Iraqi model, Omar Al Gala played his role well as that prime example of a dashing young man. He was the hit during his days of ephemeral fame. Indeed, he killed his role as they say, and he ate the ‘Mr Handsome’ script with uncommon ravenousness. For many social media enthusiasts, male and female, young and old alike, Al Gala ticked every available box as a man who satisfied their eyes’ desires for physical handsomeness. And he himself was aware and was also so highly conscious of the fact that he was good-looking. He made the best of his fine facial endowments and equally suave physical attributes. He saw the attraction he carried, like that of a music star, and serenaded in it when he worked as a model in Saudi Arabia.
However, in 2013, Al Gala ran foul of the Saudi Arabian laws and went against the dictates of the authorities of the Kingdom. He allowed too much mingling with folks of the opposite sex and basked in the ambience way too much. After he got his fingers burnt, he found a ready excuse in his dashing looks. He readily blamed the incident and its obvious consequences on how handsome he looked, and he expected his dashing looks to take the fall for his fallout with his hosts and the owners of the Arabian Kingdom.
Al Gala only went to Saudi Arabia to work, but things didn’t work out between him and the country’s authorities. He was deported, and his deportation made waves on social media. It was similar to the kind of dust the deportation of one of our own, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, is currently raising also in social media. Gumi also went to Saudi Arabia to work, but not for pecuniary reasons. He went to perform the hajj—divine labour for heavenly rewards, but was turned back at the entry point. Our dear Sheikh Ahmad Gumi’s deportation is also a social media sensation, not because of his physical beauty like that of Al Gala, but because of his ugly romance with what millions of Nigerians and the Saudi Arabian authorities think are beastly attributes. So, going by the reigning allegations, arguments and contentions, Saudi Arabia deported one for his beauty and the other for being a beast.
So, the questions are on two hands. What could have been the offence of everybody’s Mr Handsome? Why would Saudi authorities expel a good-looking young man who, somehow, became the toast of many in their country? On the other hand, why did Saudi Arabia deport a man who came to the country only to perform a very important religious duty? What did Gumi do wrong by answering a divine call? Why did they give him a visa, let him plan the holy journey, and allow him to take the holy risk of flying for hours only to deny him entry into the holy land? Why did they make him spend his hard-earned hard currency in these hard times? Why isn’t his deportation a hard decision for the hard-tackling Saudi authorities?
Al Gala and Gumi both told their deportation stories. Al Gala said he was in the country for his modelling job. Yes, indeed, he was in Riyadh for the 2013 edition of the Jandriyah Cultural Festival with two of his colleagues, both males. He said while he was at his duty post in the Riyadh festival working for his cool Riyals, some fans from his previous engagements recognised him. They were female fans, and the ladies swarmed around him for photographs and autographs. It was a scene. The ‘Hisbah’ of the town saw what was going on and thought what was happening was getting delirious. They immediately stepped in before it got out of hand. Al Gala said: “The religion police didn’t like it and they came and asked me politely to leave the festival.”
The matter was an attraction to us, the press, and we naturally gave it the most appropriate slant for Entertainment Journalism: He was deported for being too handsome. But the Saudi Arabian police said that was not true, that Al Gala and his two colleagues were only asked to leave the festival and not the country. “The members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices feared that female visitors would fall in love with them,” a report said, quoting an unnamed Saudi police officer. The religious police said Al Gala danced indecently at the festival and had ignored the sensibilities of the poor women, who were not even supposed to have been at the male stand at the festival in the first place. The police added in their explanation that it was not about his handsomeness, but that Al Gala and his gang of two other models were sent out for disregarding the country’s custom, which prevents women from interacting with men who are not of their family.
It was indeed an explanation typical of the police. So, one is safe to say it is a police thing… You asked a model to leave a festival, the only thing for which he came to your country ─ because women were admiring him, but he claimed you did not ask him to leave your country. Hmmm!
Sheikh Gumi also spoke about his ordeal. He was prevented from getting into Medina to perform the hajj, and he didn’t like the idea. From his thoughts, it could be inferred what he is not saying. What he said is not in the words he put out in his social media post. Gumi is telling Saudi Arabia that they must separate religion from politics – his politics. He is saying that whatever he says, whatever thoughts he might express, should not be separated from his religion and acts of worship. In other words, he is saying that he is not the same as his words, a position which is as contestable as it is arguable.
Gumi argues that Saudi Arabia should not stop anyone from performing their religious duties irrespective of their thoughts expressed in words, because God has asked that they must perform their religious duty. He said, “Yes, the Nigerian government is on top of it. Nigeria should stand by its principles as a free nation. Every Nigerian has the freedom of speech as long as they do not call for violence, discrimination, or ethnic cleansing. Your expressed views should not be used against somebody intending to go for worship.”
Gumi, even with all he has said and done with security, insecurity and politics in Nigeria, was appointed a member of the delegation of Nigeria’s National Hajj Commission. In other words, he went to this aborted hajj on the ticket of Nigeria and Nigerians, as a Nigerian VIP. All the negativities trailing Gumi from his persona, and all the awful reactions to his words and actions about insecurity, especially in Northern Nigeria, do not concern the Nigerian authorities.
But Saudi Arabia will not agree with Gumi’s contentions and Nigeria’s condescension. They do not condone the kind of things Nigeria condones and will have none of such things which the Nigerian authorities stomach. Gumi, the victim, said that the Nigerian government had already been involved, and believes that their involvement is important because it underscores “the importance of upholding Nigeria’s sovereignty and citizens’ rights.”
Even if Gumi was barred for what he said about Saudi Arabia regarding the country’s attitude towards Israel in their now one-sided war against Palestine, it still doesn’t erase what Nigerians think about him and the insecurity in the country. He would have seen that this shows in the comments that followed the news of his deportation.
Gumi may pretend not to care about the reactions of Nigerians to him and his ways, but his reaction to the treatment he received from Saudi shows that it’s a façade after all. Saudi responded to Al Gala when he trended. Should we wait for their response to Gumi? One is a beauty, the other is not. His deportation should tell him that a child not taught at home would receive his teaching from the outside.
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