Quite possibly true. But there are large secular portions of those states, believe it or not. In Saudi with ARAMCO and its military, especially.
I could use Egypt as an example. The population espouses quite foul antisemitic views. The military, not so much. In fact, there is a lot of cooperation between Israel and Egyptian militaries.
I’m not talking about love, here. Just waving warily to one another across a well-defined border.
I’ve heard the same from a Pakistani colleague who has had family in senior positions. I think that’s lessened now with Pakistan than it was 15 years ago though? He claimed there were plenty of combined efforts at senior levels. Not sure who/what to take to heart sometimes.
That actually becomes a positive when there is nothing negative to point at.
Just speculation, but dirt in their history is probably what keeps a lot of people from running. They know it’s going to come out.
Totally. That’s why I’m not running for office. I once skipped a homework assignment in sixth grade, you think I’m letting that shit go public?
Depending on where you live, it’s incredibly expensive. My friend just made an unsuccessful run for the local school board. The woman who won spent $80,000. Yep. Just advertising for a local school board seat. That’s a lot of yard signs.
I’m terribly sorry, but that’s completely wrong.
I have had the misfortune to work for prolonged periods of time in Saudi Arabia and interacted extensively with rank-and-file Saudis, businessmen and even government officials. Trust me, there’s nothing secular about any of them.
“Secular” is a mortal insult, on par with “decadent” (for example, “Jeddah is decadent because it’s a port city and therefore the infidels may have contaminated it” through seawater I suppose?) and slightly below “takfir”.
I don’t know about the military, but I know about ARAMCO - the Saudis have through extensive interactions with US oilmen, engineers and contractors developed a choreographed BS routine for convincing people that they’re not so hard line as the propaganda says. And that’s complete bullshit.
So the BS routine starts with supposed similarities between the Western and Saudi lifestyle - “we all worry about mortgages” (omitting the beheadings, stonings and the whole housemaid/slave thing) how they respect the delicate flowers that are women so much that they don’t let them drive lest they cause some bodily injury on themselves etc. This is usually followed by “there is only one God” and how we’re also “people of the book” and bemoaning the lack of religious feeling in the West that somehow resonates with middle aged Texans. Officially, the biggest terrorist threat to Saudi Arabia are…atheists (!)
I’ve seen it at least a hundred times and I’m telling you it’s all bullshit, at very best these allegedly “secular” guys have a “well, they’re our guys but they’re a little overzealous” attitude towards ISIS, the vast majority are very, very supportive.
Aligning oneself with Qatar and the Saudis is the proverbial deal with the devil.
I feel this is directed at me, but don’t understand what you are getting at.
No. Didn’t even know you were Texan.
Many oil engineers I’ve met in Saudi Arabia were from Texas and almost down to a man with a failed marriage behind them. Usually they tended to concur with the Islamic “women who know their place” stance espoused during the lets-find-common ground talk with the locals - I guess they still felt bitter about the divorce and wanted to get back at their former spouses.
Hence the comment.
Edit: Another case are US businessmen who visit Moscow and get a taste of high-class prostitutes in Moscow from all corners of the former Soviet Empire (connoisseurs allegedly recommend those from Tatarstan) and suddenly discover their love for Putin and all things Russian. And that was years before Trump.
Don’t you think that these gulf monarchies would also be threatened by ISIS? There is after all only room for one Caliphate. Of course for the time they are more than happy to let their rabbid dogs (i.e. ISIS) fight off the Shias but would Salman willingly cede power to the “True” Caliphate if it was to materialize?
I tend to suspect that after the Arab Spring these gulf states started to realise that the same religously zealous population they had indoctrinated to maintain their monarchy could very easily fall under the control of any Salafi jihadist that gained enough power.
How dare you poke fun of the most beautiful, gracious, kind, glamorous and smartest first lady that there has ever been IN THE HISTORY OF OUR GREAT NATION!!
(According to the left wing media)
Is there active atheistic terror in SA? Or are you saying metaphorically they fear atheism?
I would agree, the cultural sentiment is is devout Wahhabist Islam, though I doubt very seriously they fear atheists even a little bit. The unanswerable question is how devout would they be if their lives didn’t depend on practicing Wahhabist Islam?
When people say Islam is the fastest growing religion, it should have an asterisk next to it. How many would their be if there were not guns to the heads of most of them, particularly in the ME? Apostasy carries the death penalty in many places. And even in places where it’s not the law, families tend to carry out the sentence any way on their own.
She’s a chameleon. Sometimes she’s really pretty other times, not so much. But it isn’t just that her down time is less attractive, she looks like a totally different person. It’s weird. She seems like a nice person though when not talking politics…
I believe this is more an act of the state pushing the Atheist Terror threat and the general population soaking it in from their local mosque.
A secular movement would delegitimize the monarchy.
I doubt the have a problem with it. Upon the first utterance it would be ‘off with your head’.
Drop Sam Harris, Dan Dennett and Dawkins and Riyadh for a conference and they would be run out of their so fast it wouldn’t be funny. Though the picture of Dennett running would be a funny one, since I don’t think he’s willfully moved a muscle he didn’t have to ever. But, yeah, that dog won’t hunt there.
I don’t see an atheist uprising happening in my life time in SA.
The only way you would change the Saudi’s is to conquer them and force it on them. The men like their lives and the women don’t get to bitch, so they ain’t changing, ever.
As entertaining as this would be an Atheist uprising isn’t really what I was implying.
I mentioned that a “secular” movement would challenge the monarchy. The Wahhabi structure is what legitimized the Monarchy, drifting from this orthodoxy will erode their power.
My guess is the royal family uses the threat of “radical Atheist” lol… to alienate/scare off any move towards secularism.
Trump inauguration was low so what. His voters were busy watching NASCAR & pounding their cousins… Just kidding thats a alternative fact… Cant wait to see the Rusian Pee Pee tape hopefully it tops R Kelly
I was actually at work, which is a common theme among most Trump voters. Hence, the streaming numbers being so high.
But while we’re being nasty:
Q: Do you know the difference between Donald Trump and a Reform Jew?
A: Donald Trump has Jewish grandchildren.
Under Trumperica incest jokes will no longer be synonymous with flyover country and will rightfully associated with cousin fucking Muslims
We’re keeping the incest jokes right where they belong- In West Virginia. You can’t mess with an institution like that.