Spinning Saudi Arabia

[Scott Martens]

There is a really enlightening article in today's (Brussels) Le Soir about
the motivations and contradictions about Saudi Arabia and its policy with
regard to other religions.  It casts some light on why so much fuss should
be made about US troops in Saudi Arabia.  It's on their website at
http://www.lesoir.be/articles/A_0210D3.asp , titled "Reopening dialog with
Muslims: 'Intolerance is in flagrant contradiction to the Koran'" (Rouvrir
le dialogue avec les musulmans: "L'intolerance est en contradiction
flagrante avec le Coran")  It consists of an interview with a Belgian
islamologist and an author named "Ali Daddy" who I presume from the text is
a Muslim.

(My translation - quick and dirty and without my trusty Petit Robert, so
please excuse errors in translation.)
------
Interviewer: Is it allowed to build temples or Protestant churches, for
example, in Islamic territory?

Ali Daddy:  If in the majority of Muslim countries freedom of worship is
guaranteed, as per the Koran, it isn't so everywhere.  Thus, in Saudi
Arabia, the authorities have put forward the idea that their whole kingdom
is sacred ground.  (...)  An ad hoc committee brought up this issue with the
Saudi ambassador in Paris and then sent a petition to King Fahd demanding
that he loosen those restrictions on religious freedom.  The response came
from Sheik Abu Bakr, chairman of the Islamic Orientation department at the
University of Medina: "Far from being a sign of deep intolerance on the part
of Saudi royal authorities, the interdiction (against non-Muslims from
practicing their faiths) in fact comes from the Islamic idea that the entire
territory of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is considered (by Islam) to be a
mosque where two religions cannot coexist."
------

Ali Daddy goes on to make a theological case against such a conception.

However, if such a belief is genuinely widely held in Saudi Arabia, it goes
a long way towards explaining the vehemence of bin Laden against the US and
the Saudi monarchy, and why he might have such wide support among the rich
and powerful in Saudi Arabia.  It is one thing to accept the right of
another culture or religion to exist, but it is quite another to accept
their presence - armed - in your place of worship.  This interview suggests
that for some people a US presence anywhere in Saudi Arabia is exactly as
offensive as if the US had taken over Mecca and Medina themselves.

Under such circumstances, a US withdrawal under any fig leaf might actually
serve to make things better.

Scott Martens

-----Original Message-----
From: Guilherme C Roschke <groschke at luminousvoid.net>
To: Lbo-Talk at Lists. Panix. Com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
Date: Wednesday, January 16, 2002 9:31 PM
Subject: Re: Spinning Saudi Arabia


>> WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 - A number of senior officials in
>> Congress and the Pentagon are saying the United States
>> should consider withdrawing military forces from Saudi
>> Arabia because of frustration over what they consider
>> the kingdom's tepid support for the war on terrorism
>> and the restrictions it places on American military
>> operations.
>
> no mention of how one of OBL's oft-stated goals is the removal of
>US forces from saudi.
>
>-gr
>