This article is sourced from Chapters Five and Six of my book, "Oil and God. Sustainable Energy Will Defeat Wahhabi Terror"

 

 

Obstacles in the Way of Genuine Wahhabism Reform

1. Wahhabism is the Saudi Kings’ constitution and legitimating ideology to rule over the tribes. King Abdulaziz replaced Bedouin discord and rivalries by the brotherhood of Islam. Wahhabism is the glue that keeps the tribes under control and supportive of the regime. It is difficult to imagine a different ideology that could keep the tribes at peace with each other. To water down the glue is to risk the collapse of the al-Saud reign. Without Wahhabism, the “exaggerated individualism, lack of cooperation, and extreme jealousy among different segments of a tribe”[1] could re-surface and bring civil war and the potential division of Saudi Arabia.

 

2. Wahhabism is a useful psychological weapon. It energizes the Saudi masses in the regime’s confrontation with Iran and discrimination against Saudi Shi’ites and Isma’ilis.[2] But nationalism is not a viable alternative to Wahhabism in the confrontation with Iran. Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Abdulaziz bin Baz (1963-1999), called nationalism “a movement of ignorance whose main purpose is to fight Islam and destroy its teachings and rules.”[3] Saudi history textbooks teach that Arab nationalism is “a conspiracy promoted by the West and Zionism to undermine the unity of Muslims.”[4] It will be generations before such values fade away.

 

3. Dressed up in Wahhabi garb, the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia is constructed with the security of the regime in mind. It nullifies the potential political opposition of one half of the Saudi society. In addition to gender segregation,[5] the male guardian system reduces the legal status of women to that of children. Should a woman engage in objectionable behavior, her guardian must pledge in writing to the police his personal responsibility for the woman’s future misbehavior. A husband, father, son, or a brother must grant his permission before a wife, mother, daughter, or a sister may open a bank account, form a business venture, be employed, get married, undergo medical treatment, apply for a passport, or travel abroad. In the age of Apple and Google, an application called Absher, created by the National Information Center of the Saudi Ministry of Interior allows men to track the whereabouts of their wives and daughters.[6]

 

4. Blind obedience to the king rests on the king’s claim of divine rule. Obedience by the masses does not flow from democratic principles. The palace ulama made the Quranic Verse 4:59 a religious duty, an act of piety. The belief in predestination, a core tenet, justifies the rule of a tyrannical ruler as if he were ordained by the will of God. For example, Dr. Abdulaziz al-Rayyis, a well known cleric, preached in a mosque in Medina on August 4, 2018 that blind obedience to the king is required even if he were caught on television committing acts of fornication and drinking alcohol.[7]

 

5. Saudi Arabia is challenged today by two opposing religious extremes. The first is from the Muslim Brotherhood for representative democracy. The second is from the likes of al-Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State for more austere and violent Wahhabism. In reaction to these challenges, to maintain his Wahhabi credibility, the king will not abolish Shari’a courts and polygamy will not become illegal.[8] Saudi religious reforms will be limited to cosmetics  only, like allowing women to drive cars, attend sporting event, and allow the opening of movie theatres. Al-Qaeda warned the Crown Prince that his cinemas and World Wrestling Entertainment event in Jeddah in April 2018 are sinful and opening the door for “corruption and moral degeneration.”[9] On January 16, 2019, preacher Abdulaziz al-Rayyis, demanded demolition of the churches on Muslim lands and the continued prohibition of church construction in Saudi Arabia.[10]

 

6. Societal customs, habits, and values do not get erased or reversed by fiat. Arabia’s inhabitants have been under the control and constant indoctrination of the al-Sauds and their Wahhabi clerics for the past two centuries. It would require generations to erase common beliefs such as, Shi’tes and Isma’ilis are not Muslims, Christians and Jews are heretics (kuffar), women are light on faith and brains, and only Wahhabis go to paradise.

 

As for the political sphere, the probability of reform is zero. Democracy and the king’s absolute authority are a zero-sum game. The slightest gain for democracy represents a corresponding loss to the king’s absolute authority. Representative democracy is frightening to the al-Sauds. It puts an end to their throne. Therefore, prospects for real democratic reforms is nil. The appointed Consultative Council will never become a democratically elected law-making assembly with powers to enact laws outside the king’s instructions. 

 

Education

The educational curriculum is overwhelmingly skewed toward Wahhabi theology, laws, and rituals. Starting with the first grade, young children are taught that Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims are destined to ‘hellfire.’ As the children grow up, the same message is honed more explicitly. Of the sixteen core subjects that comprise the twelfth grade curriculum in high schools, nine are on Islam and related subjects.[11] The teaching of philosophy is prohibited. Wahhabi indoctrination aims at pre-occupying Saudis with religious dogma, belief in predestination, hatred of and jihad against the other, and promises of houris in paradise. Proselytization and conversion of non-Muslims to Wahhabism represent a very important mission to Saudi officialdom and Wahhabi clerics.

 

Religious Police

Brigades of religious police, known as mutawwa’ (meaning coercers) fanatically and crudely enforce Wahhabi dictums. Although they were stripped recently of the authority to make arrests,[12] they ensure that government and business offices are closed for the five daily prayers (sunrise, noon, afternoon, sunset, and night). They empty shops, supermarkets, banks, and restaurants of customers during prayer time. They ensure that women are covered from head to toe in a black loose garment, and that women are not in the company of unrelated men, a serious offense. They enforce the ban on alcohol and prohibited foods, such as pork. They remove objectionable articles, photographs, and advertisements from foreign newspapers, magazines, and books. They raid shops, restaurants, cafes, supermarkets, hospitals, and other establishments without permission if they suspect a violation. They enforce a strict prohibition on religious activities by Christians, despite the fact that the Qur’an requires Muslims to hold Jesus and Mary in great reverence, and a million Christian expatriates live in the country. A Christian may not wear a cross pendant nor carry a Bible, for, if discovered, he will face imprisonment, lashings, and deportation.

 

The religious police are as old as the Saudi state. King Khalid (1975-1982) gave it the status of an independent agency of the government named, The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. Numbering around 5,000 men, supported by approximately twice as many administrative staff, and operating out of around 500 police stations, the financial cost of the agency is not public. However, the agency’s annual budget may be estimated to be in the region of a billion dollars, taking into account officers and staff salaries, office overhead, the cost of running the agency’s fleets of distinctive SUVs, and other outlays.

 

Arts, Monuments, and Idolatry

Fear of falling into idolatry or in love with anything that might distract from the love and adoration of God is prohibited. Wahhabi hatred of archaeological sites, historical monuments, and cultural heritage drove the Taliban to dynamite the 1,500-year old Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan in March 2001. The Islamic State destroyed much of Syria’s Palmyra and the Mosul museum and the Ninevah ruins in Iraq in 2016.[13] In Saudi Arabia itself, 98 percent of the country’s historical and religious sites have been destroyed since 1985, including the house of the Prophet's uncle in Mecca, which was flattened to make way for a hotel, and the house of the Prophet's first wife, Khadijah, in order to make way for public toilets. A Hilton Hotel has been built on the site where the house of the first caliph Abu Bakr once stood.[14]

 

Furthermore, for a Wahhabi, visiting the graves of family and relatives is sinful as is playing a musical instrument, drawing or acquiring a painting depicting the human figure, or sculpting or acquiring a statue of a man, let alone a woman. Moroccan sociologist Fatima Mernissi considers that Islamists see love between a man and a woman as a threat to the couple’s allegiance to Allah.[15]

 

Penal Code

The Saudi Wahhabi agenda is demonstrated through Shari’a law with an archaic court system, complete with primitive, cruel seventh century penalties such as public severing of limbs, beheadings, and crucifixions, typically following the Friday noon prayers.[16] Flogging is a component of almost every prison sentence. The well-known Saudi blogger, Raif Badawi, convicted of insulting Islam, has been given 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. After Friday prayers on January 9, 2015, he was brought to a public square in Jeddah, feet and hands shackled, and flogged 50 times.[17]