Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, Washington DC

September 22, 2012

A Commentary and Analysis of Recent Saudi Developments

Saudi Leadership: A Continual Failure

CDHR Commentary: In light of recent revolts across the Arab world, one might think the Saudi ruling family would realize that their increasingly restless population is suffering from the same injustices that led Egyptians, Yemenis, Libyans, and others to rebel. Instead, Saudi rulers have done everything they can to crush the hopes of their people and to strengthen the regime's grip on power.

The Saudi people want freedom and an end to oppression. However, they are becoming increasingly convinced that violent action might be the only avenue available for securing their basic human rights. Given the upheavals in the region and the Saudi people's collective yearning for political reform, King Abdullah should have taken some important steps to bring change to the country.

His first step should have been to direct the Royal Allegiance Committee, which he created in 2006, to select a qualified crown prince after the deaths of Crown Prince Sultan in 2011 and Crown Prince Naif in 2012. This would have shown that a mechanism, albeit royal, is in place to select qualified individuals to lead the country instead of the old methods of choosing individuals based on seniority and positions in government and family.

Secondly, he should have convened a conference of reform-minded royals along with pro-democracy and human rights advocates to form a transitional council capable of restructuring the country's political system. The king could have asked such a council to draft a constitution in which the rights of all citizens and non-citizens are protected. This move would have created a history-making process through which an inclusive political structure that royal and non-royal members of society have been demanding for decades.

In lieu of heading off domestic challenges through reform, the king chose to appoint three prominent opponents of political change to key positions in the government. Prince Salman, former governor of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and a staunch supporter of ultra-conservative Wahhabi Islam, became the nation's new crown prince. Prince Ahmed, who is expected to continue Prince Naif's feared and detested security policies, became interior minister. Meanwhile, Prince Bandar became the country's new intelligence chief. These three princes have been among the royal architects of the Saudi state's schizophrenic, repressive government policies for the last several decades.

The king's appointments did not give pro-reform Saudis much hope for a peaceful transition. None of these appointees has shown any interest in human rights or political change in Saudi Arabia. Not only that, but Saudis fear an increase in the already rampant corruption in the public sector. Prince Bandar, for instance, has been involved in scandalous backroom deals. In addition, many Saudis know that Bandar's singular concern is preserving his family's rule at any cost, and this obsession means that he will likely continue his predecessors' harsh practices.

Since the 1960s, Salman, the newly designated heir to the throne, and his brothers, known as the Sudairi Seven, have had almost an exclusive monopoly on the country's domestic and foreign policies, as well as its security apparatuses. Salman is often praised for his service to Islam because of his generous support for several Muslim charitable organizations, including the International Islamic Relief Organization (IIRO), the World Assembly of Muslim Youth, and the Al-Haramain Charitable Foundation. Some of these foundations have been banned from operating in the U.S. and elsewhere because of their ties to extremist and terrorist groups.

In addition to being frustrated by the lack of reform, the Saudi people are now wondering who is really managing their country's day-to-day affairs. The unpopular leadership of princes like Bandar and Salman, coupled with King Abdullah's poor health, has left them in a state of perpetual limbo, uncertain of what the future holds.

King Abdullah had a rare opportunity to appoint reform-oriented replacements for Princes Sultan and Naif. Rather, he opted to continue policies and practices that will likely drive the Saudi people to follow the example of their Arab counterparts.

Saudi Women: A Force to Be Reckoned With

CDHR Commentary: For the first time in the history of the Olympic Games, Saudi women are being allowed by their ultra-conservative government to compete. As the Saudi athletes marched in the opening ceremonies in London, the women's faces and open arms showed a joyful sense of emancipation from the yoke of political, religious, and traditional marginalization. By the standards of free and advanced societies, the advance is small, but by Saudi standards it is a gigantic step forward, with far-reaching implications for Saudi Arabia and the international community.

Saudi women's evolving willingness to assert their rights has been a game-changing development of recent years. Known for their resilience and ability to cope with institutional repression, Saudi women are saying enough is enough. Rising levels of education and access to communication tools like the Internet have made them better informed than ever before. They are organizing and unabashedly pursuing their rights despite the attendant risks of harassment by the morals police, arrest, and interrogation. A few have been briefly imprisoned for asking for their basic rights.

Women’s rights to drive cars and to be treated equally in employment are among the most hotly contested issues in Saudi Arabia today. Women are also pressing for improved educational facilities, a modern curriculum that respects the contributions of women, and the removal of the male guardian system, which requires them to have the accompaniment or written approval of a male relative for travel, schooling, employment, and some medical treatment. One recent success is the requirement that department stores selling lingerie replace salesmen with female sales staff, an advance in respect for women and a new source of jobs.

Yet resistance to change remains fierce. In September 2009, for instance, King Abdullah announced that, after consultation with senior clerics, he was allowingwomen to vote in municipal elections and become eligible for appointment to the national Shura Council in 2015. This symbolic step -- the elections are largely cosmetic and the Shura Council lacks substantive power -- deeply divided the country's political and religious authorities. One senior cleric, Sheikh Saleh al-Lohaidan, in a rare public display of dissent, accused the king of lying: he denied the clerics had been consulted.

The House of Saud and the tightly controlled religious institutions it represents remain at odds over to how to deal with women in the 21st century, with the religious establishment adamantly opposed to change. In an attempt to maintain support among their indoctrinated followers, Saudi religious institutions continue to use arcane religious textbooks to advance the notion that women are inferior to men.

Yet all indications point to the ultimate triumph of modernity over Saudi men’s gender paranoia, as women steadily gain strength, support, and recognition, at home and abroad. Their success seems to be the only hope for positive change in Saudi Arabia, and it will benefit the international community as well, by undermining the religious establishment and the lethal doctrines it propagates around the world. Inexplicably, the international community -- notably Western democracies that have been targeted by Muslim extremist and terrorist groups -- takes little notice of Saudi women's struggle. Strong Western support for Saudi women -- like those spirited athletes in London -- is another development that is long overdue.

Killing a Staunch Ally

CDHR Commentary: Members of the “Ansar al-Shariah” (Promoters of the Shariah Law) killed one of Libya's and the larger Maghreb region's best allies, Ambassador Christopher Stevens. He worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in North Africa and was filled with love for the region and its people. He succeeded in promoting democratic reforms and just systems in Libya but instead of being revered, he was murdered along with three of his dedicated American colleagues.

Ambassador Stevens was murdered by people who are immersed in self-defeating prophecies. They are mad at each other and at their social, political, economic and religious conditions. Instead of finding solutions to their homegrown wretchedness, they blame and kill those who have the best to offer: democracy, rule of law, accountability, transparency, scientific advancement and accountability.

The killers of Ambassador Stevens and his fallen comrades share the same values of the 9/11 attackers and killers of religious minorities in the Arab and Muslim states. They embrace the venomous teachings that indoctrinate young men and women to hate others for no reason other than their beliefs, way of life, superior technological advancements and democratic values. These assassins would rather die than accept the individual’s right to choose.

The rage that sweeps the Muslim World anytime a deranged or fame-seeking individual insults Islam must be taken dead seriously by Western Democracies. Why? Because the angry throngs’objective is to silence free people from speaking freely regardless how offensive the topic might be. This is not only the objective of the roaming murders, but that of their indoctrinators and financiers as declared by the Saudi Grand Mufti whose establishment considers democracy un-Islamic. The choice is clear and the time to send an unambiguous message by Western democracies is now.

The Religious Establishment's Fears of Marginalization

CDHR Commentary: Facing unprecedented challenges from all segments and ages in Saudi society, especially the youth and more so women, the Saudi Mufti (the highest religious authority in the land) is re-energizing his followers and reminding the Saudi royals that adherence to his radical establishment's interpretation of Islam must not only be adhered to, but its well-known ferocious police must be obeyed and appreciated. Abdul Aziz Al-Alshaikh, the Mufti, is witnessing a steady erosion of the religious establishment's authority and its unaltered primordial use of religion as a tool of intimidation and justification for the system’s repressive policies, such as oppression of women, religious minorities and intolerance of other beliefs.

Given the large number of Saudi youth who are more interested in facebook and twitter than going to mosques, the Saudi religious establishment is scared of being rendered irrelevant. In addition, the Saudi royals are inching toward realizing that unless they accommodate the needs of their burgeoning and increasingly restless population, they could face the same fate as other Arab dictators in recent months and years. This divergence of approach between the religious and political wings of the Saudi ruling dynasties will eventually lead to the disintegration of their centuries-old contract.

Saudi King Asked Population to Donate

CDHR Commentary: King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia was infuriated when he learned that some of his top clerics were encouraging their followers to donate money to aid their Sunni brethren in Syria to overthrow President Assad’s Alawites Regime whom they Saudis consider heretics. The King summoned the clerics to his palace and forced them to sign a pledge not to raise money for the Syrian revolutionaries, specifically, but to forewarn them to constrict their foreign adventures in general.

Ironically, in late July 2012, the Saudi King asked his attentive population to donate money to help their Sunni Muslim brethren in Syria, the same people he forbid the clerics from aiding. As expected the response the king's call was “overwhelming.”By the end of the fourth and last day of the fundraising marathon, it's reported that Saudis contributed SR 246 million ($66 million) in cash alone. The questions the Saudi media and people should be asking are: how much of this huge amount will reach the needy Syrians, how much will go to induce the pro-Saudi regime's Syrians to overthrow President Assad? And how much will go to religious extremists which the King prevented his clerics from abetting?

However, the most important question the Saudi donors, some of them can barely make the ends meet, should be able or allowed to ask is: how much of the solicited donations will go to the bank accounts of Saudi officials? It’s safe to assume none of these questions will be asked or debated in the Saudi controlled media. Freedom of speech and assemblage, except in mosques, are considered un-Islamic in Saudi Arabia. There is no accountability and transparency system, especially when the royals are involved. Accusing Saudi officials, especially royals, of bribery and corruption is forbidden.

The Insistence of Saudi Courts’ Enslavement of Women Must End

CDHR Commentaries: Known for its discriminatory practices against women, the Saudi judicial system gives men total control over every aspect of women’s lives and livelihood. Women are forced to stay unmarried if their fathers do not approve of those who propose to marry them. This is the way the system has been functioning for centuries. The Saudi judicial system needs total transformation because the current demands for democratic reforms are not only unstoppable, but irreversible. The Saudis suffer from the same symptoms that are causing revolutions across the Arab World.

The Saudi judicial system not only continues its flagrant discrimination against women, but reinforces their oppression at the hands of their male relatives. A young woman filed a complaint against her father’s rejection of all the men who had asked to marry her at a Shariah court in Riyadh a long time ago, but was ignored by the system. The question that people keep asking is, what benefit does the Saudi judicial system find in forcing a young woman to remain single other than satisfying their unending desire to continue their marginalization of women. If a Saudi woman is caught having an intimate relationship with a man she is not married to, she could lose her head in an honor killing. Transformation of the Saudi judicial system is long overdue, because the world is not flat anymore; in fact it has never been.

The Poverty Stricken Afghanis Don’t Need Loud Sound Systems

CDHR Commentary: The mayor of Afghanistan's Helmand Province thanked King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for his divine gift of call-to-prayers, Ithan, sound system. Ironically, the residents of the Helmand Province hardly need prayer reminder; they are already among the most zealots in South Asia. It would have been more appropriate to modernize the Afghanis' schools, provide them with modern farming equipment to feed their children, modernize their healthcare facilities, drinking water and access to electricity?

Radicalizing the poverty stricken Afghans should not come as a surprise. The former head of the Saudi intelligence and later ambassador to the UK and US Prince Turki, who is going to be teaching about Saudi Arabia at Georgetown this fall, is reported to have created and financed Bin Laden and his Mujahedeen cult in Afghanistan in the 1980s and 90s ostensibly to fight the Russian invaders of that violent ridden country. One cannot help, but wonder as to why the Saudi regime continues to encourage reinforcement of radical Islam in places like Afghanistan while calling on the international community to fight Muslim extremists who are the source of terrorism and suicide bombers.