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

August 10, 2013

Implications of Royal Defections and Allah

Commentaries and Analysis  

Defecting Prince: Ruling Family “Corrupt and Fabricator”

CDHR’s Analysis: Due to “direct horrifying personal experience,” Prince Khalid Bin Farhan Al-Saud announced his defection from his corrupt royal family. He revealed to the world what many Saudi women and men reformers and human rights activists have exposed for decades. In an Arabic video on YouTube, Prince Khalid described his family as a corrupt group of princes who, “…don’t think about anything but their personal benefits and do not care for [the] country’s and people’s interests or even national security.”

Prince Khalid’s account of his family’s draconian policies and plundering of the country’s wealth re-enforces what many Saudi and foreign critics have articulated for many years.

Among the many damning accusations Prince Khalid mounted against the ruling princes are their claims of ruling according to Islamic law. “All that is said in Saudi Arabia about respecting law and religion rules are fictitious so that they can lie and pretend that the regime obeys Islamic rules.”

Prince Khalid is not the first royal to speak scathingly about the autocratic monarchy’s corruption, monopoly on and abuses of power. Prominent among the dissenting members of the ruling family who have spoken in favor of political reforms, constitutional monarchy and an end to the ruling family’s grasping for power is Prince Talal.

Talal’s differences with his family’s absolute rule started in the late fifties.

Prince Talal was enraged by opposition to King Saud’s attempt to introduce political and educational reforms including participation by non-royals in the national decision-making process. The opponents of Saud’s initiatives were led by Crown Prince Faisal and his powerful full brothers, the Sudairi Seven. Consequently, Talal formed and led a cadre of liberal princes in support of reforms. However, they had to flee to Egypt to avoid reprisal by Faisal’s anti-reform faction who dethroned King Saud in 1964.

While in Egypt, Talal’s group and some non-royal reform advocates such as Nasser Al-Saeed were given access to the “Voice of the Arabs” radio where they mounted a nightly program exposing the Saudi royals’ corruption and encouraging the Saudi people to revolt against the system.

Talal has continued to call for reforms, including a constitutional instead of an absolute monarchy. He is still openly critical of his family’s methods of ruling and monopoly:

“Here, the family is the master and the ruler…. This style can’t continue the same way. There has to be change in the nature of authority, if things are going to change in the kingdom itself.”

Princess Basmah Bint Saud (daughter of King Saud) has written extensively, blaming the country’s social shortcomings on lack of accountability and transparency, as well as excessive interference in people’s lives by the ferocious religious police.

Another outspoken influential royal is multibillionaire Prince Alwaleed, son of Prince Talal.

He has stated that the Shura Council (the powerless appointed consultative entity) should be popularly elected and empowered to legislate. His spouse, Ameerah Altaweel, has warned the Saudi ruling family about public revolt if people continue to be denied the right to express themselves and if their grievances are not addressed.

One of the of Talal’s allies, Prince Turki Bin Abdul Aziz, issued a stark warning to his family: ”If we are wise, we must leave this country to its people, whose dislike for us is increasing… the only door open is now the exit door of no return. Let us go before it closes.”

Prince Turki Bin Bandar, a grandson of one of the founders of the Saudi state, gave a damning description of his family. Among many things, he stated that no justice, freedom or accountability can ever evolve under the Saudi ruling family as it is constituted now.

None of these royals is calling for a violent overthrow of their entrenched family.

Like many Saudi reformers, they advocate major political reforms without which violence is likely to erupt. They believe the system must be overhauled to accommodate the needs of an increasingly aspiring population, most of which has become educated, well-informed and yearning for political freedom and social justice.

Like most Saudis, some of these royals’ perceptions are influenced by regional and global events. They also understand that their desert kingdom won’t be shielded from the wind of Arab revolts if the ruling princes continue to ignore people’s demands for tangible political participation, religious tolerance, empowerment of women, accountability, transparency, non-sectarian constitution and the rule of law.

We see no visible evidence that the West, specifically the US, is taking seriously these royals’ – and more important, the disenfranchised Saudi citizens’ – warnings and demands for political reform, social justice, women’s rights, religious freedom and freedom of expression.

While one understands the West’s desperate need for stability in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf region in general, continuing to support unconditionally this absolute monarchy is not only myopic, but dangerous to the stability we and the Saudi reformers seek.

As this analysis is being written, the US and other Western supporters of the Saudi monarchy are ordering closure of their embassies and consulates in Arab and Muslim countries and issuing warnings to their citizens against terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula. Al Qaeda is a creation of the lethal Saudi/Wahhabi ideology.

With unconditional US and European support, the Saudi monarchs will continue their autocratic policies at home and exportation of their lethal doctrine while seeking to protect themselves against their own creations, terrorist groups.

Given the Saudi people’s unprecedented demands for political reforms and the current absolute Saudi rulers’ (and the ones being groomed to replace them) unwillingness to concede to these demands, it does not look like there will be meaningful political reforms. Genuine change and reform is a must if the country is to be spared a bloody revolt which will necessitate military intervention by the US to secure the production and shipment of petroleum from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

The question that needs to be answered by Western democracies, specifically the US, is how long unconditional support for a regime whose polices repress its citizens and pose lethal threats to the democratic values and national security of the very same people who protect it?

Prince Salman: “Our Doors and Phones are Open…”

CDHR’s Comment: In a recent discussion during one of Ramadan’s lavishly prepared festivities at the mansion of  “Rashid Al-Rajih, former president of Umm Al-Qura University” (an Islamist college known for producing some of the most religious extremists in the world), Saudi Crown Prince Salman praised Allah for the unity of and cohesion between the royal family and its subjects. He attributed his understanding of cohesiveness to the open doors tradition (Majlis), ‘The doors of Saudi leaders are open to those who want to meet them for discussions and there are no barriers between Saudis and their rulers.’

Princes’ “Open Doors” tradition is designed to re-enforce the citizens’ submission to the ruling princes’ supremacy and duplicitous objectives. It’s a way of reminding the Saudi people that only the ruling princes can help them. To have an audience with one of the many princes, citizens have to line up for hours, rain or shine, get thoroughly searched and then ushered into one of the many palatial residences. Once inside, they line up again to greet their host. They kiss the princes’ hands (sometimes knees) and implore the prince for money, mercy, food or complain about being wronged by governmental agencies, about disputes over property or about family quarrels.

In societies that are governed by codified rule of law and an independent non-sectarian judicial system, these matters which the Saudi people beg their rulers to solve are normally solved in independent courts where lawyers represent clients and judgments are based on facts and precedence. This is not what Crown Prince Salman and his ruling family would accept because that is considered man-made law which is antithetical to divine laws as stated in the Quran. Prince Salman insists that “…the Saudi state is based on the Islamic faith and its constitution is the Qur’an and Sunnah”. Prince Salman’s claim is contested by Prince Turki Bin Farhan who stated that, “All that is said in Saudi Arabia about respecting law and religion rules are factitious so that they {the ruling princes} can lie and pretend that the regime obeys Islamic rules.”

Crown Prince Salman is opposed to the rule of law and “believes that democracy is ill-suited to the conservative kingdom…” He attributed his opposition to freedom to a conservative and divided Saudi society. The question that Prince Salman should be asked is what has he done to unite society around a national identity. He was the governor of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, from 1962 until his appointment to become Crown Prince in 2012. If anything the answer is nothing. Riyadh is the most conservative and divided city in the country. Sadly, Salman is next in line to inherit the family throne, if he outlives the aging and unhealthy current King Abdullah.

Given this scenario and Crown Prince Salman’s adamant opposition to political reform, the prognosis for public participation in the decision-making processes through a peaceful and gradual transition from an absolute monarchy into a participatory form of government is grim, at best.

 Attending to Citizens’ Needs or Duplicitous Ploy?

CDHR’s Analysis: The Saudi ruling family continues to believe that it can continue its total control over the country even at a time when reality on the ground calls for an urgent political, social, religious and economic transformation of all institutions to accommodate increasingly public demands for political participation. Saudi citizens of both genders, all regions, ethnicities and religious orientations are vocalizing their desires for more freedom of expression, religious tolerance and accountability and transparency in government. Instead of listening to their people’s demands and learning from the Arab masses revolting against the same abuses from which the Saudi people suffer, the royals not only continue to conduct business as usual, but are tightening their grip on power and the decision-making processes.

In a recent discussion with Saudi reporters, Saudi Crown Prince Salman (who seems to be handling the country’s day to day affairs due to King Abdullah’s age and worsening health) said that regional governors (all members of the royal family) of the thirteen regions of the country will be empowered to provide balanced development and better services for Saudi citizens. As on all similar occasions, no further explanation was given and no one in the state’s controlled media dared ask what kind of power and how giving more of it to the already powerful royal governors will benefit the public.

Given the Saudi ruling family’s and its religious establishment’s insistence that the country is theirs to keep, they are always obsessed with fear of internal and external threats to their domination. Therefore, it’s safe to assume that the plan to give more power to regional governors is designed to authorize them to use whatever power and means they see fit to pre-empt potential threats without seeking approval of the king and other senior princes at the national level as is the case now.

While on the surface such an announcement by Prince Salman might be hailed as a stop toward popular political participation, he is in fact one of the most outspoken opponents of political reform and participation by the people in the decision-making processes. Consequentially, one must interpret Crown Prince Salman’s statement as pure window dressing similar to past events touted as steps toward popular political participation.

For example, in 2005 the Saudi regime allowed for partial municipal elections which were hailed by Saudis and the international community as a major step toward political reforms. And in 2012, the absolute Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, appointed 30 carefully selected women to the toothless Shura Council (a national appointed Consultative entity). Neither of these domestically and internationally acclaimed steps led to any change in the Saudi power structure or in the country’s decision–making processes.

Given these precedents, the central government appears to be delegating repressive powers to regional governors whose objective is strengthen the absolute monarchy’s grip on power despite Prince Salman’s framing the announcement as a positive new dawn in Saudi Arabia.     

 Blind Submission or Face Cruel Humiliation and Lengthy Imprisonment

CDHR’s Comment: Sentencing Raef Badawi to seven years in prison and 600 lashes by the Saudi government’s sectarian courts for declaring May 7, 2012 a ‘day of liberalism’ on a liberal blog he co-founded with Souad al-Shammari (a well-known and fearless female activist) is indicative of the autocratic Saudi system’s unwillingness to recognize and accept that the world is constantly  changing as are the people of the tyrannically ruled desert kingdom. Continuing to rely solely on cruel punishment to silence enlightened and patriotic citizens like Raef Badawi, Hamza Kashgari, Dr. Al-Qahtani and Dr. Al-Hamid, just to mention a few, will only lead to public anger and to violent reactions against the system and its rigid institutions.

One would think that the autocratic Saudi regime and its extremist perpetrators of the globally loathed Wahhabi violent doctrine, have learned by now that the country needs a modern system that takes into account human evolution. At a time when the Arab masses are revolting against tyrannical regimes, some of whom are significantly less repressive than themselves, the Saudi ruling dynasties act as though repression is the only means through which they can survive. 

Given the unstoppable and irreversible Arab peoples’ revolt against oppression, disenfranchisement, social injustices and rampant corruption, the Saudi rulers should listen to the voices of people like Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Abdullah Al-Hamid, Souad Al-Shammari, Wajeha Al-Hwaider, Hatoon Al-Fasi, Raef Badawi and a multitude of other Saudi men and women who are calling for peaceful reforms, civil society, non-sectarian codified rule of law, a constitutional monarchy, transparency and accountability in government. These demands are just, doable and necessary. The Saudi rulers denying and ignoring people’s legitimate demands will inevitably plunge the country into a violent uprising.

 Allah Will Provide, or Is It Up to The Royals?

CDHR’s Comment: Saudi Arabia is a country where the people’s fate is in the hands of a ruling family, the House of Saud, which considers the country its private property. The ruling family controls the national income of which 92% comes from oil, a commodity that demands very little physical labor. The Saudi princes control electricity, water supplies, the educational and the health care systems, airlines as well as all security and armed forces. These realities give the ruling princes total control over all aspects of people’s lives and livelihoods. In other words, the princess could easily switch off electrify and water supplies, close hospitals and all forms of transportation.

The ruling princes are accountable to no one accept to themselves, specifically to the absolute monarch and his most senior power-sharing brothers.  These are the reasons the country and society are politically, socially, religiously and economically stagnant. For example, people’s income keep decreasing despite the fact that the national income is skyrocketing. This decrease in public income is due to total lack of officials’ accountability, rampant corruption, low wages, and high unemployment among native Saudis, especially youth. One of the most pressing problems facing the country now is high population growth and lack of a sound strategy to deal with it.

Instead of investing in new industries to create long term well-paying jobs to accommodate the rise in population, the regime is promising to spend $400 billion on fixing crumbling infrastructure over the course of the coming five years. The King has promised to build economic cities, hire Saudis instead of cheap expatriate laborers (“Saudisation”) and has promised to diversify the economy to reduce unemployment and improve and sustain higher standard of living. Despite these promises, the average income has dropped from approximately $20 thousand in the 1980s to about $10 thousand now.

Keeping people dependent on the regime’s promises and handout is a well-designed strategy that the ruling family instituted before the formation of the state in 1932 and has reinforced and institutionalized ever since. Dependent people are more pliable until they realize what they are paying for governmental handout and why. The Saudi government’s “handout method” of financial control is beginning to boomerang as people comprehend that they are being bribed into submission.

Not only have many Saudi “subjects” realized that they are being bribed to obey, but also to overlook the royals’ extravagant and wasteful lifestyle and to deflect their attention from the systems failures to prepare society for modern challenges. As more citizens (men and women) become educated and informed, they are recognizing that the handout the government gives away is the public money to start with. Additionally, more and more people are beginning to accuse the royals’ of using religion to control and deceive them. The system’s use of bribery and use of religion to justify its corrupt and cruel practices as means of ruling are doomed.

There is only One God: Allah

 CDHR’s Comment: Most Muslims are very sensitive when it comes to their faith and can easily become offended and violent by anyone’s criticism of Islam. What’s confusing is why Muslims are uncomfortable when non-Muslims glorify Allah as exemplified by this big uproar in Malaysia, which is considered more tolerant than other Muslim countries; or is it?  The first Vatican’s envoy to Malaysia, Archbishop Joseph Marino, “was summoned to the foreign ministry” and warned against encouraging Malaysian Christians to use the word, Allah, because Muslim clerics fear that might lure Muslims into becoming Christians.

This is ironic because the approximately 1.6 billion Arab and non-Arab Muslims insist that there is only one God and that is Allah? If Muslims are convinced that there is only one Allah, then why is encouraging non-Muslims to mention Allah during their religious services unacceptable. The question that many Muslims and non-Muslims struggle with is why do Muslims become suspicious when non-Muslims defer to Islam and easily infuriated when anyone criticizes the Muslim faith?

Prominent world renowned Muslim scholars including Fouad Ajami and Sulaiman Rushdi attribute this phenomenon to a multitude of factors including Muslims’ insecurity, the way they are socialized to believe that their religion is superior and their fear of marginalization of their faith by a “…  an encircling civilization they can neither master nor reject.” This is the major difficulty faced by most Muslims who flee their impoverished and tyrannically ruled countries to seek better and freer life in non-Muslim countries, especially in the West. 

Instead of dwelling on religious differences and self-pity, Muslims could benefit immensely if they accepted other beliefs and their adherents’ contribution to the world civilization. This is doable and can be achieved if Muslims reciprocate by allowing religious freedom for their citizens and other faiths in their homelands. Muslims are allowed to build their houses of worship and practice their religious rituals in all non-Muslim countries. Others should be allowed to do the same in Muslim countries. This reciprocity can facilitate mutual respect among all peoples and help mitigate the predicted “Clash of Civilization.”

 

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