{"id":987,"date":"2001-10-28T06:44:22","date_gmt":"2001-10-28T11:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=987"},"modified":"2001-10-28T06:44:22","modified_gmt":"2001-10-28T11:44:22","slug":"with_friends_li","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/28\/with_friends_li.html","title":{"rendered":"With friends like these …"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a low but growing tide of hostility out there toward the Saudis. A lot of the money trail supporting the Taliban and al Qaeda seems to be leading back to Saudi Arabia. And more and more evidence is coming out that, whether through cultural schizophrenia or through an attempt to counter fundamentalist forces in their own regime, the Saudi royal family is seems more than willing to play both sides of the modernism\/reactionary fence. A number of folks are beginning to ask when the Bush “You’re With Us, Or Against Us” Doctrine is going to be put into play.<\/p>\n

Not to address that directly, but here’s an interesting bit<\/a> about how Saudi reconstruction crews in Bosnia are demolishing historic religious architecture they consider idolatrous and blaphemous, and rebuilding it in their own fashion.<\/p>\n

At the Beg mosque, the Saudis ordered the Ottoman tilework and painted wall decorations stripped off and discarded and had the whole building redone, as Riedlmayer puts it “in gleaming hospital white, even the minaret slathered in white plaster.” He says that in scores of villages, the Saudis had war-damaged but restorable historic Ottoman-style Bosnian mosques demolished and redone Saudi-style. All of the colorful Balkan-Muslim interior decor was eliminated, and separate entrances were added to segregate women.<\/p>\n

Imagine, if you will, if the US were doing this ….<\/p>\n

(I have to confess, that with my twisted Historian values, this bothers me a lot worse than some other things going on ….)<\/p>\n

(Via InstaPundit<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a low but growing tide of hostility out there toward the Saudis. A lot of the money trail supporting the Taliban and al Qaeda seems to be leading back…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-religion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":133525,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/22\/no-protests-that-must-prove-all-the-saudis-love-donald-trump.html","url_meta":{"origin":987,"position":0},"title":"No protests? That must prove all the Saudis love Donald Trump!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 22-May-17 8:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Or that people who publicly protest in Saudi Arabia get arrested and thrown into jail. But, hey, keen idea for making the Administration's life easier back home, amirite? Wilbur Ross praises absence of protest in Saudi Arabia, where protests are illegal President Trump's commerce secretary praised the lack of protestors\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3300,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/12\/26\/because_remembe.html","url_meta":{"origin":987,"position":1},"title":"Because, remember, they’re our friends","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 26-Dec-02 3:22pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Which doubtless is why we pander to the Saudis this way. There are no churches in Saudi Arabia. Public displays of Christian worship are unlawful and draw the attention of...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2446,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/06\/20\/our_friends_in.html","url_meta":{"origin":987,"position":2},"title":"Our friends in Riyadh","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 20-Jun-02 8:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"You know those al-Qa'eda folks the Saudis claimed to have captured earlier in the week (Huzzah for our Saudi allies!)? The ones who claimed to have flubbed a shoulder-mounted SAM...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38640,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/05\/who-thought-selling-the-saudis-cluster-bombs-was-a-good-idea.html","url_meta":{"origin":987,"position":3},"title":"Who thought selling the Saudis cluster bombs was a good idea?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 5-Sep-13 9:15am","format":false,"excerpt":"At a time when the US is deciding whether to punish Syria for use of chemical weapons, and has previously condemned Syrian use of cluster bombs, the State Dept announcing a cluster bomb sale to Saudi Arabia is ... poorly timed.And, yes, I understand the difference between chemical weapons vs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133562,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/05\/28\/our-friends-the-saudis.html","url_meta":{"origin":987,"position":4},"title":"Our friends, the Saudis","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 28-May-17 10:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was amazed by how welcoming the Saudi public was during Trump's visit. No protesters, he noted in amazement. Well, this is one reason why. Did Trump discuss human rights issues with the Saudis, as previous presidents have done? Or was he too busy enjoying golden palaces\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":959,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/30\/a_warning_to_th.html","url_meta":{"origin":987,"position":5},"title":"A warning to the Saudis","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 30-Oct-01 3:02pm","format":false,"excerpt":"When even the Wall Street Journal starts talking, seriously, about a US take-over of the Saudi oil fields, you know the relationship is in trouble. [Requires an e-mail registration.] Today...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}