November 18, 2008

Editorial Review ( soon to be available on Amazon)

“Karin” is a real story of a German woman, who lived in Saudi Arabia for a while and fell in love with a Saudi. Later, this love turned into a devastating nightmare. The Saudi “Morality Police”, notorious for their bestial brutality, raped Karin and threw her in prison. Her crime was, she was driven alone downtown by a taxi-driver. Her German-Saudi baby son was taken away and she was deported to Cyprus without passport and money. Muna, a young Moroccan woman was luckier. She managed to smuggle herself and baby after one-night marriage with Sultan, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, you can marry and divorce a woman in her absence. All you need is a religious man and two male witnesses. This is exactly what happened to Karin; she was married in her absence. Muna never saw any marriage or divorce papers.

Mimi and Najat were brutally stoned to death. Najat, a deaf-dumb was caught by the “Morality Police”, suspected of being a prostitute. In reality she was waiting for her brother to pick her up in front of shop window.

The Morality Police Chief quickly passed sentence on Najat. He wrote, among other things: “Najat was working as a prostitute and was caught in the very act of picking up a client. We advise that she be stoned to death…” Two muttawas (Marality Police) delivered the document to Prince Salman, the governor of Riyadh. He jotted down a verdict to match the suggestion, then signed it. Najat was to be publicly stoned to death the following Friday.

Mimi, a house-maid from the Philippines, was denounced by the wife of Karin’s lover. She was picked up by the “Morality Police” and also stoned to death. These stories happen very often, and people are defenseless towards them. There are no courts in Saudi Arabia, and the princes there possess absolute power.

Nisrin, a Bangladeshi woman, who married a Saudi, was deported and the marriage was annulled. Before that she was raped by one of those “Morality Police”. A Saudi who belongs to an important tribe, cannot just marry anyone.

Mohammed, a Syrian truck-driver had both hands amputated for allegedly stealing the truck he was driving.

Very few atrocities like the ones I’m reporting reach the international media. In March, 2002, the Saudi Morality Police prevented school girls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing the correct Islamic dress. As a result 15 girls were burned alive.” My stories are a pattern that happen day in day out.

When you study Islam; the Quran and Shari’a, and live in Saudi Arabia for a while, you find out that the Saudis are in fact applying the Islamic law. “The woman who commits adultery must be stoned to death.”(Quran, 36:18). “And (as for) the man who steals and the woman who steals, cut off their hands as a punishment for what they have earned, an exemplary punishment from Allah; and Allah is Mighty, Wise.” (Quran 5:38). For more details, check out http://europenews.dk/en/node/13862 and “Understanding Muhammad” by Ali Sina.

The book also shows that not only the Saudi regime and its religious fanatic establishment are oppressive, but also other groups in society: Saudi men oppress and ill-treat women, and Saudi men and women oppress abuse foreigners.

When I delivered the manuscript of this book to friends outside of Saudi Arabia, asking them to read it over, their response was uniform: they shook their heads in disbelief. Nobody in the civilized world seemed able to fathom the extent of the arbitrariness and atrocities to which victims in Saudi Arabia are subjected. To them, it was incredible. Some remarked that I was telling stories about the actions of monsters from another planet. They could not believe that any human could act as a Saudi corrupted by power does.