The Saudi school of rascals

Whoever remembers the era in Saudi Arabia in the early nineties when people would exchange  cassettes [featuring religious discourse] can, in one form or another, relate to the appearance and popularity of social-networking websites in recent years, as well as the emergence of a new segment [of society] that one might call the “new Facebookers” or the “new tweeters”. Some members of this social segment are today relating their thoughts and indeed their words in order to disagree for the sake of disagreeing. The issue is now like an airplane pilot flying a plane carrying hundreds of passengers without knowing the least bit about being a pilot or flying a plane.  Some of these people are therefore trying to fulfil their dreams to become [political] activists even if they do not possess the tools necessary for such “activism”, whilst others have gone further than this and began objecting and calling themselves the “opposition.”  What has happened is similar to the scene in the famous Arab play “School of Rascals” when the Adel Imam character suddenly announces “I object”, for when he is asked why, he respond “I don’t know, but that’s what everyone else does!”

The past few days have exposed this segment [of society], who we can call the students of the Saudi School of Rascals, as a result of two incidents that were played out on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking websites. The first incident involved an internet post by somebody claiming to be an old woman and calling herself “Umm Fahd.” In this internet post, Umm Fahd claimed that her son has been detained by the authorities for a number of years and that she had never received any news about him. The post was very sentimental and expressive. Thousands of people commented on the post and supported it, and religious rulings were even issued. However nobody wanted to ask the most logical question: does anybody know Umm Fahd personally?  The Saudi Ministry of Interior responded quickly to announce that it did not have any records of a prisoner by the name mentioned in Umm Fahd’s post, and if anyone has any information or questions, then they should come forward.  This story fell into the hands of those who go to extremes and who supported the alleged claims of this woman, championing a false story that was later circulated across the internet.

The second case was the trial of a cell accused of “plotting to seize power” in Saudi Arabia. No sooner were the charges announced than the School or Rascals rushed to condemn the accusations and consider them invalid, even though the court has not even issued any rulings yet.  Even after two members of the cell confessed to the charges, along with the confession of the leader of the cell, which was published in the media, the School of Rascals did not refrain from getting involved in the same manner as they did with regards to the Umm Fahd case.  Therefore it is not correct to issue rulings haphazardly, particularly before the judiciary has issued its final ruling.

No one is calling for a return to the past and a marginalization or prohibition of such opinions being aired.  However if these websites continue to base their viewpoint on conspiracy theories then nobody will benefit from the openness that these websites are supposed to reflect.  Instead of such websites being viewed as reflecting the pulse of society, and playing their anticipated role, they will instead be viewed as nothing more than the worthless scribbling of conspiracy theorists, and they will lose their value and worth.

What is funny is that there are those who truly believe that social networking website users form a significant portion of society.  Reality tell us otherwise, for the number of people in Saudi Arabia using social networking websites is on the rise, but this figure is only increasing gradually.  According to the Arab Social Media Report published in May, the number of Twitter users in Saudi Arabia who actively used their twitter account during the first quarter of 2011 stands at an estimated 115,000 users, which is just 0.43 percent of Saudi Arabia’s entire population.  As for Facebook, there are approximately 4 million Facebook users in Saudi Arabia, equivalent to 15.3 percent of the population.  These figures clearly reveal whether social networking websites have a strong influence on society today or not!