The rights groups, many of them Saudi and Egyptian, said they were "gravely fearful for the lives of hundreds of prisoners threatened with imminent execution" on the charges.

"These men are living in a state of terror since the number of executions for such offences has spiked in the past two months," said the statement signed by 31 organisations, including the London-based Saudi rights group ALQST and the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

Since May, Saudi Arabia has executed 42 people on drug-related charges, compared to just two in 2023, according to a tally compiled by AFP based on official data.

Read More

The number of executed surpassed even the toll of a January 1980 mass execution for the 63 militants convicted of seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca in 1979. It was the worst-ever militant attack to target the kingdom and Islam's holiest site.

It wasn't clear why the kingdom chose Saturday for the executions. However, they came as much of the world's attention remained focused on Russia's war on Ukraine — and as the US hopes to lower record-high gasoline prices as energy prices spike worldwide.

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The decision was part of a royal decree, the statement said, and came two days after an announcement that public floggings would be banned.

Anyone who received a death sentence after being convicted of crimes they committed as a minor will receive a prison sentence of no longer than 10 years in a juvenile detention facility, the statement said. It is unclear when this decision is expected to be enacted. read more

This is an increase of almost 50% on the value of arms licensed in the four years preceding the war, which amounted to £3,572,049,751 worth of arms (26 March 2011 - 25 March - 2015).

According to the United Nations, the bombing has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

UK-made fighter jets, bombs and missiles have all played a central role in the bombing.

Since the bombing of Yemen began in March 2015, the UK has licensed £5.3 billion worth of arms to the Saudi regime, including:

• £2.7 billion worth of ML10 licences (Aircraft, helicopters, drones)
• £2.5 billion worth of ML4 licences (Grenades, bombs, missiles, countermeasures)

In reality the figures are likely to be a great deal higher, with most bombs and missiles being licensed via the opaque and secretive Open Licence system.

In June 2019 the Court of Appeal ruled that the Government has acted unlawfully when it licensed the sale of UK-made arms to Saudi forces for use in Yemen without making an assessment as to whether or not past incidents amounted to breaches of International Humanitarian Law. Continue reading

The source told CNN that Qureiris, who was arrested at the age of 13 by Saudi authorities, could be released by 2022.

Qureiris's sentence includes time served since his arrest in 2014, with the four final years on probation, leaving him with three years left in prison. Read more

Human rights groups have complained that confessions of terrorism and spying for Iran were obtained through torture. Now it has emerged that one of the men allegedly admitted to having sex with four of his co-accused ‘terrorists.' Read more

Rights activist claim the clerics are facing charges of promoting an extremist agenda.

The clerics' prosecution and possible execution is unusual in Saudi Arabia where religious leaders are usually seen as untouchable.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been taking strong action on dissent this year and prosecutors are now reportedly calling for the death penalty for the three alleged extremists. Read more

At present, all other religions besides Wahhabite Islam are prohibited.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has recently begun a series of social reforms.

They have raised the hopes of Christian communities in the Middle East.

The reforms have resulted in Saudi leaders meeting representatives of other Christian traditions in recent months, suggesting a more open environment in the kingdom which hosts Islam's holiest sites.

On Wednesday Salman met Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran.

Tauran is the president of the Pontifical Council for Interfaith Dialogue at the Vatican.

It is the first visit to the kingdom by such a senior Catholic authority and the first between the current Saudi ruler and a Catholic official.

Tauran's visit was welcomed by the Global Center for the Combating Extremist Ideology.

Mohammed bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, secretary-general of the Muslim World League (MWL), and Tauran signed a cooperation agreement on achieving common objectives.

This agreement represents the culmination of the previous cooperation agreement signed between the MWL and the Pontifical Council, following Al-Issa's visit to the Vatican last September.

At that time, Al-Issa met with the Pope and Tauran.

Tauran praised the MWL's efforts in leading initiatives to strengthen relationships and build bridges between religions.

"... I am fully aware of the relentless efforts exerted to make it through its various programmes, really reflect the true meaning of its name, a link, not only among Muslims but also with believers of other religions, especially Christians, to achieve common goals," he says.

More than 1.5 million Christians currently live in Saudi Arabia.

Despite their number, celebrating Mass or worship is formally prohibited under penalty of arrest by the Saudi religious police.

Various religious groups have continued to operate in clandestine fashion, often on diplomatic premises.

Another 1.5 million live in the surrounding emirates, where several churches have already been built.

Source

• Reuters
• Arab News
• Crux
• Image: Twitter

The priest, Father Jacques Mourad, had been the prior of a pilgrimage centre.

It was destroyed when ISIS captured the nearby city of Al Quaryatayn last August.

The city was liberated in April this year.

In an interview about Syria with International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need he said:

"If the world is really serious about putting an end to the ravages of the fanatics, then it will have to stop doing business with Saudi Arabia. Because that is where the funding and weapons for ISIS are coming from." Read more

And to be honest, Yemen wasn't on my radar screen either, until I met Barbara Deller.

For 12 years Deller worked as a hospital nurse-midwife in Yemen, and later served as a faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, advising ministries of health in numerous countries in Africa and Asia and the Middle East.

She explained to me that Saudi Arabia's military campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen has greatly increased the suffering of this already desperately impoverished nation of 27 million people.

Earlier this year, when Houthi rebels took control of Yemen's government, an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia attacked the Houthis because they claimed the Houthis are backed by Iran - Saudi Arabia's archrival.

With U.S. and British support, Saudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen for the last several months with ongoing airstrikes; and is suffocating Yemen with a crippling air, land and sea blockade.

Sadly, as is always the case with war, masses of innocent children, women and men are bearing the brunt of untold suffering.

Deller said, "My personal contacts in Yemen include a young woman in Sana'a [Yemen's largest city] who has three small children and is due to deliver any day now. She has little food and water.

"She said as the intense bombardment starts in the evening she lies with her children in the dark and used to pray that God would protect her and her family.

"Now she says she prays that God will let the next bomb kill them all as it is so excruciating waiting for a bomb to hit.

"If she has any problem while giving birth, she could easily die, as the one maternity hospital in the city has been bombed.

"All of her neighbors have fled the residential area, but they have no money and no place to go."

Reportedly, even before the war, about half the population lacked access to clean water, and the country imported 90 percent of its food from abroad. But in the last several months the ongoing Saudi-led airstrikes, along with its blockade, has pushed Yemen into a full-fledged humanitarian disaster.

In June, the United Nations raised Yemen's crisis status to Category 3 - its most severe level, shared only by Syria, South Sudan and Iraq.

In support of the plea of several nongovernmental aid agencies for a cease-fire, and the lifting of the blockade in Yemen (http://bit.ly/1hUYcoG), please email (http://1.usa.gov/1LAHIj2).

And please consider making a donation to Save the Children by calling (NZ) 0800 167 168. And request that your gift be designated for Yemen.

Yemen's Country Director for Save the Children, Edward Santiago, said "Children are bearing the brunt … not only have they been killed during airstrikes and fighting, but the homes, schools and hospitals they rely on have been damaged or destroyed. Many families don't have the food, fuel or medicine they desperately need to survive" as a result of the blockage.

As believers in the God of peace, how can we possibly ignore the suffering people of Yemen?

• Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist.

She takes tiny, shuffling steps as she completes seven anti-clockwise laps that form one of many rituals she completes as part of her Haj.

"For Muslims, Mecca is sacred, it's the centre of the earth. Haj is one of the five pillars of Islam, and becomes an obligation once a person is able to afford it.

"It gives you the opportunity to reflect on the blessings God Almighty has given humanity," the nurse from Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital explains of the trip she made last year.

Youssef first visited Mecca in 2010 with her cousin and recalls being overwhelmed when she first laid eyes on the Kaaba.

"It was my invitation to visit the house of God and seek forgiveness before Him. My heart was jumping out of my chest," she recalls of the Haj, the biggest pilgrimage in the world that draws millions of Muslims from around the world and is taking place this week.

While the Haj is probably the best-known pilgrimage in the world, there are many other spiritual locations attracting a growing number of Australians who put aside the rigours and stress of daily modern life to take time out for spiritual and physical renewal and enlightenment.

Sheikh Jehad Ismail is an Sydney sheikh who has led international pilgrimage groups to Mecca for many years.

"God wants human beings to experience through the Haj a spiritual and dynamic journey, and then apply the lessons learnt there to their daily life," he says.

An Australian travel agency United World Travel owner Mahmoud Hammoud takes pilgrims every year for a 20-day trip to Mecca and Medina, the city where the Prophet Muhammad was born.

He is in Mecca with a group of 200 pilgrims; he says about 5000 visas are issued annually to Australians travelling for the Haj. Continue reading

Sources

• The Sydney Morning Herald, from an article written by Zohra Aly, lecturer in Arabic and Islamics at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
• Image: asianews.it

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah, told a delegation from Kuwait last week that it was "necessary to destroy all the churches of the region".

The sheikh is head of the Supreme Council of Ulema [Islamic scholars] and of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing of Fatwas.

He is seen as the highest official of religious law in the Sunni Muslim kingdom.

The Arabian Gulf is home to around 2 million Christian migrant workers, and new churches have been built to accommodate them.

But church building is forbidden in Saudi Arabia.

Continue reading

Muslims from all over the world will gather together for five days to pray as one community, celebrating their history and giving thanks for blessings.

From the Masjid Al Haram complex to the hills of Mina, the rites include circling the Kaaba seven times and visiting sites of historical and religious importance.

When is Hajj 2014?
This year's hajj is expected to fall on October 1-6, though that date depends on the sighting of the moon, as Islam follows a lunar calendar.

Hajj takes place annually on the eighth day of the month of Dhul Al-Hijjah in the Muslim calendar.

It's considered an obligation for devout Muslims to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime, if they are physically and financially able.

What's the history of Hajj?
The pilgrimage to Mecca has been going on since pre-Islamic times, as Mecca's economic prosperity during the time of the Prophet Muhammad was largely due to the income from visitors.

Muslims believe that the steps of the Hajj correlate to the story of Hagar, the second wife of Abraham whom he married after Sarah was childless.

After Abraham left her and her infant son, Ishmael, in the desert, she frantically ran between the hills of Safa and Marwa to look for food and water for her baby after their provisions ran out.

As she prayed to God for mercy, Ishmael's heel hit the ground and the well of Zam Zam sprang forth to nourish them.

When Abraham returned, he built the Kaaba with Ishmael's help. Continue reading

Sources

• Huffington Post
• Image: Time

Lengthy prison terms are threatened for almost any criticism of the government or Islam.

The new laws are accompanied by a series of related royal decrees which seem to criminalise virtually all dissident thought or expression.

Secular citizens who commit thought crimes are placed in the same category as terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda's Yemen branch.

Under a new decree by King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia will jail for up to 20 years anyone who fights in conflicts abroad.

This is an apparent move to deter Saudis from joining rebels in Syria.

But the law also applies to any Saudi citizen or a foreigner residing in the kingdom who "calls for atheist thought in any form or calls into question the fundamentals of the Islamic religion on which this country is based".

The laws have been denounced by human rights groups for making no distinction between religious expression and violent extremism.

"Saudi authorities have never tolerated criticism of their policies," said Joe Stork from Human Rights Watch.

"But these recent laws and regulations turn almost any critical expression or independent association into crimes of terrorism," he said.

Human Rights Watch describes the laws as having "serious flaws, including vague and overly broad provisions that allow authorities to criminalise free expression, and the creation of excessive police powers without judicial oversight".

Blogging for Al-Bab, Brian Whitaker wrotes that while the new laws might seem bizarre, "in Saudi terms it does have a certain logic".

"Since the entire system of government is based on Wahhabi interpretations of Islam, non-believers are assumed to be enemies of the Saudi state".

He cites a 2012 WIN/Gallup International poll which found that almost a quarter of people interviewed in Saudi Arabia described themselves as "not religious".

And of those, five per cent declared themselves to be atheists.

Whitaker adds: "Extrapolating that figure on a national scale suggests there around 1.4million atheist terrorists living in Saudi Arabia."

Sources:

• Daily Mail
• Huffington Post
• Image: Colombo Telegraph

When is Hajj 2013?
This year's hajj will be celebrated on Oct. 13th to 18th, though that date depends on the sighting of the moon, as Islam follows a lunar calendar. Hajj takes place annually on the eighth day of the month of Dhul Al-Hijjah in the Muslim calendar. It's considered an obligation for devout Muslims to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lifetime, if they are physically and financially able.

What's the history of Hajj?
The pilgrimage to Mecca has been going on since pre-Islamic times, as Mecca's economic prosperity during the time of the Prophet Muhammad was largely due to the income from visitors.

Muslims believe that the steps of the Hajj correlate to the story of Hagar, the second wife of Abraham whom he married after Sarah was childless. After Abraham left her and her infant son, Ishmael, in the desert, she frantically ran between the hills of Safa and Marwa to look for food and water for her baby after their provisions ran out. As she prayed to God for mercy, Ishmael's heel hit the ground and the well of Zam Zam sprang forth to nourish them. When Abraham returned, he built the Kaaba with Ishmael's help.

What are the steps of Hajj?

First, pilgrims go to Miqat, the entry station to the Hajj, where they bathe, put on special clothing, and make a formal statement of intent. Next they enter the Masjid al Haram complex to do Tawaf, a rite which involves circling the Kaaba seven times while reciting prayers. After this takes place, it's encouraged to sip water from the Zam Zam well, then walk between the hills of Safa and Marwa seven times.

Next, the formal Hajj ritual begins with another declaration of intent. Pilgrims then travel to Mina on the 8th of Dhul al Hijjah and stay there until dawn prayer the next morning. Following the prayer, the faithful travel to the valley of Arafat to stand in the heat and praise God. The day concludes with travel to Muzdalifa and the gathering of small pebbles. A symbolic stoning of the devil occurs at Mina the next day, along with the animal sacrifice which is part of Eid al Adha. Male pilgrims will shave their heads after this occurs. Next, pilgrims return to Mecca to do the Tawaf again, along with the crossing between Safa and Marwa 7 times. Another trip to Mina then takes place, along with more symbolic stoning, before the faithful can return to Mecca to do a farewell Tawaf. Continue reading

Sources

• Huff Post Religion
• Image: All Empires History Forum

The reasons include the rise of violent religious extremism and the actions and inactions of governments, according to Dr Katrina Lantos Swett of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom.

"Extremists target religious minorities and dissenters from majority religious communities for violence, including physical assaults and even murder," she said.

"Authoritarian governments also repress religious freedom through intricate webs of discriminatory rules, arbitrary requirements and draconian edicts."

In its latest report, the commission lists 15 countries of particular concern: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

All of these nations, it says, severely restrict independent religious activity and harass individuals and groups for religious activity or beliefs.

Examples include sectarian violence against minority Christians and Muslims in Burma, repression of non-state religious groups in China, and Iran's imprisonment of Christians on account of their faith.

In both Pakistan and Nigeria, the report says, religious extremism and impunity have factored into unprecedented levels of violence that threaten the long-term viability of both nations.

A second tier of countries is named, where there are also serious and troubling violations of religious liberty. These countries are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos and Russia.

The report also highlights the status of religious liberty in other countries that do not fall into either of the two tiers. These nations and regions include: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Ethiopia, Turkey, Venezuela and the entirety of Western Europe.

Some signs of hope were seen. The report noted that Turkey is "moving in a positive direction with regard to religious freedom".

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

Image: Religious Freedom Coalition

The objection is one of more than 160 sent by the Saudis to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which plans to allow hundreds of new "top-level domains" to supplement .com, .co.nz, and other existing suffixes.

Continue reading

The ultraconservative stance suggests increasing pressure on King Abdullah to retain the kingdom's male-only driving rules despite international criticism.

Rights activist Waleed Abu Alkhair said the document by a well-known academic was sent to the all-male Shura Council, which advises the monarchy. The report by Kamal Subhi claims that allowing women to drive will threaten the country's traditions of virgin brides, he said. The suggestion is that driving will allow greater mixing of genders and could promote sex.

The ultra-conservative Islamic state has said it has the right to stop saudi women revealing 'tempting' eyes in public.

A spokesperson for Saudi Arabia's Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Motlab al Nabet, said a proposal to enshrine the measure in law has been tabled.

If women do not wear an abaya, cover their hair, and in some regions conceal their faces while in public, they face punishments including fines and public floggings.