Apologies for the long absence. As you may have concluded by now from the extended inactivity here, the Riyadh Bureau newsletter is not coming back in its old regular format anytime soon. I have turned off paid subscriptions. If you were a paid subscriber you would be automatically refunded for any time remaining on your subscription. I may send random dispatches at irregular intervals in the future, but for now I just want to thank you for your support and reading the newsletter. If you have any issues or questions please feel free to reply to this email.

Thanks,
Ahmed

Good morning,

As some of you are probably aware, I have recently been selected for the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship at Columbia Journalism School for the 2021-2022 academic year. Therefore, I have decided to put Riyadh Bureau on hold while I pursue the fellowship which starts next month in New York City.

This was not an easy decision: your reception and support since I began working full-time on the newsletter earlier this year have been overwhelming and gratifying. I have thoroughly enjoyed writing it and discussing its topics with many of you over the past six months. But after talking with officials at the school about the workload and the nature of the programme, it has become clear to me that the best thing to do would be to dedicate my full attention to the fellowship and try to make the most of the experience.

Thanks for reading and for your support. I have paused paid subscriptions. Billing cycles are frozen, so you will not be charged until I resume regular publishing in the future, but if you prefer to cancel your subscription you can find more information on how to do that here. I may send occasional, infrequent dispatches if I feel the urge to write, but please do stay in touch and let’s keep the conversation going. My email is alomran@hey.com.

—Ahmed

When Saudi Arabia launched a campaign last November to denounce the Muslim Brotherhood, the timing has left analysts and observers wondering what was behind it. Some speculated the sudden flurry of …

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Saudi Arabia set a cap on domestic gasoline prices to help alleviate the impact of rising living costs. Fuel prices will be capped at June’s levels, or 2.18 riyals (58 cents) per litre of 91 octane and at 2.33 riyals (62 cents) per litre for the 95 …

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Saudi Arabia aims to vaccinate five million students this month as the kingdom seeks a return to full in-person education this fall, the government said. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health said the vaccination plans would cover primary education students aged 12-18 and students at universities, colleges and training institutes, as well as teachers, faculty members and administrative staff who have not been vaccinated yet.

More than 18m doses of the coronavirus vaccines have been administered in Saudi Arabia so far, with about 53% of the population jabbed with at least one dose, and authorities are optimistic that continuing the vaccination campaign at this rate would help further restore normality to daily life. To achieve that, the government said displaying proof of immunity using an official app would be a requirement as of August 1st for entering public and private establishments, including malls and shopping centres, as well as attending sporting and entertainment events.

This means those who have been resistant or hesitant to take the vaccine might find themselves under more pressure to reconsider their decision as their movement and access to many types of services would be increasingly restricted in a few weeks, which appears to have pushed some people to resort to unlawful means to preemptively escape any potential restrictions.

The Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority, aka Nazaha, announced last week that 12 people have been arrested over suspected involvement in a scheme of tampering with immunisation status records in exchange for money. The dozen include two employees of the Eastern Province Health Affairs department who were accused of receiving money from citizens and residents in exchange for changing their coronavirus status from “infected” or “not immune” to “first dose taken” or “fully immune.”

Nazaha said three others used social media to advertise their services and receive money from those who want their status changed. This sounds brazen, but it also indicates there is enough demand by vaccine-resistant and hesitant individuals for such schemes despite their obvious illegality.

“Legal procedures are underway in order to refer the accused to the court for their involvement in crimes of bribery, forgery and money laundering,” the anti-corruption body said in a statement. “Given that these actions and violations have a dreadful negative impact on the efforts made by the government in combating this pandemic, the authority is firmly proceeding with applying what the law rules against the violators.”

Okaz columnist Humoud Abutalib wrote that what the accused have done defies belief:

Yes, it is a heinous crime by humanitarian standards, and high treason by national standards. If there are people who do not want to take the vaccine, that is their business despite the danger to them, but if there are others who manipulate information about their health conditions by taking advantage of the nature of their jobs and the trust granted to them during these circumstances, that is what cannot be comprehended. Again, I did not believe the news until the statement of the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority quickly appeared to confirm the arrest of the gang of health sector employees, brokers and beneficiaries, and their referral to the judiciary for their involvement in crimes of bribery, forgery and money laundering.

Imagine how if their attempt succeeded and then continued, the result would be the presence of people who may be infected, but they mingle and move freely as if they are immune. What a crime that would be against society, and the misinformation that will affect statistics and data about the disease and patients, at a time when the state stands with all its capabilities to besiege the pandemic, and society continues to live on edge. Their crime is greater than bribery, forgery and money laundering, because it is a crime against life and humanity, and a betrayal of the state and society. We hope that the punishment will be swift and deterrent.

Hasan al-Mustafa, a columnist for al-Riyadh daily, wrote that it is important for people to be concerned about their health but that such concern should not lead to corrupt practices that break the law:

The danger of this network is not just in violating regulations, or receiving bribes, but also endangering the safety of the community, and showing individuals as if they are “immune” when the reality is otherwise, which threatens the great efforts made by the kingdom to protect citizens and residents.

There is a double problem: individuals do not want to receive the vaccine, and others benefit from this behaviour in graft.

Some may say that people are free to do what they want with their bodies, and they have the right to be vaccinated or not. This is true in principle, but what is important to note is that the pandemic that has exhausted the world is not a natural situation in which a person is completely free and has the privilege to choose, because reaching “herd immunity” requires vaccinating a large segment of people, snd if many people hesitate to take the vaccine, reaching this point will be difficult and painful.

One lawyer told the same newspaper that the accused face up to ten years in prison and 1m riyals in fines if they are found guilty. Qais al-Mubarak, a former member of the Senior Scholars Council, said such actions are haram, or religiously forbidden.

Despite these warnings, it is unlikely that such cases won’t be repeated. The fact that the government is making one app —called Tawakallan— linked to a central database the cornerstone of its Covid-19 tracking efforts might make it easier to enforce rules about health restrictions and freedom to travel, but it also opens the system to potential manipulation or abuse because many parties would be expected to have access to the system to keep the database up to date over time, not to mention concerns about privacy.

The app was recently updated to feature a health passport with a Covid-19 travel insurance policy as well as information about immunisation status, and the date and result of the latest PCR test.

Ibrahim Badawood, who leads the Saudi arm of the non-profit Community Jameel organisation, wrote in al-Madina daily that there will always be corrupt individuals who seek to contravene laws even when technology is used to decrease the chances of abuse and manipulation:

The digital transformation came to contribute to progress, improvement, development, shortening of time and effort and making people’s life easier, but the corrupt would always find a way to defile new, clean and high-end fields with such crimes, despite the gigantic and huge efforts made by the state to combat this pandemic that the world is grappling with. These corrupt people even wreaked havoc with the health situation, and even published ads on social media for those who wish to participate in their corruption and what they called benefiting from their services in order to reap material profits from it.

Meanwhile, the government has moved to reassure the public that existing vaccines are effective against the emergent Delta variant of the coronavirus and said side effects should not deter people from getting vaccinated. “There are some side effects from receiving any vaccine, whether coronavirus vaccine or others. The symptoms resulting from the coronavirus vaccine are rare and have not been proven to be related to the vaccine,” health ministry spokesman Mohammed al-Abdulaali said in a press conference Sunday.

The ministry has recently resumed offering second doses after a pause due to constrained supply, with state television reporting that people aged 30-40 should receive them after two weeks.

• Legal advice and law offices

• Customs clearance

• Real estate services

• Cinemas

• Driving schools

• Technical and engineering …

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has announced plans to launch a second national airline as part of a broader push to turn the kingdom into a hub for transport and logistics to help diversify the economy and decrease dependence on oil revenues. The announcement came Tuesday shortly after the cabinet, chaired by his father the king, approved renaming the “Ministry of Transport” to “Ministry of Transport and Logistic Services”.

Under a new “National Transport and Logistics Strategy”, Saudi Arabia aims to make the kingdom the 5th global air transit passenger route, increase international destination reach to 250 destinations, and double air cargo capacity to more than 4.5m tonnes. Additionally, the strategy plans to develop ports, rail and road networks, and increase the transport sector’s contribution to GDP from 6% to 10% by 2030.

“The comprehensive strategy that aims to solidify the Kingdom’s position as a global logistics hub connecting the three continents, it will uplift and improve all forms of transport services and strengthen the integration of logistical services and future technologies, supporting and enabling the Kingdom’s national development plans,” the crown prince said in a statement, adding that the strategy would also enable adjacent sectors such as hajj and umrah and tourism to achieve targets.

A new Riyadh airport is expected to serve as a base for the new airline that the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund and other investors are looking to launch, according to a report by local financial news site Maaal last February. The Public Investment Fund appeared to confirm that when it unveiled its 2021-2025 strategy earlier this year, saying it was “studying setting up a new company to support the aviation sector aspirations locally and regionally.”

One rationale given for introducing the new airport and airline, which will fly domestic and intentional routes, is to take advantage of an anticipated increase in travel as Saudi Arabia aggressively targets 100m visitors annually by 2030. Under this rationale, the PIF-owned airline would capture these new tourists and business travellers, while the exiting Jeddah-based flag carrier Saudia would focus on serving pilgrims coming to visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

State-owned Saudia, which celebrated its 75th anniversary last year, has been struggling. The government provided the company with at least $7 billion in direct payments and other financial support in 2019 and 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic brought global aviation to a near standstill, according to Reuters. One source familiar with the matter told the news agency last November that the PIF was planning a takeover aimed at revamping the airline, but another source said there was “no reason to believe that such a move by PIF is imminent”.

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Now it seems the PIF has come to the conclusion that the airline is broken beyond repair and would rather launch a competitor rather than fix Saudia.

One of the main factors behind Saudia’s struggles is that, as the oldest and largest carrier in the kingdom, they are expected to serve pretty much every city in the country. That means flying many unprofitable domestic routes simply because when people need to travel in a vast country like Saudi Arabia they are usually limited to two options: flying or driving.

Did the government consider restructuring Saudia and prepare it to take advantage of the expected increase of travel as a result of the tourism and foreign investment push to help it make up for losses on domestic routes by making profits on this new segment of customers? I don’t know, but the plan to introduce new stuff rather than fixing existing ones fits with a longtime pattern in government thinking that prefers to (not) deal with problems by seeking parallel solutions.

Ben Schlappig, the founder of aviation site One Mile at a Time, questioned what it called “bizarre” plans to build a new Saudi airport and airline. “I can’t really make sense of this strategy, but I’m curious to watch how it plays out,” he wrote. “It’s one thing if Saudia were to become the airline serving tourists and business travelers, which I could kind of make sense of, but that’s not what’s happening.”

The neighbouring emirate of Dubai remains the undisputed regional hub for travel and logistics, and it remains to be seen if Saudi Arabia can dislodge it by launching this strategy. Economists like Omar al-Shehabi have often warned that Gulf states should reconsider replicating Dubai’s blueprint as they attempt to diversify their economies because you can only have so many hubs in the same area.

“There is a case for greater investment into the Kingdom’s transport infrastructure – Saudi ranks 58th (out of 160 countries) in the World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index, leaving it behind the likes of the UAE, Qatar, and Oman,” James Swanston, Middle East and North Africa economist at Capital Economics, wrote to in a note to clients. “But rivalling Dubai as the region’s logistics hub will take time – UAE air freight and port container traffic volumes are fourteen and two times that of Saudi – and, in any case, we would argue that Dubai has first-mover advantage.”

Saudi officials reject the claim that they are trying to copy the Dubai model and insist that the kingdom is more than capable of unique trailblazing thanks to its size and influence. This would probably be a bit more convincing if the PIF were not considering the acquisition of Depa, a Dubai-listed interior design company that worked on Burj Khalifa and Atlantis resort, to fit out hotels and other projects under construction in the kingdom.

However, there has been virtually zero criticism of the PIF in local media since the crown prince picked the sovereign wealth fund as the main vehicle for the kingdom’s ambitious reform programme.

“Other funds and government institutions, and even the private sector, need to draw inspiration from the highly successful experience of the PIF, and repeat it through mergers, seizing opportunities, and abandoning the sterile conservative policy that has missed the major booms that the kingdom has witnessed since its inception until today,” columnist Mohammed al-Saaed wrote in Okaz.

“People in charge of these institutions and funds should pay a quick visit to the PIF and send their employees to learn in its offices the basics of successful investment planning, and how to get out of the bottle of guaranteed returns to confirmed returns, and shorten the time without asking others to pay bills for them.”

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Saudi Arabia has granted two digital banking licenses for the first time as the kingdom seeks to grow its nascent fintech sector.

STC Pay, a unit of the kingdom’s largest mobile operator Saudi Telecom Co, will be converted into…

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Saudi Arabia has released two women’s rights activists after three years in prison, family and an advocacy group said. Nassima al-Sadah and Samar Badawi were released Sunday after completing their sentences. The two belong to a group …

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Uncertainty continues to surround a policy that has long defined the rhythm of daily life in Saudi Arabia as the kingdom gradually embraces social liberalisation measures.

The policy of forcing shops to close during prayer times has been debated on and off over the past decade without reaching a resolution. Despite indications two years ago that the practice would be abandoned as part of the reforms pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to diversify the economy and open the country to investment and tourism, not much has changed since then.

As I wrote in July 2019:

The cabinet this month approved a plan to allow retail outlets to stay open 24 hours a day for a fee. Confusion over what that exactly meant dominated the hours after the cabinet meeting.

Al Arabiya said in a tweet that the decision included remaining open during prayers. But when a deputy minister was asked about it on air, he refused to answer. Pressed repeatedly by the anchor to clarify, the official kept saying: “this decision has nothing to do with opening or closing during prayer time.”

The channel deleted their tweet, but Okaz newspaper reported the next day that a decision to open businesses during prayer times was imminent, citing “trusted source.” Social media influencers linked to the government also appeared to hint at the same thing.

Well, it turns out the decision was not so imminent after all.

Okaz reported Sunday that the Shura Council was set to vote this week on a proposal that would ask the Ministry of Islamic Affairs not to force shops to close for prayers except for Friday noons. But the newspaper said the next day that the consultative council —whose members are appointed by the king and which serves as a quasi-parliament— has decided to postpone the vote “until further notice” just two hours before it was scheduled to take place on Monday.

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No reason was given for postponing the vote on the proposal, which was introduced by four members, including prominent councilwoman Latifah al-Shaalan. These members argue that there is no evidence from the Quran or Sunnah to support the practice of closing shops for prayers (except on Friday), adding that such practice is rare and does not exist in any other Arab or Muslim country.

They explained there is no legal basis for this policy in Saudi law and pointed that it causes inconvenience to citizens and residents, particularly those who are ill or travelling. Restricting people to a specific practice where Islam has offered ample room to accommodate different situations leads to the obstruction of people’s interests, delays remedy for people in need and is unfair to traders and business owners, the members said, according to local media reports.

The members also sought to frame their proposal as being in line with the crown prince’s plans. “Vision 2030 includes a series of major economic initiatives and projects aimed at diversifying national revenue sources and achieving sustainable economic development, and this will not happen unless these initiatives and projects are supported by an empowering legislative and regulatory environment, which reduces the risk of doing business and makes the investment environment in the kingdom more attractive and competitive,” they said, adding that their proposal would promote tourism and improve Saudi Arabia’s image and position as a G20 country.

Columnist Humoud Abutalib wrote in Okaz that the unexpected delay of the vote amid heightened public interest in the issue will attract scrutiny:

Talking about this subject does not mean siding with those who would have voted for or against the proposal, but because postponing the presentation of the report linked to it in this sudden manner only two hours before the start of the session is bound to raise some questions, speculation, assumptions, interpretations and analyses that may be incorrect. Perhaps the sudden postponement was due to an urgent procedural reason or something like that but the council has to avoid such thing, particularly when it knows the public opinion is preoccupied with this issue and the news of the proposal has spread internally and externally.

Therefore, we hope that the council will transparently clarify what happened so that suspicions do not go too far.

The lack of clarity has meant that it was left to shop owners to interpret vague government policy on their own: some saw it as “a nod-and-a-wink approach to avert a conservative backlash”, while others decided to keep cautious until a formal decision is made. For example, some shops started to mark prayer times by dimming their lights and drawing down curtains on their fronts, but otherwise keeping doors open for customers who want to enter.

The return of the debate around prayer time closures follows a controversial decision by the government last month to restrict the use of external loudspeakers by mosques, a move that was criticised by some as the latest sign of the kingdom shedding yet another piece of its Islamic identity.

Despite the delay in the Shura Council vote and the muted protests, I fully expect that the practice of closing shops for prayer times would soon go away simply because this is where the country is headed, and that is plain for all to see.

A local news website used to mark prayer times by closing the site for 20 minutes, five times a day. When users visited the site during prayers, they were greeted with a “Closed for Prayer” message in Arabic along with a countdown to the end of the prayer break at the bottom of the page. One cleric in 2009 praised the bizarre move: “Closing a Saudi website for half an hour during obligatory prayers is a noble Islamic act,” he said. “It’s free from seeking fame or unacceptable religious intolerance, and it contributes to reviving the habit of individuals praying on time.”

This feels like a lifetime ago now.

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Saudi Arabia plans to offer the second dose of the coronavirus vaccines to everyone next month after achieving high immunisation levels among the elderly, officials said.

The kingdom announced last April delaying the second dose as constrained sup…

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Saudi Arabia will no longer seek to impose censorship on books before they get distributed in the kingdom as the government seeks to boost the culture sector.

The Ministry of Media and the General Commission of Audiovisual Media (GCAM) announced Saturday lau…

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Saudi Arabia will merge the Public Pension Agency and the General Organization for Social Insurance to create one entity providing a protection umbrella to workers in both the public and private sectors.

The government said the merger process, approved by the cabinet in a meeting chaired by King Salman on Tuesday, would not affect the mechanism and dates of disbursement of insurance benefits to insurance or pensions clients, nor the progress of operations or transactions.

The merger “will ensure covering public and private sector employees under one insurance scheme; achieving high standards in providing social benefits; contributing to eliminating duplication in jurisdictions; utilising resources; increasing operational and financial efficiency; and improving services provided for the contributors,” said Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan, who also serves as chairman of GOSI.

Despite assurances from authorities that this is “an administrative and organisational process” that would have no impact on beneficiaries, the merger is seen as laying the ground for the government to push ahead with plans to privatise major parts of the public sector. This has raised concerns among citizens about the fate of their jobs as the majority of them are employed by the government in its vast bureaucracy.

Okaz columnist Khalid al-Sulaiman echoed that nervousness in a piece published Thursday:

I do not blame anyone. The changes that have been made to the structure of institutions and amendments to regulations and bylaws are many, and one almost needs a guide to learn them accurately. People have the right to understand and absorb the changes and their effects, especially when they relate to their jobs, livelihoods and the future of their retirement. That’s why I think a huge effort must be undertaken to dispel any fears and clarify any questions people have regarding privatisation or the merger of the Public Pension Agency and the Organisation for Social Insurance. The issue is not about restructuring institutions as much as it is about reformulating the relationship between members of society and their jobs as a sources of income and livelihoods! 

Saudi Arabia approved a new privatisation law in March. A few weeks later, the government published the arrangements of how it plans to handle the fate of public sector employees who may find themselves surplus to requirement after their departments are privatised.

The privatisation programme is one of the main elements of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s economic diversification plan. The government has said it identified 16 sectors for privatisation, including education and healthcare, two of the largest public sector employers of nationals. The programme supporters say it will reduce the burden on the state budget, increase the contribution of the private sector to gross domestic product, improve services and create new job opportunities for citizens.

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The conversion of the Ministry of Post, Telegraph and Telephone into the Saudi Telecommunication Company (STC) in 1998 and later opening the market for other operators is often cited as an example of successful privatisation. But the government has struggled to replicate that until earlier this year when it announced completing the privation of state-owned grain mills.

The coverage of the PPA-GOSI merger in the local media has been almost uniformly positive, as expected, with the aforementioned Sulaiman’s column a notable exception. Makkah newspaper used a listicle format with the headline “10 Benefits for Merging PPA and GOSI” (but the actual article listed 9 items only). Financial news site Maaal saw that and raised the stakes, listing 16 benefits of the merger.

Official data suggest that 1.2m government employees will see their social insurance moved to GOSI as a result of the merger. Another interesting aspect of the merger is that both PPA and GOSI own minority stakes in many publicly listed companies in the Saudi stock market. The merged entity would own shares worth more than 100 bn riyals, according to one estimate.

“The decision will have a significant positive impact on the economic and social level in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Ibrahim al-Omar, a Saudi academic, told Asharq al-Awsat. “One of the immediate fruits of the merger will be building the largest investment portfolio, amounting to SAR 100 billion ($26.6 billion)”.

The finances of PPA have come under scrutiny in recent years, with a former governor of the pension fund warning that it could run out of reserves within two decades. The PPA’s investment strategy also faced criticism, especially after it failed to deliver the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, one of its flagship real estate projects. The ownership of KAFD was eventually moved from the PPA to the finance ministry and the Public Investment Fund.

Observers say GOSI has managed its investment portfolio better than PPA, and they hope that merging the latter into the former would secure the future of the pension fund. “When you combine the two portfolios they will have more power and better focus. There won’t be any competition between these two organisations in the local stock market,” Mohammed al-Suwayed, chief executive of Razeen Capital, told state television al-Ekhbariya.

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Al Baik opens in Dubai

Saudi Arabia’s legendary fried chicken chain Al Baik has opened its first branch in the UAE this week. The branch is located in one of Dubai Mall’s food courts where long queues of customers waited to taste the famous crispy chicken meals.

The opening in the UAE is notable because the chain, which launched nearly 50 years ago, has for long been limited to Saudi Arabia’s western region and only began expanding into other cities in the kingdom in the last five years. Al Baik is so massively popular that people used to not only wait in line for hours in the street to try it but some would even buy meals then fly them to Riyadh to sell for double the price.

Al Baik has acquired a cult following thanks to its consistent quality and low prices, with the company focused on profits by selling in large volumes and at quick speed, while eschewing most of traditional advertising and marketing often associated with similar brands.

The fast-food chain was also helped by the fact that many pilgrims from around the world who visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina would often dine there after performing their rituals, spreading the restaurant’s reputation beyond the kingdom’s borders. When Anthony Bourdain visited Jeddah in 2008, he made a stop at Al Baik.

The company told me in 2013 that they are “committed to serve every city in Saudi Arabia in the near future” and soon after opened in Qassim and Riyadh. Al Baik opened its first branches outside the kingdom in Bahrain last year, and that encouraged the chain to expand into the UAE.

Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product fell by 3% in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, but the non-oil economy grew at its fastest pace since 2019, according to latest official data.

The non-oil sector, the kingdom’s engine of job creation, grew 2.9% compared with 1.6% a year earlier. …

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Saudi Arabia has said this year’s Muslim hajj pilgrimage would be limited to 60,000 people from the kingdom’s citizens and residents due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. This will be larger than last year’s much pared-down h…

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Saudi Arabia will restrict the use of external loudspeakers by mosques as the influence of conservatives continues to wane in the kingdom.

The Ministry of Islamic Affairs ordered that external loudspeakers be limited to athan (the first call for prayer) and iqamah (the shorter second call signalling the beginning of prayer), and not to broadcast full prayers or sermons.

The ministry also said that volume must not exceed one-third of the full volume of these loudspeakers, and that those who fail to follow the new guidelines would face disciplinary measures.

Explaining the rationale behind this move, the ministry said the excessive use of external loudspeakers “harms the ill, the elderly, and children in homes near mosques, and the interference between the voices of imams can lead to the confusion of worshippers in both mosques and homes.”

Saudi Gazette elaborates further:

This is in implementation of the jurisprudential (Fiqhi) principle, “Do not harm others, nor should others harm you.”

The reason is that the imam’s voice during prayer must be heard by all inside the mosque, and there is no need, according to the Shariah for the imam’s voice to be heard in the neighboring houses outside.

Moreover, there is disrespect for the Holy Qur’an when it is recited loudly using external loudspeakers, while no one is listening to and pondering on its verses.

The latest official figures show that there are more than 98,000 mosques in Saudi Arabia, and it is not uncommon to see three or four mosques within the same residential neighbourhood in major cities, all within walking distance from each other. The public debate around their use of loudspeakers is an old and recurring one.

We saw that debate play out two years ago without reaching a resolution at the time.

Those who support limiting the use of loudspeakers cited fatwas by prominent clerics such as the late Sheikh Mohammed bin Othaimeen and Sheikh Saleh al-Fozan, a member of the Senior Scholars Authority. The opponents of such a move say the sounds of prayers and the Quran give them peace, and that such sounds should not be silenced at a time when the government is organising concerts and music is becoming more common in restaurants and other public venues.

Humoud Abutalib, a columnist for the Jeddah-based Okaz daily, has welcomed the decision but said the ministry has repeatedly failed in the past enforce such policies on imams and muezzins because they were seen as “appeals” and not direct orders:

After the decision was announced, old fatwas suddenly by respected senior scholars suddenly resurfaced, pointing out that it is not necessary to use loudspeakers except to notify people of the call to prayer and iqamah. These fatwas are not new and known to all those in charge of mosques, but they do not want to abide by them, and no one has forced them to do so. Out of paranoia, they turned something originally meant for the common good to into a weapon to attack the ministry and its supporters.

The clear interest of the people supported by the objectives of Sharia in any matter is not achieved by surrendering to the persistence of those who oppose it, but rather by imposing the authority of law and order on them. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs deserve thanks for this “decision” and not “appeal”.

The decision should help with reducing noise pollution, but some critics see it as the latest sign of the kingdom shedding yet another piece of its Islamic identity. The shrinking margin for freedom of expression means we are unlikely to see major public pushback against it except probably for some tweets from anonymous accounts.

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Saudi Arabia to introduce 3-semester academic year

Saudi Arabia has announced a series of reforms to its education system, including a revamp of the academic year calendar and the introduction of new subjects, as the kingdom prepares for the return of in-person schooling this autumn.

The reforms aim to “meet and compete with the best international practices, achieve the goals of human development and Vision 2030,” Minister of Education Hamad al-Alsheikh said Wednesday.

Under the reforms, the academic year would be divided into three semesters instead of two, and English language classes would start at first grade instead of fourth. New subjects introduced include critical thinking, digital literacy, self-defence, and life and family skills.

Alsheikh said the reforms come after two years of careful studies at the ministry which concluded that “the current education system needs true and deep development.” He added that the kingdom’s results in international tests are low and that challenges facing the system can’t be addressed with the old inefficient tools.

The Saudi education system has come under heavy criticism in the years following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That criticism mainly focused on the content of textbooks which American officials said promoted hatred of other religions and pushed young Saudis into extremism.

The kingdom has worked slowly over the last two decades to overhaul these textbooks and recently reduced the amount of religious studies at schools. An Israel-based group that conducted a review of Saudi textbooks said earlier this year that anti-Semitic and misogynistic passages had been scrubbed from them.

Human Rights Watch said Saudi Arabia has taken important steps to purge its school religion textbooks of hateful and intolerant language, but some still feature disparaging references to religious minorities such as Shia and Sufis.

“Saudi Arabia’s glacial progress on textbook reform appears to have finally picked up steam in recent years,” Michael Page, deputy Middle East director at HRW, said in a statement. “But as long as the texts continue to disparage religious beliefs and practices of minority groups, including those of fellow Saudi citizens, it will contribute to the culture of discrimination that these groups face.”

While they are happy to point to progress made, Saudi officials are probably less concerned about outside scrutiny than they are with ensuring that the education system can produce graduates with the right skills and work ethic to take jobs at a private sector that has long complained about the quality of young entrants to the labour market.

Alsheikh has urged teachers and other school staffers to take at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine before the start of August to protect themselves and others. He also warned that those who do not receive the vaccine would not be allowed to enter schools or other educational facilities.

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Saudi Arabia has announced an overhaul of its Nitaqat localisation programme with the aim of creating more than 340,000 jobs for citizens in the private sector over the coming four years. Under this points-based system, which was first launched in…

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Saudi Arabia’s decision to release Loujain al-Hathloul and a few other activists earlier this year may have given some people hope that the arrival of a new administration in the White House would signal a shift in the kingdom’s approach on political dissent and human rights, but more than 120 days since Joe Biden too…

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