The Washington Post had run a story on Saudi bloggers last week, and they finish it with a quote yours truly: “I want our society to move forward, and I want to be part of that change. I don’t want to be 40 and still struggling with the issues we’re dealing with now.” Read what other fellow bloggers have to say about it, and if you can read Arabic you may want to see how AlArabiya.net manipulated the story and how their readers reacted to it.

DemonEyes: Should we fight tribalism, all forms and shades of tribalism, and cancel it completely, and call anyone who speaks of tribalism generally without referring to the (good) or (bad) type a backward ignorant Bedouin?

Abid Khazindar estimates KACST’s spending to block website: over SR7.1 billion. “I bet KACST is not spending one tenth of this money on research,” he says, “and I also believe that the entire process of blocking websites is simply not working.” How much money do we spend to fight terrorism, btw?

There is something that frustrates me about the Saudi blogosphere. I don’t like the ignorance, hatred and racism that continuously appear in some of the blogs. Not that there is much I can do about that: in the end of the day, everyone has the freedom to fill her blog with whatever she likes, and if she was into that kind of things then who am I to try to stop her? I never did, and never will. Hence, this post is not about the things that I don’t like, but rather about those that I do like.

One of the things I like about Saudi blogs is that they are encouraging people to work together in order to reach goals. Unfortunately, we lack the concept of “collective action” in our country, but I hope that blogging will help to change that. The social networking aspect of blogging can play a big role in building recognition of such concept, through groups of bloggers who work together in what can be called “online activism.”

I’m actually amazed by how Hadeel’s post “The 15%.. They have eaten it!” (Arabic) on the greediness of some business owners, who have raised the prices of some products in the market based on the fact that the government have increased the salaries of civil servants by 15%, has evolved into an online campaign to demand acknowledgment of consumers’ rights.

The campaign is now called “Ween Al-Bagi?!” loosely translated as “Where is the Change?!” The title is supposed to encourage consumers to insist on getting the change after they pay for their purchased goods, because many stores here ignore giving the consumer his few halala’s or make him buy something stupid like a chewing gum using the lame pathetic excuse: we don’t have coins. They run a multibillion business but they can’t provide these little coins? Hmm, why would they when they can make millions of riyals by keeping the change? Well, no more. We, the consumers want the change. It is one of our lawful rights, and we won’t let you take advantage of us and then get away with it.

I have to say that I’m impressed by Hadeel’s enthusiasm for online activism. You can only imagine what kind of effect and difference she can make if she had the chance to extend such activity on the ground. However, I think people interested in launching campaigns online should study what can (and can’t) be achieved through such campaigns before they start. Online campaigning is appealing to many people because most of the time it doesn’t take much resources. But such thing should not make the campaigners overlook setting objectives prior to the beginning, as well as how far they can go and what do they want to reach.

Many of the problems with our society is related to the fact that people don’t care. As long as they can get what they want, many of them don’t care about anybody and anything else. If everyone only looked after his own interest, ignoring the greater good, what kind of society are we going to live in? I would die a happy man if blogs could increase awareness on the importance of values such as collective action, freedoms, plurality, etc. We have the potential and we have the tools. We just need to get started, and hopefully someday in the near future we will get there.

Intro

Saudi Arabia is terribly misunderstood, by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Many Muslims look up to Saudi Arabia and consider it the model Islamic state which represents religion in its purest form. Many non-Muslims, especially in the West, view Saudi Arabia as this mysterious land of desert and camels, oil and Usama Bin Laden. However, both parties are mistaken. There is much, much more about this country, and unfortunately it is one of the most stereotyped places on this planet.

The world lacks perfection, except in our dreams and fantasies. The imperfect world confuses people and makes them feel unsafe. People use stereotypes in order to simplify it and feel more safe. But stereotypes are very bad, because they are blinding; they prevent us from seeing the reality of things. Sadly, we, Saudis, have contributed to and promoted the stereotypes.

In the hope of a better understanding, I will try to take a closer look into some of the stereotypes surrounding Saudi Arabia. There is two parts of this post: the first is going to deal with the view from the West, and the second will talk about the view of some Muslims regarding this country:

From the West

For many Westerners, Saudi Arabia is such a big mystery. They don’t understand it. They don’t know much about it. They know we have oil, much of it, and they think we charge them a lot of money for that, which is not true because we don’t really control prices. They associate it with Usama Bin Laden, who left the country about 20 years ago and was later divested of his Saudi citizenship.

This mysterious picture of Saudi Arabia, along with many stereotypes and misconceptions, in the eyes of Westerners have much to do with the fact that we are a very closed society. It is astonishing how multiple tides of foreigners who flooded our country after and during the oil boom have failed to understand and/or open up our society.

I don’t know whose idea was to build residential compounds for foreigners where they can live behind high walls and closed gates. It was a cleaver idea in the past probably, but it had some very negative implications. These compounds that we made have isolated them in their own little world, minimizing contact with locals as much as possible. We have chosen to put them in a shell so we can enjoy the warmness of our shell too, and this is, imho, unhealthy. I have never been to such compounds, but the idea that some of them go as far as to ban wearing thobes and abayas inside them is disturbing.

It is said this can’t go forever, and I believe it is already changing. A landmark in this course was the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and what followed, including attacks in our homeland. 9/11 has made more people in the West look suspiciously to Saudi Arabia, a behavior that we have used with outsiders for a very long time, but this suspicion soon resulted into more interest and effort to understand this country.

It is not just politicians and journalists who seek a better understanding. You won’t expect what kind of email I receive from people coming from different parts of the world and from all walks of life who express their genuine interest in Saudi Arabia and ask all kinds of questions. Here is some examples: a tourist looking forward to experience the unexplored natural scenes in this land; an investor who want to put large sums of money in this country but not sure if he is making the right decision; a film director who wonders about the possibility to shoot parts of her new work here.

What can we do when we have people curious about our country? In the end of this post I will offer some suggestions that might help to decrease the misunderstanding and change the view, but now let’s move to the second part.

From the East

Muslims see Saudi Arabia in the light that it is the birthplace of Islam and its Prophet (pbuh), from where he started his eternal message that shone over the whole world. When they think of this country they think about Mecca, the land of the Ka’aba which they face its direction whenever and wherever they pray five times a day. They think of Medina, the city of the Prophet (pbuh) where he founded for a civilization that spread out its light for centuries and contributed significantly to knowledge and humanity. They have this picture in their hearts, and they are afraid if this country ever changed the picture will diminish and be lost forever.

Reforms, no matter how trivial they seem, are hard to implement, because as the old Arabic saying goes: humans are slaves of their habits. And reforms become even harder when others expect you to resist these reforms and remain standstill.

The way many Muslims view this country as the model Islamic state has given the wrong impression to some Saudis that, considering the place of their country, they are better Muslims than the rest of Muslims in the world. It is hard, of course, for these Saudis to make such claim publicly, but I think it can be clearly seen in the way they try to impose their beliefs on others. This a case where a stereotype has led to more stereotyping: the way many Muslims stereotype this country has made some Saudis start to stereotype themselves and the others as well.

With all this stereotyping, many of us find it very difficult to accept criticism, not even from ourselves, let alone from others. If many Muslims in the world think that our country is the “almost” perfect Islamic state, how can anyone, including us, say there is something wrong about it? Heck, we are even better than what they think, we are actually much better than them!

To make matters even worse, some currents in Saudi Arabia use this stereotyping as a weapon against those who disagree with them. “See, all Muslims think we are such a great country,” they say, “and now you want to come and ruin this beautiful picture.” Something else these people tend to use is calling those who call for reforms as “unoriginal Saudis,” forgetting that those they call unoriginals have inhibited and been living in this land for so long probably even before this country has come into existence less than 100 years ago. It is pathetic how some of those who claim to be the guardians of religion would use such tactics to strengthen their position.

What should be realized is that perfection, or anything near it for that matter, does not exist in this world. Saudi Arabia is neither total good nor total evil, and Saudis are neither angels nor demons. It is a country that has some uniqueness, but such thing should never make us overlook the fact that no matter how “unique” or “different” we think we are, in the end of the day we are a part of something much, much bigger. Saudi Arabia is a part of this larger world, whether we like it or not, and it cannot be simply isolated and it cannot be easily melted.

Exit

As much as it is easy and tempting to do that, we cannot and should not blame others for this situation. Probably they need to go out and look for the truth, but there is a good chance that they might never find it if we kept on closing doors and windows. Then, it is our duty to make the most out of everything in order to get rid of the stereotypes and get over the misunderstanding. I would like to finish with two examples of what can be done:

– Two years ago, Saudi Arabia started an ambitious project to send thousands of its students to receive their higher education in different parts of the world: Europe and America, East and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. The project is expected to last for more 8-10 years. These students are supposed to contribute to the development of our nation when they comeback, but while there they should think seriously about what service they can offer to their country. Get involved, don’t isolate yourself, and don’t miss a chance to teach others about the culture you belong to.

– Blogging for the past two-and-a-half years, I have come to learn that “bridge-blogging” is such a powerful tool to communicate, reach out, and deconstruct the stereotypes. I think Saudi blogs can play a role in that because they show the real face of Saudi Arabia: males and females, liberals and conservatives. We have a good opportunity to show the world our true colors, and we should not miss out on it.

As most of you probably already know by now, the blog of Mahmood Al-Yousef, Bahrain’s most famous blogger, was blocked by order of the Bahraini Ministry of Information. Mahmood’s Den was one of the first blogs that I read, and one of those that inspired me to start blogging. A petition has been launched against the blockage of Mahmood’s Den. Please support free speech in Bahrain by signing it and sending the link to as many people as possible. UPDATE: I’m too late. Mohmood’s blog was unblocked yesterday. Sorry about that, and thanks Raed.

After the silly hugger-mugger following my post on the banned episode of Tash Ma Tash, the last thing I needed was another trigger to make more people open their fire at me. This trigger was a recent interview with Reuters. The interview was published on the front pages of Al Hayat in Saudi Arabia, Gulf News in Dubai, and Arab Times in Kuwait, as well as some newspapers and websites in Europe and the United States.

However, the biggest reaction received by far was when the website of Al Arabiya news channel ran the story. AlArabiya.net, known for their tabloid style of reporting, decided to spice it up by using a different title: “He wears jeans instead of the white thobe and attacks those who decline change: The Most Famous Saudi Blogger Considers Life in the Kingdom “Chronically Boring””. The second part of the title was later changed to a more provocative line: “”Saudi Jeans” Would Like to Change the Life of Youth in Saudi Arabia”, as if this blog was some kind of political organization or something :-)

I have no problem with the title, because it is the content of the article that counts, not the title, even if it was purposefully provocative. In the same manner, I expect others to focus on the content of my blog and ideas and opinions I offer here, not the name Saudi Jeans, and certainly not myself. Therefor, I did not like the way AlArabiya.net presented the interview, and how they misquoted me. I would assume the misquotation was a mistake because it is such a common mistake in the media, but that does not change the fact that it was a clear mistake.

The article has attracted more than 200 comments, most of them are… well, I don’t want to go into describing these comments, so maybe it is better for you to go there and read them yourself. There was a few nice comments, and one of them was by a fellow blogger, Abdullah Al Shahrani who wrote a good post on Tash too. Since AlArabiya.net readers are infamously known for their nasty comments, this should not come as a surprise, at least not to me. Moreover, this proves my statement in the interview that our society remains deeply conservative. I think the fact that many people are willing to attack you personally simply because you called for some not very radical changes, and even if they never heard of you before is quite manifesting of such statement.

If I read such comments about me two years ago, I would have probably quit blogging altogether. Comments such as “Shut up! You are raised on the hands of Philippine nannies and maids” (I wasn’t), “leave this country, you little Westernized spoiled brat” (I won’t, and I’m not), or “anyone who wants to look at failure should look at his person” (ok!), would have left me devastated. But I have grown a thicker skin. Being under attack, no matter how the attack is personal and uncivilized, does not affect me that much anymore. And even if it got me, I would simply take a short break from blogging, spend a few days away, forget about the whole thing, and then get back to business.