Former Lebanese Minister and Hizbullah Ally Wiam Wahhab Compares Women Wearing the Niqab to Garbage Bags

Following are excerpts from an interview with former Lebanese minister Wiam Wahhab, which aired on OTV on March 14, 2011:
 

Wiam Wahhab: [The March 14 Coalition] make statements, such as: "We don't want a rule-of-the-jurisprudent state." What is a rule-of-the-jurisprudent state? I don't know myself. Someone should tell me what it is. I don't know what this is all about. I don't know what a rule-of-the-jurisprudent state is.
 

Anyway, brother Sa'd [Al-Hariri], you don't want a rule-of-the-jurisprudent state, but do you want a kingdom of beheadings, and of chopping off of tongues, hands, and ears? These are the court rulings they issue in Saudi Arabia. Haven't you heard what kind of rulings they issue? Verdicts of beheadings by the sword, the chopping off of hands, and the chopping off of ears and tongues.
 

So you don't want a rule-of-the-jurisprudent state – and we still don't know what such a state is – but do you want a kingdom that prevents women from driving and from going to work?
 

I have been to Riyadh, Jedda, Taif, and Mecca. The women there look like garbage bags. They [wear] black bags, and you cannot see a thing – no face, no eyes, no hands, no legs...
 

Interviewer: Although their style may be very modern...
 

Wiam Wahhab: Allow me to continue. You don't want a rule-of-the-jurisprudent state, but you do want to turn us into a country... Do you know that if you go to Riyadh today, and God forbid, you are injured in a car crash, do you know what compensation you would get? A mere seven riyals, because you are Christian.
 

Does [Sa'd Al-Hariri] – that servant of the Emir – want a country that despises human beings? Does he want a state of Wahhabis, who accuse people of heresy, behead them, and blow them up in Algeria, and all over the world? Do you want a state ruled by people who rob the nation of its money, and spend it on entertainment clubs? Do you want a kingdom of gambling and bars?
 

[...]
 

I call upon the Saudi people to stage an Intifada against that ruling clique. That clique plunders the resources of the nation. Brothers, that clique wasted tens of billions every month, while millions of Saudi citizens are poor, are hungry, lack schools, lack water, lack electricity. I call upon the Saudis to stage an Intifada against these peoples.
 

It would be a disgrace if this family continues to control the nations' resources this way. On what do they spend the money? They hoard it and transfer it to America.
 

Interviewer: Are you calling upon the people to rise against them?
 

Wiam Wahhab: Of course. The Saudis are staging an act of aggression against the Arab country of Bahrain. What is the difference between them and Saddam Hussein? When Saddam Hussein entered Kuwait, the entire world untied against him. Today, the Saudis are entering Bahrain, and I salute the Bahraini people, who wants to topple that tyrant. He is not just a tyrant. This is an imbecile of a king, he's high on drugs.
 

[...]