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How far will Saudi reforms go? Evidently not far enough for open debate on Islamic principles that radical Muslims in the Kingdom are using to incite terrorism. Crown Prince Abdullah gives us a hint: "Saudi Arabia will not allow anybody to attack the Islamic faith in the name of freedom of expression, Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, declared yesterday." This from Arab News, with thanks to "Allah."
"'This country will never accept anybody, whoever he may be, to hurt the Islamic faith, in the name of freedom of opinion or any other name,' the crown prince said in an address to the nation aired live on state television.
"Prince Abdullah was giving guidelines for the national dialogue forum, which has so far held two sessions in Riyadh and Makkah with the participation of prominent intellectuals and religious experts, including women.
"He said the Kingdom would go ahead with its political and economic reforms. 'We will not allow anybody to stand in the way of reforms, be it by calling for stagnation or recession or any other reckless adventure,' he said.
"Prince Abdullah urged all citizens to work jointly with the government to achieve reforms. 'But the state will not allow anybody to destroy national unity or disturb the peace of its people under the pretext of reforms.' . . .
"Prince Abdullah reiterated the Kingdom’s opposition to extremism, which is disparaged and hated. 'Moderateness is the right path,' he said and called upon Saudis to follow the wise, moderate Islamic line. 'It’s the method of the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet (peace be upon him).'"
"He said the Kingdom would remain a free Muslim and Arab nation, with its citizens enjoying honor, security and equality."
Including equality for non-Muslims? Sorry. That's unlikely, as Abdullah probably doesn't see it as the moderate Islamic method of the Qur'an and the Prophet. After all, as I show in Onward Muslim Soldiers, radicals look to those traditional sources to justify jihad and dhimmitude.
Posted by Robert at January 15, 2004 8:32 PM
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"He said the Kingdom would remain a free Muslim and Arab nation, with its citizens enjoying honor, security and equality."
Saudi Arabia is not a free country and its citizens are not equal. Abdullah seems to forget that Saudi women are not even allowed to drive. The "honor" part refers to reserving the right to kill women who have been raped, committed adultery, tried to escape their oppressive father/husband/brother.
Can someone explain to me why we haven't invaded Saudi Arabia yet? The Saudis have done and will continue to do more damage to the U.S. than Saddam ever did. Are we afraid of the imams, are there money interests involved, why are we not pushing for regime change in S.A.? And why are they not included in the axis of evil?
Posted by: zorkmidden at January 15, 2004 8:58 PMThe reason we went to Iraq was to secure a strategic advantage to pressure Saudi Arabia. The war was for oil, and that oil is worth a lot of blood.
Posted by: rick at January 16, 2004 5:10 AMThe Saudi position reminds me of the alcoholic who plans to reform his alcoholism by drinking a better quality of alcohol. Islam is evil because it is anti-life, anti-reason, anti-man, and anti-this earth; its express purpose is to replace everything that is good with it, full evil. One does not compromise or reform this; one sends it one way or another back to the sand expanses of the seventh century, unable to rise again. The Saudis are not progressing. They still think magically.
Posted by: Ilhad at January 16, 2004 9:25 AMMore magical thinking occurs on the part of those who think that the Iraq war was simply for oil. Strategic advantage, yes. Democracy in the middle east as a means of stabilizing the region, yes. To remove the "Butcher of Baghdad"? Yes. To find our missing servicemen? Yes. There are many many more reasons, the total of which cannot be reduced to the typical left-wing agitprop which hypocritically accuses the U.S. of waging wars for oil while denyin g it any other recourse of obtaining oil (especially drilling in ANWAR).
It is interesting to see that the Crown Prince says that Saudi Arabia intends to proceed with economic reform, but not with any type of reform which might involve criticism of Islam.
His success in establishing economic reforms will be seriously limited by his failure to establish freedom of expression, including the freedom to criticize Islam.
That's because the two--economic progress and freedom of thought and expression--are inextricably bound. If you limit freedom, you automatically limit economic progress.
I suggest a beautifully written and very engaging small book by Ludwig von Mises, a great economist of the Austrian School, to make this case for you. The book is called "Economic Policy," and is a collection of several lectures von Mises gave in Argentina in the '50s. He makes the relationship between a successful economy and freedom of thought and expression very nicely.
If you have always thought that economics was dry and dull, this book will change your mind. It's in and out of print, but if it's "out" now, it's well worth the trouble to locate a copy.
Posted by: cubed at January 16, 2004 9:27 PM
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