Arab News reports that a bank in Dammam has lost a very important customer after the security guard prevented him from entering the bank because he was wearing jeans and shirt. Sounds familiar, right? Yeah. The only difference that I don’t have SR5 million!

I told you before about the personalized Google page, but I have to tell you that I experienced some problems with adding feeds to the page. I have also tried Microsoft’s Start, which has the same concept, but it was much easier to use and faster. If anyone has tried any of the two sites, please let me know what you think.

BBC: “Marbella mourns King Fahd’s death.”

Dr. Ali Alyami of the Saudi Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia is calling the new king “to change the course of history in a way that will save the country, its diverse population and his family.” I hope and prey the new king will push toward change and reform.

After looking at the cover of The Independent, Jowhara thinks it’s funny how the Western media are so critical of the Middle East. She asks, instead of looking at King Fahad’s shortcomings, “why cant they look at the good stuff that he has done such as opening mosques and schools sponsoring orphans and giving large donations to charity?”

I’ve been reading several sources of the Western media in the past few days, and I think most of their content was balanced and fair. They mentioned King Fahad’s mistakes and shortcomings, but they also focused on his guidance to the country for development and modernization, and his critical decisions.

Ben Kerishan has a a long, controversial, and mind-provoking, post on the similarities between Wahhabism, Puritism, and Khawarij. (Arabic)

Two days after the death of King Fahad, and nothing seems to be abnormal. The newspapers have expanded crazily to contain the condolences pages, and the TV channels programming is divided between remembering King Fahad and celebrating King Abdullah. Saudis are sad, but they are neither surprised nor shocked.

The international media focused on the smooth transition of power. But I think that was given by looking to the way things used to be in the last few years. King Abdullah has been effectively ruling the country since King Fahad’s stroke in 1995.

It was expected also that there would not be any major changes in international or domestic policies. The only expected change would be a stronger relationship with the U.S. because, as the NY Times reported in several articles, “the new king has a warm relationship with President Bush.”

Saudis have started to speculate about who’s going to be appointed in the still-vacant third spot in the royal chain of command. The expectations is that position will go to Prince Nayif bin Abdul Aziz, the powerful interior minister, or Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, the governor of Riyadh. However, I think most Saudis would like to see someone from the younger generation of the royal family in this spot.

Something I noticed was the statement of the Grand Mofti, who called Muslims to swear their allegiance to the new King. I can understand if he called Saudis to do so, but why would he call Muslims, all Muslims, as if Saudi Arabia was the homeland of all Muslims or something? Islam is a universal religion, and no country can take it as an exclusive right to them. Am I missing something here?