The Steaming Kettle
Saudi Arabia's top diplomatic envoy to Canada yesterday delivered an address at Carleton University, one of two institutes of higher learning in Ottawa, the nation's capital. His address was nothing if not provocative. Abdulaziz Al-Sowayegh described the current social conditions in the Middle East as being precariously close to the tipping point verging into utter chaos. Amazing, who knew?Well, it's fairly well known that autocratic, repressive, dictatorial regimes such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt are rather nervous about the state of their own fragile political health. Freedom of expression, egalitarianism and an independent judiciary are not bywords in their system of governance. Like Lebanon and Syria they sit on the edge of destabilization, the unrest and promise inherent in fundamentalism and tribal malignancies boding ill for the future.
Mr. Al-Sowayegh brought up that tired old nostrum for solving the unrest in his geography; that were the world to focus more on solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, peace would happily reign in the region. He noted that Canada, in its respected position on the world stage as a negotiator and upholder for and of peace with no nasty history of colonialism has great credibility internationally.
Leading him to the conclusion that were Canada to lend itself to strenuous efforts in aid of resolving the intractable problems in the Middle East (Israeli-Palestinian conflict), much could be achieved to render the geography free of strife. Of course, official Canada could, throwing diplomacy to the winds, turn that around and offer its opinion that Saudi Arabia, as the political elder statesman in the geography could do far more to effect peace there than any foreign influence could attain to.
Instead, Saudi Arabia under the influence of puritan Wahhabist theology and the House of Saud's commitment to that devoutly fundamentalist issue of Islam has acted conspiratorially to advance that stringently-Islamist form of religion through its funding of Madrassas in Pakistan and elsewhere - as far from the Middle East as North America - including Canada.
Where eager young men are taught a classic version of Islam, with interpretations of the Koranic writings suited to a jihadist-slanted view, of the place of Islam in the wider world of apostates and non-believers in the Western world, eternally at odds with Islam. Yet this is gall, bitterly ironic - that Mr. Al-Sowayegh can blandly assure university students assembled to hear him out with the respect owing his position - peace is in Canada's hands to offer.
The most important thing Canada could accomplish, he claimed, would be to support implementation of United Nations resolutions on the Arab-Israeli conflict, inclusive of demands for Israel's withdrawal to 1967 borders. Memories in Canada being rather dim of the conflict and its causes, it's unlikely anyone might have reminded the ambassador of the reason for the post-1967 borders.
"That, as we see it, would solve all the problems of the region once and for all", he claimed ingenuously - that good-will ambassador for peace and reconciliation. Who, if he and the regime he represents were truly sincere, would have offered sincere overtures themselves for the purpose of establishing an honest dialogue between the solitudes - including the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Yet, resolving that conflict "would stop extremists and terrorists" from exploiting the situation to "advance their own distorted ideologies". He would know, intimately, of course, what represents a distorted ideology. It's when he goes on to claim that "The kingdom believes that terrorism is against its beliefs and against its religious faith", that one sucks in breath in disbelief.
Given that most of the 9-11 suicide attackers came from Saudi Arabia. Given that Saudi Arabian oil wealth has gone far in funding terrorism around the globe, and continues to do so. And although the rest of the world appears to think that the Saudi elite and government is supporting militant Islam, nothing could be further from the truth; he vows that his country's leaders see their mission as "a continuing struggle that we must win" against terrorism.
In fact, the ongoing instability in the region is seen as a serious impediment to installing democracy within the kingdom. The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, champing at the bit to become democratic, ready to submit to free and fair elections, to permit a sea change in its governance. No longer will it flog and imprison raped women, imprison dissenters, torture and put to death apostates.
Simple solutions for simple problems.
Labels: Justice, Middle East, Terrorism
posted by Pieface @ Friday, November 16, 2007
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