It's just one sign, but a hopeful one nevertheless. The Saudis are laughing at both fundamentalists and terrorists. MSNBC reports:

Tash Ma Tash," a wildly popular Saudi TV series that is deploying satire to poke fun at the fundamentalists.

Staff on the show have received death threats for what some consider brazen impertinence; meanwhile, senior sheikhs issued a religious edict which deemed it was sinful to watch "Tash MaTash" after an episode skewered religious judges for working only three hours a day. Another episode was heavily criticized by clerics and others when it ridiculed the practice of requiring women to be accompanied by a male relative or a husband when dining out.

Terror Academy Awards

Judging from their episode this week mocking so—called terror academies, they won't win any new fans in the militant world this year either.

In Wednesday night's installment, a man was shown going to a police station in search of his missing nephew, only to be told that the youth had joined a terror organization. The uncle leaves shocked and tearful.

The scene then shifts to a fundamentalist academy where gullible young men are being trained. The nephew is shown learning how to disguise himself in women's robes and adapt feminine mannerisms, despite a burgeoning mustache.

Later, he chats with a peer who says he has used a suicide belt nine times, and reassures the gullible nephew that he didn't feel much pain when it exploded. (more)

Clarice Feldman   10 02 06