Two transgender Pakistanis tortured to death in Saudi Arabia.

Two transgender Pakistanis tortured to death in Saudi Arabia. (ET).

Two transgender persons, both natives of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), died on Tuesday after being subjected to torture allegedly by Saudi police in Riyadh for dressing up as women in public.

Thirty-five transgender people were arrested by a law enforcement agency for cross-dressing, which is a punishable offence in the kingdom.

A rest house was raided where a ‘Guru Chela Chalan’ gathering, a formal meeting of Khuwaja Sara in which they choose their Guru (leader) and Chelas (Students), was taking place.

Amna, 35, who belonged to the Mingora area of Swat and Meeno, 26, who was from Peshawar died in police custody. 

The police allegedly packed them in sacks and thrashed them with sticks in prison.

Colonel Fawaz bin Jameel alMaiman, the police’s media spokesperson in Riyadh, told a local news agency that the field-control management had the site under constant surveillance. Women’s clothing and jewellery were also recovered from the rest house.

He added that the 35 people inside had been apprehended.

“Majority of the arrested, belong to K-P and the others from other cities of Pakistan. Torturing humans after throwing them into bags and beating them with sticks is inhumane,” said Qamar Naseem, a transgender rights activist.

While 11 were released later after paying a fine of 150,000 riyals, 22 are still in police custody, Naseem added.

The suffering ended for these two after being physically tortured, however, the rest are still languishing in Saudi jails, he added.

”No one is there to save them as the life of a transgender is not of any value to anyone, not even for our own government,” he lamented.

Naseem said that the National Commission for Human Rights had been contacted and they are awaiting their response. Read the full story here.

Iran to Send Pilgrims to Hajj If Saudis Pay Blood Money (Diya): Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

Source: Inequality in blood money.

Iran to Send Pilgrims to Hajj If Saudis Pay Blood Money (Diya): Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance. (IFP).

In his first press conference, Reza Salehi Amiri, the Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, explained Iran’s conditions to resume sending pilgrims to Saudi Arabia.

“The Islamic Republic’s official policy is to ensure that the dignity and security of its pilgrims is guaranteed in Hajj pilgrimage,” he noted, according to a report by IFP.

Therefore, he added, if Saudi Arabian government accepts our minimum conditions and pay the blood money of Mina martyrs, Iran will send its pilgrims to Hajj this year.

Iran has received an invitation from Saudi Arabia for talks on the 2017 Hajj pilgrimage, and an Iranian delegation is slated to travel to Saudi Arabia on February 23 for talks.

More than 1.8 million faithful took part in last year’s Hajj, but Iranians stayed at home after tensions between Riyadh and Tehran boiled over following a deadly crush of people during the 2015 pilgrimage.

On September 24, 2015, thousands of people lost their lives in the crush after Saudi authorities blocked a road in Mina during a ritual, forcing large crowds of pilgrims to collide.

The crush was the deadliest incident in the history of the pilgrimage. Saudi Arabia claims nearly 770 people were killed in the incident, but officials at Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization say about 7,000 people, including over 460 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives.

Rates of blood money in Saudi Arabia.

Notice no mention of Jews.

Saudi oil-minister hails 'fossil-friendly' Trump, we invested billions of dollars in the American oil industry.

Saudi oil-minister hails 'fossil-friendly' Trump, we invested billions of dollars in the American oil industry. (AA).

I think at the end of the day... Saudi Arabia and the US cannot afford not to work together in concert to confront the challenges that are facing the world. - Khaled al-Falih

Saudi Arabia's oil minister has said that he was pleased with US President Donald Trump's plans to pursue a more fossil fuel-oriented energy policy.

This comes as Trump has made a raft of measures signalling he intends to put America on a more fossil fuel-friendly path, appointing an oil boss to a senior cabinet post and signalling he would go ahead with the construction of controversial pipelines, Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, Khalid al-Falih insisted he was unconcerned by Trump's promise to pursue energy independence, adding that Saudi Arabia had invested billions of dollars in the American oil industry.

"President Trump has policies that are good for the oil industry, and I think that we have to acknowledge it," he said.

"The energy policy on the White House's website talks about working closely with the US Gulf allies; and Saudi Arabia is the leader of that group on energy policies," he said, adding that the Trump administration would eventually "do the right thing for the US".

When asked whether Saudi Arabia had any concerns regarding Trump "putting America first" by moving towards energy independence and cutting oil imports, the minister said the country had "no problem with the growth of American indigenous oil supply".

"As long as they grow in line with the global energy demand, we welcome them," al-Falih said, adding that the "over-exaggerated" concerns will later prove to be non-existent.

The Saudi minister also stressed that the US-Saudi relations were "very strong".

The interview was released on the same day US lawmakers moved to strike down an anti-corruption regulation that would have required oil, gas and mining companies to disclose payments to foreign governments.

Republicans and lobbyists said the Securities and Exchange Commission rule, which had not taken effect since it was issued last year by US financial market regulators, put US industry at a competitive disadvantage.

"Gutting this law will mean oil, gas and mining companies can continue to do secret backroom deals with corrupt regimes, tyrants and dictators all over the world," said Stefanie Ostfeld, deputy head of Global Witness' US office.

The move also came the same day the Senate voted to confirm Trump's secretary of state pick, former Exxon Mobile chief Rex Tillerson, who opposed the rule.

As the world's largest publicly-traded energy firm, ExxonMobil's global empire has been compared to a quasi-state with its own policy.

It has operations in dozens of countries, under multi-year contracts with a variety of governments, and Tillerson was at the heart of many of the deals.

"Rex Tillerson is one of the highest qualified executives I have ever dealt with," al-Falih said, describing the new State Secretary as "a statesman by nature".

"I have watched him with admiration as he led ExxonMobil to become the most respected oil and gas company in the world. I'm sure he'll take his experience and his wisdom to his new position as Secretary of State."

Al-Falih also said he was looking forward to working with Rick Perry, Trump's nominee for energy secretary.


"I look forward to meeting with him and coordinating on energy policies, and we will make sure that there is a better understanding of what we, in Saudi Arabia, stand for," he said.

"MUSLIM BAN" - Kuwait Introduces Visa Ban on Citizens from five Muslim-majority countries.

"MUSLIM BAN" - Kuwait Introduces Visa Ban on Citizens from five Muslim-majority countries. (Basnews).

 Kuwaiti government introduced a US-like travel ban on passport holders of five Muslim-majority countries, according Gulf state.

The Kuwaiti new blanket ban includes Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Pakistanis and Afghans.

The ban is in place and citizens from those countries are not able to obtain visit, tourism or trade Kuwaiti visas.

The Kuwaiti state ascribes the travel restrictions to the instability and the existence of terrorist groups in those countries and that the ban would be lifted once the security situation improves.


US President Donald Trump has recently signed an executive order that includes a 90-day entry ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Hmmm.....Those Damn Islamophobes. 

Video - Saudi Writer Abdullah Alalweet: There Is No Better Model for Morality than the West.

Video - Saudi Marital Consultant: One Wife Is Not Enough, Men Are Capable of Dispensing Love to Four Wives.

Saudi Marital Consultant Dr. Zahra Al-Muabi: One Wife Is Not Enough; Man Are Capable of Dispensing Love to Four Wives.

When asked why a man who loves his wife should turn to polygamy, Dr. Zahra Al-Muabbi, a Saudi family and marital consultant, responded: "One wife is not enough." She said that while the man was created with capabilities "which he can dispense among four wives," a woman "cannot even imagine... talking to another man." In June 2013, Al-Muabi caused an uproar when she said, on Al-Arabiya TV, that if a man beats his wife, she should beat him back.

Video - Liberal Moroccan Writer Said Nachid: Raif Badawi Is Forced to Pray and Attend Religious Classes in Prison.

Liberal Moroccan writer Said Nachid talked, during a conference of the Adhoc organization of liberal modern thought, held in Rome, about his friend Raif Badawi, who was arrested in 2012 and later sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for "insulting Islam through electronic channels." Nachid said that in the early days of Badawi's incarceration, when he still had his mobile phone, he used to call him and tell him about the religious guidance one is forced to attend, including mandatory prayers and lessons in the teachings of Ibn Hanbal and Ibn Taymiyya. The video was posted on Adhoc's social media channels on November 13. MEMRI.

Two Saudi Women Sentenced to 20 Lashes each for Using ‘Obscene Words’ on WhatsApp.

Two Saudi Women Sentenced to 20 Lashes each for Using ‘Obscene Words’ on WhatsApp. (IFP).

Saudi Al-Watan newspaper reported that one of the young women came to the Criminal Court in Jeddah and accused the other of using abusive expressions during their WhatsApp conversation. She then showed her phone at the Court’s request to prove her words.

During the next session, the court confirmed that the woman had indeed sent obscene messages to the other, but the defendant said she was not the first to start the hassle and showed a message which she received from her counterpart two months ago. 

The court then referred the case to a higher instance and one month later, the judge decided that the two girls were equally guilty and punished both of them. The women will spend 10 days in prison and receive 20 lashes each. Both of them could face a much more severe punishment if the incident is repeated, a source close to the investigation told the newspaper.

According to a report covered by YJC, Saudi Arabia has been repeatedly criticized by human rights groups for violating human rights, including public be-headings and floggings, discrimination against women and restrictions on freedom of expression. Hmmm.....Good luck To the UN Human rights council, if they have to lash each  woman that uses obscene words.

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Saudi Arabia: "Women more resistant to beheading" that's why we shoot them now.

Saudi Arabia: "Women more resistant to beheading" that's why we shoot them now. (E24/7).

Convicted women sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia have been more resistant to beheading than men, prompting authorities to change the execution method to shooting, a well-known Saudi executioner has said.

Abu Bandar Al Bishi, a massive man who has beheaded scores of convicted criminals in public places in the Gulf Kingdom, said most of those brought to the execution area appear to be in “trance” ahead of their death.

Quoted by the Saudi daily Sabq, he denied social media reports that those sentenced to death are drugged just before their execution.

“Those brought for execution are not drugged..there is no medical intervention in their execution…they just appear to be in trance or half dead,” Bishi said.

“As for women, they are more resistant to execution than men…we used to behead them but the verdict has been changed to executing them by shooting.

He said many convicts make requests just before their execution, adding that one asked for a cigarette. “Of course we did not give him a cigarette…if he had asked to pray before his death, then it would have been much better.”

Bishi said he uses a gun to execute women by shooting them in the head, adding that he does not stick to doctor’s instructions to shoot them in the heart.

“The doctor draws a mark towards the heart on the convict’s back…but I shoot them in the head because the bullet may miss the heart target if the convict moves.

'Saudi Arabia Deviated from True Islam, Acting against Islamic Teachings': spokeswoman of the Muslim Association of Greece.

Muslim Brotherhood follower Anna Stamou

'Saudi Arabia Deviated from True Islam, Acting against Islamic Teachings': spokeswoman of the Muslim Association of Greece. (IFPnews).

According to a report by IRNA, as translated by IFP, Anna Stamou,(Stamou says she was born an Orthodox Christian but "found the answers to her questions" in Islam ) the press officer and spokeswoman of the Muslim Association of Greece, said on Wednesday, November 2, that Saudi rulers have moved away from Islam since a long time ago, and are acting against the teachings of Islam.

She referred to the ban imposed by Al Saud regime on women’s driving, and said such a ban is only exercised by Saudi Arabia, and no Muslim country has prohibited its women from driving.

“I don’t know based on which Islamic teaching they prevent women from driving,” she added.

“Another case of Saudi rulers’ deviation from Islamic teachings is that Muslim women are not allowed to benefit from their legal inheritance, while in Islam women should also receive inheritance.”*

“Freedom of speech and thought are among the teachings of Islam, but people in Saudi Arabia are deprived of the right to express their views. Saudi citizens are not allowed to play a role in their destiny,” she added.

She further pointed to the West’s efforts to spread Islamophobia, and said that Saudi rulers are adding fuel to such efforts by depriving their citizens of their basic rights, while Islam is the religion of peace and peaceful coexistence of followers of all religions.

“Islam has always encouraged its followers to having peaceful coexistence with other human beings, and has introduced religious minorities in Islamic countries as the integrated part of Muslim countries’ citizens with equal rights,” Stamou noted.

Hmmm......Islamic laws concerning female inheritance.......
* As usual the truth is a completely different story:
 1. She is a hardcore Muslim brotherhood groupie.
2. She is deceitful on what the Koran teaches.

Allah, the Exalted, stated in the Glorious Qur'an:

(Allah commands you as regards to your children's (inheritance); to the male, a portion equal to that of two females.)

[4:11]

Those who misunderstand Islam claim that Islam does injustice to women in terms of inheritance. They opine that it is unfair to grant the male a double to that of the female even though they are children of the same parents. Allah, the Exalted, offered a full and detailed method of women's inheritance in the Qur'an and Sunnah, and if an unbiased student of knowledge reflects on the details, he or she will discover the fault of this opinion.

To begin with, Allah has determined all the shares of all the relatives in respect to their relationship to the deceased. As He the Most Wise said:

(There is a share for men and a share for women from what is left by parents and those nearest related, whether the property is small or large, an obligatory share.)

[4:7]

Allah has stated three types of shares for a woman's inheritance as follows:

1. A woman will have an equal share as that of the man.
2. A woman will have an equal share to that of the man, or a little less.
3. A woman will have half the share of a man.

This means that the minimum of her shares is half, and considering that a female has no continual financial responsibilities as a child, sister, wife or mother, and these responsibilities are always on the men of the family, this is very generous indeed.

More here.

Yemen - Two Iranian warships head to Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Yemen - Two Iranian warships head to Bab el-Mandeb Strait. (TAz).

Two Iranian warships have headed to international waters on a mission that includes sailing in the waters off the southern coasts of Yemen.

Iranian navy dispatched its 44th fleet, comprised of Alvand destroyer and Bushehr logistic warship to the Gulf of Aden and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, Tasnim news agency reported Oct. 13.

The report added that the move is aimed at safeguarding the country’s trade vessels sailing in the international waters against pirates.

According to the report, the fleet is expected to reach the waters near Somalia and Tanzania through the Indian Ocean.

Earlier this week, a US destroyer launched three missiles against Houthi held territories in Yemen destroying three radar control facilities.


The Pentagon later announced that the missiles were launched in self-defense.

Video - Saudi Arabian Islamic Researcher Muhammad Al-Tawbah: Jews, West behind Islamophobia, Gay Rights

Video - Saudi Arabian Islamic Researcher Muhammad Al-Tawbah: Jews, West behind Islamophobia, Gay Rights. Memri.

Islamic researcher Muhammad Al-Tawbah said, in a recent TV interview, that the Jews, whose "interests are threatened" by the presence of the Muslim immigrants in Europe, "have a great interest in causing aversion of Muslims and in banning a Muslim from owning a newspaper, for example.

" Speaking on the Saudi Al-Majd TV channel on August 21, Al-Tawbah said: "[The Jews] are now peddling their suffering. Six million were burnt... Fine, what are you doing in Palestine?"

He also complained that the West supports homosexual and women's rights in the Arab world. "They give women rights that were not prescribed by Allah – a Muslim woman rules in her home more than Obama rules America," Al-Tawbah said.

Korans meant to be 'Burned' but, Put in Garbage by Saudi Embassy in Morocco Cause Fury.

Korans meant to be 'Burned' but, Put in Garbage by Saudi Embassy in Morocco Cause Fury. (IFPnews).

Some rather strange photos were circulated on Moroccan social media this week. Piles of books, carefully bound in a range of rich colours, lying sadly in the middle of a wasteland, Al Bawaba reported, as covered by Press TV.

Damningly they were copies of the Quran, the holy book of Islam. They were snapped next to a garbage dump causing outrage across Morocco, according to a report by HuffPost Arabi.

According to Islamic hadiths (sayings from the prophet of Islam, Muhammad), the Quran should be treated with the utmost respect when being stored or handled. Aside from being treated with such care, it should not be made dirty.


The source of the abandoned holy texts, it has appeared, is even more shocking. The Qurans came from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Rabat, says HuffPost Arabi.

The story was reported in various other Arabic-language news sites as well.

In light of the outcry, however, the Kingdom’s representative has issued an explanation for its mistreatment of religious books.

According to the Saudi website Ajel, the books were being kept in the basement of the embassy where they were exposed to rain.

Officials said they instructed workers to carry the books to outside to burn them in a safe place, but their requests were ignored by employees who allegedly dumped the books on the floor.  Hmmm.....just imagine if a Non Muslim did something of the kind.

'Wahhabism Even More Evil than Israel': Hezbollah leader Nasrallah

'Wahhabism Even More Evil than Israel': Hezbollah leader Nasrallah. (IFPNews).

Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of Hezbollah, made the remark during his annual meeting with Muslim eulogists and the people responsible for commemoration ceremonies during the Lunar month of Muharram, Lebanon’s Al Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The Hezbollah chief said he considered Wahhabism to be responsible for damaging Islam’s image worldwide. “Wahhabism is more evil than Israel, especially [in] that it seeks to destroy others and eliminate whatever thing that has to do with Islam and its history,” he said.

Not a Shia, Sunni matter.

“This project was launched in 2011, and it not a Shia and Sunni matter. The role played by spy services is completely evident here. We should use this opportunity to pin Wahhabism down and deal a blow to it,” he added.

The existent conflict, Nasrallah said, was not between Shias and Sunnis, but with Wahhabism.
Wahhabism is the radical ideology dominating Saudi Arabia, freely preached by government-backed clerics there, and inspiring terrorists worldwide.

Daesh and other Takfiri terror groups use the ideology to declare people of other faiths as “infidels” and then kill them.

Nasrallah also said what posed a yet bigger threat than Wahhabism and Zionism was “British Shiism,” which, he said, was being promoted by pseudo-religious figures, whom he called mercenaries of intelligence services.

Hezbollah has been crucial to keeping Wahhabi terrorism out of Lebanon, while helping neighboring Syria in holding back the scourge, too.

The Hezbollah chief said Saudi Arabia had escalated tensions to a climax and was trying, with the help of the US and Britain, to portray conflicts as sectarian.

Referring to the Syrian conflict, he said there were no “moderate” armed groups in Syria, warning that all those fighting Damascus were either working with Daesh or al-Nusra, which has recently renamed itself.

Nasrallah also said he saw no prospect for a political solution for the Syrian conflict. “Developments on the [battle] ground will ultimately determine [the outcome],” he said matter-of-factly.


Syria has been fighting a foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Hezbollah fighters have been assisting Syrian government forces fighting back the militants, including Daesh and other dangerous groups.

"Indeed No Resemblance between Muslims’ Islam, and Saudi Wahhabism". Iran FM Zarif.

"Indeed No Resemblance between Muslims’ Islam, and Saudi Wahhabism". Iran FM Zarif. (IFP).


“Indeed; no resemblance between Islam of Iranians & most Muslims and the bigoted extremism that Wahhabi top cleric & Saudi terror masters preach,” Zarif said in a message posted on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

The remark by the Iranian foreign minister came in response to Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al ash-Sheikh saying that Iranians were not Muslims.

The Wahhabi Mufti made the remarks after Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei strongly criticized “murderous” Saudi rulers over last year’s deadly Mina crush, which claimed the lives of over 4,700 pilgrims, including 465 Iranians.

“Several thousand families from different countries lost their loved ones and their nations were bereaved. From the Islamic Republic, close to five hundred people were among the martyrs. The hearts of their families are still broken and bereaved and our people remain grief-stricken and angry,” the Leader said.

“Instead of apology and remorse and judicial prosecution of those who were directly at fault in that horrifying event, Saudi rulers- with utmost shamelessness and insolence- refused to allow the formation of an international Islamic fact-finding committee.”

Iran ahead of OPEC Meeting: 'No output cuts before we reach pre-sanctions market share.'

Iran Rebukes Saudi Arabia ahead of OPEC Meeting. (IFP).

“Naturally, if a country wants to produce at full capacity, there will be no balance in the market,” Deputy Petroleum Minister for Trade and International Affairs Amir Hossein Zamaninia said late Saturday.

The official did not name a country, but his comments were apparently directed at Saudi Arabia which recently backed out of an agreement with Russia and other countries to freeze crude production.

Riyadh has been insisting that all countries join the freeze initiative, singling out Iran which has been ramping up production to redeem its lost market share after the lifting of Western sanctions.

Zamaninia stressed that Iran is ready for cooperation but that it has to return to former production levels first. “Iran can cooperate in this regard when it returns to the (market) share before the sanctions.”

Reviving Quota System.

He said OPEC countries need to find a way to revive the quota system which Saudi Arabia scuppered in December 2011 and introduced an output ceiling of 30 million barrels per day (bpd).

His remarks to reporters came after Algerian Energy Minister Nouredine Bouterfa met with Iran’s Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh in Tehran. Bouterfa has travelled to Iran ahead of an OPEC meeting on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum (IEF), which groups producers and consumers, in Algeria on Sept. 26-28.

Zamaninia said 90% of Algeria’s budget depends on oil and gas revenues, but that lower prices have extremely put the North African country’s finances under strain.

He said Bouterfa had made some proposals to strike a balance in the oil market in order to prop up prices in a reasonable way.

Speaking to reporters after his meeting with Zanganeh, the Algerian energy minister said a crude oil price of $50 per barrel is “not acceptable.”

“OPEC members are trying to reach a price of $50 to $60 per barrel and we have made a request for reaching consensus on a price and coordination among OPEC members in this regard,” Bouterfa said.
The Algerian minister said conditions were ready for reaching consensus on a price in the next OPEC meeting which all members will attend and the outcome will be “positive.”

Bouterfa said Iran’s participation in the next meeting was important even as he did not say whether the Islamic Republic would accept other members’ views about production and prices.

“This depends on Iran’s view. How much consensus would be there, I cannot answer this question and you must ask this from Iranian officials,” he told reporters.

Putin’s Compromise on Iran.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying that a potential oil output freeze deal among oil-exporting countries should involve some compromise on Iran’s production levels.

“I think that from the point of view of economic expediency and logic, it would be right to find some sort of compromise” on the Iranian output level, Putin told Bloomberg.

He said countries now recognize that Iran should be allowed to continue raising production as sanctions have been lifted against the country.

“Iran is starting from a very low position, connected with the well-known sanctions in relation to this country,” the Russian president said, adding, “It would be unfair to leave it on this sanctioned level.”
Global oil prices have seen a fall from a high of 147 dollars a barrel to a low of around 25 dollars in recent years.

Putin held Saudi Arabia responsible for failed attempts by OPEC and non-OPEC oil exporters to reach a pact on stabilizing production levels.


“It wasn’t us who rejected a freeze on production volumes, it was our Saudi partners who at the last minute changed their point of view and decided to take a time out in taking this decision,” Putin said, referring to a deal reached in Qatar in April.

Iran will not follow crude output freeze, but will support any action by OPEC to reestablish stability & Fair prices.

Iran will not follow crude output freeze, but will support any action by OPEC to reestablish stability & Fair prices. (Taz).

Iran will not promise commitment to any plan on freezing its crude output volume, says Mehdi Asali, Iranian oil ministry's director for OPEC affairs and energy circles relations.

"However, Iran will support any action by OPEC to reestablish stability in the oil market with respect to fair and sensible oil prices," he said, IRNA news agency reported June 1.

"Iran's stance is clear and the country expects OPEC members in their upcoming meeting to regard the country's situation for it has just been freed of sanctions after years and is seeking to redeem its output and markets to the pre-sanctions times," Asali said.


"Right now the OPEC members are concerned with redeeming the market's stability and prices. The issue of rationing outputs would be better relegated to a time after," he added. Read the full story here.

Video - Senior Saudi Cleric Saleh Al-Fawzan: Taking Pictures with (or without) Cats Is Forbidden.

Senior Saudi Cleric Saleh Al-Fawzan: Taking Pictures with (or without) Cats Is Forbidden. MEMRI.

Sheikh Saleh bin Fawzan Al-Fazwan, a member of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars, was recently asked about the "new trend of taking pictures with cats [which] has been spreading among people who want to be like the Westerners." His response was that "taking pictures is prohibited if not for a necessity - not with cats, not with dogs, not with wolves, not with anything." The video was posted on April 17 on several YouTube channels dedicated to the rulings of Saudi scholars.

Bin Laden group refuses to pay 50,000 sacked foreign workers their salaries, as if they're slaves

Saudi builder Binladin reportedly cuts 50,000 jobs as government cuts hit their purse. Reuters.

Construction company Saudi Binladin Group has laid off 50,000 staff, a newspaper reported on Friday, as pressure on the industry rises amid government spending cuts to survive an era of cheap oil.

The total workforce at Binladin, one of Saudi Arabia's biggest firms and among the Middle East's largest builders, is around 200,000, according to its LinkedIn page.

Saudi newspaper al-Watan, citing unnamed sources, reported that the group has terminated the contracts of 50,000 workers - apparently all foreigners - and given them permanent exit visa to leave the kingdom.

The paper said the workers refused to leave the country without getting paid and some had not received wages for more than four months. They were protesting in front of the Binladin's offices in the country almost daily, the paper added.

Binladin did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment on Friday, a day off in the Gulf region.

The company has had a series of pay disputes with workers this year. In March, scores of workers gathered outside one of the company's office in Saudi Arabia to demand unpaid wages. Read the full story here.

yesterday, employee of Bin Laden group had burn some buses as a protest for not receiving their salaries for 6months pic.twitter.com/KRJ96jH08P

— محمد النمرm. alnemer (@mbanalnemer) May 2, 2016

Video - Saudi Family Therapist Khaled Gives Advice on Wife Beating, The 'Women's Desire for Equality Causes Marital Strife'.

Video - Saudi Family Therapist Khaled Gives Advice on Wife Beating, The 'Women's Desire for Equality Causes Marital Strife'. Memri.

In an online video, Saudi family therapist Khaled Al-Saqaby imparted advice on marital strife. Beating one's wife, said Al-Saqaby, should be intended as a means of discipline, rather than to vent one's anger, and should be carried out not with a rod or a sharp object, but with a tooth-cleaning twig or a handkerchief. "Unfortunately, some wives want to live a life of equality with their husband," he said. "This is a very grave problem." The video was posted on the Internet on February 24, 2016.