5th of 6 parts
Saudi Arabia and the World
Saudi Arabia's regional and global outreach establishes its hegemonic credentials in advancing Islam as extensively as possible. Posing as an advocate of a peaceful religion, the Saudis have poured many billions of dollars into promoting and supporting Islamic fanaticism, Wahhabist ideology, and terrorist insurgency for the following beneficiaries across Asia and Africa: Osama bin-Laden's Al-Qai`dah, Taliban mujahideen in Afghanistan who studied in Peshawar madrasas in Pakistan, Bangladesh jihadists, Abu Sayyaf fighters in the Philippines, Laskar Jihad troops in Indonesia, Uighur Muslims in China, Muslim warriors in Eritrea and Somalia, Hasan al-Turabi and his National Islamic Front in Sudan, the French-acronym GIA (Armed Islamic Group) in Algeria, and Salafist jihadi groups in Morocco.19 In addition, Saudi manpower and a limitless supply of copies of the Qur`an, along with innumerable jihad internet postings, have likewise been a demonstrable feature of Riyadh's involvement in Chechnya, Bosnia and Kosovo, against Russian and Serb forces, respectively. In Chechnya Abu Wahid, a Saudi national, commanded the rebels on the eastern front against the Russian army, while another Saudi citizen known as Amir Khattab, who had fought in Afghanistan, was killed in Chechnya in March 2002 by Russian forces. Wahhabi missionary preachers and training centers also operated in nearby Dagestan in the Caucasus Mountains.
Saudi Arabia – "the political mother of fundamentalism" according to Judith Miller, and "the greatest purveyor of international terrorism" in the words of Bat Ye'or20 – was the primary financial supporter of the mujahideen Islamic war against the Soviets in Afghanistan during the 1980s. With Prince Turki in touch with both the American CIA and Mullah Omar of the Taliban, the Saudis provided an estimated $500 million per year for the Afghan jihad.21 Out of that successful holy war the "Afghan Arabs", the largest contingents of which were Saudi and Egyptian, filled the ranks of Al-Qai`dah under the leadership of the Saudi national, Osama bin-Laden. Although at political odds with the organization, and even threatened by its terrorist agenda, the Saudis chose to bankroll Osama bin-Laden. Princes of the royal house, Khalid bin Mahfouz and Sherif Sedky, funded al-Qai`dah, out of solidarity or as bribery – or both – to stay away from Arabia.22 The Saudis were bin-Laden's patrons while his Al-Qai`dah outfit spread a terrorist net around the world and, among other targets, attacked strategic US sites in East Africa and in America itself. Mukhrain al-Najdi, a Saudi national in the service of al-Qai`dah, fought US "special forces" in Somalia in 1993, and was later active in confronting the Americans in Tora Bora in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Having contributed to the expulsion of the Soviet Union from Afghanistan and prior to that the British expulsion from the Persian Gulf, the Saudis initially opposed American military involvement against Saddam Hussein in Iraq in 2003. Yet, when discussion of American withdrawal increased in the latter part of 2006, the Saudis feared for the day after, when Shiite domination and terrorism could undermine the minority Sunni population in sectarian-divided Iraq. Meanwhile, through March 2005, the largest number of Islamists killed in the insurgency in Iraq were Saudi nationals. Clearly Saudi authorities turned a blind eye to the infiltration of Sunni warriors across the border into the Iraqi crucible of war. Wahhabi hostility to the Shiites merged smoothly here with a zealous struggle against the "Crusader" forces from the West.23 Throughout, Saudi Arabia had contended no less than impressively against the two superpowers of Cold War vintage.
Europe, for its part, has already been dubbed a "tolerated and protected" dhimmi continent, submerged and manipulated, under the "Eurabia" doctrine. Muslim religious leaders have openly forecasted Europe's ultimate demise under an Islamic assault. Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradhawi, an Egyptian teaching in the Wahhabi environment of Qatar, stated in his "Conquest of Rome" sermon on December 2, 2002, that "Islam will return to Europe...we will set up an army of preachers and teachers...Europeans will convert to Islam"; while the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Muhammad `Aqef, declared in early 2004 that "Islam will invade Europe and America, because Islam has logic and a mission". Meanwhile the European Union, forfeiting its pride and independence, while reaping financial benefits through commercial transactions with Saudi Arabia and purchasing OPEC oil, has chosen to try and buy quiet. But this has not secured the continent from suffering Muslim subway bombings in London, train attacks in Madrid, riots in Paris, and a host of indignities and assaults in Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and elsewhere. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia feels responsible for the Islamic education of Muslims in France by offering stipends to send youth to study religion in the Saudi kingdom, or in madrasas in Pakistan or Egypt. This scholarly investment prepares future jihadi warriors for Islam.
The American-Saudi connection is a highly unusual combination of compatibility and cooperation, yet loaded with enmity and rivalry.
The United States and Saudi Arabia shared common interests on many political issues of regional and global concern, even though they disagreed on others, like the republican coup in Yemen in 1962 and the legitimacy of Israel's military policy of self-defense in 1967. The two countries long ago developed an "oil-for-weapons" equation with conservative strategic cooperation against radical forces. The bilateral relationship highlighted, as a very special component, the role of the Carlyle Group, of which the presidential Bush family is a major player, as a global merchant bank engaging in far-flung business activities with the Saudis. US firms provided military training services for Saudi Arabia; on the other side of the coin, Prince Al-Walid ibn-Talal, grandson of Abdul Aziz who founded the desert kingdom, became a major investor in Citigroup Bank.24 Overall Saudi investments estimated as high as $800 billion and 100,000 home purchases in the United States reflected deep financial penetration of the American economy and society.25
But as Washington provided Saudi Arabia with sophisticated military systems, such as AWACS radar planes in 1981, and helped defend it during the 1990-1991 Gulf crisis and war, the Saudis preached hatred for America and the Christian religion. Their pursuit of policies inimical to American interests and goals did not diminish. It is likely that Saudi bankers and money supported the Muslim opposition to the Iranian Shah, an American ally, which brought fanatical Islam to power in 1979 in Tehran.26 Western interests were severely damaged by this tidal-wave political and strategic event that occurred during the Carter presidency in Washington. Saudi Arabia later opposed the US-brokered Camp David Peace Treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979 and the US-mediated Israel-Lebanese agreement of 1983. In 1982 the Saudi "Fez" Plan called for PLO recognition, while the Saudi Arab Peace Plan in 2002 demanded Palestinian refugee right of return, both positions considered each in their time incompatible with US policy. Saudi recognition of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 1996 was consistent with Wahhabi doctrine, but was a diplomatic move out of step with Washington's policy. No Arab country, exercising its weighty leverage in Washington, whitewashed the PLO in the eyes of American policy-makers more than Saudi Arabia. The link between radical Islam and terrorism garnered increasing attention and certainly aroused grave suspicion, when 15 Saudis of a total of 19 terrorist operatives carried out the colossal attack of 9/11 in the United States.
Washington turned a blind eye from a variety of direct and indirect Saudi intrigues. Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, a grandson of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, served as ambassador in Washington, paying kickbacks to promote US weapons sales to the Arabian kingdom. It was later discovered that his wife signed checks allegedly for charity purposes, but whose funds financed Islamic terrorist personnel in the United States, who actually participated in the 9/11 assaults. The scene of Saudis flying out of Kennedy Airport thereafter, when all air traffic had been grounded, appeared as political theatre directed by American officials, probably the CIA to conceal Saudi involvement in that day of nightmarish jihad striking America.
In fact, American vigilance had collapsed in the face of the Saudis roaming around America. Saudi citizens, even though they had done jihadi stints in Afghanistan and Bosnia, easily received US visas while preparing a sacred terrorist mission in and against America. And once in the United States, the FBI did not suspect them or their behavior, leading to 9/11. Although the enemy was within the walls, the sanitized Saudi identity served as a perfect political anesthetic to psychologically disarm drowsy Washington.27
Saudi financial investments in Islamic education, studies, and law, have facilitated the construction and operation globally of more than 210 Islamic centers, 1,500 mosques, and 2,000 schools for educating Muslim children across Europe, the Americas, and Asia.28 The expansion of neo-fundamentalist Wahhabism in the West, through well-oiled networks of societies and associations, preachers often of Muslim Brotherhood affiliation, is a vast spiritual jihad funded by the Saudis. The good name of Saudi Arabia and its alliance with the United States facilitates the penetration strategy.29 Islamic studies departments at prestigious American universities, such as Georgetown and Harvard, endowed academic legitimacy to Saudi infiltration tactics. The criminal case of Dr. Sami al-Arian, representing the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement in the United States, exposes however, the dangers involved; for while teaching at the University of South Florida, he served as a link for Saudi funding of Palestinian terrorism against Israel. In 2006, 14,000 Saudi students were studying in US colleges and universities, more than twice the figure in 2001. Saudi-financed Islamic charities in America are also vehicles of Saudi policy, like the Haramein [referring to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina under Saudi Islamic custodianship] Organization, and have been exposed as conduits for terrorist activities while spewing their religious venom against the United States.30
The broad Saudi strategy aims at nothing less than the Islamicization of America, with that country's liberalism and freedom the ideological stepping-stones to the higher goal of "Allah's nation" bringing Muhammad's final revelation and truth to the "infidel". Preachers can be the ultimately victorious Muslim players in this enduring religious struggle more effectively than terrorists. Islamic penetration of American society has been highlighted in various ways: demanding prayer-rooms in factories, separate swimming hours based on sexual differentiation at public pools, physical separation between men and women at gym facilities, the right of Muslim cabbies not to accept liquor-carrying customers, and the right of ear-splitting muezzin prayer calls from the local neighborhood mosque. Recent years have witnessed highly contentious confrontations at American universities, with rowdy Muslim students disturbing speakers on campus and even, by militant threats and vociferous protests, preventing speaking events from taking place. All this is justified by radical Islam's defense of Palestine and opposition to Israel in an academic environment which, once inspired by the free market of ideas of John Stuart Mill, is now inspired by the fundamentalist spirit of Wahhabism stifling debate and differences of opinion on American campuses.31 Complaining of discrimination, Muslims advance their agenda to dominate America. They reject integration and prefer penetration as the centerpiece of their radical operational scheme to alter the cultural landscape of the United States.32 Already, with only the preliminary stages of the war behind us, there are an estimated 3,000 mosques in sprawling, vulnerable America. A new one is planned for the city of Boston, to be financed by the Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah, a subsidiary of the Saudi-led Organization of Islamic Conference.33
From just one mosque in the 1970s, there are reportedly 94 mosques in metropolitan Houston in 2007. Islamic Dawah missionary outreach activities extend to the churches and the prisons, and throughout communities, to spread the Qur`an's message and Muhammad's faith to the American people. Converting the "infidel" is the time-tested sacred task.
America meanwhile, defending Saudi Arabia in the Middle East alternatively from Ba`athist Iraq and Khomeinist Iran, has nonetheless been targeted within Saudi Arabia. In 1995, an American bus in Jeddah and a Saudi National Guard facility in Riyadh were hit, with five Americans killed in the latter attack; in the Khobar Towers bombing near Dhahran in 1996, 19 US servicemen died. When al-Qai`dah, or an Iran-backed cell as at Khobar, carries out terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia, it carefully avoids targeting its patron's citizens and focuses instead on the American "infidels". And just to note two more points: reports pointed to the direct involvement of Saudis in the al-Qai`dah bombings of American embassies in East Africa in 1998; while in the attack in 2000 against the USS Cole vessel on the Yemeni coast, direct Saudi involvement was ascertained.
Since the 1970s the US-Saudi "special relationship" has, therefore, not been based on Saudi gratitude or compelling mutual inter-state trust. The global Islamic tidal wave that struck Bali and Baslan, and earlier brought destruction down upon New York and Washington, is pursuing US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. It earlier chased American troops out of Lebanon and Somalia. It is perhaps not surprising that the Saudi Wahhabi regime, an active agent of jihad, has been called by some as "evil" and "anti-American";34 though there were other voices, like Ambassador James Akins and the scholar William Quandt, who advocated the American-Saudi alliance as strong and necessary.35
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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