Saudi King Meets Old Teacher Who Hit Him

This looks like an old video but it has only been uploaded to YouTube recently and it has been circulating widely among Saudi Twitter users today.

In the video, King Abdullah can be seen listening to an elderly man. As the elderly man finishes talking, King Abdullah thanks him then says: “This Sheikh was my teacher,” says the King of the man. “Should I tell them what you have done to me or not?” the King asks. The audience laughs, and the man begins to praise the King, apparently because he knows what the King is about to say would be embarrassing. His attempt to make the King forgo telling the story miserably fails.

“I want to ask you something,” the King says to the man. “Do you remember that hit that you gave me, huh?”

The attendees immediately burst into laughing, and the embarrassed elderly man responds quickly with a famous Arabic proverb, saying: “Being hit by a by a loved one is like eating raisins.”

The response makes the King chuckle, then he thanks the elderly man again, gesturing that the friendly conversation has come to an end.

Dangerous Celebrations

While the official government celebrations of the National Day have been largely subdued after the King’s decision to cancel the music concerts, the rallies of cars filled with young men waving green flags and engaging in varying degrees of shenanigans took place as usual. This video, for example, reportedly shows such rally in my hometown of Ahsa in the Eastern Province:

People on Twitter are circulating this video that shows men looting a Baskin Robbins ice cream store in Khobar, but the video is actually old. It is from 2009. You can read more about the 2009 National Day vandalism incidents here.

That doesn’t mean the day’s celebrations were without their incidents. A video posted to YouTube Sunday night reportedly showed men vandalizing a restaurant in Khamis Mushait in the southern part of the country:

Famous psychologist Tariq al-Habib said on Twitter that his 10-year-old son was seriously injured in a car accident on the road to Mozahimiya by people he described as “reckless.” Very sad to hear this. I wish the boy a speedy recovery.

Huge On YouTube→

Laura Bashraheel takes a look at the flourishing Saudi entertainment scene on the video sharing site, and talks to some of its stars and producers. “YouTube has drastically changed my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined,” Saudi YouTube sensation Hisham Fageeh, who studies at Columbia University in New York, told her. “It started a career and opened doors for me that I have only dreamed of reaching — it’s truly magic.” ♦

Real Civilized Protests

Speaking of civilized Saudi protests against the anti-Islam film and cartoons, I found two good examples:

In Qatif, where anti-government protests led to several deaths over the past few months, demonstrators rallied Thursday night in the name of defending Islam and Prophet Mohammed’s honor.

Fans of the Jeddah-based al-Ittihad football club chant a famous Islamic song (or nasheed) before their AFC Champions League match against Chinese side Guangzhou Evergrande on Wednesday. (via Ebtihal Mubarak)