Stunned Into Silence

"With all due respect to the pundits out there, 'experts' analyzing Saudi Arabia in previous decades had it too easy." 
"We need to understand that the days when things took too long to happen -- if they happened at all -- are forever gone. The exciting part is that thanks to the ambitious reforms being implemented ... we are finally living in a country where anything can happen."
Faisal Abbas, editor, Arab News, Saudi Arabia

Members of the Saudi security services inspecting the site of a car bomb attack in May 2015 targeting Shiite Saudis attending Friday Prayer at a mosque in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Credit European Pressphoto Agency

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been the talk of the Arab world for a little while, ever since his father, King Salman, appeared to have anointed his 32-year-old son his successor. King Salman began to change things for women in his Kingdom; enabling women to run for political office and vote -- at the municipal level; a small grace. Now his son has seen to it that Saudi women can finally, legally drive a vehicle. Although presumably, they must still go about in public in a chaste display of full-length burqa, may not converse in public with a man not of their family, may not take out a loan without a man's signature, nor travel abroad without permission of father, husband, uncle, son.

Well, it's a start. The Crown Prince has bold initiatives to his credit, and some not quite to his credit. The decision by Saudi Arabia to lead a 'coalition' of Sunni states into Yemen to fight the Houthi rebels aligned with the Islamic Republic of Iran is viewed by the United Nations and charitable NGOs as an unmitigated disaster for poverty-stricken Yemen, embroiled in a civil war, its population facing famine and and disease epidemics. Saudi Arabia sees its military mired fruitlessly in Yemen, countered by the Houthis, with nothing having been accomplished aside the deaths of civilians.

But great changes are in store for Saudi Arabia. The Crown Prince has vowed to move the country forward into the 21st Century; away from dependence on fossil fuel resources, liberalizing and modernizing society, opening up civil rights to women, and stemming the ossified nation's royal kleptocracy. The Saudi public cheers at the prospect of corruption among state officials, the hundreds of royals and the favoured business leaders being cleansed and those revelling in it held to account. Should that indeed result from the current state of luxury hotel stays imposed on the aristocrats.

Ah, and according to the Prince Royal, it is time for the stern Wahhabist brand of Islam to be reformed, and he is the instrument to see it through. No longer will Saudis fund the building of fundamentalist mosques and madrassas across the world, let alone support Sunni terrorists in their jihadist plenitude throughout the Middle East and within Western society. This is startling news, all of it. Remarkable, coming from that most hidebound extreme form of Islam. Leaving onlookers agape -- and silent. What to make of it?

A risky display to be certain. Is the Crown Prince so certain of himself, his security,  his presence and his influential power base that he is prepared to risk not only danger to himself at the present time but in the future when resentment from among his royal extended family boils over into remedial action?
Saudi Arabia's newly-perceived, quiet shift in relations with the Zionist Nation whose presence is such a bleeding sore on the Arab/Muslim body politic is certain to see scimitars being sharpened.

The Byzantine business of the Middle East is a mystery to the outside world, and no less to its interior audience, fascinated, mouth agape, eyes wide, wondering, watching, silent. Speculation is rife; will it all collapse as normalcy and the accepted virtues of Islamism, corruption closing ranks and violent reaction prevail? Or is Saudi Arabia destined to lead the Middle East into its version of according freedoms to its long-suffering populations? If so, where does Bashar al-Assad fit into the scheme? Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq and Iran represent a large and malevolent slice of the Middle East.
Whatever Crown Prince bin Salman does assert and manages to bring off, there are some things that will not change. All the mosques that now crowd Europe with their fundamentalist messages of Islamist jihad and the madrassas teaching the Wahhabist brand of Islam, uncompromising, stern and rigidly hostile to the West, have been installed for posterity. Their purpose is clear; to infiltrate and to influence, to spread the word and the ideology of jihad, to proselytize, to assure the ummah that the longed-for caliphate of influence and conquest is on its way.

Is Crown Prince bin Salmon prepared to renounce all of this? What good would it do? The genie has escaped its confinement.

Labels: Controversy, Islamism, Jihad, Madrassas, Moderation, Saudi Arabia, Wahhabism

posted by Pieface @ Monday, November 13, 2017

The Arab World -- Frozen In Time

"Arab youth today remain mired in poverty; they are politically marginalized and voiceless, economically disenfranchised, and socially prone to radicalization and violence."
Nimrod Raphael, Israeli analyst

"The United States created the Islamic State ... the U.S. was the secret instigator of all the Arab Spring uprisings ... the Syria uprising was not a popular movement but instead was instigated by the U.S. in order to remove the anti-imperialist Assad ... the U.S. intentionally creates failed states like Libya in order to keep the region in turmoil ... the Bush administration planned the 9/11 attack in order to further repression and start wars in the Middle East."
Reese Ehrlich, left-wing conspiracy theorist

The face of the world has changed in just a short period of time. It started in the Middle East, when between 2009 to 2014 roughly 22 million Arabs decided to migrate from their places of birth. Arab emigres wound up in immense numbers in Europe, where they joined earlier migrants in the areas now known as "no go" zones that so efficiently breed jihadis. And while European state police evade entering those "no go" zones to avoid the violence that will invariably descend upon them, out of those zones venture inhabitants into the larger areas where they protest and attack non-Muslim residents.

Radical Islam has been on the march for quite some time. Its essence has been bred in the Salafist Wahhabist Islam practised in Saudi Arabia, which has generously funded the establishment of mosques and madrassas throughout Europe, North America, Africa, Asia, to ensure that their particular brand of Islam is practised and continues spreading. Out of that brand has come a volatile anger against the West, against democracy and its vision of human rights.

That Sunni Wahhabist fundamentalism need go no further than the Middle East to find its targets, the vulnerable Christians of ancient lineage among them. These minorities of the Arab world have been the target of venomous attacks for daring to remain within a geography consecrated to Islam. The United Nations is where the Arab bloc led by the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation speaks of the evils of "Islamophobia", but appears to have no words to describe the genocidal miseries suffered by Christians in the Medieval world of Islam.


The population of the Middle East is heavy on its youthful component where 30 percent of the population is between the ages of 15 and 29, poorly educated, and lacking employable skills in an area where there is little employment to be had, other than within government and where positions are monopolized by family units and authority and opportunity rests within the patriarchy and the clan. The government elites control oil wealth and the great bureaucracy that exists is exclusive to "forged uncompetitive and monopolistic alliances".

It is a broad atmosphere where manufacturing is virtually absent, with oil wealth maintaining everything. Overseas investment is the order of the day, since the elite never know with any certainty whether the order may change and their wealth might be compromised. Development reports of the Arab world point to sparse translations from other languages into Arabic; a general disinterest in what generates advances elsewhere. Freedom of speech is absent, and interest in science is abysmal, reflecting a "curiosity deficit" where a modern economy eludes and censorship rules.

But wait, there's more, thanks to the United Nations' statistics informing that while five percent of the global population resides in the Arab world, 45 percent of all global terrorist attacks are accounted for emanating out of that world. Of the world's violent conflicts, 17.6 percent belong to the Arab world, as well as 68.5 percent of deaths related to those conflict, and certainly not to be overlooked, 47 percent of the internally displaced worldwide.


Over 43 percent of the world's total proven oil reserves lie under the sands of the Middle East and North Africa. Which helps enormously to fund the Arab world's spending on military technology, 65 percent higher in expenditure than the global average, fuelling the ongoing agony of the Arab world's people. No measure of success by any standards whatever. But resentment in abundance. And invented reasons why there is such lack of success in a vast population disinterested in furthering its own interests to advance into the future.

That resentment taking the form of the conspiracy theories serving to explain just why it is that Arab states represent such total failures in every index of human ingenuity, discovery, education, production and culture. See the enumerated themes above as listed by journalist Reese Ehrlich.

Labels: Arabs, Heritage, Islam, Middle East, Moderation, North Africa

posted by Pieface @ Friday, February 24, 2017

In one short interview, the two Muslim speakers had ensured that: a Zionist conspiracy is in place; ISIS is not really dangerous; the West is at war with Muslims, and the killing must continue; Muslims must not speak out on Western media about violence within the faith, and those who do are liars desperately seeking the limelight. So most Muslims stay silent.
This brand of boxed and packaged Islam, started by Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini, has been so cleverly marketed that most Muslims do not even know what hit them.
Then there are those have moved outside the box -- scholars, reformers and academics, who, like me, are considered heretics but are still part of the faith. We do not accept the branded, "boxed" version of Islam -- exported largely from Saudi Arabia on the wings of billions of petro-dollars in unobtrusive packaging -- that is trying to pass itself off as mainstream Islam.

The debate about "Moderate Muslims" has gone viral. From Bill Maher to Ali Rizvi in his Huffington Post article, it is trending.

As someone who used to call herself a moderate, I am now moving away from that terminology. One reason is a recent interview a cable TV talk show called Bilatakalluf.

On the program were two members of The North American Muslim Foundation (NAMF) -- Imam Shehryar and Farooq Khan -- and the discussion was about ISIS and being a Canadian Muslim. Below is a translation of some of the "quotable quotes":

• "I honestly think the news about ISIS is extremely exaggerated – there are other interests fanning the flames -- we do not know if ISIS is Muslim or not, could be anyone."
• "When we look at history and the way the West has lied, it is obvious... I refer to Iraq -- this drama has been done before, so the reports we are getting are not credible as they are coming from Western media, which has a track record of being No. # 1 liars -- once you tell a lie over and over again it becomes credible -- look at the Jihad/Sharia hype?"
• "We must establish authenticity of the [beheading] TV clips -- it is a man wearing a niqab so how do we know whether he is a Mossad guy or ISIS?"
• "I have heard reports that some people living under ISIS are peaceful -- at least the Sunni areas are better patrolled."
• "Having a Caliphate is an integral part of faith. Every believing Muslim prays for a true Khalifah."

And on the topic of Canadians going for Jihad?

• "There are one million Muslims in Canada... only 0.13% have "allegedly" joined ISIS, and they have gone for many reasons -- it is a hot issue with media -- 150 Jewish Zionists have gone to Gaza for a one-sided slaughter."
• "Mossad had an integral part in creating Hamas. The PLO Al-Fatah meetings in 1960's were held in the house of a guy who was an Israeli agent -- a Jewish Zionist Israeli agent."
• "There are vested interests -- 1.8 million Muslims cannot be digested by the powerbrokers so they aim to keep the area troubled -- the grand policy of the West is to have rivers of blood flowing -- they don't say it, but they are at war with the Muslims. The West will keep propping up proxy groups so that the violence does not end."

There is more, but suffice it to say that this was enough. Today, that is the voice of so-called moderate Islam. This cable program reaches over 100,000 homes across North America. These are the voices heard in Muslim homes, where they have credibility because they come from an Imam and his sidekick who are well dressed, well-spoken and articulate. In one short interview, the two speakers had ensured that: a Zionist conspiracy is in place; Western media are liars and cannot be trusted; ISIS is not really dangerous; the West is at war with Muslims, and that the killing must continue to adjust the world population.

Is there concern that most Muslims will believe what was said on this show? Yes. They live within the "Box of Islam," where the majority of Muslims hide today, to avoid facing reality. They are not interested in discussion or debate; they look upon the best years of Islam as during the early Caliphates. This boxed and packaged version of Islam was first branded by Iran's then Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who wanted to export his revolution in the late 1970s. At that time, the branding was that of a fiery bearded Mullah with an extreme message.

Since then this brand of Islam has taken on a modern, moderate look; it is "the new normal." Today, it is being exported largely from Saudi Arabia on the wings of billions of petro-dollars in an unobtrusive packaging. Case in point: There is a version of the Quran that is given away free at Dundas Square in Toronto, where the opening prayer has been tampered with. The original ends with the words "keep us on the straight path and not the path of those who have gone astray." To the "Dundas" version have been added the words "like the Jews and Christians."

This brand of boxed and packaged Islam has been so cleverly and cunningly marketed through the mosque pulpits, print media and electronic media that most Muslims do not even know what has hit them. It is beamed directly into their homes and hearts; they are not encouraged to dissent. This point was made by the Imam on the Bilatakalluf talk show: he said that Muslims should not speak out on Western media about sectarian issues or about violence within the faith. He went on to say that those Muslims who do speak out are liars desperately seeking the limelight. So most Muslims either stay silent or deflect the problems into conspiracy theories.

"Boxed" Muslims therefore now believe (among other issues) that anyone who does not toe their line of Islamist thinking is an infidel and will go to hell; anyone who leaves the faith by choice is an apostate (the punishment for which is death); homosexuals should be thrown off the highest cliff; Sharia law and jihad are benign; an authentic Muslim woman must wear a niqab or at least a hijab; every problem across the Muslim world is due to outside influences; adultery should be punished by 100 lashes, and that hanging and amputation of hands is justified.

Then there are those who have moved outside the box -- scholars, reformers and academics who, like me, are considered heretics but are still part of the faith. We do not accept the branded, "boxed" version of Islam that is trying to pass itself off as mainstream Islam. We believe that there are many paths one can follow and that there really is "no compulsion in religion" (from the Quran); that all believers are equal; we accept that there is special mention of "people of the book" in the Quran that includes Zoroastrians, Jews and Christians, whom we must respect. Sharia law needs to be reformed and brought into the 21st century; we cannot live with archaic laws any longer. Armed jihad is no longer valid. The Quran asks women only for modesty, but the hijab has become a political symbol. The Quran does not speak about killing homosexuals but prohibits lust; and beheading, hanging and cutting off hands should be abolished along with slavery.

The author Ibn Warraq says that "moderate Muslims" do exist, but that he does not believe "Islam is moderate." He is also not optimistic about how quickly moderate Muslim theologians will be able to bring about a religious reformation that will be acceptable.

What does this make us who are genuinely moderate: progressive, liberal or heretics? Whatever we are "branded," we will continue to speak out and light a fire under the feet of all of us: the reform needs to begin.

Raheel Raza is the President of the Council of Muslims Facing Tomorrow.

Labels: Conflict, Immigration, Islamism, Moderation, Muslims

posted by Pieface @ Sunday, October 19, 2014