Iran vs. Saudi Arabia

SAVE AS FAVORITE

VIEW FAVORITES

By Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar (about the author) Page 1 of 4 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

For OpEdNews: Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar - Writer

"To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depth of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge. To recognize the significant in the factual is wisdom." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Today as we witness the carnage in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Somalia, the troubles in Lebanon, Israel and Palestine, everyone's attention is focused on the gathering of the American Armada in the Persian Gulf and the possibility of US military attack on Iran. President Bush and his staff go out of their way to emphasize that they are doing their best to "reassure" their "allies" in the Persian Gulf (mainly Saudi Arabia) that the United States is there to protect them against the evil Persians. Meanwhile, Al Qaeda's ideology is spreading unchecked throughout the Muslim world. The actions of the Bush administration are helping to spread this ideology. United States is actually protecting the source of this malaise and helping it to spread.

Al Qaeda's ideology is based on Wahhabism (also known as Salafism), named after Muhammad ibn al Wahhab (1703-1792). Wahhabis differ from traditional Sunnis in that they believe in the literal interpretation of the words of the prophet Mohammad. They are extremely puritanical and legalistic in matters of faith and religious practice. They believe such things as music, photographs, annual feasts, etc to be contrary to Islam. They do not accept any other branches of Islam and consider them heretics and killing them is not considered a sin.

Until the rise of House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism was a very small sect and was rejected by many scholars in Sunni world. The religion of the House of Saud is Wahabism. When in 1924-1925, Ibn Saud with the help of the British defeated Hashemite (another tribe in Arabia) and captured Mecca, Wahhabism became the official religion of Arabia, or what is now called Saudi Arabia (named after Ibn Saud).

According to Said K. Aburish, when Ibn Saud captured Ryadth, his Wahhabi followers burned 1200 people to death. By 1932 over 400000 people were killed or injured, over 40000 were publicly executed and over 350000 people had one of their limbs amputated. During this time close to 1 million people fled Saudi Arabia. All this in a country with a population at the time of 4 million people.[1] Such barbarity on such a scale had never been seen in Arabia before.

This was the birth pangs of Wahhabism as the state religion. The masterminds of the 9/11, the suicide bombers of in Spain, or England or Indonesia are all Wahhabis. The gruesome beheading of hostages, mass killing of civilians by bombs and spreading of terror is nothing new to these people. What is new is the financial and material support that they are receiving.

Today, the House of Saud with its 7000 princes, lacking legitimacy, relies on Wahhabi religious establishment to stay in power. There exists a symbiotic relationship between the two.

For over a quarter of a century, the Wahhabi establishment in Saudi Arabia has been trying to spread its brand of Islam across the Muslim world. The funding and logistical supports have been provided by the ruling princes and their associates either directly through the state or through religious charity foundations. They have built religious schools (Madrassas) in many (usually poor) Muslim countries. They distribute millions of Wahhabi books around the world. They build mosques and finance the education of (foreign) clergies in Saudi Universities. The Wahhabi ideology is being spread as never before and it is finding converts across the globe. But why? Why is this ideology so attractive to some Muslims?

The People
The Arab world is composed of 22 countries with a combined population of 280 million people. For over 50 years the Arabs have been trying to deal with many problems both internal and external without much success. Rising poverty, lack of freedom, stagnating economy and repeated military defeats have increased the general frustration to such a level that people are willing to try anything, no matter how horrible, as long as it addresses some of their problems. For example, look at the Palestinian problem. Their leaders had tried war several times and had failed. They had tried to use their oil and failed. They tried an ever closer relationship with the US, in the hope of getting some results and failed. Having failed militarily and diplomatically the Arab countries also failed socially and economically.

In a much quoted report "UNDP: Arab Human Development Report 2002" [2] the authors, majority of whom were eminent Arab scholars and intellectuals ranked Arab human development at the bottom of their list. They comprehensively cataloged the shortcomings of the Arab society from lack of political freedom to poverty. According to this report one in five Arabs live on less than $2 per day and over the past twenty years, growth in income per head, at an annual rate of 0.5% was lower than anywhere else in the world except sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the other problems listed were the survival of absolute autocracies, the holding of bogus elections, constraints on the media and on civil society, intolerance, etc. In addition a sever deficit in production of knowledge was seen as a compounding problem for the Arab societies.

Having seen their leaders' failures and not being allowed to express their anger and frustration; the young and old have turned to religion, for religion is the only thing that governments allow. It is under the banner of the religion and in the Mosques that people can gather and quietly air-out their grievances. And it is these people that Wahhabis are targeting. They promise a different system, a system without corrupt leaders and foreign influence. Wahhabis turn these frustrations and anger into hate; hate that is directed first at their own rulers and then other Muslims that do not share the same ideologies as them (Wahhabis), and then the infidels.

But in order to gain the attention of the potential converts, it is always the infidels that are targeted first. If they can show that they are fighting to "liberate" Muslims from the "yoke" of the foreign domination it would be much easier to attract converts than if they begin to fight other Muslims. But ultimately, it is not the foreigners that are the real targets, but the Muslims that do not share the same vision as Wahhabis.

Schizophrenic Arabia
The House of Saud's relationship with Wahhabis is symbiotic. The rulers rely on the religious establishment for legitimacy and support, while the religious establishment relies on the government for maintaining and spreading its ideology. Each feeds and supports the other. But there is a problem. As long as these people were fighting the infidels outside the Arabia, they represented no danger to the government. But now they have evolved and become something that poses a danger to the very people that were aiding it. Now Saudi Arabia has become a Wahhabi state that both supports and fight fights extremists. On one hand some of its princes, charity organizations and wealthy merchants supply these extremists with money and other supports; on the other hand the government tries hard to limit the activities of these groups at home while "supposedly" aiding United States to fight it abroad.

From all available evidence, it is clear that Saudi Arabia is actively propagating the Wahhabi ideology through-out the Muslim world. In a recent documentary: "Dispatch: Uncover Mosque", shown on the English Channel 4, an investigative journalist with a hidden camera visited many Saudi supported mosques to find out what was really being preached (can be viewed here) [3]. It was a scary documentary. The preachers, most of whom were trained in Saudi Arabia, preached a violent and xenophobic version of Islam. They preached hatred of non-Muslims with a very strong anti-western tone.

Another example of Saudi support of this extremism was recently exposed in Algeria, where the government had to pass laws to prohibit certain Wahhabi rituals and activities imported from Saudi Arabia.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4