Saudi Arabia appeared to threaten Canada with a 9/11-style attack in a feud over human rights

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Saudi Arabia appeared to threaten Canada with a 9/11-style attack in a feud over human rights

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saudi arabia canada tweet

@infographic_KSA

Saudi state-run media's message to Canada.

  • Saudi Arabian state media tweeted an infographic appearing to show an Air Canada airliner heading towards the Toronto skyline in a way that recalled the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.
  • Saudi Arabia expelled Canada's ambassador after an official account called for the release of detained women's rights activists in the Kingdom.
  • 15 of 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudi citizens, and Osama Bin Laden, the attack's mastermind, was a Saudi who has family there.
  • The Saudi media account deleted the tweet and reposted another without the airliner. 

Saudi Arabian state media tweeted an infographic appearing to show an Air Canda airliner heading towards the Toronto skyline in a way that recalled the September 11, 2001 terrorist hijackings of airliners that struck the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. 

The infographic warned of "Sticking one's nose where it doesn't belong!" after Global Affairs Canada tweeted that it was "gravely concerned" about a new wave of arrests in the Kingdom targeting women's rights activists and urged their "immediate release."

"As the Arabic saying goes: 'He who interferes with what doesn't concern him finds what doesn't please him,'" the infographic read. 

Saudi Arabian citizens comprised 15 of the 19 hijackers that crashed planes on September 11. The attacks' organizer, Osama Bin Laden, came from a prominent Saudi family and still has family there including a son who the Bin Ladens say is looking to avenge his father. 

Saudi Arabia has already expelled Canada's ambassador and frozen all new trade and investment with Ottawa in response to the criticism. 

The tweet came from @Infographic_ksa, an account that had just hours before tweeted another infographic titled "Death to the dictator" featuring an image of the supreme leader of Iran, Saudi's main regional rival. 

Saudi Arabia has long stood accused of funding radical Muslim Imams around the world and spreading a violent ideology called Wahabbism. Under the new leadership of young ruler Mohammad Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has undertaken a number of sweeping reforms looking to reduce the funding for and spread of radical ideology as well as elevate human rights.

But a surge of arrests apparently targeting prominent women's rights activists who previously campaigned to abolish the country's driving ban against women has caused international alarm and prompted the tweet from Canada. 

Saudi Arabia deleted the tweet featuring the plane and later reuploaded one without the airliner pictured.

 

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