by Abu Dharr (Opinion, Crescent International Vol. 42, No. 11, Rabi' al-Awwal, 1435)
Hiding behind the veneer of religiosity, the self-imposed Saudi tribal monarchy can in fact be linked directly with Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab of yore. The religious veneer is meant to confuse ordinary Muslims.
One of the first lessons of history — as it should be taught — is the rule: power-mongers have no qualms about forging “facts” and manipulating events to perpetuate their hold on power. This playing around with facts by those glued to their seats of power runs through the stories of empires — past, present, and future.
Strip the Saudi dictators and their clear-as-mud politicians of their shibboleth “religiosity” and they are the emperors who have no clothes!
Strip the Saudi dictators and their clear-as-mud politicians of their shibboleth “religiosity” and they are the emperors who have no clothes! It is the “Islamic religious veneer” that offers deep cover to individuals who are in fact and in essence polar opposites of Islam as revealed in the noble Qur’an and imparted by the Prophet (pbuh). The great historian Ibn Khaldun (considered by some as the first sociologist) had this to say, hundreds of years ago, in his book, Al-‘Ibar wa-Diwan al-Mubtada’ wa-al-Khabar (Moral Lessons and the Record-Keeper of Commencement and Impartation) about Arabians void of Islam, Arabians are capable of surmounting trivia. They, because of their brute temperament, are people of snitching and pillaging. They pilfer whatever they can get away with, trying to avoid any risks or hazards. They are quick to flee to their dwellings in no man’s land. They will not engage in armed combat unless they are forced to defend themselves. Any fort or inaccessible plateau is immune to their pilfering and corruption. That is because they [the Arabians] will not surmount highlands and will not mount hazardous ventures. But once these Arabians sense vulnerability such as a lack of fortifications and defenses then they lay waste to it… They will continue raiding and marauding simply because it is easy to do so… until these unfortunate victims are subdued. At that point the “conquering” Arabians shuffle them around until all vestiges of modernity are extinguished…
From these insightful observations of Arabians hundreds of years ago we turn our attention to today’s Arabians. Look at the tribal states of the Arabian Peninsula. Their acrimony and altercations are erupting. At the center of this Arabian divisiveness is the tribal Saudi kingdom. Recently, the Sultanate of Oman announced that it is against a union among members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Responding to that the Saudi officials said in a condescending manner: Big Brother, you see! And to up the ante as quibblers are adept at doing, when Oman said that it would not join the other five Gulf states if they ever decide to form such a federation and would break from the GCC altogether, the official Saudi tribesmen went into a sudden burst of ill-temper. The tribal rage and frustration of the Arabian Saudis was fueled by the fact that Oman was a backdoor channel that set the stage for Islamic Iran to break out of the economic sanctions regime and exercise its political skills on the world stage. The apparent thawing of relations between Islamic Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) infuriated the Saudi tribal class. Qatar is watching the Saudi behavior, and they get an unmistakable impression that the Saudis are patronizing the other tribal states. Here you have it: Saudi Arabia wants a Gulf federation that it controls and the other Arabian tribal states, in their own primitive ways, are standing their ground.
The Gulf Cooperation Council was baptized in the Iraq-imposed war on Islamic Iran more than 30 years ago. Now the Arabians, as Ibn Khaldun said, are acting out their true nature: averting dangers (their fear, unwarranted as it is, of Islamic Iran) by preying on their own. They’ve gone from tents to palaces, but their minds are still under the bedsheet. Zionism to them is too dangerous; so they look at a lesser enemy, and wouldn’t you know it, they’ve discovered Shi‘ism to be their nemesis! This primitive mentality on display by the tribal royals thinks that by setting up such a federation it can absorb Bahrain with a Shi‘i majority population into the larger Sunni population of Saudi Arabia. This Saudi royal cousinhood wants a slapdash federation of Gulf sibling states to ward off the Shi‘i danger; but they see no danger in current Zionist policies to Zionize al-Quds and “Judaize” Masjid al-Aqsa! This Saudi drive for a perfunctory federation is skipping all requirements for its feasibility. Throughout all these years the Gulf consanguines could not agree to have a common currency; and now the Saudis out of their Shi‘i phobia want to hammer together a sloppy federation or confederation. The Emirates wanted to be the center for that common currency’s central bank. But the Saudis are against that. The Emirates get the sense that Saudi Arabia wants to be the boss.
Arabian petty psychology dashed a plan to build a bridge over the waters of the Persian Gulf between Qatar and the UAE. From time to time tensions run high between the UAE and Saudi Arabia because of some border dispute. Sometimes these borders are closed and the trucks line up stretching at least 12 miles. At times, Saudi Arabia will not permit citizens of the UAE to enter the desert kingdom using government issued ID cards. The Saudi-Qatari difference of opinion pertaining to Syria and Egypt borders on hostility. The relationship between the UAE and Qatar is acrimonious, due to the latter’s support of the Ikhwan.
In 1999 Oman tabled a motion to put together a common defense force for the Gulf states and it was Saudi Arabia that turned it down. Saudi “dumbed-down” Arabia is trying to present Oman as the odd man out because Oman enjoys normal if not a cozy relationship with the Islamic Republic. The fact of the matter is that the Ibadi majority in Oman has always had a regular and quiet relationship with Islamic Iran. When all or most of the other Gulf statelets were indisposed or hostile to Islamic Iran, Oman was not included.
With all the tribal, historical, social, cultural, and economic commonalities among the Persian Gulf countries they still are unable to assimilate into one political unit. The tribal instincts of Arabians transversing Islam are at work. Their media is abuzz about a solo conversation between Iran’s President Rouhani and Obama but the century-old communications of inferior Arabians with domineering Zionists and imperialists do not register. Some of these “ashaddu kufran wa-nifaqan” Arabians are convinced that Iran is going to become America’s policeman in the Persian Gulf. Nothing has happened yet, and anyone who understands Islamic Iran or imperialist America knows that such a thing will never happen, but these scared-of-their-shadow Arabians have a complex that makes them imagine or suppose that “Shi‘i” Iran is on the verge of becoming their American anointed constabulary! They fear a delusory future but cannot be concerned with a proven past — the fact that Saudi Arabia has been and continues to be the American Trojan horse in Arabia and beyond.
The Arabian adrenaline runs through their veins when they speak about the fiction that Islamic Iran cooperated with the United States in the latter’s occupation and invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the USA’s support of Iran in its war with Iraq, when in reality it was these very tribal tent-states with Saudi Arabia leading the ruck that offered the imperialists (the US and its coalition of the willing) the finances, the airspace, the military bases, the intelligence and military personnel, and even the prostitutes to get the mission done.
The Saudi Arabians and their family and finance connections use “Arab” to win over Muslims to their side. Being an Arab is a result of being influenced by the communication of the Qur’an. And that is something the Saudis are not. The mushriks and kafirs who refused and resisted the Prophet (pbuh) were blood-related Arabians, not Qur’anic thinking Arabs. If we were to extend our thoughts a bit we could say that Abu Lahab, Abu Jahl, and Abu Sufyan were Saudis even though technically the Saudi kingdom did not exist as a nation-state at that time. The lack of this important distinction is what the Saudis capitalize on as they lead the uninitiated Muslims into the imperialist and Zionist web of identity mix-up and political letdown.
He it is who has sent to the unlettered [un-scriptured] people an Apostle from among themselves, to arrange in sequence His ayat, and to elevate their [moral] character, and to teach them the divine Writ as well as wisdom — whereas before that they were indeed, most obviously, lost in manifest error, and others who are yet to come [shall also be impacted in the above manner]: for He alone is Most Superior, Truly Wise (62:2–3).
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