CuBe - shAped ConspIrACIes won’T sTop sAudI reforms

day. These kinds of fake news stories were often used to fit the agenda, and incite hatred against the West.

Seventeen years later, it is amazing to see that while technology and our ability to access information has advanced by leaps and bounds, such incitement and such extremist ideas persist. Indeed, those who followed any of the social media reaction to the recent announcement by the Saudi Public Investment Fund of a new downtown area in Riyadh will have noticed the similarities.

In particular, it was “The Mukaab” — a huge cubeshaped structure at the heart of the new development — that raised eyebrows and set Twitter on fire. According to some extremists and conspiracy theorists, the cube being built in the heart of the Saudi capital bears too great a resemblance to the Kaaba. Furthermore, it was secretly designed to overshadow the prominence of Islam’s holiest shrine in nearby Makkah by offering a much bigger cube building, purpose-made for entertainment, dining and commerce.

now, there is surely no need for me to unpack how ridiculous such claims are. First of all, Islam does not hold a monopoly on cube-shaped items. In fact, I am quite sure the creators of Star Trek were not exactly thinking of Makkah when they designed the Borg Cube, nor was Hungarian inventor Erno Rubik when he created his famous 3-D puzzle. Secondly, and more importantly, to even think that such an intention was the inspiration for the design of this landmark is ludi-

Govt high officials’ routine disregard for court orders

THE High Court’s anger at government high officials for not complying with its orders, as well as its decision to refuse to hear a contempt of court petition against a secretary, are well-justified. A High Court bench on Sunday said they were “fed up” with the fact that many of the court’s orders remained unimplemented, despite the court passing them for the welfare of the country. The bench further stated that government high officials do not pay heed to the court’s orders and, ultimately, without their proper implementation, these orders will end up in the trash bin. The High Court bench also rightly observed that government officials display a degree of annoyance if they are summoned to appear before the court in connection with contempt of court petitions, despite being bound as per the constitution to comply with the court’s orders – something that another High Court bench had previously observed.

The High Court bench made the remarks after the placing of a contempt of court petition against the secretary of environment, forest and climate change. In 2019, 23 individuals submitted an application to the environment ministry secretary to reinstate them to their jobs at a ministry project. As the secretary did not respond to their application, the Apex court in 2019 directed the secretary to dispose of the application within a month, following a writ petition. As the application was still not disposed of, despite the court ruling, a contempt of court petition was filed with the HC last year.

This is the second time this month that the Hight Court has expressed its frustration with officials at the environment ministry. On February 5, a High Court bench rebuked and expressed severe annoyance at the Department of Environment under the environment ministry for failing to take any effective steps to curb air pollution in Dhaka, despite repeated directives. And it observed that citizens were literally being “killed” by such inaction.

However, it is not just the environment ministry that is at fault here. Over the years, we have seen a tendency developing among government authorities to disobey orders of the Supreme Court, as no punishment was handed down for non-compliance with its orders. The government and other authorities are bound to implement every directive of the Supreme Court, as it is binding on all, according to Article 111 of the Constitution. Article 112 of the Constitution also says that, “All authorities, executive and judicial, in the Republic shall act in aid of the Supreme Court.” crous in the extreme.

A clear message should be sent to all government officials –particularly of the executive branch – that they are not above the law, as they seem to think. This idea that public servants are a “different class of people”, as argued by the Attorney General back in november 2022, must be shunned for any substantive change to occur. Such display of clear disobedience to court orders needs to be followed up with severe punishments. The court could, perhaps, suo motu ask the relevant authorities to submit a report of how many court directives in total have been disregarded over the years, and go for harsher measures.

Saudi Arabia, whose king’s official title is Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, needs no testimony nor acknowledgement from social media trolls when it comes to its commitment to serving this great religion. The Kingdom’s enormous efforts in serving millions of pilgrims, building and restoring mosques in addition to the billions spent on humanitarian aid to Muslim countries, speak for themselves.

At the same time, there is a fascinating plot twist when you compare the two stories — the Apple store versus The Mukaab. In the second, the land of this alleged diabolical plot is no longer “the infidel” United States of America, but the Kingdom which is the cradle of Islam.

The reasons for these allegations are of course an attempt to discredit, and shed doubt upon, the massive and impressive reforms Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has brought into being. The truth remains that extremists in Saudi Arabia and beyond are unwilling to accept the fact that women can drive, that they have been liberated from the previous guardianship laws and that they now serve as ambassadors, lawyers and doctors. These extremists want a Taliban-like Saudi Arabia, where women are oppressed, forbidden both education and employment, and exist only as second-class citizens who must remain for the most part at home.

The extremists do not want music or concerts, and they seem to forget that Prophet Muhammad himself, peace be upon him, was greeted with singing and drums when he went on the Hijra from Makkah to Madinah. The extremists do not even want a foreign name such as “Downtown” to be given to the new project, using the name as an excuse for railing against what is alleged “creeping Westernization.”

As petty as this is, the extremists seem to forget that many “Western ideas” have their origins in Arabic. Take the word “algorithm,” for example. It actually originates from the name “Al-Khwarizmi.” He was a scientist who is responsible for influential works in mathematics, astronomy, and geography. He served as the astronomer and chief librarian of the famed House of Wisdom in Abbasid Baghdad. Can you imagine the state of the world had the West been so blind as to forbid their scientists from studying and benefiting from Arab research and Arab knowledge? For sure, these petty people would not be able to use social media — which they have wholeheartedly embraced — without an algorithm.

What the Kingdom ought to do is carry on with its reforms, with progressive changes and ambitious development projects. After all, the biggest threat to Islam is not a closed, cube-shaped building. A far more dangerous threat is a closed mind that refuses to acknowledge that Islam only achieved its golden age when it was inclusive of all cultures, and encouraged research, philosophy, and architecture — all of which it used and transmitted to the West.

Faisal J. Abbas is the editor-in-chief of Arab News.

Anti-Bollywood novel ‘Age of vice’ lifts lid on corruption, inequality and organized crime in India

CUlTURAl codes can determine how things are read. Already described as a publishing phenomenon, the novel Age of Vice will not be read the same way in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh – where its author, Deepti Kapoor, was born – as in los Angeles, where producers are rushing to turn it into a television series.

While Indians navigate the different tensions within their society – from the old caste segregation to the more contemporary income-based divide –Americans can be entertained by the legal mafias and forbidden passions that dominate Age of Vice, in the style of The Godfather.

The novel – published in early January – has also drawn comparisons to Stieg larsson’s Millennium crime saga. like the deceased Swedish author, Kapoor X-rays the darkest side of her country, examining sexual violence, abuse of power, collusion between politicians and organized crime, as well as the alcohol and drug addictions of her protagonists. However, the most unexpected literary reference was offered up by the writer herself at the end of an interview with El PAÍS at a lisbon café. Kapoor settled in the Portuguese capital four years ago with her English husband. On a cold winter morning in midJanuary – before posing for photos in the Praça das Flores, a famous square – Kapoor shared her enthusiasm for Rafael Chirbes. A prominent Spanish author who died in 2015, Chirbes published several novels about the post-war state of his country. “I read Crematorium [and was] totally fascinated, because I saw my story reflected in that world of corruption and speculation that he tells.”

Age of Vice is a 600-page novel. It will be followed by two more installments, which will complete a trilogy that will total nearly 2,000 pages. In 2019, it was the most sought-after work at the Frankfurt Book Fair. It has everything that attracts readers: crime, corruption, tyranny, conspiracy, debauchery and – in small doses – love, admiration and loyalty. There are also three main characters handcuffed by a tragic fate that rarely appears in Bollywood musicals.

Unsurprisingly, the book sparked a bidding war between 20 television production companies, who are all fighting to gain the audiovisual rights to a novel that will be distributed in 16 countries. The author is still digesting the success of her work.

“I’ve never experienced anything like this before.

My first novel [A Bad Character] was short, with few reviews… let’s just say it died out early. This is a trilogy that will have a series on television: it’s a kind of product. I’m still trying to figure out how to fit all of this together. It’s a strange feeling.”

Kapoor’s second book had an even tougher road to publication than her first. Set in the world of yoga – an activity she knew well from her time as an instructor – it didn’t arouse editorial interest.

“My agent at the time encouraged me to write about wealthy people that I knew who had crazy stories – sort of like the Delhi Gatsby, with very rich people who cause a lot of pain because they have power and hide behind their wealth.”

Contempt for the suffering of others drives Age of Vice. It begins with the imprisonment of the false culprit of a hit-and-run, which leaves five “pavement dwellers” – who were sleeping on the side of the road – dead. According to Kapoor, this is a very common occurrence in her country. “There are traffic accidents in which, suddenly, the person who was behind the wheel stops being behind the wheel. A poor driver goes to jail in his place.” Kapoor composes a literary puzzle with three basic pieces: Ajay, the outcast, Sunny Wadia, the heir to a mafia family and neda Kapur, a disbelieving journalist. She was content to leave behind the novel about an Indian Gatsby and instead showcase the social complexity of the country.

“India was never perfect and it was always a poor country. But in the 1990s, there was a financial crisis and reforms were introduced. We slowly moved from a semi-socialist economy to a capitalist one. Suddenly, money started flowing in many cities.”

Out of these freedoms and economic opportunities, a new middle class was born. This benefited people like Kapoor, who studied journalism in new Delhi. However, all this urbanization and economic expansion – with the arrival of multinational cor- porations attracted by opportunities and the world’s largest English-speaking population – generated new social gaps. The suburbs grew quickly, thanks to executive salaries. “The foundation of this world was built on extreme inequality and suffering,” the author notes. “I wanted to show the glamor, the opulence and the privilege, but also draw back the curtain to show the rot behind it.”

The new rot is superimposed on the old social segregation of Hinduism – India’s principal religion – where the Dalit caste has no rights. Despite the political advances made since the 1940s, with positive actions to favor their integration, discrimination is commonplace. “I think there is more knowledge about the atrocities committed against Dalits, but the violence, the inequality and the pain remain. Every day, you can read a story about some Dalit being beaten or killed. In rural India, ancient customs are maintained, although in the cities, [these individuals] can find a space to have an anonymous life.” On her last trip to India, Kapoor met with a young couple for her research.

“They’ve gone to university and they work, but no one in the boy’s office knows he’s a Dalit, because if he says so, he thinks they’ll start treating him differently. There are still a lot of painful stories.”

In the novel, the falsely accused driver is Ajay, a Dalit who, when he was a child, was sold by his mother to settle a debt. He grows up to become the assistant to Sunny Wadia – the son of an all-powerful mafia boss. Sunny dreams of being greater than his father, all the while abusing drugs, alcohol, food and sex – something typical of the nouveau riche.

Western readers – and los Angeles producers – love Ajay. “He’s the heart of my novel. I got the inspiration when I was in the mountains, traveling through the Himalayas. I met a boy who had been sent by his family to work. He lived alone, like an orphan, but he was full of hope and optimism. I decided to combine his story with that of the young people who worked in the mansions of the rich.

“When I was a journalist, I attended many parties where these young men were servants or chauffeurs. They were always somewhat withdrawn and always watching to make sure you didn’t need anything. I wondered about their lives and their origins.” It’s easier for an individual to break traditions than for an entire country to do the same. Kapoor broke some codes in her conservative family, which was impacted after the death of her father when she was only 19. That loss was followed by that of her first boyfriend.

In addition to burying idealized dreams about college life, she became the official rebel of the family. She burned the pain and rage by stepping on the accelerator of her car, racing through the streets of Delhi, then a city rushing full speed towards furious capitalism, with all of its opportunities and drawbacks. This fire burns in Age of Vice. The pain and rage have formed her as a writer.