25-Year-Old Saudi Woman Blogger and Social Critic Dies "Unexpectedly"

There's definitely something fishy about 25-year-old, Saudi, female, dissident blogger Hadeel Alhodaif's untimely death.

Via the Arab News, we learn that Alhodaif "unexpectedly" fell into a coma and 25-days later, simply "passed away." But considering her legacy of activism, both within the blogosphere and without, and the fact that she insisted on blogging under her real name, it's more likely she was targeted for death by Saudi authorities. That she was a proponent of women's rights in this most backward of nations (and regions) is even more reason the enemies of progress would want her out of the way.

The article elaborates on her impressive, but all-too-brief, career:

Alhodaif, who maintained “Heaven’s Steps” (http://hdeel.ws/blog), often challenged other Saudi women to join her in stepping out of the shadows of anonymity and devote their writing to issues of social importance.

“I wish that Saudi women bloggers would step forward in their writing instead of simply writing their personal diaries,” she told Arab News in an interview last year. She said that blogging offered a unique opportunity in Saudi Arabia to create a “new free media” to face off against the entrenched establishment newspapers and television channels and give the public what they really wanted to know. In some cases she would appear in these media outlets, such as AlJazeera and Saudi Channel One.

Alhodaif was invited last year to Oman’s Sultan Qaboos University to discuss the role that Saudi blogs play in promoting the freedom of expression. Later that year she gave a lecture at the women’s section of the Riyadh Literary Club calling on women to start their own blogs to help influence public policy and opinion.

“I would like to educate Saudi women about the importance of blogging as an efficient medium that can greatly influence public opinion,” she said during her presentation.

When blogger Fouad Al-Farhan was detained late last year for openly defending a group of conservative academics that had been arrested for meeting and discussing the need for political reform, Alhodaif was the only Saudi woman who came out publicly calling for Al-Farhan’s immediate release. She started a “Free Fouad” website and created a forum on the social networking site Facebook to keep interested people up to date on the case.

“She was truly courageous speaking to the BBC Arabic eloquently and bravely about Al-Farhan’s detention when most Saudi bloggers wanted only to be quoted anonymously,” said a fellow blogger, who preferred to be quoted anonymously.

Al-Farhan was released last month after four months of detention without charges.

Alhodaif published a collection of short stories titled “Their Shadows Don’t Follow Them.” Last year her play “Who Fears The Doors” was performed at the men’s section of King Saud University. In her blog Alhodaif mocked the fact that even as the playwright she was not allowed to attend the performance of her own work due to the university’s strict policy on the mingling of the sexes.

“I guess I have to beg the male audience to inform me how my play was produced,” she wrote in Arabic. “I hope that a day comes when I can attend a cultural function where the presence of women does not cause anyone an allergic reaction!”

Alhodaif’s Facebook profile shows a young woman who was interested in reading, writing and good food. Saudis from all ages and backgrounds — liberals and conservatives alike, those who knew her closely or from a distance, and even those who did not know her at all before — are mourning the bright skinny girl with high dreams and hopes of a better future for all Saudis.

All except the Saudi Royal Family and its Wahhabist cohorts, no doubt.

Whatever its cause, Alhodaif's tragic death demonstrates why the U.S., and the West as a whole, needs to lend its support to such voices of liberalism (in the true sense of the word) in the Muslim world. Just as we supported dissidents behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, today's conflict with radical Islam requires no less.

KVIE Segment Features Campus Watch, CAIR Watch

KVIE, a Sacramento public television affiliate, aired a segment this past week as part of its ViewFinder series titled, “Songs of Hope.” The title refers to a Sacramento Philharmonic performance of the same name that featured three musicians of Egyptian/Muslim, Arab-Israeli/Christian, and Israeli/Jewish persuasion, respectively.

In the process, the show’s producers sought to answer the question: “How does someone outside the Muslim faith get an accurate glimpse of Islamic faith when those leading the effort to educate (Middle East studies professors and the lobbying group, CAIR, Council on American Islamic Relations), have come under constant criticism?”

In a laudable effort to include a variety of viewpoints, “Songs of Hope” features interviews with CAIR-Sacramento executive director Basim Elkarra, founder of CAIR Watch and Chairman of Americans Against Hate, Joe Kaufman, California State University, Sacramento sociology professor Ayad Al-Qazzaz, and me (Campus Watch Northern California Representative Cinnamon Stillwell). Professor Al-Qazzaz, it may be remembered, was the subject of a Campus Watch article about his role in approving the biased and controversial textbook, History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, for use in California public schools.

Although the segment it not available in its entirety at the KVIE website, the transcript has been posted at Campus Watch and several unedited videos, including my own, can be viewed here.

Cross-posted at the Campus Watch Blog.

Daniel Silva’s Spy Series: Middle East Studies in Fiction

My latest article for Campus Watch - posted today at Frontpage Magazine - explores the intersection of fiction, academia, and terrorism. It begins like so:

It isn’t often that characters based on the field of Middle East studies show up in current fiction, but the novels of author Daniel Silva are an exception. The last three novels of his series featuring Israeli secret agent/art restorer Gabriel Allon explore the intersection of Middle East studies and international intrigue.

The sixth novel in the series, Prince of Fire, begins with a horrific terrorist attack at the Israeli embassy in Rome, explores the origins of the modern state of Israel, and ends in an archaeological excavation trench in Provence. Figuring throughout is the handsome and mysterious Paul Martineau, an “adjunct professor of archaeology at the prestigious University of Aix-Marseille III.” Martineau appears to be a Frenchman of indeterminate origin, but when all is laid bare his lineage extends back to the so-called royalty of Palestinian terrorism. Martineau is, in fact, the mastermind behind not only the Israeli embassy bombing, but a string of Islamic terrorist attacks throughout Europe.

Continue reading "Middle East Studies in Fiction"

U.S. Soldiers Learning Arabic at Wahhabist Islamic Saudi Academy

According to the Mount Vernon Gazette, twenty-two soldiers from Fort Belvoir in Fairfax, Virginia just graduated from the nearby Islamic Saudi Academy's "Arabic as a Second Language" program, where they also learned about "Middle Eastern culture and traditions."

While this would sound fairly harmless on the surface (and Arabic language instruction is certainly needed in the U.S. military), it turns out this school has Wahhabi skeletons in its closet.

This would be the same Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) that came under scrutiny last year over its Saudi-produced textbooks. As reported by the Washington Post at the time:

In a report released yesterday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom criticized what it called the promotion of religious extremism in Saudi-run schools around the world, including in the kingdom. It leveled particular criticism at the Islamic Saudi Academy, which operates two campuses in Fairfax County, expressing "significant concerns" that the school is promoting a brand of religious intolerance that could prove a danger to the United States.

The commission does not specifically criticize the school's teaching materials; it said Saudi officials would not make them available. But it said it is concerned about the textbooks used in the school because those used by schools in Saudi Arabia promote violence against Christians, Jews, Shias and polytheists.

...As evidence of the type of material it believes is being taught at the school, it cited a 2006 analysis of Saudi textbooks by the Center for Religious Freedom and Institute for Gulf Affairs. One ninth-grade textbook taught teenagers that violence toward Jews, Christians and others is sanctioned by God. A 12th-grade textbook, the 2006 report says, reads "the hour [of judgment] will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them."

School officials denied the charges, but offered this not terribly reassuring explanation:

But [Acting Director-General Abdulrahman] Alghofaili said that school officials revised their curriculum last summer, eliminating material considered controversial in the United States.

Administrators took textbooks sent from Saudi Arabia, ripped out pages deemed inappropriate and in some cases added material, said Alghofaili and David Kovalik, the education director who was involved in the curriculum changes.

And here's some background on the academy that's even less reassuring:

The Saudi academy was founded in 1984 to educate pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade children of Saudi diplomats; it also enrolls others. Its enrollment has fallen to 1,000 students from 1,300 five years ago, a decrease Saudi activists call a result of negative publicity in recent years. About 30 percent of the students are Saudi.

The academy is unlike other private Muslim schools in the United States, in part because it is heavily funded by the Saudi government, whose official religion is a rigid strain of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism. The chairman of the school's board of directors is the Saudi ambassador.

So who was entrusted with following up on this matter? None other than that bastion of pro-Saudi sentiment, the State Department. It didn't help that school officials refused to make the textbooks available to the commission. They later backed down, no doubt fearing that their image was taking a publicity hit. More from the Washington Post:

Yesterday, Al-Shabnan invited a few reporters, including one from The Washington Post, to tour the school and meet with teachers, students and parents. Officials displayed some of the textbooks used, including a few routinely used by students in Fairfax County public schools. Others, written in Arabic, are religious or language texts, academy officials said. They denied that any of the texts promote religious extremism.

...Commission members said they were not persuaded by the school's invitation to reporters, nor a letter they received from Al-Shabnan on Wednesday. In the letter, dated Nov. 12, Al-Shabnan stated that the school had made its textbooks available to a Fairfax County supervisor for review. Supervisor Gerald W. Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) said yesterday that his office had received six boxes of books from the school and that a translator from the county's library system was looking through them.

Al-Shabnan also invited commission members to come to the school to review the textbooks.

Commission Chairman Michael Cromartie said the offer was not taken up because academy officials wanted mutually acceptable scholars and translators to review the textbooks. He said the commission had repeatedly asked Saudi Embassy officials in Washington for the books but had not received them.

Looking back to February 2005, ISA's valedictorian in 1999, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was indicted on terrorism charges or, more specifically, a plot to assassinate the president. The case prompted New York Senator Charles Schumer to issue a press release questioning whether ISA was "another madrassa" and to send letters to Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan and then-U.S. Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales expressing his concerns.

Captain's Quarters runs down the case, as well as providing additional background information via Jihad Watch (here and here) and The Weekly Standard. Its seems the school withdrew and lost accredation with an association of private schools in 2002 "after the organization asked questions about how the academy is funded and governed." Furthermore, CAIR (of all people) and the Free Muslims Against Terrorism publicly objected to the school's use of a first-grade Arabic textbook, in part because it instructed "teachers to tell students that any religion other than Islam is false."

Micah Halpern, writing at Frontpage Magazine, provides even more damning details about the school's curriculum:

The school teaches:

That trusted friends can only be Muslim.

That even family members, if they are non-believers, have nothing in common with you and should be abandoned or ignored.

That people further away from you geographically and culturally are truly closer to you than the family you live with if your family does not believe.

That one should never establish a close and trusted friendship with a non-Muslim.

Ninth and twelfth grade curricula heavily emphasize the concept of Jihad, of holy war, and the obligation to fight and destroy the enemy and the non-Muslim. There are no grey areas in Saudi schools, it is all black and white and it is all reinforced in classroom assignments, papers and homework.

Nevertheless, Fort Belvoir has a partnership with ISA that everyone seems to be gushing about. According to the Mount Vernon Gazette:

ISA's partnership with Fort Belvoir is only one of the school's many community involvements, but, one of which [ISA's Director General Abdalla] Al-Shabnan is extremely proud. The "Arabic as a Second Language" program received a commendation from the U.S.Military, which occupies a prominent place in Al-Shabnan's office.

One has to wonder why no one in the Department of Defense or any other position of leadership in the military saw fit to check into ISA's background before entering into this cozy "partnership," or if they did, why there were no objections. Could it be that the "infiltration" author Paul Sperry details in his book of that same name extends to the upper echelons of the military? In this day and age of ever-expanding Saudi and Gulf influence, it certainly wouldn't be surprising.

Update (5/19): Family Security Matters (for whom I was a regular contributor) has an important editorial up today on concerns over the textbooks used by the Islamic Saudi Academy.

Columbia's Catastrophic "Nakba" Conference

Exit Zero blogger Mary Madigan bravely charted the "Nakba" waters last week by attending a faculty panel discussion on the subject at Columbia University. She wrote about the experience for Campus Watch and her article is posted today at Frontpage Magazine. Here's how it begins:

As Israelis look towards the future in their celebration of the nation's 60th birthday, some Palestinians cling to the past by commemorating what they call the "Nakba" or "the catastrophe." A faculty panel discussion held at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) last month and titled, "60 Years of Nakba—The Catastrophe of Palestine 1948-2008," was one of many similar lamentations held worldwide.

The tone from the outset was grim. Speakers acknowledged that another "Nakba" anniversary was confirmation that combined Palestinian and Arab attempts to eliminate the Jewish state have not succeeded.

Despite this, Columbia's controversial associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history, Joseph Massad, was upbeat. According to Massad, the Israelis have won military victories, but the "Palestinian resistance" has successfully rebranded them. Through 60 years of tireless propaganda efforts, the Palestinian term, "Nakba," has replaced "Israel's war of independence"; "apartheid" has replaced "Jewish sovereignty"; the "plight of the Palestinians" has replaced "the return of the Jews to their ancestral homeland"; the "Palestinians" has replaced "the non-Jewish community of Palestine." And even in the culinary world, Massad claimed, "Palestinian Maftool" has replaced "Israeli couscous." (Like many of Massad's claims, the couscous issue is debatable. A recent visit to Whole Foods Market proved that Israeli couscous is still the preferred nomenclature.)

Massad's concept of victory reframed the event. It was no longer a dirge-like recitation of perpetual victimization, but rather a showcase—a preview of new trends in "resistance" propagandizing.

Continue reading "Columbia's Catastrophic 'Nakba' Conference"

UCLA Professor Praises Zimbabwe's Dictator Robert Mugabe

As further evidence of the not-so-great minds inhabiting higher education, political science professor and director of the UCLA Globalization Research Center on Africa, Edmond J. Keller, recently made the following statement about Zimbabwe's destructive dictator, Robert Mugabe:

Mugabe has tried to start programs that would increase indigenous business opportunities, but the high inflation rate, the worthless Zimbabwe currency; and a vibrant civil society which has become anti-government make it impossible for him to hold on to power.

That's funny, last I checked, Mugabe had been in power for 28 years. And he's been destroying the country (once labeled the "bread basket of Africa" and now mired in poverty and tyranny) ever since.

Indeed, Keller's commentary brings to mind Sen. Patty Murray's (D-Wash.) ludicrous remarks in 2002 praising terrorist leader Osama bin Laden for allegedly "building day care" and "health care facilities." It's the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" syndrome, and it's rampant on the left. Siding with America or the West, however appropriate in some cases, must be avoided at all costs.

Considering that Keller made his statement to The Final Call, the "official communications organ" of the Nation of Islam, which titles the article in question, "West demands regime change for Zimbabwe," it begins to make sense. Not to mention that Keller's specialties include "Afro-Marxist regimes." Too bad it's the African people who are being oppressed by their, er, great leaders.

But I'm sure Zimbabwe's Movement for Democracy leader, Morgan Richard Tsvangirai, appreciates the support from his "brothas" in revolution.

Update: A reader alerted me to photos of Mugabe's excessively luxurious and gaudy palace, details of which appear in this article in The Sun. Quite a stark contrast to the starvation and poverty subsuming Zimbabwe, but par for the course, unfortunately, for African dictators and beyond.

Middle East Studies Profs. Still Peddling Peaceful Jihad

My latest Campus Watch blog post looks at academic obfuscation when it comes to the concept of jihad and contrasts it with Islam scholar Robert Spencer's enlightening speech on the subject at Stanford University earlier this month:

In his 2002 Commentary article, "Jihad and the Professors," Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes makes a compelling case for "the nearly universal falsification of jihad on the part of American academic scholars." Rather than acknowledging the aggressively military nature of jihad (otherwise known as "holy war"), such academics would have us believe that it consists either of defensive warfare, a struggle for spiritual and personal improvement, or the promotion of social justice. Here are a few of the quotes he cites in the article:

Jihad as "usually understood" means "a struggle to be true to the will of God and not holy war."

Dell DeChant, professor of world religions, University of South Florida

"…in the struggle to be a good Muslim, there may be times where one will be called upon to defend one's faith and community. Then [jihad] can take on the meaning of armed struggle."

John Esposito, founding director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University

Jihad is "resisting apartheid or working for women's rights."

Farid Eseck, professor of Islamic studies, Auburn Seminary

Six years later, it would be nice to conclude that the situation has changed. But the academic apologists inhabiting the field of Middle East studies continue the obfuscation. The following is just a sampling of the sort of misleading and, in some cases, deceptive definitions of jihad these professors have been peddling:

"It is clear that military warfare is the lesser jihad, and the greater jihad is against the forces that prevent human beings from being human, as it were."

Mary Richardson, professor of history, Tufts University (source: Tufts Journal)

Continue reading "Middle East Studies Profs. Still Peddling Peaceful Jihad"

Update (4/30): Robert Spencer explores the true meaning of jihad at Human Events. His article comes in response to three federal agencies' recent edict to personnal to avoid the terms, "jihadist" or "jihad" in discussing Islamic terrorism. It seems our government and our nation's Middle East studies professors have something in common.