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Quick Hits Video

Quick Hits 163 – Repeat after me: Saudi Crown Prince MBS is NOT a friend of the West

Should we, in the West, deal with a royal who sends assassins abroad?

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Perspectives

Canada needs to act on Saudis’ targeting of dissidents

The release of a CIA report holding Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for the brutal death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 matters to Canadians, because the same sort of thing can happen here. We’ve already seen the evidence.

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Perspectives

Saudi lies about Kashoggi are piling up: the Kingdom is not our ally

Have you been following the tortuous twists and turns surrounding the brutal torture, killing and apparent dismemberment of Saudi journalist and critic Jamal Kashoggi at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2?  Can you make sense of all the claims and counterclaims?  Do you know who ‘did’ the deed?  If you answer yes to […]

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Perspectives

Are the Saudis pulling a fast one on the world? Yep

Do you know the old saying “Fool me once, shame on  you.  Fool me twice, shame on me”?  It refers to the notion that we may be hoodwinked by an unscrupulous character once for no fault of our own (aside from having a poor judge of character perhaps), but if we have the wool pulled […]

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Perspectives

A little perspective on the Canada-Saudi tiff

You gotta hand it to MBS, the power behind the throne in Saudi Arabia.  Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, son of the current king, has sure made a name for himself of late.  Letting women drive.  Promising a new future for his country with shiny impressive technological cities and the like. Corruption has been nipped in […]

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Perspectives

Three cheers for Saudi change: hip, hip, hmmm

If there is one country that is garnering the headlines for all the good reasons these days (as opposed to Trump’s US for all the – well you know what I mean) it is Saudi Arabia.  The cradle of Islam has best been known for confirming the maxim “there is no FUN in FUNdamentalism” as […]

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Perspectives

Why the Saudi plan to eliminate ‘fake hadiths’ is meaningless

Saudi Arabia gets a bad rap when it comes to terrorism, some of which may be misplaced and some of which is well-deserved. The self-proclaimed ‘birthplace of Islam” – yes, the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was a resident of what is now the Kingdom in the 6th and 7th centuries but the modern (?) Saudi state […]

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Perspectives

Are the Saudis really on our side in counter terrorism?

One country that remains a mystery to many is Saudi Arabia.  A relatively new state – it really only dates from 1930 – this desert land sprang from an odd mid 18th century agreement between a very conservative religious tradition, Wahhabism, and the rule of a single family, the Al Sauds.  The Wahhabis care for […]

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Perspectives

Gulf State religious moderation falls by the wayside in Pakistan

Countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have so far turned a blind eye to mounting sectarian sentiment in Pakistan against Shiites and Ahmadis.

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Quick Hits Video

Yes, Islamist extremism has a lot to do with Islam

French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a look at Islam. Saudi Arabia responded that Islamist terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. Huh?