jeans which reveal their undergarments. They are not against colored but against fashionable abayas.
Somo.
You are right. There are bigger problems in Saudi Arabia. But the problems can only be dealt by people responsible for handling them. You can’t make the religious organizations responsible for providing jobs or boosting the economy. Relevant authorities will do their respective jobs.
Norvegica.
Freedom of expression allows you to criticize somebody if they are wrong. But it does not allow you to call somebody an idiot or his/her opinion as nonsense. We do not have the right to be mean to anybody.
When an opinion IS nonsense, saying that it is so is truthtelling.
IF it was not nonsense they could refute with logic.
But they cannot.
This is all completely illogical. It is NONSENSE. And what’s more, this nonsense has negative affect on many people.
When dignity is taken away like that, meanness is only to be expected.
What other reaction is there for such nonsense? Apathy? Resignation?
Change happens when enough get fed up with institutional nonsense.
@ADNISA:
Freedom of expression allows you to criticize somebody if they are wrong.
Well, you’re certainly wrong about that! Freedom of expression, gives you a right to critisize. Period. I won’t critisize you though… uhh sorry, I think I already did. xD
Muslimah–Wearing hijab/abayah/Islamically acceptable clothes (lol) does not make one modest. Being modest does.
@ chris: according to Islam, hijab is the outer covering + the inner modesty. both are important. you cant be like covered from head to toe and walk like your on the romp or something.
@ adnisa: true, but its nothing compared to what women have to deal with. but two wrongs dont make a right. i understand the scholars when they speak abt fashionable abayas. i mean whats the purpose of an abayah? culture/fashion statement/religion?
On your reply to Chris.
Yes, yes you can. You can be covered and behave immodestly. Which in fact empirically proves that dressing somebody up doesn’t make them what they look like.
It’s a great big lie, that’s what it is.
Modest people are modest. Immodest people make everything they wear immodest because of their behavior.
And when the measures to enforce national modesty goes to the point that they are practically waging a way against shades of color, then they have lost already.
It’s all completely futile and ridiculous.
@muslimah “What is the purpose of an abayah”
in the general Islamic term, I guess modesty…
in the Saudi term, I say it stands for cultural oppression
i was in saudi once and saw a woman wearing an abayah and niqab. not only was she flirting with the guys but her abayah was so ridiculous.it actually had a belt at the waist to show off the contours of her body. i was so majorly pissed , i looked at her and said ‘astaghfirAllah’. lol she stared at me then continued her business. i thought she was gonna start a cat fight lol. it’s just so sad. i guess saudi society has to change from the grassroots. im sick of people looking at hijab as a cultural thing in saudi if u dont wear a niqab-your a slut. *shakes head*
novergica: i dont judge anyone..unless i really know someone on a personal level.
you’re right, someone can be dressed modestly and not at all act modest..or vice versa..Islamically, both the ouer and inner hijab go hand in hand.
novergica: i dont judge anyone..unless i really know someone on a personal level.
you’re right, someone can be dressed modestly and not at all act modest..or vice versa..Islamically, both the outer and inner hijab go hand in hand.