The war that missed
In March 2003, the United States invaded a Middle Eastern country in an attempt to reduce the threat from rogue states and radical Islamists. Unfortunately, they missed the real threat, and the US army took out the neigbouring local loudmouth instead. The country America should really have been gunning for, if any, was Saudi Arabia, the world’s near-monopoly exporters of fundamentalist Islam.
During the decade and a half of triumphalism that followed the crumpling of the Soviet Union, the US has opened its arms and shared its vision of success. Namely, democracy and free markets. With the implosion of communism, the major economic and political system rivalling capitalism, the US has turned the less pointy end of its foreign policy into a Democratic- Free-Market-Building machine the likes of which the world hasn’t seen before. From Africa to Eurasia to Asia, the US has led the charge to preach the gospel of the victors to the world. Except in one very special place. The lucky region is the Middle East. Prior to the Gulf War sequel, these governments have strangely evaded the USA’s democratic roving eye. Obviously, the rationale is oil. Despite America’s attempt to become more self-sufficient in energy, SUV sales and the country’s continuing love affair with the car keep it tied to the turbulent Middle East.
The House of Saud sits atop 25% of the world’s proven oil resources, and makes a pretty penny from exporting energy. More than enough to buy the trappings of modernity – fast cars for princelings, sleek silvered buildings for expats and oil barons and huge, energy-hungry desalination plants. But money doesn’t trickle down very fast in a tribal society. If the Saudi royal family wasn’t careful, it could become the enemy pretty quickly. There’s a generation of jobless, restless youth with time to kill. The country is a textbook case for the entry of fundamentalist preachers. But the Saudis are clever. Indirectly, they’ve found their citizens a better enemy, a greater Satan.
After claiming dominion over the territory that would become Saudi Arabia only to lose it two or three times to a rival family, the House of Saud made an enduring alliance with Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, a radical preacher. Wahhab’s faith and power lent credence to the Saudis, and this time, the tribal royals clung to their conquered land long enough for oil to be discovered and become enormously valuable. The alliance has endured, and Wahhabi Islam has long been the official religion in Saudi Arabia, holding sway over the two holiest Muslim cities, Mecca and Medina. But there’s been a tension buried in the politico-religious alliance since the beginning. Wahhabis believe Sunni Islam has been corrupted and strive to maintain an ascetic purity across the whole Saudi culture. Known as the Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the religious police enforce a version of Shari’a law that approaches the Taliban. No cinemas, no male-female socialising, no Western music. It’s a zealous purity that doesn’t fit with the known excesses of the Saudi princes, who womanize, drive fast cars, drink alcohol and enjoy life in the time-honoured fashion of the obscenely, undeservedly rich. But still the alliance glues the society together. How? Petrodollars. The government has given many, many millions to the Wahhabis, who have used the funds to create a movement worldwide in scope.
William Dalrymple writes in The Guardian that:
Throughout South East Asia, Islam has been indigenised – softened, recombined with animism and indigenous religions. Dress codes are relaxed, Islamic laws less stringent. My cousin, a tropical ecologist, worked for many years in Brunei, a small Islamic country buried in the island Borneo and told me recently that this is changing. Saudi-style clothing is coming into vogue. Brunei’s relative permissiveness is changing. There’s something in the wind. It’s the new preachers, the faith-filled zealots. With increasing clout in the Government, the fundamentalist preachers are achieving real change - recolonising South East Asia with a new, fierier brand of Islam.
The Saudi government’s policy of outsourcing dissent has been domestically successful, but internationally disastrous. It’s polarized the world into camps, driven a hitherto slightly friendlier USA back into the Cold War mentality it so recently emerged from and pitted militant Islam against the West and moderate Muslims alike. Next war, perhaps the US could aim a little better. Real friends don't stab you in the back. Or is this just another doomed marriage of convenience which must be settled with a currency beyond US dollars or oil, the currency of good ol' red American blood?
---
I seem to be writing worthy, earnest posts of late. This may be because I have a final round journalism interview this week. Wish me luck! New incarnation: Earnestpax - Boldly penning opinion as if I've got something authoritative to say!
In March 2003, the United States invaded a Middle Eastern country in an attempt to reduce the threat from rogue states and radical Islamists. Unfortunately, they missed the real threat, and the US army took out the neigbouring local loudmouth instead. The country America should really have been gunning for, if any, was Saudi Arabia, the world’s near-monopoly exporters of fundamentalist Islam.
During the decade and a half of triumphalism that followed the crumpling of the Soviet Union, the US has opened its arms and shared its vision of success. Namely, democracy and free markets. With the implosion of communism, the major economic and political system rivalling capitalism, the US has turned the less pointy end of its foreign policy into a Democratic- Free-Market-Building machine the likes of which the world hasn’t seen before. From Africa to Eurasia to Asia, the US has led the charge to preach the gospel of the victors to the world. Except in one very special place. The lucky region is the Middle East. Prior to the Gulf War sequel, these governments have strangely evaded the USA’s democratic roving eye. Obviously, the rationale is oil. Despite America’s attempt to become more self-sufficient in energy, SUV sales and the country’s continuing love affair with the car keep it tied to the turbulent Middle East.
The House of Saud sits atop 25% of the world’s proven oil resources, and makes a pretty penny from exporting energy. More than enough to buy the trappings of modernity – fast cars for princelings, sleek silvered buildings for expats and oil barons and huge, energy-hungry desalination plants. But money doesn’t trickle down very fast in a tribal society. If the Saudi royal family wasn’t careful, it could become the enemy pretty quickly. There’s a generation of jobless, restless youth with time to kill. The country is a textbook case for the entry of fundamentalist preachers. But the Saudis are clever. Indirectly, they’ve found their citizens a better enemy, a greater Satan.
After claiming dominion over the territory that would become Saudi Arabia only to lose it two or three times to a rival family, the House of Saud made an enduring alliance with Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, a radical preacher. Wahhab’s faith and power lent credence to the Saudis, and this time, the tribal royals clung to their conquered land long enough for oil to be discovered and become enormously valuable. The alliance has endured, and Wahhabi Islam has long been the official religion in Saudi Arabia, holding sway over the two holiest Muslim cities, Mecca and Medina. But there’s been a tension buried in the politico-religious alliance since the beginning. Wahhabis believe Sunni Islam has been corrupted and strive to maintain an ascetic purity across the whole Saudi culture. Known as the Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the religious police enforce a version of Shari’a law that approaches the Taliban. No cinemas, no male-female socialising, no Western music. It’s a zealous purity that doesn’t fit with the known excesses of the Saudi princes, who womanize, drive fast cars, drink alcohol and enjoy life in the time-honoured fashion of the obscenely, undeservedly rich. But still the alliance glues the society together. How? Petrodollars. The government has given many, many millions to the Wahhabis, who have used the funds to create a movement worldwide in scope.
William Dalrymple writes in The Guardian that:
The Saudis now dominate as much as 95% of Arabic language media; 80% of mosques in the US are controlled by Wahhabi imams. While limiting radical Islam at home, the Saudis have promoted it abroad, principally by funding hardcore Wahhabi and Salafi schools in the Muslim world, most concertedly in Afghanistan, Kurdistan and Pakistan. In Pakistan, a recent interior ministry report revealed that there are now 6,607 madrasas, up from 245 at the time of independence in 1947. The great majority are built with Saudi funds and it was in these madrasas that the Taliban were trained. Saudi Arabia later became one of only three countries to recognise that unpleasant regime.
Throughout South East Asia, Islam has been indigenised – softened, recombined with animism and indigenous religions. Dress codes are relaxed, Islamic laws less stringent. My cousin, a tropical ecologist, worked for many years in Brunei, a small Islamic country buried in the island Borneo and told me recently that this is changing. Saudi-style clothing is coming into vogue. Brunei’s relative permissiveness is changing. There’s something in the wind. It’s the new preachers, the faith-filled zealots. With increasing clout in the Government, the fundamentalist preachers are achieving real change - recolonising South East Asia with a new, fierier brand of Islam.
The Saudi government’s policy of outsourcing dissent has been domestically successful, but internationally disastrous. It’s polarized the world into camps, driven a hitherto slightly friendlier USA back into the Cold War mentality it so recently emerged from and pitted militant Islam against the West and moderate Muslims alike. Next war, perhaps the US could aim a little better. Real friends don't stab you in the back. Or is this just another doomed marriage of convenience which must be settled with a currency beyond US dollars or oil, the currency of good ol' red American blood?
---
I seem to be writing worthy, earnest posts of late. This may be because I have a final round journalism interview this week. Wish me luck! New incarnation: Earnestpax - Boldly penning opinion as if I've got something authoritative to say!
posted by Doug @ 11/22/2005 09:57:00 pm
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