10 posts tagged “saudi arabia”
I have read the nuttiest decision President Bush is pursuing to offset the probable nuclear threat of Shi’ite Iran. Old GW is negotiating for America to build “peaceful” nuclear technology in Saudi Arabia.
To be realistic I do understand as to the “why” GW is pursuing the path of courting big oil Arabs with nuclear technology. I presume GW is looking at the realism that our so-called European allies have zero intention in supporting America and Israel in a military strike to eliminate or set back Iran’s nuclear ambitions to be THE Middle Eastern hegemon with the Twelver Shi’ite Messianic fervor to destroy Israel.
One would be a moron to think rogue nation Iran is not driven by Islamic fervor to spread Islam globally in the style of medieval prophet Mohammed. That style is using the brutal sword to convert, become a dhimmi (the so-called “protected” sub-human non-Mohammedan class) or die. Iran’s Twelver Shi’ite tentacles have reached to Syria’s Alawite Shi’ites (the minority yet governing class) and to the Hezbollah (Khomeini admiring) Shi’ites of Lebanon. Shi’ite Iran has incredulously even delivered military hardware to the Sunni terrorists Hamas. I say “incredulously” because the Hamas radical Islam is of the Sunni Wahhabi of Saudi Arabia and Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. This kind of Sunni believes the Shi’ite Muslim are kafir (or kuffar or whatever variation that is translated to English) as much as Christian, Jews or any other non-Mohammedan.
Now here is the rub: Wahhabi and Muslim Brotherhood factions of Mohammedanism also believe in the spread of Islam by any violent means necessary. Of late the Muslim Brotherhood has diversified its tactics of spreading Mohammedanism by supporting the usual outward tactic of violent jihad (Hamas, al Qaeda and others) and infiltrating Western Society utilizing Western tools of Liberty and Democracy as silent weapons against America and the West.
Wahhabist doctrine specifically warns Muslims not to imitate, befriend or help “infidels” in any way. It instills hatred for United States because we are ruled by legislated constitutional law rather than by tyrannical Sharia law. Wahhabists are instructed by edict to, above all, work for the creation of an Islamic state where ever they may dwell.
It is because of the Wahhabist ideology’s cruel and unyielding fanaticism that we in the United States should be concerned with its prevalence within the mosques of our nation.
After the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 – an unprecedented action by the fundamentalists of the Shi’ite sect, the Saudi Arabian government responded by coming to terms with the fundamentalist Wahhabist movement of the Sunni sect. The Saudis, in return for a declaration of non-aggression, began to finance the construction of mosques in countries around the world. An estimated $45 billion has been spent by the Saudis to finance the building and operational costs of mosques and Islamic schools in foreign countries, including in North America.
Through the funding of mosques, Islamic Centers and their operations, Saudi Arabia is exporting the Wahhabist ideology. It is not unusual to find that the presiding cleric in any given mosque within the United States is a Wahhabist and that his teachings have been sanctioned and financed by the Saudi government and vetted by the Muslim Brotherhood. (Frank Salvato)
Can you see why it is just as crazy to proffer nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia as it is to allow Iran to lie about a peace nuclear program that everyone knows is a future factory for nuclear warheads?
If the Islamist nuts in Iran follow through with nuclear weapons and GW allows the Saudis to acquire nuclear technology which would lead to nuclear weapons, who would I blame? Surprisingly I would not blame GW for planting the seed for WMD proliferation. I would first blame the deluded Europeans that did not have the guts to back GW in the Global War on Terrorism followed closely by blaming America’s own Leftists.
The Appeasers may have tied the hands of GW to engage Islamist Arabs to counter Islamist Iranians to stall for time for the next President to develop a strategy for the West to WAKE-UP.
God Almighty let us pray the Prince of Appeasers in America is elected President. Barack Hussein Obama will go into the enemy’s camp like Prime Minister Chamberlain went to Germany just prior to WWII. Chamberlain proudly proclaimed his meeting with Hitler will bring peace for our time. Peace for our time meant agreeing to allow Hitler to annex Sudetenland in then Czechoslovakia which gave Hitler time to make a pact with Soviet Stalin to divide Poland. The Nazi blitzkrieg on Poland became the last straw in Europe and France and Britain FINALLY perceived no amount of appeasement would bring peace for our time. Hitler even turned on his buddy Stalin (which was not surprising because Stalin had his own delusions of grandeur and would have turned on Hitler). And so WWII began.
What would the Prince of Appeasers give up to proclaim peace for our time to the Islamists? Hmm … I am thinking that would be Israel. Then what? What would be the West’s modern Poland?
Here is the United American Committee email alert I received on May 17 which inspired my polemics:
ACTION ALERT: U.S. to help Saudis gain nuclear technology:
Today the United American Committee is alerting its members to an issue at hand that the UAC finds utterly disgusting, troubling, and gravely dangerous.
The United States government has agreed to help the radical kingdom called Saudi Arabia develop nuclear technology for power and other “peaceful” purposes. See the news article here.
The UAC wishes to remind everyone of an article from 2003 describing the Saudi kingdom's intense desire to develop a nuclear bomb.Due to overwhelming evidence and hard facts, the UAC firmly believes that the Saudi kingdom is the chief exporter of terrorism and extremism in the world. The kingdom spend billions of dollars on exporting their extremist ideology through the construction of radical mosques and madrassas throughout the world, as well as direct support to terror support in the form of money to the families of suicide bombers, as well as direct contributions to charities in the United States who believe in establishing Islamic law in America. The kingdom also spends billions of dollars supporting lobbying activities to influence our government officials.
We urge every United American Committee member and activist within the anti-jihad resistance to contact their congressman and senators to let your opinion be known.
Find your congressman by following this link.
Find your senator by following this link.
Here is a “WAKE-UP AMERICA MOMENT” that I have been harping on for quite some time. Saudi Wahhabi Sunni Islamism dominates the Mosques and Mohammedan schools in America. They are brain washing American-Muslim youth with Jihad literature and preaching to American-Muslim adults via the Mosque with Jihad literature.
Which nation is responsible for teaching a culture of intolerant hate and Mohammedan Supremacism? That would be Saudi Arabia, the nation that the State Department is wooing and acquiescing everything toward because of the immediate threat of Islamist Shia Iran in the Middle East.
It is like the American pro-Arab functionaries in whatever bureaucratic stratosphere of American who chosen the perceived lesser of two evils believing radical Islamist Shi’itism is the greater of the two evils.
This choice affects two extremely important issues: one at home and the other globally. The first is the allowing Wahhabi Islamism to be an influence in America as it is in Britain and Europe in which critics are calling that continent Eurarabia. The problems affecting Free Speech and the Western rule of law in Europe will become the problems of the United States of America. The second issue is promoting and arming Sunni nations in the Middle East (incredibly even Palestinian terrorists) to the weakening and potential destruction of Israel. Israel is a nation and land created in the 20th century as a result of long time Western Jewish prejudice that reached its height with Hitler’s Holocaust. Western guilt in 1945 momentarily reached out in sympathy to Jews promoting a land where Jews could live without a government persecuting them for their religion or heritage.
I say “momentarily” because yet again Europeans are slipping back into the habit of anti-Semitism under the Leftist romance of a delusion of sympathy for Arab culture and Islamist propaganda matriculated from Wahhabi Saudi Arabia (hence the term “Eurarabia”)
I can understand the realism of pitting Saudi Arabian influence against Iranian influence; however not to the detriment of our own American Culture, National Interests and National Security.
Dear God in Heaven work out a balance! I am aware that Saudi Arabia could posture negative threats to America as it has done in Britain; however it is also true the Saudi Royals fear a radical Islamist revolution that could sweep the Saudi Royals from power if Iran becomes the Middle Eastern military hegemon. A smart course would be to meet extortion with extortion based on the Saudi fears and boot Wahhabi Islamism from the American soil. After all it was the Wahhabi influenced al Qaeda terrorist organization that pulled a Pearl Harbor on American soil on September 11, 2001 transforming freedom of movement in America by forcing intrusive observations on Commercial flight travelling. That diminished Liberty in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is a direct result of Sunni Wahhabi ideology that spouts from Saudi Arabia and its cousin the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Both of these nations are allegedly American allies and are the recipients of huge American military technology and Arms.
Like I said: WAKE-UP AMERICA!
Did you know there was a group of Wahhabi Islamists that attempted to rip control of the “Great Mosque” in Mecca on November 20, 1979? The leader was a Sunni Wahhabi by the name of Juhayman al Uteybi.
Uteybi was no relation to the Saudi Royal Family. Apparently this is significant because the Saudi Royal Family of the time was attempting to liberalize the Saudi nation at the time and this Uteybi seizure of the “Great Mosque” was a Wahhabi response to the Saudi liberalization.
Let’s see, I was exactly 23 at the time. I have to be honest with you I have absolutely no recollection of that event in history. Do you?
Apparently it struck fear in the Saudi Royal Family who is supposed to be the modern protector of the Mohammedan holy city of Mecca. This Uteybi guy was so successful in seizing Mecca that the Saudi military needed help to re-take the “Great Mosque” in Mecca.
I became aware of all this through the posting of Mark A. Taylor of the ccpga Yahoo Group who discovered a book review by Thomas Lippman of a book entitled The Siege Of Mecca: The Forgotten Uprising in Islam's Holiest Shrine and the Birth of Al Qaeda, by Yaroslav Trofimov.
To get a time frame in your mind Lippman points out this is a year in history that a whole lot of events of notoriety occurred:
That year began with the Iranian revolution and ended with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. In between, Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel, radicalizing the Palestinians. Saddam Hussein took power in Iraq. And the former prime minister of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, was hanged by the general who overthrew him, Mohammed Zia ul-Haq - the leader who would turn the struggle against the Soviets in Afghanistan into a religious war that inspired zealots such as Osama bin Laden.
Here is the thing; I remember every one of the above events of history. I do not recall the siege of Mecca. There is a good reason for this.
This was humiliating for the Saudis. The Saudis asked for foreign help but not from any MUSLIM NATIONS. Indeed Jordan offered to help but the Saudis refused Jordanian help. Lippman’s book review does not go into why Jordan’s offer was refused but I can guess. The Hashemite family had been protectors of Mecca but the first Saudi king wrested the honor away from the Hashemites. The Hashemite Royal Family of Jordan claims direct descent from the founder of Mohammedanism – Mohammed. I am uncertain of the details but there has been a loose rivalry ever since.
The foreign help that came were in the guise of French Commandos who eventually entered the city forbidden to non-Muslims and gained victory. Saudi officials have refused to discuss the event in their history for years.
It was from the ashes of this “Great Mosque” siege that was broken by a non-Muslim nation that the Saudi Royal Family began to re-adopt the harsh Wahhabi ways and forsaking any thought of liberalizing Saudi society.
Lippman says the author Trofimov implies that an already breeding radical Islamism became a global radical Islamic starting point for massive transnational terrorist movements like Usama bin Laden’s al Qaeda.
I believe I have to get this book.
To ensure the prestige of Saudi involvement in Annapolis this week Israel (i.e. the Olmert government) had to agree that the entire West Bank, Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and the entirety of the Holy Temple Mount be on the table for consideration in the formation of a Palestine State.
Olmert might as well have hired pied pipers and lead Jews marching into the sea of oblivion.
JRH 11/25/07
Be thankful you live in America where victims are not treated as criminals and criminals receive punishment based on the rule of law rather than the whim of a Muslim judge that deliberates according to the Quran – a document of pain, suffering and murder.
In Saudi Arabia the religion of peace has convicted a nineteen year old for the crime of being a victim to a gang rape. Her original judgment was ninety lashes; however at her appeal the judgment was increased to two-hundred lashes because her supporters supplicated to the media to get her story out to the world.
I believe in Freedom of Conscience to practice or not practice any religion; however the Scriptures of Islam (Quran, Hadith, Sunna, etc) makes Islam on paper a death cult. I am certain most Mohammedans have extracted any words of peace and justice from these Scriptures; however this does not nullify the violent oriented Scriptures.
It is the violent and absurdly unjust Scriptures that Sunni and Shia Islamists adhere to.
Saudi Arabia is an oxymoron in geopolitics. Saudi Arabia as ruled by the House of Saud has become a valuable ally with America on the War on Terror and yet the school of thought that dominates Saudi Arabia is Wahhabi. It is this Wahhabism that Sunni Islamists use to justify their Jihad of terrorism against non-Mohammedans and cruel judgments as interpreted by Sharia Law.
America cannot afford to have Wahhabi Mohammedans leak into America. The initial reaction of an ingrained Freedom of Religion will allow Wahhabists to develop into a fifth column to undermine the very foundations of America.
Thanksgiving will be labeled as a discriminatory holiday for Christians violating and offending Wahhabi Mohammedans who pray toward Mecca. To be Politically Correct Mohammedan ethics could be forced to be taught our children in relating about being Thankful to God the Christians experienced on a rare occasion in which Native Americans providentially aided Christian Pilgrim survive a harsh winter. Read the Presidential Proclamations concerning Thanksgiving until Congress made the day an official American Holiday. Thanksgiving is all about Thanks to God which included the exchange of Christian Giving between people who were natural enemies.
The Mohammedan concept of Thanksgiving is convert or die.
Frank Salvato has written a brief article that every American with a short attention span can grasp.
Mohammedanism is infiltrating America and it is not the moderate kind the Mainstream Media (MSM) tells us the dominate nature of Mohammedanism. The Mohammedanism infiltrating America is of one the most virulent ideologies on the planet – Wahhabism.
The Wahhabi sect has trusts in the medieval precepts taught by the old war mongering prophet himself – Mohammed.
Well enough of my diatribe, read Salvato’s essay:
JRH 10/2/07
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Understanding the Wahhabist Infiltration of America
Frank Salvato
Family Security Matters
November 2, 2007
Unless Americans are willing to pay less attention to celebrity scandal and more attention to the infiltration of radical Islamist ideology in America, we’ll lose this very real culture war before it’s really begun. FSM Contributing Editor Frank Salvato has the information you need now.
Part of the reason many Americans don’t appreciate the significance of Osama bin Laden’s declarations of war against the United States and the West is because they are completely oblivious to the inroads radical Islam has made within the United States. Radical Islamists (i.e., Islamofascists, Wahhabis) understand that the conflict must take place on multiple fronts: militarily, economically, diplomatically and ideologically. Because they understand the complexity of the confrontation and the ability of the West to adapt to challenges – albeit lethargically – they employ multiple tactics in their aggressive pursuit of victory. The West’s addiction to sensationalism, epitomized by our limited attention to detail (unless it plays in the superficial 24-hour news cycle) facilitates the successful infiltration of radical ideology into Western society.
Much to the chagrin of the multicultural and the proponents of diversity, those who promote radical Islamist ideology thrive on the fact that the politically correct culture of the West – and the United States in particular – deems it inappropriate to question religious practices or teachings. With this politically correct “wall of separation” in place little, if any, scrutiny is given to the information disseminated within any given religious institution. This directly facilitates the ideological advancement of Wahhabism, the most radical and puritanical form of Islam, within the mosques of the United States.
To accurately understand the depth of infiltration of the Wahhabist ideology on American soil we need to examine the ideology and how it is advanced within the United States.
Wahhabism is a fiercely fundamentalist form of orthodox Sunni Islam. After a brief examination of its tenets it is clear that it is one of division, domination and hate.
Wahhabism originated circa 1703 and is the dominant form of Islam in Saudi Arabia. Wahhabists believe that any and all evolution of the Islamic faith after the 3rd Century of the Muslim era – after 950 A.D. – was specious and must be expunged. Consequently, Wahhabism is the form of Islam that Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahri practice.
This radically fundamentalist dogma is fanatically bigoted, xenophobic and lends itself to serve as the catalyst for much of the Islamofascist aggression being perpetrated around the world. It is a wrathful doctrine that rejects the legitimacy of all religious philosophy but its own.
Wahhabism condemns Christians, Jews and all other non-Muslims, as well as non-Wahhabi Muslims. Wahhabists believe it is a religious obligation for Muslims to hate Christians and Jews.
It stresses a worldview in which there exist two opposing realms that can never be reconciled – Dar al-Islam, or House of Islam, and Dar al-Har, or House of War, also referred to as Dar al-Kufr, House of the Infidel. When Muslims are in the Dar al-Har, they must behave as if they were operatives in a conflict who have been tasked with going behind enemy lines. The Wahhabist ideology permits Muslims to exist “behind enemy lines” for only a few reasons: to acquire knowledge, to make money to be later employed in the Jihad against the infidels, or to proselytize the infidels in an effort to convert them to Islam.
Wahhabist doctrine specifically warns Muslims not to imitate, befriend or help “infidels” in any way. It instills hatred for United States because we are ruled by legislated constitutional law rather than by tyrannical Sharia law. Wahhabists are instructed by edict to, above all, work for the creation of an Islamic state where ever they may dwell.
It is because of the Wahhabist ideology’s cruel and unyielding fanaticism that we in the United States should be concerned with its prevalence within the mosques of our nation.
After the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 – an unprecedented action by the fundamentalists of the Shi’ite sect, the Saudi Arabian government responded by coming to terms with the fundamentalist Wahhabist movement of the Sunni sect. The Saudis, in return for a declaration of non-aggression, began to finance the construction of mosques in countries around the world. An estimated $45 billion has been spent by the Saudis to finance the building and operational costs of mosques and Islamic schools in foreign countries, including in North America.
Through the funding of mosques, Islamic Centers and their operations, Saudi Arabia is exporting the Wahhabist ideology. It is not unusual to find that the presiding cleric in any given mosque within the United States is a Wahhabist and that his teachings have been sanctioned and financed by the Saudi government and vetted by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Two of the more predominant mosques in the United States that have received funding from the Saudi government, and that adhere to the Wahhabist ideology, are the al Farooq mosque in Brooklyn, New York, and the King Fahd mosque in Los Angeles, California. Both mosques welcomed a number of the hijackers who piloted the planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001.
In 2005, Freedom House, a 501(c)(3) organization concerned with the mounting threats to peace and democracy, released a report titled, Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Invade American Mosques. This examination of a comprehensive sampling of mosques and Islamic Centers across America shows that literature available in an overwhelming number of them indicates deference for the Wahhabist ideology.
Among some of the edicts – or fatwas – issued through this literature:
- ▪ “[I]t is basic Islam to believe that everyone who does not embrace Islam is an unbeliever, and must be called an unbeliever, and that they are enemies to Allah, his Prophet and believers.”
- ▪ “[O]ur doctrine states that if you accept any religion other than Islam, like Judaism or Christianity, which are not acceptable, you become an unbeliever. If you do not repent, you are an apostate and you should be killed because you have denied the Koran.”
- ▪ “Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law.”
- ▪ “Never greet the Christian or Jew first. Never congratulate the infidel on his holiday. Never befriend an infidel unless it is to convert him. Never imitate the infidel. Never work for an infidel. Do not wear a graduation gown because this imitates the infidel.”
- ▪ “Those who reside in the land of unbelief out of their own choice and desire to be with the people of that land, accepting the way they are regarding their faith, or giving compliments to them, or pleasing them by pointing out something wrong with the Muslims, they become unbelievers and enemies to Allah and his messenger.”
- ▪ “To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for Jihad in Allah’s way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government. The military education is glued to faith and its meaning, and the duty to follow it.”
With this ideology being taught in mosques across America, there is little reason for speculating as to why hatred exists for American principles, culture and ideology not only within the Islamic community, but among the societally disenfranchised and ideologically vulnerable in the United States who are being indoctrinated into this radical form of Islam.
This brings to the forefront a bothersome question. Why aren’t those of the American Fifth Column, who are predisposed to seeking out the haters among us, calling out the Wahhabist bigots who preach their hate in American mosques?
We in the West – and especially in the United States – must immediately seek out a greater understanding of not only the basic elements of the threat of radical Islam, but the extent to which it has already infiltrated our society. If we continue to remain ignorant of the facts surrounding this very real war against our way of life, we will lose our nation with nary a shot being fired.
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FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Frank Salvato is the managing editor for The New Media Journal. He serves at the Executive Director of the Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(C)(3) research and education initiative. His pieces are regularly featured in over 100 publications both nationally and internationally. He has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, and is a regular guest on The Right Balance with Greg Allen on the Accent Radio Network, as well as an occasional guest on numerous radio shows coast to coast. He recently partnered in producing the first-ever symposium on the threat of radical Islamist terrorism in Washington, DC. His pieces have been recognized by the House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict. He can be contacted at oped@newmediajournal.us
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Youssef Ibrahim writes about Saudi Arabia from the perspective of former CIA Agent Robert Baer. The picture is not pretty. The picture painted of Saudi Arabia is that of an evil Mohammedan Kingdom bent on global subversion via Wahhabi fundamentalism coupled paradoxically with wealthy Saudis living the life of a Western hedonist.
Think of that! Next to Israel, Saudi Arabia is considered by many (especially pro-Arabists) to be central as an American ally in the Middle East as well as a source of political stability. Indeed the fact is Saudi Arabia via the dissemination of evil propaganda and the duplicity of the most corrupt versions of Western hedonism is emerging as an enigmatic source of political instability in the Middle East.
This polarity of Wahhabism and hedonism could topple the Saudi Monarchy or the entire royal family much as the Shah of Iran was deposed. It just takes one moronic President in the image of Jimmah Carter for that to happen.
JRH 8/29/07
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Saudi Arabia: The Islamist Cage
BY YOUSSEF IBRAHIM
August 27, 2007
The New York Sun (Print Version)
A former prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif, recently declared he was returning home to try to regain power after six years of exile — in Saudi Arabia. The day that the monster of Uganda, Idi Amin, was removed from power in 1979, he flew to a country where sanctuary as a Muslim African leader would be guaranteed upon his arrival — Saudi Arabia.
And in 1970, immediately following the death of an Egyptian dictator, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leadership of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement returned home in droves to try to Islamize their native land — after two decades in Saudi Arabia.
Thus, Saudi Arabia ever expands its fundamentalist cage.
Robert Baer, a 20-year veteran of the CIA and the author of "Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude," has often described the Saudis as the world's primary financiers of terrorism, the source of much of Al Qaeda's leadership, and an incubating station for radical Islam.
Though such activities have come back to haunt the Saudis and their allies in America — Islamist terror struck home in 1995, 1996, and 1998 bombings, two American embassies were attacked in Africa, and the USS Cole was bombed in Yemen in the leadup to the attacks of September 11, 2001 — the Saudi system continues to perpetuate the model.
The reason, according to Mr. Baer and other Middle East analysts, is that Saudi Arabia runs on two currencies: the riyal and Islam.
Neither Saudi society nor its ruling establishment can escape: All of its constituent elements — from business and charity to religious instruction, law enforcement, and foreign relations — rattle inside the cage of the country's fundamentalist obsessions: The Saudi flag contains a Koranic verse. The Saudi monarch wraps his authority in Islam as "the custodian of Mecca and Medina." Saudi foreign aid is based on building fundamentalist madrassas and mosques, supporting such fundamentalist groups as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, and spreading Koranic instruction worldwide.
Arab and Muslim expatriate workers who have lived and worked in Saudi Arabia — easily numbering 50 million over the last three decades — return imbued with a model of militancy that duplicates an Osama bin Laden-style path toward jihad against their home societies.
This vicious cycle mattered little when oil was cheap and the Saudis were a mere curiosity. But Saudi Arabia's power grew as it was transformed into a prime energy source in the 1970s, a huge financial influence in the 1980s, and an immense lobbying presence in the 1990s.
By the late '90s, there were full-size mirror images of Saudi Arabia's stilted brand of Islam in Egypt, Pakistan, Somalia, the Philippines, Chechnya, Bosnia, and Kosovo, as well as among Muslim communities in Europe, Australia, and America. More mirror images are in the making.
In one of his many interviews since leaving the CIA, Mr. Baer gave an interesting analysis of the elements that make for the creation and exportation of this model, describing Saudi Arabia as both hapless and evil.
"They feel humiliated by colonialism, by the United States, by Israel — call it what you want. They feel they are citizens or subjects of a country that has never fought a war, and yet spends so much money on defense. They're humiliated that they don't take the Israelis on, because their army is worthless. They sit around and they read the Koran. And they get on these Islamic Web sites, and they watch Al-Jazeera. And they go to the mosque."
In other words, the Saudis do little except rattle around within the cage of their own fundamentalism. This deep confusion is reflected throughout the ruling family, which contains both princes who are Westernized — in such vulgar aspects as drinking, womanizing, gambling, and wearing diamond-studded Rolex watches — and others who leave a mosque only to enter a charity that nurtures madrassas turning out little bin Ladens.
Their schizophrenia is exemplified in such global personalities as Prince Al-Walid bin Talal, a multibillionaire businessman who simultaneously invests his billions in America while funding both the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is the American chapter of the jihadist Muslim Brotherhood.
In the end, the Saudis are just rattling around in their cage. A society with no social project except to produce more Muslims, deeper Muslims, better Muslims, ends up as one that produces Muslim fanatics and terrorists.
Now, with oil prices having moved north of $70 dollar a barrel, a lot more trouble will be coming our way out of the Saudi cage.
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The original New York Sun URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/61322
© 2007 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC. All rights reserved.