Praying man kicked off United flight

by Grant Martin on

WABC out of New York is reporting that an Orthodox Jewish man who had been praying while a United Airlines flight was boarding was kicked off after he wouldn’t sit down.

As the story goes, the man boarded the flight and moved back to the lav to pray, which as doctrine dictates, can’t be interrupted. After flight attendants asked him to sit down and he repeatedly didn’t respond, they summoned a security guard to escort him off the plane.

I can see how standing up during pushback can be a security issue, but is it really necessary to kick the guy off for such a short delay? According to one of the witnesses on the flight, the ritual was only supposed to take two minutes.

But the best part about the article on ABC 7 is how they try to suggest it had something to do with religious or racial profiling. They make sure to point out that the man “wore a full beard, a black hat and a long black coat” and that he was “carrying a religious book”. Look out! Those rascals with religious books are dangerous!

Churches in Saudi Arabia?

by Abha Malpani on

Cultural changes in Saudi Arabia have been a frequent topic on Gadling. We’ve talked about advancements such as: Saudi women being allowed to drive, controversial books being permitted distribution, bans on photography being lifted, and restrictions such as men imprisoned for flirting and the banning of red roses for Valentines day.

The latest, and what might be the most significant cultural change in the works is the possibility of building churches in the country. According to the BBC, the talks are the result of Saudi King Abdullah’s meeting with the Pope last November. Allowing churches to be built would give 1.5 million Christians who live there a place to worship — something that they can do only privately at the moment. The last Christian priest was expelled from the kingdom in 1985.

These talks were spurred after Doha allowed for a Catholic church to be built where the first mass was held earlier this year, attended by 15,000 people. Doha has now given the go ahead for Anglican, Orthodox and Coptic churches to be built.

According to the UK Times: “Saudi Arabia adheres to a hard-line Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam and is home to Mecca and Medina, the most holy sites of the religion — no faith other than Islam may be practiced.” If churches do come around to being built in the kingdom, it will be a huge feat in Muslim-Christian relations.

Red roses banned in Saudi Arabia for Valentine’s Day

by Abha Malpani on

Married men in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will have to put their creative caps on to think of an original way to woo their significant other on Valentine’s Day this year, as the Kingdom’s religious police have imposed a ban, not only on red roses, but anything scarlet in gift shops.

Why? All under the premise of not encouraging people out of wedlock to have relationships, something that is prohibited and punishable by law under the rules of Sunni Islam — the type of Islam that governs Saudi Arabia.

You have to keep in mind that Saudi Arabia doesn’t even allow unrelated men and women to mix openly, so if you are a local, you would have to rack your brains to come up with a clever strategy to even communicate with someone your heart is pounding for.

Red, blue or green, a gift is a gift is a gift. The particular availability of something red to gift on V-day is a bonus, so how exactly banning the sale of red items would play a role in discouraging opposite sex relations is beyond my understanding.

As for the expatriates living in the Kingdom, every thing goes in their residential compounds so I doubt they would care too much.

Romantic souls will have to live with gifting yellow, pink, white OR rainbow colored (?!) items instead. No big deal, eh?

Visa problems? Maybe you should visit the Visa God

by Abha Malpani on

My fellow Indians have found a new way to secure visas to the West. Go to Hyderabad, take 11 rounds of the Chiklur Balaji Temple and voila, your visa will not be rejected.

A temple that has been around for about 100 years hardly drew anyone until recently, thanks to the reincarnation of Hindu Lord Vishnu into “Visa God”, it now draws 100,000 visitors a week. People go as early as 6am to avoid the rush.

Commerce graduate and ex-Unilever employee who is now head priest of the temple (his father’s), couldn’t have put his business knowledge to better use as he crafted this idea while Hyderabad worked towards developing into a key technology hub. The temple even has a website!

“Want it bad enough and you will get it”; “just believe in it enough and it will happen”, “Law of Attraction“; praying for what you want; all that I can understand and reason with; but turning a God into a “Visa God” and driving traffic under that excuse, is a bit hard to stomach. The fact that it has worked, leaves me amused and wondering. I suppose the idea sprouts from that of believing and faith, but it’s a bit far-fetched, no? Apparently, nobody who has greeted the Visa God has been disappointed.

From the article: Mr. Babu of Indus Entrepreneurs says the appeal of the Visa God boils down to the following: “Even if you’re not religious, you say, ‘Why not? I can just go and spend a few minutes and get a visa.”

My country, yet again, leaves me very, very confused.