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Hard rain in the
desert
By N Janardhan
DUBAI -
The Saudi royal family is weathering the biggest
challenge to its rule since it founded the kingdom about
70 years ago. But the task is harder without a definite
roadmap to guide it through the post-September 11
pressure aimed at diluting the influence of the puritan
Wahhabism brand of Islam in daily life.
Today,
the country where Islam emerged 14 centuries ago and
houses the holy sites of Mecca and Medina is struggling
to curb militancy without confronting the religious
powerhouses or inviting the wrath of the public,
especially after it transpired that 15 of the 19
hijackers on September 11 were Saudi nationals.
"It is a crisis that has touched every aspect of
the kingdom - religion, economy, polity, authority and
legitimacy," Ghassan Al Jashi, a political analyst with
Al Ithihad newspaper, said in an interview. "It is a
crisis that has had to be handled on three fronts - the
United States, the Arab world and the local population.
A crisis of this dimension is certainly as worse as it
could get," he added.
Attention has been
increasingly paid to the Saudi brand of Islam,
Wahhabism, especially now that even US neoconservatives
are branding the Saudis an American enemy. Its adherents
comprise just 10 percent of the world's more than one
billion Muslims, but its conservatism includes
restrictions on women's rights and participation in
public life.
Wahhabism, which Osama bin Laden
adheres to, is named after its founder Mohammed Bin
Abdul Wahab (1703-92), a reformist Sunni thinker who
preached an austere doctrine of strict observance of
religious duties, believing that that the faith had
strayed from the pure path. His doctrine was taken up in
1745 by Mohammed bin Saud, the founder of the Saud
dynasty that still controls the kingdom politically.
Wahab's descendants, known as the al Sheikh family,
control the religious institutions in a consensual
relationship with the royals.
The kingdom has
championed the tradition in the socio-politico-economic
spheres since King Fahd's father, the late King Abdul
Aziz, unified the vast country in 1932 and named it
after his family following a long territorial war helped
by Wahhabi warriors.
Now, either due to US
pressure or because of the realization by the royals
that their stability is being tested, the Saudi
government is attempting reforms that were unthinkable
only a year ago. These have included arresting hundreds
of al-Qaeda activists and approving
anti-money-laundering legislation. Likewise, Crown
Prince Abdullah has publicly pleaded with clerics to
tone down anti-Western sermons and denounce the
September 11 attacks. The Islamic Affairs Ministry has
banned clerics from declaring jihad, saying that it is
the exclusive right of the rulers.
Such has been
the commitment of the reform drive that even Sheikh
Abdul Aziz al Sheikh, the kingdom's top cleric, asked
educators to steer young Saudis away from militancy,
saying that Islam preaches moderation and peace.
Emerging from years of repression and silence,
political dissidents have issued calls for civil rights.
They have been allowed to voice their opinions on the
royal family and Islam through the media, and even
through meetings with cabinet members. They are arguing
that without free speech and human rights, extremism
will grow.
But they also want US troops to leave
Saudi Arabia, believing it is humiliating for the land
of Islam's most sacred shrines to be protected by the
West. While many in the region, including Saudis, are
convinced that no true Muslim could have carried out the
airliner hijackings in the United States last year in
which so many innocents were killed, some still believe
that the United States invited trouble by giving too
much backing to Israel.
Asked who he thinks was
to blame for the September 11 attacks, Shaadaab Bakth, a
columnist in the United Arab Emirates for the Indian
portal tehelka.com, replies, "America." Was the attack
good or bad? "When I see what America has done in
Afghanistan and not done in Palestine since the attack,
I think it is good," he said.
Ansar Saleem, a
designer in a publishing firm, explains: "While I find
it hard to practice the Wahhabi tradition because it is
too strict for this age, full marks to them for bringing
the Americans to their knees."
It is this kind
of dichotomy that has put the royal family on a
collision course with a new generation that says it is
eager to restore the purity of Wahhabi Islam. Alarmed by
reports that up to 95 percent of young educated Saudis
sympathize with the bin Laden cause, the kingdom does
not want to appear to be succumbing to Western pressure.
In the process, the emergent reforms have suffered.
Some Saudis now say that certain US demands
infringe on Islam. The imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca
equates attempts at change with "high treason and
extreme madness". Other clerics issue fatwas denouncing
the United States and Britain for attacking Muslims in
Afghanistan and warn against attacking Iraq.
There is also a wide belief that Islamists are
preparing to strike again. A few weeks ago, Saudi police
arrested a dozen al-Qaeda members who fired a
surface-to-air missile at an American plane near Riyadh.
Filtered reports suggest that there have been pro-bin
Laden demonstrations in Sakaka in the north and in
Mecca, which have been dispersed with the use of force.
All this indicates that the kingdom is being
pulled in two directions. There is an uneasy calm in the
relationship between hardliners, Defense Minister Sultan
and Interior Minister Nayef, and the moderate de facto
ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah, that could explode when
the question arises of succession of the current ailing
King Fahd.
"The Saudi leadership draws its
legitimacy from the Wahhabi call and is not willing to
please anyone at the expense of its principles," analyst
Jashi said. "While it has enough flexibility to reach an
understanding with its citizens and the religious
establishment, it has to watch out for the new breed of
militancy which combines the Wahhabi doctrine with
anti-US activist models that took hold after the 1979
Islamic Revolution in Iran," he added.
Ahmed
Khafafi, a researcher with the Dar al Khaleej group of
publications, says that he does not see the Wahhabi
influence declining. "The present crisis indicates that
they have failed to realize their full potential in
mixing religion with politics. But it is a wake-up call
that will condition them to unleash their full potential
in the future."
Bakth thinks that in many ways
Wahhabism will be seen by supporters as the only brand
of Islam that withstood the onslaught of the Western
domination and challenged the United States for blindly
supporting Israel against the Palestinians.
(Inter Press Service)
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