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| www.fretnotgospel.com/saudiarabia.html |
| ... The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques |
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| Country of the Month by Noah Arthur |
| The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia |
| Tell me about how women are treated. Women have to wear a veil (abaya) over their whole body except the eyes to go out. Women and men can't attend public events together. Women are not allowed to drive. Women are not allowed to give complaints to the government. They are not allowed to be on the council that rules the government. They are not allowed to study engineering, economics or law. They are not allowed to be in public by them-selves. I would not like living where women are treated like that. What bothers me the most about it is that women can't drive because they can't go anywhere. |
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| Tell me about the camels. The |
| Tell me about camels. The Arabs have 160 names for the camel. We have only three names. The Arabian camel is the dromedary. They ride them. The dromedary has just one hump. It is a running camel. It can drink 30 gallons of water in 10 minutes. It can eat thorns. It can eat anything. It can drink salt water. They spit up stomach juice when they are annoyed. The other kind of camel is called the bactrian. It has two humps on its back and lives in icy places. Tell me about Arabian horses. They are great running horses. I'm reading a book called "King of the Wind". It is about an Arabian horse. The owner of the horse is named Agba, and he is a mute boy. They run very fast. What is the music like? It sounds good. It sounds kind of like music I've heard before at Saysetha, a Thai restaurant. I like how the singers have a shakey voice. |
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| Tell me about Ferdinand Magellan. Magellan was killed in the Philippines by Lapu-Lapu, a Philippine war chief, in 1521. |
| Tell me about the Saudi government. The royal family's name is Saud. Ibn Saud was the first king. He conquered Arabia with his army. He conquered all of the little tribes and families. The Saudi family started conquering in 1911 and finished in 1932. They conquered the Husseins, the family the Brtish wanted to be in control. In 1946, a United States company that found oil began pumping it out. Saudi Arabia made tons of cash. Right now the king is King Fahd. They don't elect people to run the country. Just the men in one family run the whole country. I don't know how the Saudis do it. The thing I think about it is "hard" because other people want to rule too. Their constitution is the Quran. |
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| What do you admire about Saudi Arabians? I like that they have an eight-foot eagle because it is so big. I like their transportation which is jeepn |
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| Tell me about how Christians and Jews are treated. Christians and Jews are illegal in Arabia. The only legal religion is Islam. The Saudi Arabians have two groups of police. The religious police are called the Mutawwa'in. They look for any sign of other religions and make sure women are wearing the abaya and make sure that women and men aren't meeting together. No Christians are allowed to be in Mecca. No Christian workers are allowed. If they find them they will be put in prison. It is illegal to convert from Muslim to Christian. They will execute any Arabian who converts. Christians who are foreigners who are caugh are put in prison. They are always sent out of the county. Some are whipped on the soles of their feet. Sometimes they get 70 lashes on their back. The United States lets all religions be in our country. I would not like to live there because of the bad treatment. |
| What do you admire about the Saudi Arabian people? I admire that they live in the desert where it is really hot in the summer and cold in the winter and don't complain. They always have to search and plan for water. I would not like to do that because it would be hard. I admire that they make very beautiful buildings. I like how big their build-ings are. I like that all of their mosques have minarets. I like how pointy they are. I like how alot of their build-ings are lit up at night. |
| Tell me about the people of the Philippines. The |
| What do you pray to Jesus for about Saudi Arabia. I pray for them |
| What do you pray to Jesus for about Saudi Arabia. I pray that they will somehow believe in Jesus as being our Savior. I pray that they will treat women better, that they would not make them wear a hot abaya in hot temperatures. I pray that they will let tourists come. I pray that they will treat Christians and Jews better. I thank God that they build beautiful buildings. If things were better I would like to go and feel the heat. I thank God for their oases. I thank God that He loves the Arabians. |
| Tell me about modern Arabian life. They sell tons of oil for tons of cash. They've used that money on huge things like a desalter water plant. Tell me about the Bedouin. The Arabs are 90% of the population. The Bedouin are 10%. They are known for travel-ling from place to place looking for food for their flocks and heards. |
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| Tell me about Muhammed. He |
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| Tell me about Saudi Arabia. It is almost all desert. Desert is land that is very hot and has hardly any trees or grass. It is sandy, very sandy. There are, in some places, sand dunes. The biggest sandy desert in the world is in Arabia and it's called the Rub al-Khali. It is about the size of the state of Texas. There are four other parts to Saudi Arabia. Al-Nafud is the northern desert. There is a lot of rust in the sand and that makes it look reddish. The Nejd has many oases and is rocky. An oasis is a place where there are a lot of plants because of underground water coming up to the ground. Al-Hasa is flat land next to the Persian Gulf. There is lots of oil in the al-Hasa. The Hejaz and Asir are the mountains on the western coast next to the Red Sea. It is not dry in the mountains. Asir has terrace farming where they took hills and made flat level spots for farming. The country's only forest are made up of olive and juniper trees. What makes up the Arabian peninsula? The Arabian penisula is a big, fat, double-wide piece of land sticking out between water. The waters are the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the Gulf of Aden. Saudi Arabia makes up most of the Arabian peninsula. The countries of Yemen and Oman are the southern side. The countries of the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain are on the eastern side. The country to the north is Iraq. The Red Sea is to the west. |
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| Tell me about the food. It's very bready and seedy. There was millet, barley, chickpeas, almonds. I had za'ater bread. Za'ater bread was covered with seeds and greenish spices that weren't spicy. There was hummus. It is goop made out of chickpeas. I didn't like it because it was vinegary. Babaghanoush looked like the hummus but I like it. It is made out of eggplant. Things are so bready and seedy because bread and seeds don't go stale in the heat. |
| Tell me about how good their food is. It's very bready and seedy. There was millet, barley, chickpeas, almonds, and sesame seeds. I had za'ater bread. Za'ater bread was covered with seeds and greenish spices that weren't spicy (hot). There was hummus. It is goop made out of chickpeas. I didn't like it because it was vinegary. Babaghanoush looked like the hummus but I liked it. It is made out of eggplant. Things are so bready and seedy because bread and seeds don't go stale in the hot. |
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| al haram mosque in mecca |
| riyadh mosque |
| jezan oasis |
| red sea |
| asir terrace farms |
| prophet's mosque in medina |
| woman wearing the abaya |
| eid celebration in riyadh |
| kid at eid |
| camel race |
| saudi palace in riyadh |
| modern mecca |
| oil rig |
| desalter |
| king ibn saud in 1937 |
| black stone |
| souk (market) |
| mosque in jiddah |
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| aa Learning how to love anyone |
| What do you admire about Saudi Arabians? I like that they have an eight-foot eagle because it is so big. I like their transportation which is jeepn |
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| Tell me about the birds and wildlife. Our pictures are from the United Arab Emirates because there is no (non-hajj) tourism in Saudi Arabia. There is only one butterfly, a few snakes, a few lizards, and one toad. Most of the birds are shorebirds. The lappet-faced vulture is one that isn't. There's lots of cool mammals including the sand cat, Arabian oryx, gerboa, hedgehog, and sand fox. |
| Country of the Month Restaurant Jan 2003 - Armenia La Mediterranee, Berkeley Feb 2003 - Poland Old Krakow, San Francisco Mar 2003 - Ireland Kells, San Francisco Apr 2003 - Jamaica Jamaica Station, Oakland May 2003 - El Salvador Balompie, San Francisco Jun 2003 - Nepal Kathmandu, Albany Aug 2003 - Turkey Bosphorus, Berkeley Oct 2003 - Cambodia Angkor Wat, San Francisco Dec 2003 - Philippines Aroma Cafe, Concord Jan 2004 - Saudi Arabia Rihab's Bakery, Belmont Feb 2004 - Mexico La Pinata, Alameda |
| little green bee-eater |
| sand cat |
| sand fox |
| ka'aba |
| Tell me about Muhammed. He was the one who founded Islam. He heard a voice speaking to him in a cave. He though the voice was the devil at first but his wife convinced him it was God's angel. Muslims call God "Allah". The voice told him to do certain things and that's how a person gets to heaven. Nobody else heard the voice but Muhammed told people about it and it was written down in a book called the Quran. Tell me about the five pillars of Islam. Every Muslim is supposed to (1) say and believe that 'there is no God but Allah and Muhammed is His prophet', (2) pray five times a day for a half and hour at a time facing Mecca, (3) go to Mecca once in their life on a pilgri-mage called hajj, (4) in the month called Ramadan, eat only before dawn and after dusk, and (5) give to the poor. The first pillar of Islam is writ-ten on their flag. The sword means they fight for Islam, like Muhammed did in his life. So how does a Muslim attain right-eousness before God? A Muslim has to do the five pillars of Islam perfectly to earn God's forgiveness or he can die (as a martyr) fighting for Islam. If they don't do the things perfectly they are not sure they will go to heaven. We just accept Jesus and his death and resurrection and Jesus gives God's forgiveness and the Holy Spirit to us. Like John Bruce, our pastor, says, "all other religions are 'D-O', but Christianity is 'D-O-N-E', because of what Jesus has done." Tell me about the Ka'aba. The Ka'aba is a big big big stone box with a mosque all around it. It is in the city of Mecca. They say Abraham built the Ka'aba. When the Muslims go on hajj, they touch pieces of a black stone that they believe fell from heaven. They also go around it seven times. Do Muslims believe in Jesus? They believe that Jesus came to earth but that he didn't die on the cross and rise again. They believe he was the great-est prophet except for Muhammed. They think that if God sent Jesus to die on the cross that would be cruel to his favorite son. They think we believe in three Gods because of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which are one. |
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| prophet's mosque in medina |
| wild camel |