Showing posts with label Queen Rania of Jordan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Queen Rania of Jordan. Show all posts
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The freedom of Fouad al-Farhan
Fouad al-Farhan, taken into custody December 10, 2007 and released April 26, 2008. Al-Farhan lost his freedom in Saudi Arabia for blogging, kept in solitary and served 137 days without being charged. The blog offended some in government or violated their rules.
Do you live in a better place? Do you have any freedom of speech? Some countries still arrest people for speaking their mind. It's just like living without freedom or in constant imprisonment of the population. It must be horrible to live under a government that tells you how to think or talk. A government that will hold you back when you have an idea, or concept.
How can a society develop without sharing ideas and working together towards a better and more comfortable way of life or being the best humans can create? Freedom of speech develops a society to come out of the past. A government can help with keeping the folkloric and beautiful traditions of each country. I hope that al-Farhan receives an apology. I hope they let him help their beautiful country and people to develop into an example of government for other countries to follow. I think Saudi Arabia has the resources to develop their people to become one of the most advanced society in the world.
Al-Farhan said he was treated well. I will always be suspicious that he was tortured at some point and told to keep silent for whatever reason. That is just my way of thinking. Logically, if a government pulls a citizen from his job for just criticizing them, is running out of control and needs an overhaul. If the Saudi government don't like this story they should understand that my comments or critics is an effort to help them understand. If I was a Saudi citizen I would love and dedicate my life to help every single citizen. The Saudi government would probably be smiling I'm not.
I am relieved and happy that al-Farhan is with his beautiful family and well. I just wonder about the reason why he was released besides citing the end of the investigation. Who was instrument in his release? If there is such a person or persons- Thank you, you also made my day a better one and may peace be with you.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Fouad al-Farhan and Queen Rania of Jordan
The following was a post to Queen Rania (Rania Al Abdullah) of Amman, Jordan on her YouTube website from Ruben Lara.
"The real Arab world that you live in is very painful. One example is a blogger Fouad al-Farhan who gets arrested because he said things on the Internet that the Saudi government didn't like. That is barbaric. He's a community leader. The Arabs need more people like him. He was kidnapped and possibly being tortured daily. His wife and children are still waiting for him since last year without communication or trial. The Saudis are not smart. Can you help from Jordan? Info. at, rubenlaracast.blogspot.com"
The name Arab is used to describe the people of the Middle East and Muslims. This is an offensive stereotype for some people not wanting to be grouped into the neighboring country. But in some cases even the people of India are called and Arab for wearing a cloth on their heads. In a Hindi case, I learned that a businessman operating a gas station in the US was shot to death because he looked like an Arab wearing a "Rag" on his head. This incident occurred after the Tween Tower attack in New York. The criminal was arrested and put in jail. That is why stereotyping is so dangerous. Innocent people pay the price and consequences.
While I understand that there is a lot that we don't know about Fouad al-Farhan the Saudi Ministry is looking very bad for keeping al-Farhan's family away or him in solitary confinement jail. It makes them look like a backwards society unable to see the future. As the technology of the world advances at racing speed the Saudi seem to be at a standstill. It is very sad because the Saudi have some beautiful and exciting traditions they can share to the world. They should always keep their traditions but they need to adjust to technology like blogging, video postings (YouTube and the like).
In this example Queen Rania has taken this technology to her advantage. That makes her look like an extremely smart woman which will be remembered in the history of her country and an important woman for the entire Middle East. It makes Jordan look like a smart society. Her YouTube site has received more than a a quarter million hits in less than twenty four hours and still growing. You can clearly see the will of the world population to solve the issues and be heard. That is the idea of the new blogging and website sharing technology.
Queen Rania's official YouTube page is accepting stereotype questions about the middle east. It states:
"We look forward to receiving your comments and starting this important conversation about stereotypes, so we can work together to break them down."
What she is doing has a lot of human value for the Arab people as well as humanity. It is amazing that someone cares enough to do this but even more surprising when it comes from a woman because women have so many restrictions in the Middle East countries. This makes me feel very good inside. I wish I could meet her in person and give her a big hug for her intentions (if I could touch her). And this is because I love every human being on earth.
But how far will her intentions go. The people she needs to reach with urgency is those criminal radicals. Those who kill their own people including women and children to call their attention to the world. The world is getting tired of them and is looking at the Arab people as criminally rooted religious fanatics. These terrorist are hurting the good name of the people of Islam. Now many people around the world see the Arabs or Muslims as evil criminal terrorists using religion as their excuse to kill children and make them martyrs (a very strong stereotype).
If you are involved in a war you kill the enemy not your own people. Such an act makes them traitors to their country and religion. Where are those religious heroes who will point a finger at those criminals? I am not saying kill the traitors but point a finger at them to protect the life of the wonderful people of the Middle East and Islam. One of those children saved could turn out to be an important person for the preservation of Islam and solving the puzzle of learning to love all the people of all religions in peace. Every loving person has something beautiful to teach or share.
Queen Rania's YouTube site also states:
"Queen Rania has played a significant role in reaching out to the global community to foster values of tolerance and acceptance, and increase cross-cultural dialogue.
Regionally and internationally, Queen Rania has campaigned for a greater understanding between cultures in such high profile forums as the Jeddah Economic Forum, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Skoll Foundation in the UK.
We hope to bring you some of these clips soon, but until then, Queen Rania wants you to join in this conversation to bring down stereotypes and build bridges between our virtual East-West communities."
Thank you Queen Rania. I hope you can accomplish something with this effort. You have my love and support. Go for it Queen...
She also has a website.
Website: http://www.queenrania.jo
"The real Arab world that you live in is very painful. One example is a blogger Fouad al-Farhan who gets arrested because he said things on the Internet that the Saudi government didn't like. That is barbaric. He's a community leader. The Arabs need more people like him. He was kidnapped and possibly being tortured daily. His wife and children are still waiting for him since last year without communication or trial. The Saudis are not smart. Can you help from Jordan? Info. at, rubenlaracast.blogspot.com"
The name Arab is used to describe the people of the Middle East and Muslims. This is an offensive stereotype for some people not wanting to be grouped into the neighboring country. But in some cases even the people of India are called and Arab for wearing a cloth on their heads. In a Hindi case, I learned that a businessman operating a gas station in the US was shot to death because he looked like an Arab wearing a "Rag" on his head. This incident occurred after the Tween Tower attack in New York. The criminal was arrested and put in jail. That is why stereotyping is so dangerous. Innocent people pay the price and consequences.
While I understand that there is a lot that we don't know about Fouad al-Farhan the Saudi Ministry is looking very bad for keeping al-Farhan's family away or him in solitary confinement jail. It makes them look like a backwards society unable to see the future. As the technology of the world advances at racing speed the Saudi seem to be at a standstill. It is very sad because the Saudi have some beautiful and exciting traditions they can share to the world. They should always keep their traditions but they need to adjust to technology like blogging, video postings (YouTube and the like).
In this example Queen Rania has taken this technology to her advantage. That makes her look like an extremely smart woman which will be remembered in the history of her country and an important woman for the entire Middle East. It makes Jordan look like a smart society. Her YouTube site has received more than a a quarter million hits in less than twenty four hours and still growing. You can clearly see the will of the world population to solve the issues and be heard. That is the idea of the new blogging and website sharing technology.
Queen Rania's official YouTube page is accepting stereotype questions about the middle east. It states:
"We look forward to receiving your comments and starting this important conversation about stereotypes, so we can work together to break them down."
What she is doing has a lot of human value for the Arab people as well as humanity. It is amazing that someone cares enough to do this but even more surprising when it comes from a woman because women have so many restrictions in the Middle East countries. This makes me feel very good inside. I wish I could meet her in person and give her a big hug for her intentions (if I could touch her). And this is because I love every human being on earth.
But how far will her intentions go. The people she needs to reach with urgency is those criminal radicals. Those who kill their own people including women and children to call their attention to the world. The world is getting tired of them and is looking at the Arab people as criminally rooted religious fanatics. These terrorist are hurting the good name of the people of Islam. Now many people around the world see the Arabs or Muslims as evil criminal terrorists using religion as their excuse to kill children and make them martyrs (a very strong stereotype).
If you are involved in a war you kill the enemy not your own people. Such an act makes them traitors to their country and religion. Where are those religious heroes who will point a finger at those criminals? I am not saying kill the traitors but point a finger at them to protect the life of the wonderful people of the Middle East and Islam. One of those children saved could turn out to be an important person for the preservation of Islam and solving the puzzle of learning to love all the people of all religions in peace. Every loving person has something beautiful to teach or share.
Queen Rania's YouTube site also states:
"Queen Rania has played a significant role in reaching out to the global community to foster values of tolerance and acceptance, and increase cross-cultural dialogue.
Regionally and internationally, Queen Rania has campaigned for a greater understanding between cultures in such high profile forums as the Jeddah Economic Forum, the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and the Skoll Foundation in the UK.
We hope to bring you some of these clips soon, but until then, Queen Rania wants you to join in this conversation to bring down stereotypes and build bridges between our virtual East-West communities."
Thank you Queen Rania. I hope you can accomplish something with this effort. You have my love and support. Go for it Queen...
She also has a website.
Website: http://www.queenrania.jo
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