Saudi Arabia, an ISIS That Has Made It
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By KAMEL DAOUDNOV. 20, 2015
Black Daesh, white Daesh. The former slits throats, kills, stones, cuts off hands, destroys humanity’s common heritage and despises archaeology, women and non-Muslims. The latter is better dressed and neater but does the same things. The Islamic State; Saudi Arabia. In its struggle against terrorism, the West wages war on one, but shakes hands with the other. This is a mechanism of denial, and denial has a price: preserving the famous strategic alliance with Saudi Arabia at the risk of forgetting that the kingdom also relies on an alliance with a religious clergy that produces, legitimizes, spreads, preaches and defends Wahhabism, the ultra-puritanical form of Islam that Daesh feeds on.
Wahhabism, a messianic radicalism that arose in the 18th century, hopes to restore a fantasized caliphate centered on a desert, a sacred book, and two holy sites, Mecca and Medina. Born in massacre and blood, it manifests itself in a surreal relationship with women, a prohibition against non-Muslims treading on sacred territory, and ferocious religious laws. That translates into an obsessive hatred of imagery and representation and therefore art, but also of the body, nakedness and freedom. Saudi Arabia is a Daesh that has made it.
The West’s denial regarding Saudi Arabia is striking: It salutes the theocracy as its ally but pretends not to notice that it is the world’s chief ideological sponsor of Islamist culture. The younger generations of radicals in the so-called Arab world were not born jihadists. They were suckled in the bosom of Fatwa Valley, a kind of Islamist Vatican with a vast industry that produces theologians, religious laws, books, and aggressive editorial policies and media campaigns.
One might counter: Isn’t Saudi Arabia itself a possible target of Daesh? Yes, but to focus on that would be to overlook the strength of the ties between the reigning family and the clergy that accounts for its stability — and also, increasingly, for its precariousness. The Saudi royals are caught in a perfect trap: Weakened by succession laws that encourage turnover, they cling to ancestral ties between king and preacher. The Saudi clergy produces Islamism, which both threatens the country and gives legitimacy to the regime.
One has to live in the Muslim world to understand the immense transformative influence of religious television channels on society by accessing its weak links: households, women, rural areas. Islamist culture is widespread in many countries — Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania. There are thousands of Islamist newspapers and clergies that impose a unitary vision of the world, tradition and clothing on the public space, on the wording of the government’s laws and on the rituals of a society they deem to be contaminated.
It is worth reading certain Islamist newspapers to see their reactions to the attacks in Paris. The West is cast as a land of “infidels.” The attacks were the result of the onslaught against Islam. Muslims and Arabs have become the enemies of the secular and the Jews. The Palestinian question is invoked along with the rape of Iraq and the memory of colonial trauma, and packaged into a messianic discourse meant to seduce the masses. Such talk spreads in the social spaces below, while up above, political leaders send their condolences to France and denounce a crime against humanity. This totally schizophrenic situation parallels the West’s denial regarding Saudi Arabia.
All of which leaves one skeptical of Western democracies’ thunderous declarations regarding the necessity of fighting terrorism. Their war can only be myopic, for it targets the effect rather than the cause. Since ISIS is first and foremost a culture, not a militia, how do you prevent future generations from turning to jihadism when the influence of Fatwa Valley and its clerics and its culture and its immense editorial industry remains intact?
Is curing the disease therefore a simple matter? Hardly. Saudi Arabia remains an ally of the West in the many chess games playing out in the Middle East. It is preferred to Iran, that gray Daesh. And there’s the trap. Denial creates the illusion of equilibrium. Jihadism is denounced as the scourge of the century but no consideration is given to what created it or supports it. This may allow saving face, but not saving lives.
Daesh has a mother: the invasion of Iraq. But it also has a father: Saudi Arabia and its religious-industrial complex. Until that point is understood, battles may be won, but the war will be lost. Jihadists will be killed, only to be reborn again in future generations and raised on the same books.
The attacks in Paris have exposed this contradiction again, but as happened after 9/11, it risks being erased from our analyses and our consciences.
Kamel Daoud, a columnist for Quotidien d’Oran, is the author of “The Meursault Investigation.” This essay was translated by John Cullen from the French.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/21/opinion/saudi-arabia-an-isis-that-has-made-it.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0
Topic: Saudi court sentences poet to death for apostasy (Read 523 times)
Did the Saudi court present any firm scientific evidence of existence of god, for the charges of “doubting the existence of God” to stick?
Anyway, how is Saudi Arabia, the biggest pal of the USA, the beacon of democracy, is different from ISIS?
Anyway, how is Saudi Arabia, the biggest pal of the USA, the beacon of democracy, is different from ISIS?
Sauds are the biggest Daesh supporter
Just follow the money...
But maybe they learn something while leading the UNHCR - does anybody feels dirty too?
Soon Europe will be part of Caliphate and there won't be freedom of speech and views. And that trial is nothing unusual. I've seen worse and more idiotic way of killing people for their incorrect beliefs.
In fact people are sentenced for much less in Islam controlled countries.
In fact people are sentenced for much less in Islam controlled countries.
could you show us some statistics about your last sentence comment?
Soon Europe will be part of Caliphate and there won't be freedom of speech and views. And that trial is nothing unusual. I've seen worse and more idiotic way of killing people for their incorrect beliefs.
In fact people are sentenced for much less in Islam controlled countries.
In fact people are sentenced for much less in Islam controlled countries.
Anyway, how is Saudi Arabia... different from ISIS?
If you are with the US, all your sins are forgiven
- Saudi is the biggest funder of militant wahabi islam
- It has among the worst human rights record in the Middle East
But all that really doesn't matter.
that is so uncivilized and barbaric. those who live by the sword they shall surely die by the sword. Who are they to judge?
Did the Saudi court present any firm scientific evidence of existence of god, for the charges of “doubting the existence of God” to stick?
Anyway, how is Saudi Arabia, the biggest pal of the USA, the beacon of democracy, is different from ISIS?
Anyway, how is Saudi Arabia, the biggest pal of the USA, the beacon of democracy, is different from ISIS?
He should complain to the UN Human Rights Chairperson.
Oh wait, that is a Saudi as well.
More from the religion of peace and tolerance.
Saudi court sentences poet to death for apostasy
#HumanRights
Ashraf Fayadh (R) was initially arrested in 2013 but released after a day due to lack of evidence (Twitter)
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-court-sentences-poet-death-apostasy-1131443482#sthash.hGeipPxj.GNOsfp1a.dpuf
Palestinian poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh was first arrested after a reader complained his work could encourage atheism
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-court-sentences-poet-death-apostasy-1131443482#sthash.hGeipPxj.GNOsfp1a.dpuf
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Palestinian poet to death for renouncing his religious faith, according to documents seen by Human Rights Watch.
Ashraf Fayadh was handed the sentence on Tuesday on charges of “doubting the existence of God,” according to court documents seen by the group’s Saudi Arabia researcher, Adam Coogle.
Fayadh, who was born to Palestinian parents but grew up in the Gulf kingdom, was arrested by religious police in late 2013 after a reader complained that one of his books, his 2008 poetry collection Inner Teachings, could encourage people to renounce Islam.
Fayadh, now 50, was released after a day due to lack of evidence, but was rearrested in January 2014 in the southwestern city of Abha.
The poet was arrested in a coffee shop after watching a game of football, and was threatened with being deported to Gaza, his father told France24 at the time.
Fayadh was initially sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes, but an appeal judge this week increased the sentence, handing down the death penalty.
The exact charges under which Fayadh was initially held were not made clear, although some have suggested that his arrest was linked to his publication of a video showing religious police in Abha beating a young man in public.
The arrest of Fayadh, also an expressionist artist who has shown his work in government-sponsored exhibitions, sparked anger last year, with hundreds of artists and writers signing a petition calling for his release.
Following news of the death sentence against Fayadh, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information put out an urgent call for charges against him to be dropped.
Saudi Arabia has put to death nearly 150 people so far this year, the highest figure in two decades.
Most people are executed by beheading with a sword, a method Saudi authorities say is more humane than other alternatives.
Public executions remain common – filming such events is illegal, but activists recently circulated rare footage that captured a triple beheading.
The vast majority of death penalties handed down in the kingdom are for either non-violent drugs offences or murder, although there are exceptions.
The case of Ali al-Nimr, sentenced to death aged 17 after taking part in peaceful protests, has sparked an international outcry, with David Cameron, the British prime minister, stepping in to urge Saudi authorities not to carry out the execution.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-court-sentences-poet-death-apostasy-1131443482#sthash.hGeipPxj.GNOsfp1a.dpuf
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-court-sentences-poet-death-apostasy-1131443482
#HumanRights
Ashraf Fayadh (R) was initially arrested in 2013 but released after a day due to lack of evidence (Twitter)
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-court-sentences-poet-death-apostasy-1131443482#sthash.hGeipPxj.GNOsfp1a.dpuf
Palestinian poet and artist Ashraf Fayadh was first arrested after a reader complained his work could encourage atheism
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-court-sentences-poet-death-apostasy-1131443482#sthash.hGeipPxj.GNOsfp1a.dpuf
A court in Saudi Arabia has sentenced a Palestinian poet to death for renouncing his religious faith, according to documents seen by Human Rights Watch.
Ashraf Fayadh was handed the sentence on Tuesday on charges of “doubting the existence of God,” according to court documents seen by the group’s Saudi Arabia researcher, Adam Coogle.
Fayadh, who was born to Palestinian parents but grew up in the Gulf kingdom, was arrested by religious police in late 2013 after a reader complained that one of his books, his 2008 poetry collection Inner Teachings, could encourage people to renounce Islam.
Fayadh, now 50, was released after a day due to lack of evidence, but was rearrested in January 2014 in the southwestern city of Abha.
The poet was arrested in a coffee shop after watching a game of football, and was threatened with being deported to Gaza, his father told France24 at the time.
Fayadh was initially sentenced to four years in prison and 800 lashes, but an appeal judge this week increased the sentence, handing down the death penalty.
The exact charges under which Fayadh was initially held were not made clear, although some have suggested that his arrest was linked to his publication of a video showing religious police in Abha beating a young man in public.
The arrest of Fayadh, also an expressionist artist who has shown his work in government-sponsored exhibitions, sparked anger last year, with hundreds of artists and writers signing a petition calling for his release.
Following news of the death sentence against Fayadh, the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information put out an urgent call for charges against him to be dropped.
Saudi Arabia has put to death nearly 150 people so far this year, the highest figure in two decades.
Most people are executed by beheading with a sword, a method Saudi authorities say is more humane than other alternatives.
Public executions remain common – filming such events is illegal, but activists recently circulated rare footage that captured a triple beheading.
The vast majority of death penalties handed down in the kingdom are for either non-violent drugs offences or murder, although there are exceptions.
The case of Ali al-Nimr, sentenced to death aged 17 after taking part in peaceful protests, has sparked an international outcry, with David Cameron, the British prime minister, stepping in to urge Saudi authorities not to carry out the execution.
- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-court-sentences-poet-death-apostasy-1131443482#sthash.hGeipPxj.GNOsfp1a.dpuf
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/saudi-court-sentences-poet-death-apostasy-1131443482
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