Abu Rasasa Strikes Back: The Episode of Hasan Minhaj’s Patriot Act Pulled Off From Netflix in KSA
I first encountered with Hasan Minhaj, an American comedian of Indian descent, at the end of October, special thanks to his Netflix original series, “Patriot Act” and everything about this talk show is straight up hilarious. He talks about immigration policies, the brand ‘Supreme’, oil spills in US Gulf Coast, Amazon’s tactics and, last but not least, Saudi Arabia. The reason why the comedy special received tons of media attention nowadays is the episode on Saudi Arabia is removed by Netflix from its service in Saudi Arabia due to the KSA government’s request. Saudi Communications and Information Technology Commission said that the episode violate the KSA’s cyber-crime laws. But what was the content?
SPOILER ALERT!
Minhaj makes a great satire on Saudi-US relationship by touching on the murder of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi and criticising the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, a.k.a MBS. Even in the intro section of the show we can see the banner saying “More Bone Saws” which I thought is a very striking image to start the episode. He starts the show with Khashoggi’s murder and the allegations of MBS is behind the whole thing with hiring a hit squad. The most gripping thing about Minhaj’s show is that he uses the relevant news articles in between his comments, so he comes at you with the facts, y’all. Minhaj continues with saying that for most MBS “was hailed as the reformer the Arab World needed.” However, Khashoggi’s killing got them thinking “hmm, maybe he wasn’t really a reformer” and how all Muslims kind of knew that because he’s the Crown Prince of KSA (Duh?).
Obviously Minhaj later touches on the royal decree of lifting the driving ban for women with showing the video of Aseel Seraj’s, a.k.a. Leesa A’s, “We are driving” — being the video that literally damaged me for the rest of my life. The act of lifting the driving ban might seem revolutionary for Saudi women, but if you think MBS did it for being a pioneer for women’s rights in the country, you sadly do not live in this planet. Saudi Arabia’s rapidly growing economy requires women workers, especially in the private sector. The utterly sad percentage of women in workplaces was 18% in 2016 and one of MBS’ “Vision 2030” goals is increasing the women’s participation by 30%. Yeah, sure this is a lovely vision and yay women’s rights; but 47 women were put behind bars for literally advocating the ban lift and some are STILL in jail. “But the ban is lifted, like what the fuck?” Welcome to the Middle East.
The parts that I laughed the most was Minhaj’s comments on the importance of Saudi Arabia for Muslims — especially Mecca and Medina’s importance to the Muslim world. The usage of “The Mecca of…” phrase, the way Minhaj defines Mecca and Medina as “Muslim Infinity Stones of holiness” (lol) and when he compares pilgrimage with Coachella, I was crying from laughter. That is true how Saudi Arabia’s image genuinely affects the image of Muslims in the entire world, because the holy sites are located in there. Sadly, the image is very damaged and even becoming dangerous at this point.
There were/are also hundreds of human rights abuses during MBS period. His “power grab”, hundreds of family members who were arrested because they were critical of MBS’ policies, literally thousands of activists who are brutally beaten in prison and/or receiving many death threats, and bombing the shit out of Yemen (but spending $930 million on humanitarian aid to Yemen — check the meme below)
However, Saudi money is flowing to (especially) the tech companies in the US and nobody would say no to Saudi money. It would be “foolish” as Trump would put into words with grace.
Saudi backlash of the episode and Netflix’s removal of the episode from Netflix Saudi Arabia is literally what Minhaj criticised during the talk show. I’m guessing legal department of Netflix haven’t watched the episode. Netflix’s explanation is even funnier because it claimed that Netflix supports “artistic freedom worldwide.” Are you kidding me? Is the definition of “freedom” banning your very own content, by your very own artist in a country that is disturbed from the critics? Hasta la vista, free expression. The ban obviously faced an international outrage from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and many other human rights organizations. The episode is still available on Netflix (except Saudi one) and on YouTube everywhere (unless it’s banned in your country).
Honorary Mentions from the PA: Call me by your name joke, the Al-Waleed bin Talal video vs. the MTV Cribs, Abu Rasasa vs. El Chapo, explanation of Yemen Civil War under 40 seconds, and the “bad Indians” part.
