Missing Patrol

The report “Speedsters Beware, Patrol Police Are on the Prowl” (Nov. 3) was a great story. It told us how the highway patrol had made the Jeddah-Makkah Expressway safe. The patrol, according to the report, “is operating at full capacity this month to ensure the safety of travelers and pilgrims. Patrol officers are at every two kilometers — not counting those hiding in unmarked cars.” As I said, it was a great story, as stories go. But where did he get it?

That was not what I saw when we went for Umrah. The highway patrol was not on the highway. Maybe, they were hiding in the “unmarked” cars that the report mentioned. If they were, I will grant this to them: They were doing an extremely efficient job of hiding. In fact, even their unmarked cars were hiding.

We set out in a taxi from Jeddah after the Zuhr prayer. Having read about the highway patrol’s prowling, I settled down to a slow and safe journey within the speed limits. This was one time when I did not have to worry about speedsters, I thought.

The car was a new Camry. The driver’s idea of “safe and slow” was 180 kilometers an hour. With no prowling police patrol to disturb him, he was holding on to that speed when a provocation came in the form of a Honda Accord. Naturally, he could not allow that. He put his foot down on the accelerator and the speedometer touched 200. we told him that we were in no hurry. That was not the point, he said. We could understand. His pride was touched. We begged him to have mercy on me, my wife and child — and also on himself. THE abject cowardice we showed made him smile. He said that was what he did every day. There was no point in asking him what would happen if something went wrong with the tire? What would happen to my infant child in the back seat?

My point is: What kind of patrolling it is when two big vehicles drive at a speed exceeding 180 kilometers per hour on a long stretch of the highway and no one notices that? How keen are they on catching offenders when there are no radars, no cameras, and no alarm systems? How many lives are lost every year on this very highway? One suggestion I would make is to lock the speed of every car at the import point so that their maximum speed will not exceed the limit fixed for our roads.

And finally, who are these speedsters? Let me assure you the answer is not the automatic one that comes out when something goes wrong and someone is needed to take the blame — expatriates. The speedsters are the respected citizens of the Kingdom. It is they who can afford the monsters that can drive at racing speed.

Mirza Farhan Baig • Dammam, published 11 November 2004

This morning at 9 a.m. local time, a group of 30 armed security men stormed the Anglican Church compound in Jerusalem and arrested Mordecai Vanunu, the nuclear whistleblower, who was released after 18 years of captivity just a few months ago.

Bishop Riah told me that the Israeli security personnel disregarded sanctity of St. George Cathedral, brandished their machineguns, scared the pilgrims and the clergy. The bishop demanded from them to respect the church and remove armed men, but they refused.

Vanunu was taken to Petach-Tikwa for detention, the Bishop was told.

The arrest came when the attention is drawn to death of President Arafat; actually an Israeli member of Knesset Yuval Shteinitz demanded to re-arrest Vanunu who continued his demand for opening Israeli nuclear arsenal for international inspection.

Vanunu gave a some interviews recently, one of them is available on www.israelshamir.net given to Johannes Wahlstrom, a Swedish journalist.

He also gave interviews to British media, including a live one.

Please intervene immediately, contact the Anglican Church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, your governments and church leaders. This breach of sanctity of the Church comes two years after the siege of Bethlehem Nativity by Israeli troops.

This is the time to express solidarity with Mordecai Vanunu, to demand his immediate release from captivity!

Israel Adam Shamir, Jerusalem published 11 November 2004

Camera Phones

Conflicting reports keep appearing in newspapers about mobile phones with cameras. Are they banned in the Kingdom or are they not? If they are, it is time the ban is lifted.

It is true that camera phones can be misused; so can be all inventions and even faculties. The fault is not of machine, but of man. The benefits of this product of technological breakthrough are comparable to that of the Internet and television. The new generation of cameras has special features such as “blue tooth” wireless technology the advantages of which are limitless.

Like it or hate it, we have to move with the march of technology. In this fast-moving global village we don’t have the choice of staying out of the race.

Mohammed Abdul Shakeel • Jeddah, published 11 November 2004

Mixing Religion With Politics

Abdulrahman Al-Rashid gave sage advice in his article “Iraqis Should Be Wary of Those Trying to Mix Religion With Politics” (Nov. 7). Both Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis should work together to end the occupation which can be done only through elections. They also need to unite to bring to justice their former rulers who were guilty of every possible crime against the people of Iraq. They have to be made to answer for the torture, killing, imprisonment, dishonor and all other pains and indignities they heaped on the people. There are mass graves in almost every corner of Iraq.

Iraqis have no time to waste on quarreling. They have to end the occupation, bury their past and march ahead to the future. They cannot do that if they listen to men who mix religion with politics for their own personal gain.

M. Taki • Jeddah, published 11 November 2004

Resistance in Iraq

I was shocked by the report “Saudi Scholars Say Resistance in Iraq Is Jihad” (Nov. 7). Iraqis have lived under terrible conditions for decades. My son is a Marine. He has helped rebuild schools, water systems, etc. He feels sorry for the people who have had to live under such a dictator. Now you say that it is proper to kill him?

What kind of religious scholars these people must be if they say that it is a religious duty to strike the one who helps you?

Carolyn Vaughn • United States, published 11 November 2004

Resistance in Iraq - 2

I don’t support our involvement in Iraq either. We are there because of the decision made by a person who I wish were heading back to Texas. But we are to have four more years of him. However, I would like to tell the clerics: Your decision to encourage resistance against the American “occupiers” is repulsive and alienating.

You become, with your decision to encourage resistance, enemies of all Americans. Surely, that is not in anyone’s best interest. Surely, the hundreds of thousands of Muslims in America will not agree.

Edward Faircloth • United States, published 11 November 2004

Resistance in Iraq - 3

The scholars said part of the truth, not all of it. They should say that the American invasion was nothing but an act of terrorism undertaken without any UN resolution and that America should withdraw its troops immediately from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Shaikh Nooruddin • Jeddah, published 11 November 2004

White Revolution

I am proud to say that I am one of those 41 percent of Americans who, as M.J. Akbar noted in his article “The White Revolution” (Nov. 7), voted for Kerry. I also happen to be from Iowa. We are deeply saddened by Bush’s theft of the election. Our voting system is unfair and discriminatory, alienating a group largely made up of working-class America, African-Americans, Hispanics, the young and the old, and many more who care deeply about our country. We see the dream slipping away from those who believe in a far different America. I am particularly disappointed in our state. We have gone from among the blue states where we were during the last five or so presidential elections, and now find ourselves in despair as a red state.

I just pray that the truth comes out sometime in the near future. Electronic voting was suspect at best; it stole our democracy at worst. The American people must work very hard to regain the basic right of voting and of having that vote counted, and thus correct the injustice of the present system.

All of you out there, please understand that there are almost half of the voting population who voted for change. I will now work diligently against the war and try to awaken the American public. But then again, maybe, they are just stupid white men.

Pete Peterson • Iowa, US, published 11 November 2004

White Revolution - 2

Are we stupid? I am not sure we are not. As Akbar says, we were convinced to support tax cuts for the really rich 1 percent when too many of us didn’t have jobs. Can anyone deny the stupidity of that?

Joseph Crilly • United Sates, published 11 November 2004

White Revolution - 3

Akbar’s article gave me a feeling of smugness. With all its poverty, sectarian strife and backwardness, my India has not done so bad as a democracy, I thought. It looks that all their big newspapers, satellite channels, great scientists, tall buildings, Hollywood and so on, the average American is dumber than an average Indian villager when it comes to the ease with which he can be taken for a ride. That is saying a lot if you know what simple souls Indian villagers are.

When all this din is over, I wish Akbar would write a comparative assessment of democracy as it actually is in India and America. He seems to have a good understanding of American politics and, as a senior Indian journalist, there cannot be much he does not know about India’s own politics.

Saleem Abdullah • Riyadh, published 11 November 2004

Why Palestine Is Dear to Us’

I am an American who supports Khaled Batarfi’s views (Nov. 7) on American funding of one religious group in the Middle East. I have been writing letters to American newspapers for years challenging America’s funding of a foreign government that is engaged in fulfilling religious dreams of purity that harm other people.

I was a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1969 and saw firsthand how bad foreign policies of America can harm so many people. I believe in American values, and funding and arming a foreign government that has established 270 religiously pure settlements outside their borders is totally un-American and evil.

I’m sorry for all the pain and suffering that misguided American foreign policy has caused in the Middle East.

Larry Hupe • United States, published 11 November 2004

‘Why Palestine Is Dear to Us’ - 2

America intervened on behalf of Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina and on behalf of Muslims in Kuwait. Muslims in America enjoy more freedom than Muslims in a Muslim country. Certainly, we need to be more evenhanded with regard to how we look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But for all his faults, Bush has at least taken a step toward peace by acknowledging a two-state solution. Camp David? Oslo?

Khaled Batarfi seems to justify the killing of innocent Israeli children, mothers, and fathers with the oppression of the Palestinian people. Well, the Israelis justify the killing of innocent Palestinian children, mothers, and fathers as response to the killing of innocent Israeli children, mothers, and fathers. Round and round and round it goes.

Where will it stop? Nobody knows. I have written a letter to my president asking that he publicly decry acts of random violence toward Palestinians, when civilians are targeted. Why does the Arab world not speak out against violence toward civilians in Israel? And how can Arab governments who so blatantly oppress their own people even begin to talk about the Palestinian situation? Palestinians are better off in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank than as refugees in other so-called Muslim countries.

Why have Muslim countries done so little for the people who actually suffer? I’ll tell you why: Because they want to milk the real suffering of others for their own gain. Some of what Batarfi say may be true about American attitudes, although certainly not my attitude, but he says that from a position of the ultimate hypocrisy.

A.S. • United States, published 11 November 2004

Judging the Judges

There were reports recently that a traffic awareness conference was to be held in Dubai on Dec 4, 2004. Having seen the performance of some of those whose job it is to enforce traffic laws and improve traffic safety, I have a suggestion to the Dubai Police Authority: Give every participant at the conference a random driving test.

Sometime back in India, when the road transport authorities gave the police a driving test, more than 10 percent failed in traffic rules.

M.A. Baig • Jeddah, published 11 November 2004

The vulgarities in Iraq

The vulgarities in Iraq are somehow explained away. So what makes the world still cringe? Are the explanations a bit more vulgar than the vulgarities? One might hope the explanations would carry the weight. In the dim light guiding Bush and Company little makes sense or obscures the obvious. If reason could prevail we wouldn't need to explain anything vulgar. Bush would be back in Texas chopping wood.

We've come a long and arduous journey. A guided trip through the twilight zone of reason. A snipe-hurt named to suit the moment. And let us not forget the prize, the killing rather there than here. We could ask for better, but it doesn't get better, you see, that's it, that's all you get.

And the Iraqis in Fallujah, well they're getting what they deserve. After all, we got rid of their dictator, they didn't show us any respect, so in the neck it goes, and goes, and goes.

The Iraqis had no idea how dangerous a place Fallujah was until Bush enlightened them as to the death that lay at every corner. At night, in the flash of a bomb, you can see it. It's there all right, no doubt about it. It just takes the trained eye of a white man to see it clearly. Akin to swinging an axe to chop some wood, it takes practice.

And how do we make this vulgarity go away, we’ll we don't. We somehow learn to replaced good judgment with a cringe. Perhaps an angry world would pause and give us a lesson. Or when we run-out of bombs, the people of Fallujah might have something to say. We might not like that. That better here than there.

Ed Friedemann, Texas, published 11 November 2004