Focus on Saudi Arabia

Arabia is the largest country of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Jordan on the northwest, Iraq on the north and northeast, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates on the east, Oman on the southeast, and Yemen on the south. The Persian Gulf lies to the northeast and the Red Sea to its west. It has an estimated population of 27.5 million, and its size is approximately 2,150,000 square km (830,000 square miles)

The Kingdom is sometimes called "The Land of The Two Holy Mosques" in reference to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest places in Islam. In English, it is most commonly referred to as Saudi
Saudi Arabia is the world's leading petroleum exporter and petroleum exports fuel the Saudi economy.Oil accounts for more than 90 percent of exports and nearly 75 percent of government revenues, facilitating the creation of a welfare state,[which the government has found difficult to fund during periods of low oil prices.Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly expressed concern about the state of human rights in Saudi Arabia, although these concerns have been dismissed by the Saudi government.

• Source: Mackey, Sandra, "The Saudis: Inside the Desert Kingdom" (Houghton Mifflin, 1987) ISBN 0-395-41165-3

Saudi Arabia Values

The family was the primary basis of identity and status for the individual and the immediate focus of individual loyalty, just as it was among those who recognized a tribal affiliation. Families formed alignments with other families sharing common interests and life-styles, and individuals tended to socialize with the circle of these family alliances. Families in Saudi Arabia, tended to be patriarchal, the father in the family appearing as an authoritarian figure at the top of a hierarchy based on age and sex.

The society as a whole valued behavior displaying generosity, selflessness, and hospitality; deference to those above in the hierarchy of the family; freedom from dependence on others and mastery over one's emotions; and a willingness to support other family members and assume responsibility for their errors.

Chastity and sexual modesty were also very highly valued. Applied primarily to women, these values were not only tied to family honor but were held to be a religious obligation as well.

Seven deadly sins

The Islam is the religion of Saudi Arabia, and the people act according to the teachings of this religion. Based on the Islam, the sin is the selfish placement of one's own perspective before that of the more universal perspective of God may be seen as the articulation in religious terms of a misplaced focus on the individual at the expense of the community, of humanity, or of the planet. And be understood as a form of highly dangerous failure of understanding in relation to a larger scheme in which the individual or group is embedded.

In this religion there are seven deadly sins: pride, avarice, gluttony, lust, sloth, wrath and envy. The pride refers to an excessive self-love, this has been recognized as the root of all of the vices. The avarice manifests most tangibly in efforts to acquire material wealth or gain, notably the physical or intellectual resources of others, so depriving them of the benefits they might otherwise expect from them. The gluttony is a misplaced desire for food for its sensuality, or withholding food from the needy. The lust includes any form of sexual relationship understood to be abusive attachment to carnal pleasure. The sloth refers to pettiness, cowardice, negligence, being remiss in one's duties, mistrustfulness, indolence, and sluggishness and it may be intepreted as sadness or listlessness. The wrath is understood as inappropriate feelings of hatred, revenge or denial and includes punitive desires outside of justice. And the envy involves the resentful or painful desire for another's advantages or possessions, traits, status, abilities, or situation.

The saudi arabian try to live with values that don't let them fall in those sins. The values that they have are principally generosity, selflessness, hospitality, deference to others, freedom from dependence, willingness, sexual modesty, honor and simplicity.

source: Seven Deadly Sins. NYPL and Oxford University Press, 7 vols, 2004

King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, good leader values

King Abdullah was proclaimed the 6th King of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. At his father’s school, he received his experiences in the fields of government, politics, administration and leadership. Influenced by his father, the founder of the modern Kingdom, he developed a profound respect for religion, history and the Arab heritage.

King Adbdullah lived some years in desert with Bedouin tribes, this expierence taught him values like generosity, honor, simplicity and bravery and woke up in him the desire to help in the development of people around him. All these values are the base for his contribution to the Saudi Arabia Kingdom, he has been interested in the Arab and Muslism affairs and has tried their unity.

As is said before, the different values mentioned have let king Abdullah have thinkings and projects like the defense of Arab and Islamic issues, the searching of peace, stability and security, the condemnation of the taking of innocent lives and the denunciation of deviant groups that falsely claim to be Islamic.


Source: http://www.ops.gov.ph/saudi2006/backgrounder.htm

Osama Bin Laden: Criminal Values

Osama Bin Laden is the most famous criminal born in Saudi Arabia, more than all because he planned the attack to the twin towers in New York, the 9/11 tragedy. Now is considered the enemy number one of United States and is the most searched criminal.

Despite of that, from the Bin Laden's perspective he didn´t do something bad. All the opposite, according to his beliefs and the way that he interpret his religion, he did a great and good thing and the people that share his beliefs now consider him as a hero, because he attacked what the islamic fundamentalists called the evil, the United States, the huge civilization. Taking that on account, we can think that Osama Bin Laden, despite of be considered as a terrorist for the most of the people, is possible that he has some important values.

The values that has Osama are basicly the Jihad values. This values have relation to the term "saint war" and it refers principally to combat in way of God against the devils, the people that attack them. So the Osama's values are faith, struggle, fortress and bravery and are focus on the way to reach the desires of his god. According to that, we can say that Osama is a person with significant values.

But in my opinion the values that this criminal has are focused wrong and maybe he misinterpret the teachings of the Koran and their god, because in the Koran is said that attack your enemies and the people that are not believers of the Islam, but also the Koran says attack when those people have attacked you and never be the aggressor. This means that, although Osama has some important values that induce him to act according his beliefs, not necessarily the causes are appropriated.

In conclusion, Osama is a famous criminal with values like faith, struggle and bravery but he do not focus these values in a good way, so because of that he is a terrorist. He has the desire of apply the teachings of the Koran, but he maybe misinterpreted these teachings.


Source: Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of World Religions. (1999). Ed. Wendy Doniger. Merriam-Webster. ISBN 087-7790442. , Jihad, p.571

Beliefs and values: Similar or different?

Religious belief refers to a faith concerning the divinity. It may concern the existence of a divine involvement in the universe and human life. It may also relate to the values and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader. A personal and cultural value is a relative ethic value. Values are considered subjective and vary across people and cultures. Types of values include moral values, ideological (political, religious) values, social values, and aesthetic values.

The Saudi Arabia values are principally generosity, selflessness, hospitality, respect for relatives, willingness, chastity and sexual modesty. So is possible say that these values are in direct relation with the Saudi Arabian beliefs, because the values that the Saudi Arabian people have are result of apply their beliefs, the Islamic Laws. For example, in Saudi Arabia, according to their beliefs, for the women is prohibited socialize with male native people that don´t have a parental relation, so they have the value of chastity, sexual modesty and particular deference for their relatives.

Other argument that shows the relation between the values and the beliefs is that the concept religious belief is related to the practice of religion teachings, in this case Islam, and this practice is for the saudi arabians their values.

On the other hand, is not apropriate think that values and beliefs are the same thing, because in essence the beliefs concern to the faith and values are the practice of these beliefs in the Saudi Arabian culture. So these concepts, dispite of seem similar, really are different. But for this country values and beliefs have a direct relation.

To sum up, beliefs and values are different things in this culture, but have a big relation because the Saudi Arabian consider that the values are the practice of their religious beliefs.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_belief