Christian Ray Hanania wants to be president of Palestine

Ever since I was a child, I remember the heart and spirit of the Palestinian Revolution was to create a "secular independent Palestinian State where Muslims, Christians and Jews" could live together as equals and in peace.
It was a mantra of my mentor, the late Professor Ibrahim Abu-Lughod who was an activist partner with the late Edward Said. Christian and Muslim Arabs fought for Palestine as indistinguishable brothers and sisters in conflict, they taught me. But now that they are gone, their lessons are being lost.
Both the conflict and attitudes have changed. Raising the issue of Christian rights in the Arab World provokes a reprimand from Palestinians and Arabs, not because the simmering Christian-Muslim Arab conflict does not exist, but rather because the critics hope that if we pretend it doesn't exist and not discuss it, it will go away.
That's been the Arab attitude towards Israel, too. If we just pretend they don't exist, one day they will mysteriously vanish.
Instead, when the issue of Christian relations in the Arab World is raised and overcomes the resistance, it is placed immediately into the political context of the abuses of the Israeli occupation causing the disappearance of the Christian presence in Palestine.
But it is not just the fault of the Israelis, whom the Arabs blame for everything; although in truth, the Israelis are no different and they blame the Arabs for everything, too. The issues of blame are symptoms of the problem, not the cause of the problem. So is the simmering relations between Muslims and Christian Arabs.
That's one reason why I announced I have formed an exploratory committee for my candidacy for President of Palestine on the Yalla Peace political party. My platform embraces compromise based on two-states as the foundation for Israeli-Palestinian peace. More importantly, my platform seeks to define and endorse an achievable vision of a Palestinian State first before seeking to resolve the toughest individual details. MORE HERE

Looting of Christian shops in Upper Egypt

Muslims attacking Christians shops in Upper Egypt.  While they shout La illag ila allah (There is no God but Allah) they destroy and plunder shops of Christians.  See HERE

Does Egypt have ulterior motives in its extreme and irrational measures regarding H1N1 Swineflue?

The H1N1 virus was causing global panic, nobody knew how severe the epidemic would be and governments were scrambling to respond. That was the situation this past May as this reporter, along with fellow travelers from a British Airways flight, was trying to navigate Cairo’s airport.
Health officials in Cairo had set up makeshift stands in front of the immigration booths, ordering each traveler to take a temperature test via ear thermometer.
The test was, one might say, less than sanitary. To the alarm of many aboard my flight, the officials took each person’s temperature, quickly wiping the thermometer’s earpiece with a tissue before administering the test to the next person. MORE HERE

Egypt's contempt for Africa shown in football

One of the most stark features of the Algeria vs Egypt imbroglio is the undercurrent of contempt that most Egyptians seem to harbour for the rest of Africa. Its a sort of "us" and "them" mentality.
When Alaa Mubarak, who rarely gives public interviews, called all Algerians "mercenaries", he seemed to be articulating the opinions of millions of Egyptians towards their African brethren. 

There is nothing called Arab nationalism or brotherhood, this is just talk, that doesn't mean anything in reality.... When Algerians learn how to speak Arabic they can then come and say that they are Arabs.

This is what sticks in the craw of most Egyptians. That a supposedly "inferior nation", an "usurper" of pan Arabian nationhood as espoused by Gamel Abdel Nasser has the temerity to beat them in a soccer match. These feelings of injustice are being cleverly exploited by Hosni Mubarak who has been the de facto ruler for many decades in a country with weak democratic credentials to drum up support for his regime once again.

The premium on Arabian purity extends to the Sudanese. A big part of the anticipated Sudanese support for Egypt in the Khartoum clash was based on the fact that there are thousands of refugees in Egypt fleeing the civil wars in that country. What is less known is that these refugees are subjected to intense racial discrimination in that country because of their colour. They cannot seek jobs in a country that is reeling from record unemployment. The refugees in turn look to Egypt as a transit point to their ultimate destination, in a strange twist, Israel.
The Egyptian media dismiss them as "Africans", making a derogatory distinction between them and the rest of Africa. As this article points out:

Ask most Sudanese, Somalis, Ethiopians or any other person of dark skin and they will relate stories of racism: not getting to rent a flat because the landlord thought they were "dirty" and would "destroy the place.

The 81 year old president has finally found a heir apparent in son, Gamal Mubarak. It is a strange conundrum because the pan- Arabist position furthered by Nasser was catered towards the Western world while the Islamist position was much better articulated and accepted by the Muslim Brotherhood. The disputed soccer match has come at a convenient time to create an artificial hypernationalism to set the stage for Gamal Mubarak's entry into politics. It was much easier years ago before oil and Israel sidelined Egypt's pre-eminent position in the Arab world. (c) Soccerblog.com

Witchcraft in Saudi Arabia - punishable by death

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has called on Saudi Arabia to overturn a death sentence given to a man convicted of practising witchcraft.
The organisation said Ali Sibat appeared to have been condemned because of psychic predictions he had made on Lebanese TV from his home in Beirut.
He was arrested during his pilgrimage to the Saudi city of Medina last year.
There is no legal definition of witchcraft in Saudi Arabia - a deeply conservative Muslim nation.
The country's religious authorities condemn any practices deemed un-Islamic, including horoscopes and fortune telling.
But BBC Arab affairs editor Sebastian Usher says there is still a thirst for such services in a country where widespread superstition survives under the surface of religious orthodoxy. MORE HERE

Monarchy, Mosque and Market: Rami Khouri analyses Arab society

The “market” is the most recent power center that has emerged in the Arab world, and is by far the fastest growing one. The most common visual signs of shared urban values in the Arab world these days are billboards that advertise massive shopping malls, American soft drinks and fried chicken, European and Japanese cell phones, German cars, or fancy gated communities and other ex­pensive real-estate developments that are affordable mainly to the wealthy (who dominate the “monarchy” and “market” groups). 

Private-sector “market” forces continue to slowly infringe upon or even completely take over functions once monopolized by the state and the “monarchy,” such as telephones, education, drinking water and other basic human needs. Multinational money and trans-regional Arab capital are major elements of the “market,” to the point where private investments across the region are probably the single strongest form of pan-Arab integration and solidarity. FOR THE WHOLE STORY >> SEE HERE

Sudanese Jeans Woman sneaks in niqab out of Sudan

Sudanese journalist Lubna Ahmed Hussein said Tuesday she had donned a full Islamic veil to sneak out of Sudan and travel to France, two months after she was freed from jail for wearing trousers.
On a visit to Paris to promote her new book, Hussein accused Khartoum of trying to block her departure and said she was determined to exercise her right to travel freely as she met Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
"They wanted to prevent me from leaving, I resorted to the niqab and managed to leave," said Hussein, who was jailed for a day in September for violating Sudan's clothing decency laws by wearing trousers.
"I requested documents to be able to leave, to be able to travel, and this is the only means I found to be able to leave Sudan," she told journalists. "I did not flee Sudan. I am a Sudanese citizen." MORE HERE

Muslim Violence Ongoing in Egypt -- Christians Plead For Help

Farshoot, Egypt (AINA) -- Since early morning on Saturday, November 21, the Upper Egyptian town of Farshoot, as well as the neighboring villages of Kom Ahmar, Shakiki and Ezbet Waziri, has been the scene of ongoing Muslim mob violence against Coptic Christian inhabitants. The mob looted, vandalized and burnt Coptic property, while Copts hid indoors fearing to venture out. Reuters Cairo reported that a witness said "chaos is overwhelming (in the city)."

The Violence is still going on. There are reports that seven Coptic women have been abducted.

Witnesses said that nearly 3000 angry Muslims have congregated since the early morning in front of the Police Headquarters in Farshoot, in an effort to kidnap Girgis Baroumi while being transported to court to renew his detainment, in order to kill him. Bishop Kirollos said it was agreed with the family of the Muslim girl Yousra to await the Court decision "but they did not wait for that."

Coptic priest Rev. Benjamin Noshi was driving his car when the mob stopped and assaulted him, fracturing his skull. He is currently in hospital.

By the evening most Coptic businesses were looted and burnt. "They are destroying the Coptic economy in these areas," says Wagih Yacoub of Middle Eadt Christian Association.

A witness said that some Coptic families were thrown out of their homes, which were occupied by Muslims.

Although security forces were deployed, they are not taking any action to stop the violence, they are stationed to protect the Farshoot police headquarters after the angry mob pelted it with stones before going in and attacking the officers. Chief Investigating Officer Essam Hany was injured along with others.

Witnesses said that the Police watched the mob but made no arrests and were just dispersing the mob from one street, only for them to appear in the next.

The violence was prompted by reports of sexual abuse of a girl by 21 year-old Copt Guirgis Baroumi, from Kom Ahmar, on Wednesday November 18, 2009. The 12-year-old Muslim girl has been identified as "Yousra." Girgis is detained by the police pending investigations and awaiting results of forensics. Many Copts believe that the rape incident is by Muslims to use it as a pretext to start violence against them.

In an interview with Free Copts, Bishop Kirollos said that the attacks were definitely preplanned and made use of the students from Al-Azhar Institute in Farshoot. He also pointed out to the failing role of the security forces, which disappeared without giving proper justifications, despite several demands by the church to put an end to these grave violations against Christians and their property.

He also added that even if the story of the indecent assault on the Muslim teenager was true, this was purely an individual incident and does not call for an attack on masses of peaceful Christians, who denounced this individual act which does not comply with Christian teachings. "So why the barbaric attacks by the mobs? and why have the security forces not stopped them?"

Talking to Coptic News Bulletin, the Bishop said that after being informed of the accusations of the rape on Wednesday, he has taken the frightened Copts of the villages of Kom Ahmar and Shedid out of the village to safety. "However, Coptic-owned businesses, pharmacies and cars in Farshoot and Ezbet Waziri are completely destroyed," he said.

Rev. Elisha, Pastor of St. Michaels Church in Farshoot described Saturday's violence as "similar to the Tartar Wars, they burnt down shops, pharmacies, broke down doors of homes and terrorized the inhabitants." Commenting on the alleged rape incident, he said that it is doubtful, besides prosecution did not allow anyone to meet with the accused Copt. "The Farshoot investigating officer told me that the Muslim girl was only sure that her attacker wore a black jacket -- nothing more."

"We have never been so frightened and humiliated as Christians in all our lives. The mob made wooden crosses and burnt them in the street," according to one witness. "Our religion, and our Lord were openly insulted."

As no one is venturing into the streets, none of the Coptic inhabitants contacted were able to confirm if there were any losses in human lives, or the number of injured.

Bishop Kirollos held an urgent meeting with all Coptic priests in the region, in view of the gravity of the situation. He gave instructions that no Sunday church services would be held on 11/22/09 fearing for the safety of the Christian congregations.

"If the International Human Rights Organizations around the world keep quiet about what is happening to the Copts in Egypt, then they are of no use, they just use slogans, nothing more," one witness lamented.

Sudan - women have no freedom to wear jeans

A few months after she was arrested for wearing pants, Lubna Hussein was lounging around her home in a shady, upper-class neighborhood in this capital along the Nile River. It was a hot afternoon, but the 34-year-old Sudanese journalist was wearing thick jeans adorned with sequins and embroidered flowers.
"Since all this happened, I will only wear pants," she said in the calmly defiant manner that led to her fleeting global celebrity as "the trouser lady," and a less-publicized backlash that has included anonymous death threats and newspaper columns calling her a prostitute. "If you have something to fight for, you can lose your life."  MORE HERE

Egypt faces a new dynastic struggle

Eighty-one-year-old President Hosni Mubarak, a former military strongman who has ruled Egypt for 28 years, has been clearing the way for a successor predicted to be his son Gamal, when Mubarak's latest term ends in 2011.
The secrecy and interlocking interests of the ruling elite have much in common with the pharaoh's court. Constitutional changes have thrown up roadblocks to genuine political opposition, keeping dissenting candidates from winning the country's top office in a freely-fought election. MORE HERE

Saudi Arabia battles increasing number of al-Qaida linked websites

Abdulmanam Almushawah, the head of a Saudi government program called Assakeena, checks radical web sites in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2009. Assakeena, Arabic for "God's Presence", aims at combating Islamic militant Web sites. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Increasing numbers of English-language Web sites are spreading al-Qaida's message to Muslims in the West.
They translate writings and sermons once largely out of reach of English readers and often feature charismatic clerics like Anwar al-Awlaki, who exchanged dozens of e-mails with the Army psychiatrist accused of the Fort Hood shootings.
The U.S.-born al-Awlaki has been an inspiration to several militants arrested in the United States and Canada in recent years, with his Web-based sermons often turning up on their computers.
"The point is you don't have to be an official part of al-Qaida to spread hatred and sectarian views," said Evan Kohlmann, a senior investigator for the New York-based NEFA Foundation, which researches Islamic militants. MORE HERE

Global Warming will hit Arab World very badly

Government representatives, social-policy experts and business leaders from across the region will descend on Beirut, Thursday, for the start of what is being billed as the most significant Arab environment summit of recent times. The Annual Conference of the Arab Forum for Environment and Development (AFED) will seek to educate private and public-sector delegates on the dangers of climate change, ahead of the crucial COP-15 Copenhagen round of talks in December. 

As well as seminars and lectures from a variety of Arab environmentalists, the conference will see the launch of AFED’s annual report, titled: The Impact of Climate Change on Arab Countries.

The report’s editors, Mostafa Kamal Tolba and Najib Saab, urged those attending the conference to take the issue of climate change seriously. 

In findings revealed to The Daily Star, the report suggested that the Arab region could be hard hit by the impact of changing global temperatures. 

“Given the very high vulnerability of Arab countries to the projected impacts of climate change, it cannot afford inaction on either the global, regional or national scales,” the report said. 

“We can categorically state that the Arab countries are in many ways among the most vulnerable in the world to the … impacts of climate change.” MORE HERE

Turbulent future for Sudan

The complexity of the history and conflicts in Sudan is rarely fully understood, according to the most recent Warburg lecturer, Richard A. Lobban, Jr. Lobbans is the executive director of the Sudan Studies Association, adjunct professor of African studies at Naval War College and professor of Anthropology and African studies at Rhode Island College. He presented at last weekís Warburg Lecture on "the connectivity of conflicts in Sudan."

The first time Lobban and his wife visited the Sudan was forty years ago as journalists. Since then, he was banned in 1989, re-permitted, and returned again. Today, his expertise in conflict history and resolution is in demand at a number of institutions of higher learning.

"The Sudan is misunderstood, reduced to simplicities, or misrepresented," he said. There are countless ethnic and religious minorities in all corners of the unusually large African country that complicate relations in every region. MORE HERE

What motivates Saudi Arabia to fight Yemeni rebels?

Caryle Murphy delves into the war between Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni ebels, trying to find out what is behind it:

Saudi Arabia’s ongoing military offensive against rebels in neighboring Yemen — the first time its armed forces have gone into combat in almost 20 years — underscores Riyadh’s deep concern about Yemen’s crumbling internal stability, and the possibility that Iran will exploit the turmoil to spread its influence.
The Saudis’ sustained air-and-ground offensive against the rebels, known as Houthis, is also raising questions about Saudi objectives and how they will extricate their forces from what is a messy and volatile internal struggle in an increasingly dysfunctional state.
“It is hard to know what the Saudis intend to achieve in terms of specific military objectives,” Kristian Ulrichsen, Kuwait Research Fellow at the London School of Economics, wrote in an e-mail. They “would be well-advised” not to get involved in what “is rapidly becoming a failed state” in Yemen.
Yemen’s slide into ungovernability has raised alarms among counterterrorism officials everywhere because of the presence there of a potent Al Qaeda franchise. The fears are particularly acute in Saudi Arabia because Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), as the group calls itself, is infiltrating operatives into the kingdom from Yemen.

MORE HERE

More wives means less adultery?

Don’t marry young virgin girls; marry single mothers or widows instead. This was a suggestion made recently by a Kelantan state (Malaysia) official to would-be polygamists.
But the idea drew flak from some critics, who said instead that more efforts should be made to reduce divorce rates and assist single mothers.
The issue of polygamy is being hotly debated now, with the controversial Kelantan official’s suggestion and the emergence of a Polygamy Club founded in August by the wife of a polygamist.
Hatijah Aam, 55, said she started the club with the aim of curbing social ills such as prostitution and adultery. It has 300 members.
“After sharing the same man for 30 years, we are like sisters,” Hatijah told The Straits Times. Sitting beside her, Noraziah Ibrahim, 52, the younger wife of Hatijah’s husband, smiled. MORE HERE

The heat is on in Southern Sudan

Over the last 12 months or so violence in South Sudan has steadily increased. Rumours are rife that militias are being armed in the south to create fear and tensions in the run up to one of the most anticipated referendums in world politics scheduled for 2011 – to determine whether South Sudan secedes from Khartoum and opts for independence as stipulated in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in 2005. One thing is certain - the road to the CPA referendum vote will be bumpy if not potentially lethal. MORE HERE

Rami Khouri: 'The Wall will fall in the Arab World'

Rami G. Khouri wrote this article - published today in the Jordan Times. Read the whole article HERE

The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall a few days ago passed very quietly in the Arab world, because the meaning of the wall’s fall - the transition from total state control to human freedom - also bypassed the Arab world. Not the Islamic world, or the Middle East, but the Arab world.

For many reasons, the Arab world, collectively, is the sole exception to the global wave of liberalization and democratization that touched every other region of the planet. It is difficult to predict how and when our region will change, liberalize and democratize. The spark that sets off a chain reaction for freedom could happen in one country, and then spread to others - like the Solidarity movement in Poland ultimately echoed throughout the Soviet bloc and resulted in its total transformation.

175,000 people discplaced in Saudi Arabia because of war with Yemeni rebels

Some 240 villages in Saudi Arabia have been evacuated and scores of schools closed due to fighting which has now spilled over from Yemen, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday, citing local contacts.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, launched an offensive last week after Yemeni rebels seized Saudi territory along the mountainous border from which they said the Saudis had been allowing Yemeni troops to use to attack their positions. "Fighting has now spilled into Saudi Arabia, reportedly causing 240 villages to be evacuated and more than 50 schools to be closed," Sigrid Kaag, UNICEF's regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement. MORE HERE

Did muhammad prescribe his followers to drink camel urine?

Christian fundamentalist websites are trying to show Islam in bad light by quoting hadiths and showing how un-scientific they are. One of the website says: "A few teachings found in these divinely inspired texts include the medical virtues of camel urine: The prophet ordered them to follow his camels, and drink their milk and urine, so they followed the camels and drank their milk and urine till their bodies became healthy."MORE HERE

Saudi women may soon practise law

In yet another sign of Saudi Arabia shedding its conservative image, women lawyers may soon be allowed to represent female clients in courtrooms, close on the heels of the kingdom opening its first co-educational university.

Under a proposal floated by the Saudi Ministry of justice, women lawyers will be issued a restrictive form of license which will give them access to certain areas of courts and in cases in which they are representing female clients only, Arabic daily Al Madina reported quoting a senior official.

The move came after the ministry’s recommendation that the best way of protecting women’s rights in various cases would be by allowing them to be represented in the court by a female lawyer. MORE HERE

Saudi Arabia setting up buffer zone in Yemen, says Yemeni rebel

Saudi Arabia is trying to set up a buffer zone inside Yemen after its week-long offensive against the Yemeni Shiite insurgents along the border, a rebel spokesman said Wednesday.
Mohammed Abdel Salam said Saudi warplanes and artillery have been shelling deep into border areas to create the zone and drive the rebels away.
"Their goal seems to be establishing a buffer zone or a no man's land on the border," he said in a telephone interview from the rebels' strongholds in Yemen's northern Saada province. "It is obvious, they are trying to scare us and make us leave the area."
Saudi Arabia launched an air and ground offensive against the Yemeni rebels last week after skirmishes along the border. Both Saudi Arabia and Yemen have accused Shiite Iran of backing the rebels raising concerns of another proxy war in the Middle East between region's Shiite and Sunni powers. MORE HERE

Saudi attack on Yemeni rebels continues

Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it would continue its offensive against Yemeni rebels unless they retreated well away from its borders, after insurgents said they had seized more territory near the world's largest oil exporter.
Saudi Arabia is getting increasingly drawn into a conflict to its south between the Yemeni government and Shi'ite Muslim rebels, which Riyadh fears could weaken the kingdom's stability.
"We will not stop the air strikes until they retreat tens of kilometers away from the Saudi border," said Prince Khaled bin Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, assistant minister for defense and aviation, speaking on Al Arabiya television.MORE HERE

Apocalypse Later

This seems like a very interesting book to me.  The man proposes Christians in the Western World to not look at the Middle East through the spectacles of Eschatology, but through the perspective of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Barry Rubin: The Sad Fate of Arab Moderates

You have to feel sorry for those courageous enough to be Arab moderates. Most of your countrymen hate you, the government wants to crush you, the Islamists want to kill you, and the West doesn’t want to help you. I told this story in my book, The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East.
Despite all the endless talk of finding moderates in the Arab world, the real ones—few and far between—generally get ignored while preening, posturing extremists are treated as romantic figures.
So given all this pressure, the limited space permitted for free thought, the moderates have to talk like radicals to survive. In political terms, faced with the battle between the two giant movements of Islamism and Arab nationalism, they have to choose sides. Most liberals back their governments even though these are repressive dictatorships as a lesser of two evils to living under an Iran-, Gaza-, or Taliban-type state. MORE OF THIS HERE

Saudi Arabia's airforces bombing Yemeni rebels

Saudi warplanes and artillery bombarded a Shiite rebel stronghold in northern Yemen Saturday for a third straight day, according to the rebel fighters, and Yemen's president vowed to wipe out the insurrection.
The sporadic five-year conflict between Yemen's weak central government and rebels in the north of the impoverished country escalated dramatically this week when Saudi military forces began shelling and bombing rebel positions.
The two nations are cooperating and sharing intelligence in the fight. Officials in neighboring Saudi Arabia have been increasingly worried that extremism and instability in Yemen could spill over to their country, the world's largest oil exporter.
Publicly, Saudi officials say their military action has been limited to areas inside its own borders, targeting fighters who have crossed into its territory. But Yemeni rebels, military officials and Arab diplomats say the Saudi air and artillery strikes began to hit deep inside northern Yemen on Thursday. MORE HERE

Arab Human Development Report 2009

The last AHDR, sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) was published in July 2009. It was the grimmest. Its statistics are intriguing, although depressing.

2.9 million square kilometers of land in the Arab World are threatened by desertification. Natural resources are depleting at an alarming level. Birth rates are the highest in the world. Unemployment is skyrocketing. 50 million new jobs must be created by 2020. Arab oil-based economies leave some Arab countries entirely vulnerable to market price fluctuations or the depletion of oil altogether. While many economies, especially in Asia are shifting or have already achieved great strides into becoming knowledge-based economies, Arab economies are still hostage to the same cycle of oil and cheap labor. In fact, 70 percent of the Arab region’s total exports, according to the report, is oil.
The problem is not just economic, or environmental, it’s societal as well. Inequality is entrenched in many Arab societies. Women’s rights are not the only individual rights violated. Men’s right are violated too, that is if they are not members of the dominant group, which are either divided by blind political allegiance, tribal or sectarian membership, or economic leverage. 

MORE BY RAMZY BAROUD HERE
LINK TO THE AHDR 2009 REPORT HERE

Saudi Arabia attacks Yemeni rebels with airstrikes

Saudi Arabia said on Friday that it had launched air strikes against Yemeni rebels to "neutralise" infiltrators who had crossed the frontier and killed a Saudi border guard.
The air strikes from southern Jizan province were to "neutralise the firing by intruders" and to clear areas where they had encroached on Saudi territory, the government said in a statement on the official SPA news agency.
Earlier, a government advisor said Saudi F-15 and Tornado jets had begun bombing the positions of the Zaidi rebels inside Yemen territory on Wednesday in response to a rebel attack on a border post a day earlier in which one Saudi was killed and 11 wounded.
"They've been hit hard and it's ongoing," he told AFP on Thursday. (c) AFP

Saudi rapist beheaded and crucified

A Saudi man convicted of kidnapping and raping five children, one of whom he left in the desert to die, has been sentenced to be beheaded and his body publicly crucified, the Saudi Arabian media said today.
The court upheld the gruesome death sentence against Muhammed Basheer al-Ramaly, 22, from the northern city of Hail, and ordered his execution to take place at noon tomorrow, according to Saudi reports.
Under Saudi law, he will first be beheaded by sword, then his body will be tied to a wooden cross and his head stuck on a pole in public as a deterrent to other would-be killers. MORE HERE