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Riyadh wants NAM to reassess its peace role

June 3, 2014

Jeddah, June 3: The Cabinet has called on the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to assess whether it is playing an effective role in the promotion of security and stability in the world.Prince Salman

The call was made at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Deputy Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Prince Salman at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah on Monday.

The Kingdom had stressed this view at the Ministerial Conference of the 17th NAM meeting held in Algiers, said Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja.

The NAM constitutes two thirds of the UN General Assembly membership. It is a group of states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement has 120 members and 17 observer countries.

The Cabinet condemned the Israeli plan to establish a synagogue in East Jerusalem and build 50 housing units in the Mount Abu Ghneim settlement.

The Cabinet commended the signing of an MoU between the King Abdullah International Center for Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Dialogue and the Unesco to promote the culture of dialogue to settle differences, Khoja said.

Prince Salman briefed the Cabinet on the discussions held by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah with King Mohammed VI of Morocco on greater cooperation between the two countries and the latest regional and international developments, Khoja said.

The Cabinet authorized Prince Salman to conclude a memorandum of understanding for defense cooperation with the Republic of Comoros.

The Cabinet also approved a general agreement of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Gabon, signed in Riyadh on Jan. 14, 2013, aimed at the promotion of economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries including the private sector.

The Cabinet authorized the Minister of Transport to discuss and sign with South Korea a draft agreement on cooperation in the field of maritime transport.

The Cabinet also ratified the appointments of Abdul Aziz Al-Quwaiz, Khaled Al-Rajhi and Saeed Garman as private sector members in the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) for a period of three years.

The other appointments approved by the Cabinet include Siraj Bakhurji as director general of water at the Ministry of Water and Electricity in the Eastern Province, Mansour Al-Suwaidan as management consultant at the Ministry of National Guard, and Ali Al-Salman as assistant undersecretary for central services at the Ministry of Finance.

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Agencies
July 31,2020

Makkah, Jul 31: Organising this year's scaled-down hajj required "double efforts" by Saudi authorities amid the coronavirus pandemic, King Salman said Friday after being discharged from hospital following gall bladder surgery.

Only up to 10,000 people already residing in the kingdom are participating in this year's pilgrimage, compared with 2019's gathering of some 2.5 million from around the world.

"Holding the ritual in the shadow of this pandemic... required reducing the numbers of pilgrims, but it obliged various official agencies to put in double efforts," 84-year-old King Salman said in a speech read out on state television by acting media minister Majid Al-Qasabi.

"The hajj this year was restricted to a very limited number of people from multiple nationalities, ensuring the ritual was completed despite the difficult circumstances," he said.

The speech came on the occasion of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice, a day after the king left hospital following a 10-day stay for surgery to remove his gall bladder.

The hajj, which began on Wednesday, is one of the five pillars of Islam and a must for able-bodied Muslims at least once in their lifetime.

Authorities implemented the "highest health precautions" during the rituals, the king said.

Pilgrims, who were all tested for the virus, are required to wear masks and observe social distancing.

For Friday's "stoning of the devil", the last major ritual of the hajj, Saudi authorities offered the pilgrims pebbles that were sanitised to protect against the pandemic.

In a sign that its strict measures were working, the health ministry reported no coronavirus cases in the holy sites on Wednesday or Thursday.

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News Network
April 30,2020

Riyadh, Apr 30: Saudi Arabia on Thursday recorded 1,351 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 22,753, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

The ministry also announced 5 more deaths and 210 new recoveries, raising the total number of fatalities and recoveries to 162 and 3,163 respectively.

Riyadh with 440 cases topped the list, followed by 392 cases in Makkah, 120 in Jeddah and 119 in Madinah.

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Gulf News
April 12,2020

Hyderabad, Apr 12: In the backdrop of rising tide of anti-Muslim hatred and Islamophobia on the social media, a company in Dubai sacked an employee from Hyderabad for his hate-filled posts on Facebook.

Bala Krishna Nakka from Hyderabad, who was working as Chief Accountant at Dubai’s Moro Hub Data Solutions Company, was sacked after his Facebook went viral evoking widespread condemnation. The man had posted images on his Facebook page which showed Muslims as suicide bombers wearing bombs in the form of coronavirus cells.

It triggered demands both on Facebook and Twitter for action against him. In a quick response the company announced that the person was being sacked from his job, as the company had zero tolerance towards hate propaganda.

Moro Hub said in a statement: “At Moro, we take a zero tolerance attitude to material that is or may be deemed Islamophoic or hate speech. The tweets that we have been alerted to do not, in any way, reflect Moro’s brand values.”

Since the outbreak of coronavirus in India, a more intense hate propaganda has been unleashed by right wing elements on social media targeting India’s Muslim minority, some of whom are based in Gulf region.

As both the mainstream media, especially Indian TV channels, as well as social media users, have unleashed a campaign linking the spread of virus to a Muslim missionary organisation, the Tableeghi Jamaat, in India, a fresh war of words has broken out on social media.

While some activists have taken up it on themselves to highlight the hate propaganda and draw the attention of employers to such hate mongers, the right wing social media handles have also launched their own counter-offensives against such activists.

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