Adel Al-Moawdah: “We entered the parliament to please our God before pleasing the people. We won’t sell our ever-after for this life.”
He also denies defaming “most” Barhaini business people with this comments reported earlier that they are the “morally corrupt lobby,” he claims his words were skewed and that the media is mounting a campaign against him personally. Hence he doesn’t see a reason to apologise for his remarks. He didn’t do nor say anything wrong.
Adel Al-Moawdah also firmly disbelieves that the closure of Big Brother Arabia will affect business and capital in Bahrain and encourages investment in “clean” projects – which he sanctions of course1.
He initiates the fire, then runs as far away as possible from it, letting others fan it with their hatred until it becomes all consuming. He of course didn’t do anything, just pour some kerosene and lit the match. As in Nancy Ajram’s case, he had nothing to do with the consequences, as he didn’t have anything to do with slandering the whole business community, MBC, the contestants and the 200 workers (now unemployed) at the show.
He has simply pulled himself out of it completely and blames the media for misrepresenting and misquoting him.
Perhaps his final declaration that he’s in parliament on a religious mission sums it up nicely. With this (documented) declaration, he emphasises that his mission and bloc is invariably to get Bahrain to be the next Tarliran. His duty as an MP to find solutions to people’s problems as in employment, health, services, education and eradicating corruption and nepotism is only second to turning this country into a Islamist state closer to his vision of the 7th century, than a modern, vibrant, tolerant country of the 21st.
I sometimes just wish and dream of owning a time-machine. If I had, I would use it exclusively to send these people back to the age they so long to be in. Then we’d see just how long they would last in their Utopia!
[1] Al-Wasat Newspaper Friday 5th March, 2004, page 5
Comments
Islamists eye Bahrain F1 race after Big Brother win
Watch out people… having won the BB debate, it’s time for them to move on to the grand prix !!!
BE
[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040305/od_uk_nm/oukoe_motor_racing_bahrain_1[/url]
Re: Islamists eye Bahrain F1 race after Big Brother win
Not sure why the link didnt work….
[Modified by: BE (BE) on March 05, 2004 04:06 PM]
Re(1): Islamists eye Bahrain F1 race after Big Brother win
let’s try with this link, sometimes if the link address is too long the system inserts a line-break which screws it up. You can use standard html clode or even the URL button on the right to insert your link.
for BB Code (buttons on the right) you can use (url=http_the_link)description(/url) replacing the brackets with square [ brackets. The system will then interpret it correctly.
ok, first attempt didn’t work, so I try again!
nope, the link is just too long that the system just inserts a stupid line break, so just copy the link above and paste into your browser, removing the %20 from the line and you should be ok.
But just to be simpler, here is the article:
Islamists eye Bahrain F1 race after Big Brother win
MANAMA (Reuters) – After forcing the cancellation of the “immoral” reality TV show Big Brother, Bahraini Islamists want to ensure there will be no champagne-spraying and scantily-dressed women at next month’s Formula One grand prix.
Bahrain won the deal to stage the race despite competition from Dubai, Egypt and Lebanon as part of its drive to attract tourists and foreign investment.
Building work on the Sakhir circuit, venue for the April 4 race, is on schedule and organisers must now contend with cultural and religious restraints.
“We have raised these issues with organisers and they have promised there will be no naked women and no celebrations with champagne,” said Adel al-Moawada, deputy chairman of Bahrain’s parliament.
“This is an Islamic country and celebrations must conform to our traditions…I don’t think organisers would want to ruin such a big, costly event for such a small thing,” he said.
Grand prix winners traditionally spray champagne over the crowd after a race and lightly-clad models are a feature of Formula One. Champagne is expected to be replaced by non-alcoholic fizz in Bahrain.
There were no girls in bikinis at a 1999 race in Malaysia, another Muslim country which also holds grands prix.
Moawada led noisy protests which forced the Arab television channel MBC this week to stop its Arabic version of the hit reality show Big Brother, produced in Bahrain.
Big Brother had raised eyebrows in the conservative society for showing unmarried men and women living together in defiance of Muslim traditions. Bahrain’s government denies any role in stopping the show.
The Big Brother issue provoked a debate between Islamists and other Bahrainis who favour a more liberal social climate to attract business to pro-Western Bahrain, the Gulf’s banking hub and headquarters of the U.S. Fifth Fleet.
“Who wants to invest in a country in the grip of a group of hardliners? Do we want to go in the same direction as Iran and Taliban in Afghanistan (news – web sites)?” Bahrain’s Akhbar al-Khaleej newspaper said in an editorial.
Islamists have vowed to eradicate all “immoral” aspects of Western culture from Bahrain.
Bahraini youth have in the past two years protested against Western-style concerts and other events they deemed obscene.
“We don’t want economic growth at the expense of our youth’s moral corruption. We don’t want prosperity through sinful methods,” MP Jassim al-Saeed told Reuters.
He warned Formula One organisers to make sure no Israelis attend the event. “If this happens we will confront it. We will pick up our pens and start writing until we stop it,” he said.
Bahrain, which like many Arab countries has no ties with Israel because of its occupation of Arab land, does not allow anyone with an Israeli passport to enter the country.
[Modified by: Mahmood Al-Yousif (mahmood) on March 05, 2004 06:17 PM]
He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
Mahmood I am a Bahraini student in the States. I am really amazed at what is happening to our beloved little country. It’s been three years since I left Bahrain and I miss it very much and its reputation is going down the drain because of these islamist idiots. The thing that maked me wonder is that these idiot islamist MP’s need to be somehow challenged into a democratic debate in which they should be asked about the benefit of chasing away BB and how it is gonna help upholds the virtues of our Islamic society. People are still gonna watch that program no matter what and we have become the laughing stock of the world. What needs to be done is to confront these morons and ask them what about the people who lost theirs jobs and incomes??? who is gonna pay their bills and supoort their families. How would you smart asses (Excuse my language) get them jobs???
Finally i would like to conclude by saying that you are a good citizen and we need people with your traits in parliament to restore our reputation as a modern middle eastern state. 🙂
And shave the islamists beards and shove them up their asses’ lol. ooh the sight of that would bring some joy to all of us I think. (Sorry if I offended anyone this is my first time posting)
Cheers
He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
TO SIN BY SILENCE WHEN WE SHOULD PROTEST MAKES COWARDS OUT OF MEN
He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
It looks like the victory of the islamacists could spread beyong Bahrain! Check out this link.. do you think we have imported this crap to other unsuspecting countries?
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/13146918-2B67-41EF-82EB-52DAECA3888E.htm
Re: He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
Hello Mahmood,
Unfortunately, I only found out about your Web site yesterday. I wish I’d heard about it earlier. Great site.
You stated earlier that, “I sometimes just wish and dream of owning a time-machine. If I had, I would use it exclusively to send these people back to the age they so long to be in.” Mahmood, suggesting such a thing is insane. We all know that there is no way to ever travel back in time.
The only logical solution for such people is to politely introduce them to the country that lies across the bridge. It will be their wonderland. They can have all the fun they want 😛
Re(1): He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
welcome aboard and fasten your seat belt!!
I think your suggestion certainly has merit, and I second this option too!
He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
Read last two paragraphs. Last time I checked, people had their TVs within their houses as well!
The New York Times
March 5, 2004
A Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss to an Angry Arab TV Audience
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
BEIRUT, Lebanon, March 4  Abdel Hakim, a strapping young Saudi, kissed Kawthar, a raven-haired Tunisian beauty, and all hell broke loose.
The kiss happened during the first few minutes of the Middle Eastern version of “Big Brother,” the latest entry in the phenomenon of importing the Western concept of reality television to the Arab world.
In conservative Bahrain, the Persian Gulf island where the show was filmed, a social kiss on the cheek between a young man and a young woman meeting for the first time suggested rampant moral depravity. They might as well have had sex.
Concerned citizens wrote to newspapers with comments like, “If this is the start, where will it end?” Parliament members called the show an assault on traditional values, and last Friday a few prayer leaders led 1,000 protestors chanting “No to indecency!” through the capital.
The ruckus had the desired affect. On Monday, after a run of less than two weeks, the show was taken off the air by MBC, which is owned by Walid al-Ibrahim, a brother-in-law of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.
The show’s opponents were elated.
“This program showed an abnormal way of living, which is totally opposed to our thoughts, culture, everything,” said Sheik Adel al-Mawda, 44, a member of Parliament from the fundamentalist Salafi movement who spearheaded the protests. “It is not reality TV at all, especially in our part of the world.”
In the Middle East, where most cultural issues carry a political edge, the fact that the network caved in dismayed proponents of free speech.
“I don’t like the program, and would not want my daughter on it, but we have to respect the choice of people who want to watch it and to defend it also,” said Sawsan Shair, a prominent Bahraini columnist. “This is a step backwards.”
The audience outcry started in December with two shows from Beirut, “Star Academy” and “Al Hawa Sawa,” or “On Air Together.”
“On Air Together” put eight women in an apartment for three months, winnowing the group down to one via viewers’ votes. The last one married one of more than 6,000 grooms who sent in videotaped proposals. The show attempted to bow to Muslim sensibilities by having the bride’s mother attend the actual proposal.
“Star Academy” features 16 young Arab men and women in a sort of talent contest, singing, dancing and performing music and skits, as well as cooking, eating and sleeping. (Their quarters are sexually segregated, but there have been co-ed pillow fights involving skimpily clad women.)
Fundamentalist types view the shows as Sodom and Gomorrah live. One Saudi columnist described “Star Academy” as a “whorehouse.”
It is difficult to assess how popular the shows are. One can walk down the streets of a sprawling city like Cairo and find few who ever watched them. (Satellite dishes are expensive.) But the stations claim millions of viewers, the shows attract huge media attention, and messages sent from across the Middle East scroll across the bottom of the screen.
Neither of the first two shows generated quite the horror of “Big Brother,” in part because they were broadcast from Lebanon, which much of the Arab world considers depraved anyway. Lebanon’s satellite networks already have a reputation for showing female employees on air with minimal wardrobes.
In Bahrain, MBC attempted to address Muslim sensibilities by eradicating the erotic edge of the Western versions of the show. (“Big Brother,” incidentally, was considered scandalous in numerous European countries as well.) The men and women were housed in separate sections of a special house, complete with their own prayer rooms. They only mingled in the living room, kitchen and walled garden.
There would be no broadcasts from the women’s bedrooms. Out went tasks like building a human pyramid, which would mean physical contact. There were certainly no moments like the time on the British version when everybody got naked and applied body paint.
The identities of the six men and six women, from across the Arab world, all competing for $100,000 over three months, were kept secret until the first night. One Omani woman was veiled, but several others showed up wearing low-cut cocktail dresses. One man declared that he would teach everybody to dance.
The idea of such liberal, unrelated men and women sharing a house was bad enough, but nothing quite raised hackles like the kiss between the first man and first woman to arrive. “Everybody talked about that kiss,” said Mansour al-Jamri, editor of Al Wasat newspaper.
MBC, which did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment, did issue a statement when it pulled the program, saying it wanted to preserve its reputation as a bastion of Muslim family entertainment. Yet it expressed regret over the tone of the criticism, saying, “All new products need time to be accepted.”
The show had its defenders, mostly businesspeople who hoped it would fuel tourism.
Bahrain is viewed by many as the “Nightclub of the Gulf,” rife with alcohol and prostitution because so many of its neighbors  including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait  ban liquor. But that nightlife, explained Sheik al-Mawda, generally takes place behind closed doors.
“When you are at your house, you can do what you like and nobody should look through the keyhole,” he said, noting that the Prophet Muhammad once declared that you could use a needle to poke out the eye of anyone who tried.
Re: He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
The gentleman’s opinions, like almost all of his ilk, remind me of a dying fish just out of the water. Flipping all over the place. There is no logic nor reason in most of their opinions.
Re: He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
“When you are at your house, you can do what you like and nobody should look through the keyhole,” he said, noting that the Prophet Muhammad once declared that you could use a needle to poke out the eye of anyone who tried.
Adel Mouwdah[quote]
What Adel Mouwdah’s essentially presenting Bahrain with here is a paedeophile’s charter. Got an interest in abusing kids or for that matter farm animals? Don’t worry we won’t say anything so long as its kept behind firmly closed doors. Taken a shine to Dolly the sheep? Step this way.
In fact next door in Iran the Islamists are well ahead of Mr Mauwdah, with a legislative framework in place to cater for those who believe that animals should serve purposes other than being a pet, a tasty snack, riding unicycles around in circuses. According to Iranian law, although sex with male lions is strictly forbidden, it is legal with lionesses, although the law helpfully comes with a health warning about the dangers involved. I got to agree with Bahrainia on this one: when you compare the Shia Islamists with the Wahabis, they’re streets ahead in terms of progress.
Ever seen the Goya etching “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”? In Iran’s case its the so far unsuccessful attempt to breed a half man-half lion.
This is all very dissappointing
Asalaamu Alaikum
May I take a moment to ask. Has anyone who commented on this page tried to figure out what Allah and His Messenger might say about something like this? The Prophet(saw) said that you will follow the Jews & Christians inch by inch …
I am a revert to Islam who is shocked at how people in muslim countries are fighting to join the western world in it’s circus of Jahilliyah. May Allah Guide us all and protect us from becoming of those who go astray.
Allah(swt) created men & jinn only for his worship.
Allah also says the life of this world is just play & amusement,
but better is what lies in the hereafter.
Ponder on the Hikma left by our beloved Nabi(saw) and don’t lose yourselfs in friutless fights for glit & glamour.
Your brother from Cape Town
(living in a society which loves “Big Brother” wish I could escape it)
He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
I still fail to see why ‘Big Brother’ was such a scandal. After all, Mohammed (MHBIH) wrote almost two thousand years ago about the typical goings-on. If Mohammed was born twenty years ago in Bahrain, do you people honestly believe that he would castigate the big brother show?
By some islamist views, interaction between men & women is forbidden, yet they may not have any problems with a special “BIG, BIG BROTHER!” where guys stand around a tv studio measuring each other’s cocks.
The world has already passed most of the muslim world by– it’s a shame when people analize all of the great muslim invention that helped mankind so long ago.
Just my two cents.
He’s in it for God, and to secure his place in Heaven.
you are absolutely right.
star academy is a bad program