SUSRIS Daily News – Excerpts from International Media Reports
[Links to full articles were active on the date posted here]
Saudi Cleric Announces On-Air Plans to Visit Occupied Jerusalem [Apr 6]
“A Saudi cleric has announced on his television show that he will visit occupied Jerusalem next week to bolster Muslim claims to the city. If Shaikh Mohammad Al Areefi goes ahead with his plan, it would be an unprecedented trip for a prominent Saudi. Occupied Jerusalem is the third holiest site in Islam, but most Muslim countries – including Saudi Arabia – observe a boycott of Israel and ban travel there. Al Areefi told his viewers on Sunday on the religious satellite channel Iqra the next episode of his show would be about Muslim claims to Jerusalem and Palestine. Al Areefi said he would visit the city next week, though he did not specify when. Al Areefi is viewed as a comparative moderate among Saudi Arabia’s conservative clergy..” [Complete Report]
Segregation of Sexes: Hai’a Chief Stands by His Comment [Apr 6]
“Ahmed Qassim Al-Ghamdi, the head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the Hai’a) in Makkah, has said he will not go back on his previous comments on the segregation of the sexes, and described opposition to his views from within his own organization as disgruntled individuals trying to ‘get their own back’.. ..In an interview reported by Saudi Gazette last December Al-Ghamdi spoke at length on the subject of the mixing of sexes – ‘ikhtilat’ – in which he described it in the current usage as ‘a recent adoption unknown to the early people of knowledge’. ‘Mixing used to be part of normal life for the Ummah and its societies,’ he said, adding that the word ‘in its contemporary meaning has entered customary jurisprudential terminology from outside’. ‘Those who prohibit ikhtilat cling to weak ahadith, while the correct ahadith prove that mixing is permissible, contrary to what they claim,’ Al-Ghamdi said..” [Complete Report]
Saudi Argas Sees Aramco Red Sea Award ‘Shortly’ [Apr 6]
“Arabian Geophysical & Surveying Co., part-owned by the world’s largest seismic surveyor CGGVeritas, expects Saudi Aramco to award a contract for exploration work in the Red Sea ‘shortly.’.. ..Argas is competing with international companies such as Schlumberger Ltd.’s WesternGeco unit and China National Petroleum Corp.’s BGP Inc. to win contracts from Aramco as oil prices rebound from 2009 lows and demand returns after the recession. Argas is 51 percent-owned by Saudi state-controlled Industrialization and Energy Services Co., also known as Taqa. Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest state-owned oil company, plans to drill its first well in the deepwater Red Sea area in 2012, Abdulla al-Naim, vice-president for exploration, said on Dec. 7. The Red Sea is 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) deep in places with a salt sequence 7,000 feet thick that can distort seismic images, according to a report in Dimensions, the company’s in- house magazine. Aramco aims to discover at least 5 trillion cubic feet (142 billion cubic meters) of natural-gas reserves annually to meet soaring domestic industrial demand, according to Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi..” [Complete Report]
New Revenue Regulations Adopted by Shoura Council [Apr 6]
“The Shoura Council adopted on Monday new state revenue regulations to replace the Kingdom’s existing 60-year-old regulations. ‘The new regulations aim to increase revenue and supply necessary stimulants to generate more revenue,’ said Muhammad Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, secretary-general of the council. ‘The distinctive features of the new system include the definition of the sources of revenue such as natural resources, fees, wages, taxes, loans, refund of loans, investment returns, sales, fines and proceeds from the sale of state properties and rentals, donations, endowments, compensations and any other source decided by the Council of Ministers, which is the responsible body for the ideal investment of state resources,’ Al-Ghamdi added..” [Complete Report]
WHO Office in Kingdom [Apr 6]
“Health minister Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabiah has formally opened a World Health Organization (WHO) office in Riyadh. The opening ceremony was attended by the WHO’s East Mediterranean Regional Director Dr. Hussein bin Abdulrazzaq Al-Jazaeri. Al-Rabiah expressed his pleasure over cooperation with the WHO in many programs such as online health advice and epidemic diseases..” [Complete Report]
Rivalry and Differences Between Saudi and UAE [Apr 6]
“Competition for roles in a planned monetary union has brought to the open rivalry between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) two biggest economies. The UAE quit the monetary union plan last year after heads of states chose Riyadh as a location for the bank, dealing a blow to a plan that has been languishing since 2001. The appointment last week of the Saudi central bank governor at the helm of the monetary union’s top authority may be for only a one year term but the move may further reduce prospects for the United Arab Emirates and Oman to return. Here are some facts about the rivalry:..” [Complete Report]
Saudi Shias Arrested Over Worship [Apr 6]
“Authorities in Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia have arrested several Shia community leaders in the Eastern Province for hosting Shias worship services in their homes, an activist said Tuesday. A 30-year old school teacher was detained on Monday in Al-Khobar, where three other Shias were arrested a week earlier for private services on the Ashura holiday last December, said Ibrahim Mugaiteeb of the Human Rights First Society. The arrests follow more than a year of tensions in the Eastern Province over permits for new Shia mosques in the region. Authorities have shut down several makeshift Shia mosques and refused a mosque permit for the 20,000-strong Al-Khobar Shia community, according to Mugaiteeb. ‘They cannot have their own mosques, and they can’t pray in a Sunni mosque,’ he told AFP. ‘They are not allowed to have prayers in the streets.’.. ..Shia’s constitute around 10 percent of the population of Saudi Arabia, where Sunni Islam is the official practice and most Sunni clerics regard Shia’s as a rejection of ‘true’ Islam..” [Complete Report]
Saudi-Luxembourg Cooperation in Islamic Finance [Apr 6]
“The signing in Alkhobar of a strategic cooperation and alliance agreement between Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Hamad Al-Soaib Law Firm and the Luxembourg-based Lux Global Trust Services and Theisen Advocates recently is set to increase the use of the Duchy as a trust and tax domicile for Saudi investment products; investment vehicles such as special purpose vehicles (SPVs) used in the issuance of sukuk for instance; and the registration of investment funds, especially for UCITs (Undertakings for Collective Investment Trusts) of which Luxembourg is the world leader. The agreement specifically alludes to cooperation in the Islamic finance space and products, especially investment funds and sukuk, in addition to capitalizing on the Duchy’s tax regime for international transactions..” [Complete Report]
