Bin Salman’s shame as Arabs dance while Gaza burns

The Arab world must not and cannot remain silent any longer. It is, after all, this very silence that has allowed the slaughter of Palestinians to take place in Gaza these past 550 days.

It’s very easy to criticise Britain and remind everyone why the Union Flag is known around the world as the Butcher’s Apron, and the US is an open target because many of the culturally bereft Americans still thought that they were the indigenous people of the Americas until President Joe Biden formally apologised for “the blot” on his country’s history. And the Israelis, of course, have embraced unprecedented savagery because the West has given them a green light to think that they really are “Chosen People” and can therefore get away — literally — with murder.

But what excuse does the Arab world have to hunker down and pretend that a genocide is not happening in their backyard in the 21st century? I’m not sure how history will judge them, but the only conclusion I can reach is that they are spineless cowards ruled by regimes and despots who despise them. What has happened to the descendants of the Arabs who took on the might of the Persian and Roman Empires, and won, taking justice and freedom to societies steeped in corruption and immorality?

You might have guessed by now that I am angry; very angry.

Why? Among the masses of social media posts exposing Israel’s daily atrocities against journalists, medical staff, patients and the children of Gaza, one from the alternative news agency @Warfare Analysis caught my eye.

Meanwhile in Jabal Al-Fil, Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia. pic.twitter.com/pi363UhKZr

— Warfare Analysis (@warfareanalysis) April 9, 2025

A video showed scenes of unbridled hedonism, dancing and what looks like a pop festival taking place just a few hundred miles away from Hellfire missiles raining down on tented refugee camps and engulfing Palestinian journalists in flames.

According to Warfare Analysis, this festival was happening near the “forbidden city” at Jabal Al-Fil, Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia. In the shadows of the legendary Elephant Rock, Western music played as the Arab party goers, men and women, mingled in the fading sunlight with Western influencers and others.

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I imagine that it was a similar scene that greeted Moses when he came down from Mount Sinai and saw the Israelites worshipping the golden calf. According to the Biblical account, that’s when he realised that his people weren’t ready to obey God’s commandments.

This video was not of some 1950s Hollywood Biblical epic, but from 2025 Saudi Arabia, currently under the control of the reformer Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman. I’m all for having fun, but the idea of such hedonism just a few hundred miles from the epicentre of the Gaza Genocide is outrageous. Have these Arabs become so inured to what is happening to their brothers and sisters in Gaza that their humanity button has been switched off?

Tourist guides in Saudi boast that Al-Ula, is a “must-visit destination if you enjoy history and nature.” And yet it is a forbidden city; a place mentioned in the Qur’an that we should not visit. Al-Ula has an “Old Town” where there are houses, shops and mosques, but just 22 kms away lies Mada’in Salih, also known as Hegra. Hegra is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so listed because of the rock carvings done by the notorious people of Thamud.

They are mentioned in the Qur’an many times, but only as examples of “wrongdoers”.

Prophet Salih was sent to correct the wicked ways of the Thamud, described in the Qur’an as being powerful, incredibly wealthy and resourceful. They were able to carve monuments and buildings out of the mountains, a sort of twin city to Jordan’s famous Petra. They were so wealthy and powerful that they didn’t live there, but carved the rockfaces purely for the sake of showing off their ability to do so.

The Thamud ignored Prophet Salih, who warned them to change their wicked ways or brace themselves for a punishment from God. In their arrogance they mocked the warning, and when God’s punishment duly arrived, it was swift. The people of Thamud were obliterated by an earthquake and no trace was left of them, except for the monuments that they had carved.

Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) warned his Companions travelling through the region not to venture into Al-Ula as it was forbidden to Muslims. He also cautioned them not to eat or drink anything from the area, in a timeless lesson that still applies today: Muslims should always remain steadfast and loyal to the teachings of Islam and avoid any activities or practices that go against it.

As a Muslim convert, I believe that there is no deity except God (known as Allah in Arabic), and that Muhammad is the Last and Final Messenger of God. It is an article of faith that I believe without question that the Qur’an is the Word of God, and the example, Sunnah, of the Prophet is the best example for us to follow if we want to put Islam into practice in our daily lives.

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I have to wonder, therefore, at the recklessness of other Muslims who go clubbing and partying in Al-Ula. This recklessness is compounded by the fact that their God-fearing Palestinian counterparts are being blown apart by Israeli missiles a few hundred miles away.

I also have to wonder at Bin Salman, who might easily have taken lessons in arrogance and foolishness from the Thamud. I wonder how many of the learned Saudi sheikhs and scholars languishing in Saudi prisons tried to remind him about the idolatrous influences of Al-Ula, with emphasis on the importance of loyalty to Islamic teachings in the face of worldly temptations?

Like the Thamud, this arrogant royal appears to be a lost cause.

Yes, he has made a few perfunctory statements of support for the Palestinian cause but, in reality, he has thrown his lot in with the genocidal maniacs in Israel.

Bin Salman is keen to demonstrate to the West that everything in the kingdom is “normal” by Western, rather than Islamic standards, and that the Gaza Genocide is having no impact on day to day life. But he is wrong. Surely it can only be a matter of time before the young pro-Palestinian Saudi citizens rebel against such irreligious decadence.

I believe that 21st century Lions of the Desert in the Arab world will rise up fearlessly, invoking the likes of Omar Al-Mukhtar and Emir Abdelkader, when they realise that the Saudi regime is not only seeking the leadership of the Muslim world, but also dragging it down towards Hell in a handcart.

Apparently, Bin Salman’s worst fear now is that, having thrown in his lot with the Zionists state, the Israelis should lose the war. In order to try and make sure that this does not happen, he is prepared to go to any lengths in private to show support for Israel, regardless of the bloody Israeli offensive in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, who face being displaced into the Sinai Desert (and there’s another connection with Prophet Moses). Should the latter happen, says Egyptian analyst Maged Mandour, it would be the political equivalent of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi slitting his own throat. Sisi is another Arab who has the backbone of an amoeba and would be no great loss if he took such a dramatic step.

The Arab youth showed the world what they could do during the Arab Spring, and if ever the Palestinians needed them to do so again, that time is now.

They too must feel humiliated at the lack of any meaningful action in support of the Palestinians by their regimes; their honour is being besmirched by those who claim the right to rule over them, squander their resources on vanity projects and crawl on their knees before the Donald Trumps, Vladimir Putins and Ursula von der Leyens of this world.

Resistance against occupation is a legitimate right under international law, so let it be the Arab world which champions that right and exposes once and for all the hypocrisy of those who pay lip-service to the laws and conventions developed to deliver justice for the downtrodden and oppressed people of the world. Occupied Palestine, especially the Gaza Strip, would be a good place for this to begin.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.