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Riyadh: Linchpin to a new religious
order
By Syed Saleem Shahzad
KARACHI - With a constant increase in the
deployment of US forces in the Persian Gulf , the war
against Iraq looks set for February. However, the
paradigms of the military build-up so far suggest that
the goal of the West in the Gulf region is by no means
limited to the borders of Iraq. Indeed, the
concentration of forces is also well suited to
undermining the resurgent fundamentalist branches of
Islam and their bases in the Muslim world.
The
fact is, whether or not the US overthrows Saddam
Hussein, its armed forces will remain face to face with
the country at the ideological center of fundamentalist
Islam. That country is not Iraq; it is Saudi Arabia. And
it is this divide - between Western-style democracy and
Saudi-style Wahhabi Islam - that remains at the heart of
the coming conflict. The majority of Saudi citizens are
Sunni Muslims predominantly adhering to the strict
interpretation of Islam taught by the Salafi or Wahhabi
school that is the official state religion.
At
present, US troops and bases are spread across the
Middle East from Oman to Saudi Arabia. At the same time,
the continuous deployment of US forces in the Persian
Gulf has virtually established de facto US hegemony over
the region. With this force, the US has not only ensured
a successful strike in case of a war in Iraq, but it has
also severely damaged the prospects and attractions of
those Islamist ideologies that have emerged as its
natural rival.
"There is a deep realization
among the US policy makers that in fact there are two
concepts of Islam that prevail in the Muslim world. One
emerged from Najad [Saudi Arabia], and the other very
recently when the Turks ruled an Ottoman empire
stretching from Turkey to Morocco," a US diplomat said
recently. "The Islam that emerged from the deserts of
Najad, called the Salafi branch of Islam, purely finds
its sources in the holy book [Koran] and the teachings
of Prophet [Sunnah]. The concept of Islam that evolved
during the days of Turkish rule are also based on Koran
and Sunnah, but instead of taking direct instructions
from the book and the teachings, this concept relies on
the interpretations of different scholars and Islamic
jurists. The Islamic concepts which emerged from the
deserts of Najad have always been extremist, whereas the
concepts that evolved during Turkish empire are very
moderate."
There is no geographical divide
between the two concepts, both exist in all Muslim
societies. Islamist organizations such as al-Qaeda, the
Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world, the
Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India, the
Hezb-e-Islami Afghanistan, the Jamaat-i-Islami
Afghanistan, the Islamic political parties of Indonesia,
Malaysia and Algeria, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
in the Philippines, Hamas in Palestine, Chechen fighters
etc - all belong to the Salafi branch and all are, or
have been, the recipients of Saudi aid in one form or
another. It is a fact that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
has been the vanguard of this Salafi branch of Islam.
"Interestingly, in societies where these groups
exist, there are other Islamic groups which do not
follow Salafism, but instead believe in Sufism, an
interpretation of Islamic scholarship in light of the
Koran and Sunnah which teaches not quarrel but love.
This concept evolved during Turkish rule," the diplomat
says.
The US and Saudi Arabia have a 50-year
history of friendship. The US turned a blind eye on
anti-Western aspects of Saudi ideologies as long as the
Saudis allowed the US to operate in their countries and
gave the Americans a free hand in oil exploration and
other fields. Egypt, for its part, oppressed the Muslim
Brotherhood and hanged many of its leaders. This
situation forced the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood
to take refuge in Saudi Arabia.
These leaders
apparently laid the foundation of many peaceful social
groups, like the Islamic Circle of North America and the
Islamic Society of North America. These organizations
are welfare organizations, but they are the source to
spread a "resurgent" Salafi branch of Islam.
"Not only are these political Islamic groups
sympathetic to organizations like al-Qaeda, but for many
al-Qaeda leaders these organizations were the nurseries
where they learnt the concepts of resurgent Islam which
deviated into militancy against the US," the diplomat
said.
Sources said that after September 11, the
US started giving heavy-handed suggestions to Saudi
Arabia for the reform of its religious schools -
suggestions aimed at changing the syllabi of
universities, such as the Islamic University in Medina
and the Umul Qura in Mecca. The Saudi rulers agreed to
make these changes but, considering the influence of
religious forces in the shaping of Islamic study, the
rulers have found that even the suggestion of such
fundamental reforms are creating frictions not only
between religious forces and the royal family, but also
within the House of Saud itself.
A majority of
the House of Saud is still an ardent believer of the
Salafi branch of Islam and its strict practice as this
ideology is the foundation of Saudi rule and, indeed,
the country of Saudi Arabia itself.
In the
presence of these realities, laying the foundation stone
of Western democracy and civil society in a country like
Saudi Arabia under the shadow of US guns would jolt the
foundation of the House of Saud, its patron religious
forces and their ideologies.
(©2003 Asia Times
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