Saudi Arabia Bans Public Cinemas

Saudi Arabia has officially banned the opening of pubic cinemas across the kingdom, reports the Jerusalem Post.

The ban comes after a range of protests erupted against the issuing of cinema licenses and the public screening of movies is now illegal.

Film production company CEO Silvio Saadi says that mixed cinemas is problematic for many Saudis, saying that the main obstacle to public screenings is not political but cultural, writes the Jerusalem Post.

The Post writes that last month saw the first commercial screening of a Saudi movie in over 30 years amid street protests.

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Comments

[coveark]

That is right up there with "DRY" counties in the South of our own country.

[MajorKong]

Nice people.

Sure glad I almost got my butt shot off protecting them from Saddam.

[mergina]

You see now that is a huge part of this Kingdom of Misery and Oppression as well as the Rest of the Muslim World. They have no outlets other than killing each other and the rest of the world if they can help it. No movies, no sitcoms, no art galleries, no authors, no nothing but their twisted designs of their religions and their dark ages need to control and oppress and brutalize just because. How can ANYONE exist in these countries that has a drip of common sense in their being? Who the how the what the?

[Ernest Hite]

THEY DONT WANT A CORRUPT AND IRMORALE AND GODLESS SOCIETY LIKE WE PROFESS TO BE.

[mergina]

Better a godless society than being a part of a god society such as theirs with little or no value for human life, no respect for women, a lack of compassion and fairness. Yep that's some god they got there.

[gatogato]

Why don't they just show the videos of GWB making out with the princes?

[mergina]

Shhh. They do, at parties.

[Kenji]

With all their problems, this is what they focus on.

[NevaforLeadership]

This is pretty key. It goes to the heart of the causes of all their problems.

[mat3]

One guy cuts a whole in the bottom of his popcorn box and ruins it for everyone.

[InfinteShibumi]

One guy puts explosives in his shoes and suddenly and forever millions around the globe have to take off their shoes at the airport, no matter their condition, no matter their age. It always starts with one jerk to ruin it for everyone else.

[InfinteShibumi]

P.S. I think it's more to do with a: foreign films and their impact on Saudi culture and b: mixing of the sexes. (BTW, what popcorn are you talking about?)

[mat3]

Picture cutting a whole in the bottom of the box and then placing on your lap with your fly open. Then enjoy the show.

[amoosefloats]

But they all come over here, drink, go to movies, chase women, eat pork. Just wait til zero oil, all those 600 ft yachts, bugatti veyrons, private jets will be sold cheap on craigslist.
The only reason we fake being their friends is Oil when it is gone we will leave them to die in the desert. The only country there that is trying to protect themselves for peak oil is Dubai. But it is a resort country built almost entirely on near slave labour.

[antiprop1]

Lets drop the PC vibe and tell it like it is. Hard-line Muslim Wahhabism is an anti-human blight that stains the human race. Ok, that's a strong statement. Please educate me. Prove me wrong.

1.) How can a society that strives to keep half its population veiled and uneducated compete in the modern global economy?

2.) In 100 years when their oil is projected to run out, how will the Saudi Wahhabists compete in a world they have antagonized by supporting terrorism? Its human nature to seek revenge against weakened enemies whether we want to admit it or not.

Financed the Taliban and Hamas, 15 out of 19 9-11 highjackers were middle class Saudis.

3.) Name one innovative product or service this society has produced in the last 200 years.

4.) How can a just society morph out of a nation that bases its laws and policies on the teachings of a seventh century prophet?

I believe that letting a nation like this control our energy policy is insanity.

5.) How do we wean ourselves from Saudi oil.

Please respond

[JohnnyLee]

The more dogmatic a religion becomes the less it has to do with spirituality and the more it has to do with control. The Saudi Royal family in the course of 60 years has become one of the most fantastically wealthy families in the course of human history. They want to hold on to that money i.e. not share it with their fellow citizens. So, they use religion to control the population - they back up that control with a giant national defense budget. Saudi Arabia spends four times more on arms per year than Israel does. Spending all that money has two effects.

1. It tells the Saudi population "don't even try it".
2. It buys power and influence all over Washington DC. People cry foul all the time about AIPAC but don't kid yourself it's the Saudis who can buy real influence in Washington DC. Politicians i.e. Bush I and Bush II, Bill Clinton et al... know all they have to do is kiss Saudi butt while in office and then the Saudis will become their benefactors when they return to the private sector.

So don't blame Islam. It's just man corrupting religion for his own ends.

[NevaforLeadership]

Good post. People need to speak out.

[Usama]

1) Saudi women are indeed educated, 94% literacy for Saudi women according to UN. Greater than Brazil's, China's, Portugal's.

2) The Saudi king rules Arabia for the West. His service is to your greed. You haven't figured this out yet? The Saudis financed the Taliban through the Pakistan ISI because America wanted it. The Clinton and Bush admins even attempted to work with the Taliban if theyd agree to the Unocal/GE/ENRON TAPI pipeline. When The Taliban refused to work with Bush, he called for their overthrow.

3) A slanted hypocritical question. You support the authoritarian rule, protect it from coups, then complain that its not doing enough. You want cheap oil and inventions for your love of materialism.

4) The 7th century prophet was given a Book from God which no one has been able to match or surpass in 1400 years. What most nonMuslims dont realize is that man's instincts and needs dont change, and solutions to managing them can be universal. Thus, time doesn't change man's appetites, desires, needs.

[Joanne Bretzer]

I'm no defender of Saudi Arabia, but it is important to keep facts straight:

1. Women must cover, but not their faces. A high percentage of women in Saudi Arabia are educated, and the enrollment of women in universities is very high.

2. The oil is projected to run out much sooner than that and there are efforts to diversify the economy, but these efforts are impeded by a number of factors, such as underemployment of men and about 5% employment for women, and the use of cheap foreign labor to do just about everything.

3. Dates and oil. Wahabism does not encourage creativity. But the young people are just as bright as anywhere else.

4. The U.S. is a Christian nation- much of what Americans do is predicated on the teachings of a 1st century prophet.

5. So long as the powers that be in the U.S. and the rest of the world profit from oil, we will not be independent of it.

As for the banning of cinema, there are video rentals everywhere in the kingdom, satellite television is also. The movies and shows available on satellite television (one of the two companies is owned by a Saudi prince) are as provocative as the ones in the US. Besides, Saudis can watch CNN, BBC, MSNBC as well as al Jazeera (which until recently was not available to Americans).

The Hay'a, or religious police, ahave a finger in the dike, but the sea is rising .

[Grant Morrison]

..

Ah, our "allies". Good friends holding hands across the great cultural divide.

I'll sleep better knowing they have our backs.

Umm, but don't they all carry little knives?

.

[rigveda]

They need to do that here in the States until Hollywood agrees to stop with all the silly remakes.

[biotechwoman]

Guess we know why Bush and the GOP are allied with SA. Must be the oil and the antiquated views.

[Bluedogdemocrat8650]

Wow, cant wait until the world moves away from oil.

[discourse jockey]

TYPO: "Saudi Arabia has officially banned the opening of pubic cinemas"

[Gripen]

US allied Wahabists strikes again.

[Zheegool]

embarrassing