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by Tariq Ali
October 1, 2001
New Statesman
War on Terror: Saudi Arabia -
Bin Laden and his gang are just the tentacles; the head lies safely in
Saudi Arabia, protected by US forces.
The hijackers responsible for
the 11 September outrage were not illiterate, bearded fanatics from the
mountain villages of Afghanistan. They were all educated, highly
skilled, middle- class professionals. Of the 19 men involved, 13 were
citizens of Saudi Arabia. Their names are recognisable. The three al-Ghamdis
are clearly from the kingdom's Hijaz province - the site of the holy
cities of Mecca and Medina. Mohammad Atta, born in Egypt, travelled on a
Saudi passport.
Regardless of whether Osama Bin
Laden gave the order or not, it is indisputable that the bulk of his
real cadres (as opposed to foot soldiers) are located in Egypt or Saudi
Arabia - America's two principal allies in the region, barring Israel.
In Saudi Arabia, support for Bin Laden is strong. He was a close friend
of the Saudi intelligence boss Prince Turki Bin Faisal al-Saud, who was
dismissed in August apparently because of his failure to curb attacks on
US personnel in Riyadh. The real reason, however, was probably his
refusal to take sides in the fierce faction fight to determine the
succession after the death of the paralysed King Fahd. Both sides are
aware that too close an alignment with the US could be explosive. That
is why, despite its support for the US, the Saudi regime is not
"allowing its bases to be used".
Normally, the Saudi kingdom
receives little coverage in the western media. The ambassadors report to
their respective chanceries that all is well, and that the continuity of
the regime is not threatened. It requires the imprisonment of a US or
British citizen, or a British nurse to be chucked out of a window, for
attention to focus on the regime in Riyadh. Even less is known about the
state religion, which is not an everyday version of Sunni or Shi'a
Islam, but a peculiarly virulent, ultra-puritanical strain known as
Wahhabism. This is the religion of the Saudi royal family, the state
bureaucracy, the army, the air force and Bin Laden - the best-known
Saudi citizen in the world, believed currently to reside in Afghanistan.
Sheikh Mohammad Ibn Abdul
Wahhab, the inspirer of this sect, was an 18th-century peasant who tired
of tending date palms and grazing cattle and began to preach locally,
calling for a return to the "pure" beliefs of the seventh century. He
opposed the excessive veneration of the prophet Mohammad, denounced the
worship of holy places and shrines, and stressed the "unity of one god".
He also insisted on Islamic punishment beatings and more: adulterers
should be stoned to death; thieves should have limbs amputated;
criminals should be executed in public.
Religious leaders in the region
objected when he began to practise what he preached, and the local chief
in Uyayna asked him to leave. In 1744, Wahhab fled to Deraiya and won
over its ruler, Mohammad Ibn Saud, the founder of the dynasty that today
rules Saudi Arabia. Saud and his successors used Wahhab's revivalist
fervour to inculcate a sense of proto-nationalism among the tribes
fighting the Ottoman empire in what Wahhab called a jihad, or holy war.
Two centuries later, they laid the foundations of what is now Saudi
Arabia.
The discovery of liquid gold
changed the region for ever. Fearful of competition from Britain, the US
merged the petrochemical companies Esso, Texaco and Mobil to form the
Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco). This link, established in 1933,
was strengthened during the Second World War, when the US air-force base
in Dhahran was deemed crucial to "the defence of the US". The Saudi
monarch was paid millions of dollars to aid development in the kingdom.
The regime was a despotism, but it was seen as an important bulwark
against communism and nationalism in the region and, for that reason,
the US chose to ignore what took place within its borders.
The entry of the US and the
creation of the kingdom is brilliantly depicted in the fictional work of
Abdelrahman Munif, the exiled Saudi novelist. I met him about ten years
ago when he was on a rare trip to London, and he told me that "when the
west looks at us, all it sees is oil and petrodollars. Saudi Arabia is
still without a constitution, the people are deprived of all elementary
rights, even the right to support the regime without asking for
permission. Women, who own a large share of private wealth in the
country, are treated like third-class citizens. A woman is not allowed
to leave the country without a written permit from a male relative. Such
a situation produces a desperate citizenry, without a sense of dignity
or belonging." The desperate citizenry gave vent to their frustrations
in a number of unsuccessful rebellions in the 1960s and 1970s.
Wahhabism remains the state
religion of Saudi Arabia. During the war between Afghanistan and the
Soviet Union, Pakistani military intelligence requested the presence of
a Saudi prince to lead the jihad. No volunteers were forthcoming, and
Saudi leaders recommended the scion of a rich family close to the
monarchy. Bin Laden was despatched to the Pakistan border and arrived in
time to hear President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser,
Zbigniew Brzezinski, turban on head, shout: "Allah is on your side."
The religious schools in
Pakistan where the Taliban were created were funded by the Saudis, and
Wahhabi influence was very strong. Last year, when the Taliban
threatened to blow up the old statues of Buddha in Afghanistan, there
were appeals from the ancient seminaries of Qom in Iran and al-Azhar in
Eygpt to desist on the grounds that Islam is tolerant. A Wahhabi
delegation from Saudi Arabia advised the Taliban to execute the plan.
They did. The Wahhabi insistence on a permanent jihad against all
enemies, Muslim and non-Muslim, left a deep mark on the young boys who
later took Kabul.
In those days, the attitude of
the US was sympathetic. A Republican Party packed with Christian cults
could hardly offer advice on this matter, and both Bill Clinton and Tony
Blair were keen to advertise their Christianity.
Just last year, the liberal and
former expert on Pakistan for the State Department, Stephen P Cohen,
wrote in the Wall Street Journal: "Some madrasas, or religious schools,
are excellent." He admitted that "others are hotbeds for jihadi and
radical Islamic movements", but these account for only about 12 per cent
of the total. These, he said: "Need to be upgraded to offer their
students a modern education." This indulgence is an accurate reflection
of the official mood before 11 September.
After the collapse of the
Soviet Union, the internal opposition in Saudi Arabia became dominated
by religious groups. These core Wahhabis now saw the kingdom as
degenerate because of the US connection. Others were depressed by the
failure of Riyadh to defend the Palestinians.
The stationing of US troops in
the country after the Gulf war prompted terrorist attacks on these
soldiers and their bases. The people who ordered such attacks were
Saudis, but Pakistani and Filipino immigrants were sometimes charged and
executed in order to appease the US.
The expeditionary force being
despatched to Pakistan to cut off the tentacles of the Wahhabi octopus
may or may not succeed, but its head is safe and sound in Saudi Arabia,
guarding the oil wells, growing new arms, and protected by US soldiers
and the US air-force base in Dhahran. Washington's failure to disengage
its vital interests from the fate of the Saudi monarchy could well lead
to further blow-back. It should heed the warning first sounded by the
secular tenth-century Arab poet Abu al-Ala al-Maarri:
And where the Prince commanded,
now the shriek Of wind is flying through the court of state: "Here", it
proclaims, "there dwelt a potentate, Who could not hear the sobbing of
the weak."
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