Winding road to reform
Saudi Arabia's decision to embrace political reform comes at a difficult time. Sherine Bahaa reports
While reform is a welcome thought for many in the Arab world, in Saudi Arabia its advent has been greeted with caution. Why, how and on whose terms are common questions among observers. Above all, the suspicion that change is in accordance with US dictates is spoiling the new political air.
For decades Saudi Arabia has been America's key Arab ally. Washington ensured the security of the House of Al- Saud while Riyadh ensured stable supplies of oil to the US. Two years after the 11 September attacks, the Saudi Kingdom tops the US watchlist. However, according to leading Saudi figures who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly, it is not the events of September that pushed change inside the peninsula but rather the three massive bombings in Riyadh last May in which 35 were killed nine of whom were Americans.
In a telephone interview, Abdel-Rahman Al-Rashed, editor- in-chief of the Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat, pointed out that after the May bombings, followed by a further bombing last month, the culture of hatred, nourished and nurtured on Islamic misconceptions, became obvious.
"The real problem can be traced to the politicisation of religious subjects over the past 20 years where a great deal of the religious curricula became devoted to a rejection of the other, named as infidels, Christians and Jews. This granted momentum to the Jihad trend, broadening it to include not only Americans and Jews but also Arab counterparts and Saudis as well," Rashed explained.
In response, Saudi authorities embarked upon a series of measures to address the radical trend, including purging dozens of radical preachers from state posts. Hundreds of Islamists have been jailed in anti-terror sweeps. In the meantime, between 3,000 and 4,000 clerics have been re-oriented and cautioned against sermons that stray from Islamic values. Furthermore, two influential radical clerics known for their open support of terrorism appeared on government television to withdraw their earlier religious proclamations. Both men insisted their statements were voluntary.
Those religious scholars became more vocal after the 1991 Gulf war when the presence of thousands of US troops was a source of popular discontent. This discontent, however, reached its peak this year, with the controversial US invasion of Iraq. Many mosques turned into forums for angry anti-US rhetoric, and staunch attacks on Israel. Similar sentiments infiltrated Islamic schools.
This week, Defence Minister Prince Sultan called for a reform of the educational system. Reformers and diplomats said that "intolerant and offensive" chapters were removed from Saudi textbooks in October at the start of the present academic year. But still more is coming. "Drastic changes are expected to take place in this revision of our school curricula," said Dawoud Al-Shorian, a Saudi political analyst, in an interview with the Weekly. "The government had wanted to implement certain changes but in a way that would not come over as being an aftermath of 11 September, or equally that would give the impression that the Islamic country had given up its stated national principles," explained Shorian.
For his part, Al-Shorian regarded the crackdown on Islamic institutions, even the most moderate, as only natural. "The Islamic societies should be compromised most as they are the ones who are responsible for this problem."
The Islamic organisations have been infiltrated by elements of Sahwa, an offspring of the Salafi groups, who espouse a literalist interpretation of Islam, exploiting the good relations of these organisations with other countries to amass hundreds of millions of Saudi riyals which nonetheless cannot be traced. "Monitoring Saudi charities and enhancing their transparency is a must," Al-Shorian added.
According to observers, Saudi Arabian radical tendencies are a natural outcome of the Islamic fundamentalism that has flourished on the money of the royal family. "The House of Saud has been spendthrift on those kind of Islamic institutions and charities that were responsible for deepening the discourse which mobilised people to follow the path of violence," said Turki Al-Hammad, a US-educated novelist living in Dammam.
However, as Al-Hammad elaborated, there are other factors of secondary importance like the economic situation and problems of unemployment. This is often also attributed to the royal family for their failure to proceed with an effective economic development programme.
In all, Saudis know that major changes, such as revolutionary upheavals, fail. "Saudis are opting for a reform that would gain momentum in time," notes Turki Al-Hammad. When we talk of election to the Shura council, even though a partial one, as announced by Crown Prince Abdullah last October, other aspects will be triggered. "Is there an electoral law in Saudi Arabia; is there a constitution that dictates what to be included in that law; is there a judiciary system to make this law; i.e. an overall political system needs to be developed."
"It is in this way we would reach the objectives of reform by merging the society with the state in a changing intertwined world," concluded Al-Hammad.
