On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines - and Future (38 page)
Read On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines - and Future Online
Authors: Karen Elliott House
Tags: #General, #History, #Political Science, #Social Science, #Anthropology, #Cultural, #World, #Middle East, #Middle Eastern
Above all, I want to thank Abdullah Al Shammari, who over a four-year period during which I reported this book, frequently served as my translator, but more importantly introduced me to scores of Saudis, who then introduced me to hundreds more from Tabuk in the north to Jizan in the south, from Jeddah on the Red Sea to Dammam on the Persian Gulf. Abdullah helped me to discover the rich and remarkable diversity of Saudi society beneath its veneer of white robes and black
abayas.
Abdullah is not a journalist, but in a freer and more open society, he would be a great reporter, researcher, and analyst.
Among the many Saudis I visited, special thanks go to the wife and mother identified in the book as Lulu, who invited me to live in her modest home with her family in order to share all aspects of her deeply religious and conservative family life. While Lulu did not succeed in her effort to convert me to Islam, she did profoundly impress me with the genuine religious devotion she lives out daily. Among the many other families I repeatedly visited I owe a special thanks to Abdul Malik Al Ashshaikh and his professor wife, Noura, both direct descendants of Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, and their six accomplished daughters. With their respect for religion and tradition, but also their openness to modernity and change, they represent to me the very best in Saudi society. Prince Abdul Aziz bin Sattam, a scholar who also happens to be one of many royals I met, provided knowledgeable insights into Islamic religion and Sharia law.
Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al Jubeir, encouraged
me to pursue this project and made it possible by granting a five-year multiple-entry visa. He never tried to influence my reporting; the analysis and conclusions of this book are mine. Graham Allison, director of the Belfer Center at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, also encouraged this project while I was a senior fellow at the center in 2007.
Robert Asahina, a gifted editor, reviewed early drafts and helped me greatly with organization of the manuscript. Vicky Wilson, my editor at Knopf, and her associate, Carmen Johnson, were tolerant of a first-time author and provided expert guidance and support through the whole process from book contract to publication. Janet Biehl was a skilled and rigorous copy editor. I am also grateful to Mort Janklow, my agent, for his support throughout. Finally, thanks to my husband, Peter Kann, a fine reporter and writer, for his constant encouragement and help. He patiently read every page of every draft, and his suggestions for improvement were invaluable. Also thanks to our children, Hillary, Petra, Jason, and Jade, who were tolerant of my frequent travel to and focus on Saudi Arabia. Then again, at least some of them may have found that preferable to my focusing on messy rooms and inattentive studies.
CHAPTER 1
•
Fragile
1.
Because Saudi Arabia:
CIA, “Saudi Arabia, People,”
World Factbook
,
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html
.
2.
So fanatical was this preacher:
Natana J. Delong-Bas,
Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 33.
3.
These young people:
A minister and a deputy minister of two separate ministries, interviews by author, March 2009.
4.
and at least 60 percent cannot afford a home:
“Saudis wishing to own homes left with limited options,”
Arab News
, April 19, 2011,
arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article366591.ece?service=print
.
5.
They know that nearly 40 percent:
John Sfakianakis, “Employment Quandary: Youth Struggle to Find Work Raises Urgency for Reform,” Banque Saudi Fransi, February 16, 2011, p. 3.
6.
They know that 90 percent:
Adel Fakieh, Saudi minister of labor, interview by author, February 5, 2011.
7.
Yet it is no secret:
Ibid.
8.
The first flood, in 2009:
“302 Face Flood Probe,”
Arab News
, April 21, 2011,
arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article368405.ece?service=print
.
9.
“They keep dying on me”:
Jim Kuhn,
Ronald Reagan in Private: A Memoir of My Years in the White House
(New York: Penguin, 2004), p. 165.
10.
“We are hypocrites”:
Anonymous imam, interview by author, Riyadh, February 3, 2011.
11.
With seventy thousand mosques:
Abdullah Alheedan, assistant deputy minister for Islamic Affairs, interview by author, Riyadh, October 26, 2009.
12.
“If we do not share responsibility”:
Prince Saud bin Abdul Mohsin al Saud, interview by author, Jeddah, January 28, 2011.
•
Al Saud Survival Skills
1.
How has an absolute monarchy:
Prince Abdul Aziz bin Sattam al Saud, interview by author, April 10, 2010.
2.
A strapping man:
Alexei Vassiliev,
The History of Saudi Arabia
(New York: New York University Press, 2000), p. 203.
3.
The imam had taught:
Christine Moss Helms,
The Cohesion of Saudi Arabia
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), p. 92.
4.
But unlike Washington:
Simon Henderson, “After King Abdullah: Succession in Saudi Arabia,” Washington Institute for Near East Policy (August 2009), Policy Focus no. 96, p. 8.
5.
But he is estimated:
David Howarth,
The Desert King
(London: Quartet Books, 1980), pp. 117–18.
6.
“Draw the sword”:
Ameen Rihani,
Maker of Modern Arabia
(New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1928), p. 75.
7.
“Are there not a number”:
Helms,
Cohesion
, p. 114.
8.
The lessons learned:
H. C. Armstrong,
Lord of Arabia Ibn Saud: The Intimate Study of a King
(London: Kegan Paul, 2005), p. 97.
9.
Thus began the first jihadist:
Yaroslav Trofimov,
The Siege of Mecca
(New York: Doubleday, 2007), p. 4.
10.
But the siege claimed:
Ibid., p. 225.
11.
In 2009, to reinforce his call:
King Abdullah’s endowment for KAUST is undisclosed, but KAUST is said to be “among the world’s best endowed” by its public relations officer, who, like the kingdom’s U.S. ambassador, Adel al Jubeir, doesn’t discourage the “second only to Harvard” description given by numerous Saudis.
12.
“Neither I nor my ancestors”:
Armstrong,
Lord of Arabia
, p. 151.
13.
In 1938 Standard Oil:
Rachel Bronson,
Thicker Than Oil: America’s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 17.
14.
“Do you know”:
Ibid., p. 19.
15.
At least 80 percent:
CIA, “Saudi Arabia: Economy,”
World Factbook
, at
www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sa.html
.
16.
Fully 40 percent of the budget that is:
Robert Lacey,
Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia
(New York: Viking Penguin, 2009), p. 252.
17.
A popular hadith:
Imam Ahmad, 4/126,
muttagun.com/scienceofhadith.html
.
18.
“Obey me for so long”:
Barnaby Rogerson,
The Heirs of Muhammad
(Woodstock, N.Y.: Overlook Press, 2007), p. 129.
19.
Within fifty years:
Ibid., p. 342.
20.
The conquerors invited:
Tamim Ansary,
Destiny Disrupted
(New York: Public Affairs, 2009), p. 85.
21.
The security directorate:
Dr. Abdulrahman al Hadlag, general director of Ideological Security Directorate, Ministry of Interior, interview by author, Riyadh, October 10, 2009.
22.
The Al Saud have taken a lesson:
Prince Abdul Aziz bin Sattam, interview by author, Riyadh, April 29, 2010,
www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?257654-Mu-awiyah-s-Hair
, accessed May 14, 2011.
•
Islam: Dominant and Divided
1.
“That is her home”:
Lulu, interview by author, Riyadh, May 5, 2010.
2.
“Men are in charge”:
Koran 4:34.
3.
Her eldest daughter:
Lulu’s daughter, interview by author, Riyadh, January 18, 2011.
4.
“The angel asks you”:
Anonymous family, interview by author, Riyadh, January 27, 2010.
5.
“Allahu akbar”
:
Frederick Mathewson Denny,
An Introduction to Islam
(New York: Macmillan, 1994), p. 120.
6.
Public anger forced:
Sarah Abdullah, “Court Grants 12-year-old Bride Divorce,”
Arab News
, April 29, 2010, p. 2.
7.
“The Prophet consulted”:
Sheikh Abdullah Mutlag, interview by author, Riyadh, October 26, 2009.
8.
Muslims believe that each human:
Sahih Muslim, book 1, hadith no. 2033,
hadithcollection.com/about-hadith-books/129-Sahih%20Book%2001.%20faith/8551-sahih-muslim
, accessed May 11, 2011.
9.
“For nearly 1,400 years”:
Seyyed Hossein Nasr,
Ideas and Realities of Islam
(Chicago: ABC International Group, 2000), p. 74.
10.
The Prophet is quoted:
Denny,
Introduction
, p. 113.
11.
When Muslims pray:
Ibid., 122.
12.
“In the name of God”:
Koran 1:1–7.
13.
The grand mufti, the kingdom’s senior:
M. D. Humaidan,
“Al-Asheikh Tells Hai’a Official to Stay Out of Shariah Issues,”
Arab News
, April 24, 2010, p. 2.
14.
Within hours of the firing:
“
Hai’a
Denies Statement Accuracy,”
Saudi Gazette
, April 27, 2010, p. 1.
15.
In another unprecedented:
Sheikh al Ghamdi, interview by Al Arabbiyah TV, April 30, 2010.
16.
“There is only one change”:
Sheikh Salman al Awdah, interview by author, Riyadh, February 18, 2008.
17.
“Saudi society is slow”:
Sheikh Salman al Awdah, interview by author, Riyadh, May 1, 2010.
18.
Using a few non-Arabic words:
Y. Admon, “Anti Soccer Fatwas Led Saudi Soccer Players to Join the Jihad in Iraq,” Middle East Media Research Institute, Inquiry & Analysis Series, Report no. 245 (October 2005), pp. 1–4,
www.memri.org/report/en/print1494.htm
, accessed May 11, 2011.
19.
“First, practicing masturbation”:
“Fasting person committing masturbation,” Fatwa No. 10551,
www.alifta.com
, Fatwas of the Permanent Committee, browse by page number, group 1, pt. 10, p. 259.
20.
The
ulama
insist:
Chapter on nullifications of Wudu’, “Whether touching or shaking hands with a non-Mahram woman …,”
www.alifta.com
, Fatwas of the Permanent Committee, browse by page number, group 1, pt. 5, p. 268.
21.
Similarly it is acceptable:
Salam, “Raising the hand when greeting someone far,”
www.alifta.com
, Fatwas of the Permanent Committee, browse by page number, group 1, pt. 24, p. 124.
22.
“Things that used to be
haram
”: Young Imam University students and graduates, interview by author, Riyadh, October 9, 2009.
23.
During the first two centuries:
Tilman Nagel,
The History of Islamic Theology
(Princeton, N.J.: Marcus Wiener, 2000), p. 239.
24.
The Prophet further said:
“Gold-coated tableware and sanitary ware,”
www.alifta.com
, Fatwas of the Permanent Committee, browse by page number, group 1, pt. 22, p. 158.
25.
Those who live by Allah’s:
Koran 37:42–48.
26.
“We have made it”:
Koran 37:63–68.
27.
Only martyrs are spared:
Dr. Shadiah Hamza Sheikh, “Eternal Life: Rewards and Punishments,” p. 2,
www.wefound.org/texts/Islam_files/EternalLife.htm
, accessed May 11, 2011.
28.
Ironically, this breakdown:
Hamid Mowlana and Laurie J. Wilson,
The Passing of Modernity: Communication and the
Transformation of Society
(New York: Addison-Wesley, 1990), p. 9.
•
The Social Labyrinth
1.
Saudi Arabia boasts 9.8 million:
International Telecommunications Union,
www.internetworldstats.com/me/sa.htm
, accessed May 11, 2011.
2.
And with 5.1 million Saudis:
Spot On Public Relations,
http://www.spotonpr.com/egypt-facebook-demographics
, accessed September 10, 2011.
3.
Tellingly, Saudi users are:
Middle East and North Africa Facebook Demographics
(Spot On Public Relations, May 2010); also “Saudi Arabia Facebook Statistics,”
Socialbakers.com
,
www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/saudi-arabia
, accessed March 12, 2012.
4.
More ominously:
Muhammad al Sulami, “Kingdom Amends Media Laws,”
Arab News
, April 29, 2011,
arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article377672.ece?service=print
, accessed April 30, 2011.
5.
“Honor is what makes”:
David Pryce-Jones,
The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs
(Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2002), p. 35.
6.
“Between the poles”:
Ibid., p. 41.
7.
Rana, the mother:
University-educated daughter of a professor, interview by author, Riyadh, October 11, 2009, and January 16, 2011.
8.
Thus, tribal raiding:
Marcel Kurpershoek,
Arabia of the Bedouins
(London: Saqi Books, 1992), p. 65.
9.
There he heads:
Abdul Rahman bin Humaid, interview by author, Yanbu, February 2, 2010.