MAQzine

I happened to stay and work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia from 1984 to 1987 as a foreign exchange assistant in the defunct Al-Rajhi Company for Currency Exchange and Commerce.  Thus, I have a certain understanding of the pattern of thinking of Saudi clerics. The kingdom has been through some revolutionary social (of course not political) changes in the recent past. However, a mullah's recently issued bizarre fatwa has caused real tremors in the Saudi media.   Since I read this story, I have been thinking about what would happen if a Pakistani qualified religious scholar had issued such a stupid fatwa?   The following story will reveal his creative perversion of thoughts.   Latest bizarre fatwa to avoid 'illicit mixing' Many were stunned when Saudi cleric Sheik Abdel Mohsen Obeikan recently issued a  fatwa , or  Islamic ruling, calling on women to give breast milk to their male colleagues  or men they come into regular contact with so as to avo...

By Ulf Laessing and Asma Alsharif - - - - - o o o o o - - - - - THUWAL, Saudi Arabia, Sept 23 - - - - - o o o o o - - - - - (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia opened its first co-educational university on Wednesday, a high-tech campus with massive funds which reformers hope will spearhead change in the Islamic state. Western diplomats hope the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), which has attracted more than 70 professors and 800 students from abroad, will stimulate reform after recent setbacks such as shelving municipal elections and cancelling cultural events opposed by clerics. - - - - - o o o o o - - - - - King Abdullah has promoted reforms since taking office in 2005 to create a modern state, stave off Western criticisms and lower dependence on oil.But he faces resistance from conservative clerics and princes in Saudi Arabia, one of the world's top oil exporters. - - - - - o o o o o - - - - - Al Qaeda militants launched a campaign against the state in...