{"id":424,"date":"2007-10-12T21:17:17","date_gmt":"2007-10-12T21:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=424"},"modified":"2008-01-19T20:49:15","modified_gmt":"2008-01-19T20:49:15","slug":"saudi-king-prays-with-rifat-al-asad-in-mecca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/saudi-king-prays-with-rifat-al-asad-in-mecca\/","title":{"rendered":"Saudi king prays with Rif&#8217;at al-Asad in Mecca"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Posted by Alex <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>12 October 2007 <\/p>\n<p>BBC Monitoring Middle East <\/p>\n<p>Source: Quds Press news agency, London, in Arabic 12 Oct 07 <\/p>\n<p>Images broadcast by Saudi and Arab satellite channels showing King Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz performing Id al-Fitr prayers in the holy mosque in Mecca today, Friday, with former Syrian Vice-President Rif&#39;at al-Asad near him have angered the Syrians, elite and ordinary people. Writers and human right activists viewed this as a political use of a losing card against the Syrian regime &quot;but with total disregard for all principles, norms, and values&quot;. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rifaat-saudis.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"rifaat-saudis.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>(old photo of Rifaat Assad\/ Source unofficial Rifaat Assad&#39;s site)<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mideastimage.com\/cities\/damascus.aspx\" title=\"Damascus\">Damascus<\/a>, ranking political circles that spoke to Quds Press and requested that their identities remain undisclosed described this as &quot;a bad and ill-timed message&quot; and viewed it as interference in Syria&#39;s domestic affairs. &quot;The Saudi monarch&#39;s appearance next to Rif&#39;at al-Asad in the holy mosque in Mecca is a bad and ill-timed message from King Abdallah. It tries to torpedo what is left of Arab solidarity through a bad message and interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign state,&quot; the circles said. The political circles warned the Saudi leaders against playing such cards. &quot;This is not the first time the Saudis receive Syrian opposition figures. They know very well that if <a href=\"http:\/\/www.creativesyria.com\" title=\"Syria\">Syria<\/a> opens its doors to the Saudi opposition, the gates of hell will open on the Saudis.&quot; <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/rifaat.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"rifaat.jpg\" \/> <\/p>\n<p>The circles said the political message that the Saudi monarch&#39;s audience with Rif&#39;at al-Asad in Mecca sends is very clear; namely, that &quot;the Saudi policy lost its sensibility and associated itself with the plan of the neoconservatives, specifically (US Vice-President) Dick Cheney through (Saudi Crown Prince) Prince Sultan (Bin-Abd-al-Aziz).&quot; <\/p>\n<p>For his part, Haytham al-Malih, a Syrian lawyer and human rights activist, said he was very surprised at the reception that the Saudi leadership accorded Rif&#39;at al-Asad. <\/p>\n<p>In an exclusive statement to Quds Press, Al-Malih said: &quot;Rif&#39;at al-Asad is a criminal politician who must be brought to trial for perpetrating a massacre in Tadmur in which 913 prisoners were killed. He was the one who forcibly removed the veils of Muslim women in Damascus streets, stole Hamah antiquities, and violated the honour of the city&#39;s women. How could the custodian of the two holy mosques receive him and perform prayers next to him?&quot; <\/p>\n<p>Al-Malih said the political dimension of the reception is clear to everyone, but it is just a political dimension with no religious association. &quot;I am really surprised at this matter, which proves that politics has no religion. But we, as Muslims, believe that politics has religion. This is why I strongly denounce this. I do not think Rif&#39;at al-Asad should be received anywhere, certainly not in a place like Mecca.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>In Paris, Haytham Manna, spokesman for the Arab Human Rights Committee, criticized the official Saudi reception of Rif&#39;at al-Asad and said the Saudi leadership cannot stoop to the level of receiving &quot;those who committed crimes against humanity.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He added: &quot;As acknowledged by two courts in Europe, Rif&#39;at al-Asad committed crimes against humanity, crimes that neither time nor pilgrimage can drop. One must pay the price of his sins so that he can meet his God while clean.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>Manna said the hosting of Rif&#39;at al-Asad is one of the sides of the Saudi-Syrian differences. &quot;If there are Syrian-Saudi differences, this does not justify Saudi Arabia&#39;s attempt to use all means, including some criminals, and employ the media to harm others,&quot; he said. <\/p>\n<p>He added: &quot;I don&#39;t think that the wisdom of a person like King Abdallah allows him to use losing cards in political conflicts.&quot; He said the reception reflects Saudi Arabia&#39;s position towards a number of issues. This position, he added, &quot;has become personalized. It is no longer a wise political position befitting the weight of the kingdom. Rif&#39;at al-Asad does not represent Islam, and in Mecca specifically, the end does not justify the means.&quot; <\/p>\n<p>Source: Quds Press news agency, London, in Arabic 12 Oct 07 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posted by Alex 12 October 2007 BBC Monitoring Middle East Source: Quds Press news agency, London, in Arabic 12 Oct 07 Images broadcast by Saudi and Arab satellite channels showing King Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz performing Id al-Fitr prayers in the holy mosque in Mecca today, Friday, with former Syrian Vice-President Rif&#39;at al-Asad near him have angered [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11,52,17,18,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alawites","category-alex","category-for-rels","category-hr-prisoners","category-saudi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - 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