Chatham House, home of the British Royal Institute of International Affairs, publishes a journal on international affairs. The current issue has an extremely interesting article on the history—and possible future—of Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia. The link goes to a 15-page PDF document which unfortunately shows some awkward artifacts of scanning, particularly on the early pages. I still recommend it, however.
Thomas Hegghammer, who has written extensively on Saudi Arabia, offers his view of why Al-Qaeda in Saudi Arabia (technically, ‘Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’) was essentially quiet until May, 2003. He notes the limits of its abilities, the burdens under which it worked, and the Saudi government’s reactions to it. Those reactions, slow at first (and he suggests reasons behind this), grew quickly and effectively. He considers the Saudis now involved in fighting in Iraq to be as potentially dangerous as those who returned from Afghanistan in the 1990s, but believes the Saudi government and society far better prepared to deal with them, for a variety of reasons.
Of particular note is Hegghammer’s belief that most outside observers have underestimated the high level of political stability in Saudi Arabia.
Islamist violence and regime stability in Saudi Arabia
Thomas HegghammerSaudi Arabia, homeland of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers of September 11, 2001, experienced low levels of internal violence until 2003, when a terrorist campaign by ‘Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula’ (QAP) shook the world’s leading oil producer. Based on primary sources and extensive fieldwork in the Kingdom, this article traces the history of the Saudi jihadist movement and explains the outbreak and failure of the QAP campaign. It argues that jihadism in Saudi Arabia differs from jihadism in the Arab republics in being driven primarily by extreme pan-Islamism and not socio-revolutionary ideology, and that this helps to explain its peculiar trajectory.
The article identifies two subcurrents of Saudi jihadism, ‘classical’ and ‘global’, and demonstrates that Al-Qaeda’s global jihadism enjoyed very little support until 1999, when a number of factors coincided to boost dramatically Al-Qaeda recruitment. The article argues that the violence in 2003 was not the result of structural political or economic strains inside the Kingdom, but rather organizational developments within Al-Qaeda, notably the strategic decision taken by bin Laden in early 2002 to open a new front in Saudi Arabia.
The QAP campaign was made possible by the presence in 2002 of a critical mass of returnees from Afghanistan, a clever two-track strategy by Al-Qaeda, and systemic weaknesses in the Saudi security apparatus. The campaign failed because the militants, radicalized in Afghan camps, represented an alien element on the local Islamist scene and lacked popular support. The near-absence of violence in the Kingdom before 2003 was due to Al-Qaeda’s weak infrastructure in the early 1990s and bin Laden’s 1998 decision to suspend operations to preserve local networks. The Saudi regime is currently more stable and self-confident-and therefore less inclined to democratic reform-than it has been in many years.
As Saudi Arabia moves toward legal reform, it is trying to bring existing laws, regulations, and the way society implements them, into accord with international treaties requiring minimal levels of human rights. Along the way, the commission charged with rewriting the laws is discovering that much of Saudi law has never been committed to paper in the first place, particularly when it comes to implementation.
This Asharq Alawsat article by Turki Al-Saheil, points out that the rights of women is an area of particular concern—and some difficulty. The government, he says, hold the position that the default reading of laws is one of equality between men and women, that only if a difference is specified in the law is there a different interpretation. That, coupled with the lack of codification, leaves a range of ambiguities through which enormous violations can be and have been driven.
Reforms, as reported, also look at how Saudi law differs from international treaty law when it comes to the rights of children, even to the matter of sports for school girls.
The report also points out the acceptance that the Saudi National Society for Human Rights plays a legitimate role in assessing and commenting on law.
There is nothing earth-shattering in itself in what’s being reported. The doors to possible interpretations of law are being swung wide open, however. I guess it is best to not be over-optimistic about the reforms, but what’s being said could certainly effect major reform in Saudi law and Saudi culture.
Saudi Arabia Considers Amending Laws to be Compatible
with Human Rights Treaties
Turki Al-SaheilRiyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat – Saudi Arabia is moving toward amending some laws and regulations that are not compatible with the international treaties on human rights. This takes place following the viewpoints of representatives of eight government and jurist sides, which have been working within the framework of a committee formed in accordance with the order of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Bin-Abdulaziz, agreeing with some of the conclusions of a study prepared by the National Society for Human Rights in this context.
The agenda reached by the government committee, which worked under the umbrella of the Experts Commission (the legislative arm) of the Saudi Council of Ministers, and a copy of which was seen by Asharq Al-Awsat, recommends the amendment of a collection of articles in the state laws, the activation of some laws previously issued by higher authorities, and the issuing of some new laws.
It is worth noting that the committee – which consists of the Ministries of Interior, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Labor, and Social Affairs, in addition to representatives of the government’s Human Rights Commission, and the National Society for Human Rights – has expressed huge support to women. Many of the conclusions reached by the committee move in favor of abolishing measures that discriminate between men and women. The governmental committee recommends that the Saudi Ministry of Interior looks into the amendment of Articles 5 and 8, and Paragraph 1 of Article 9 of the Statute of Travel Documents. These articles consider “underage children and women are of the same legal status, as each needs a guardian.” This contradicts the ruling of Article 15 of the agreement to abolish all forms of discrimination against women.
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Dubai’s Khaleej Times reports that a group of Saudi students are asking the National Society for Human Rights to take up their case. They won a court decision declaring that the English language program offered by Imam Mohammad University at four of its campuses was fraudulent in calling its program ‘accredited’. It was not and the court ruled that the university must pay the students. So far, the university has refused to do so, though it has closed its English program.
Rights panel moved to seek compensation from varsity
JEDDAH – A group of 110 Saudi students is petitioning the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) to get the Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University to pay SR25,000 per student as per the order of the Court of Grievances.
The students, who had won a court ruling in December 2006 against the university for falsely claiming that the English-language courses were accredited, have not yet received anything of their court settlement.
The Court of Grievances in Riyadh had ruled that a two-year English teaching programme that was advertised as accredited by the civil service ministry and the ministry of education in fact was unrecognised and worthless.
Students who have taken unaccredited courses must retake the same courses at an accredited institution if they want to continue their education elsewhere.
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One might say that Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, as General Manager of Al-Arabiyya TV has a vested interest in the survival of satellite TV. I’m sure he does. That does not mean, however, that he’s wrong in arguing that Arab Ministers of Information have missed the train in their efforts to control information.
The free flow of information—good information and bad information—does complicate life. Scoundrels and thieves have a new way of stealing money from the guileless and deluding the naïve. Governments are forced to confront news stories that can be true-but-uncomfortable, but also those that are blatantly false and malicious. It becomes much harder to distinguish truth from deception, valid anxiety from psychotic paranoia. But that is a demand being placed on all in the modern world. No effort by Ministers of Information can roll back the clock to the time when what they said was the only thing that was heard.
If the states truly want to help their citizens distinguish the worthwhile from the worthless, they need to engineer campaigns, based on truth and fact, that teach how to view media critically. They can’t succeed in trying to regain control of the medium: the message is out there.
Satellite TV Stations: Too Late to Control
Abdul Rahman Al-RashedThe first Arab satellite TV station, MBC, was born 17 years ago. Since then satellite TV stations have mushroomed to the extent that no one today knows precisely how many stations are directed to the Arab region, but they exceed 500.
Even though talk about prohibiting satellites began from the first day that receivers were smuggled, Arab information ministers decided earlier this summer to formulate a charter that puts satellite stations under their laws and authority. If they go ahead with this, you can bet that they will fail.
They’ve awoken too late, after rooftops in cities and villages became covered with TV dishes. What is motivating them now is that “the damage” has reached the majority of the governments. Before, the satellite stations used to target a few select governments. Today every opposition has its station, and there is opposition to every government. The complaints are no longer political or governmental. Many different establishments have begun asking for intervention, for there are stations that have appeared for imposters who not only sell political programs but also rent them out to crooks who make medical claims such as curing cancer or who read fortunes for exorbitant amounts. There is a warning of satellite wars between followers of various religions–Shiite, Sunni and Christians–and there are verbal wars among tribes conducted in verse and prose.
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Arab News reports about a clash between the Saudi Ministry of Higher Education and the Human Rights Commission over the issue of requiring female students receiving scholarships to foreign countries to have a mahram, guardian, travel with them. The added expense and layers of complication make it impossible for many women to accept these Saudi government scholarships. The Human Rights Commission is asking the Council of Ministers to instead permit guardians to issue letters granting the women permission to travel and live abroad.
The Ministry of Higher Education is sticking to its guns in requiring the physical presence of a mahram, acting I believe, in fear of social backlash and condemnation for putting the women at moral risk. The Human Rights Commission, conversely, sees the women as adults and capable of leading their lives according to the moral values in which they were raised. It will be interesting to see how the Council of Ministers (which more or less plays the role of the Cabinet) decides to deal with the issue.
Stalemate on ‘mahram’ condition continues
Najah Alosaimi | Arab NewsRIYADH: Manal Al-Quais, a 23-year-old Saudi, won a scholarship from the King Abdullah Scholarship Program to study nursing in Canada. There’s only one problem: She can’t find a close male relative to go with her for the entire duration of the study; they have their own families and responsibilities to attend to.
Recently, two key governmental departments have initiated a debate on how women in Manal’s situation can take advantage of Saudi Arabia’s national scholarship program.
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Of note, this is one of the few times the Saudi media reports on conflicts between two government agencies.
Saudi Gazette reports that according to economists, the Gulf region, and Saudi Arabia in particular, may be facing labor shortages in the coming years as other countries suck away the expat laborers. Those laborers are certainly willing to leave the Gulf to earn better wage and benefits packages, as well as more constant enforcement of labor laws meant to protect them.
The answer to the problem is self-evident: Treat workers better, pay them a fair wage, and stop the gratuitous harassment they face in their daily lives in a trying environment.
Looming labor crisis economists say
JEDDAH – Economists, contractors and recruiters cautioned that the private sector in the Gulf and in Saudi Arabia in particular, will face a labor shortage in the coming years, Al-Hayat Arabic Daily reported.
Economists like Abdulaziz Al-Daghistani said low wages have remained constant in the region for the last three years and will force laborers to leave the Kingdom and will most likely not return.Laborers are more likely to move to European countries where they are offered better wages as well as better benefits than in the Gulf and Saudi regions. Countries like France and Britain have laws which protect laborers from abuse and exploitation something the Gulf region countries do not enforce strongly, he said.
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This piece from Saudi Gazette is mostly just a positive wrap-up report on the Madrid Conference on (Interfaith) Dialogue. But it makes one very important point.
Many claim that Saudi Arabia, as a Muslim nation, is only one voice in that of the world of Muslims. In the case of this conference, on this issue, however, King Abdullah was given the mandate of the umma to speak for all Muslims, based on the prior Mecca Conference.
Islam as practiced in Saudi Arabia is certainly distinguishable from that practiced in other Muslim states, for better or worse. But it is not so outside the pale that it is not considered within Islamic orthodoxy. Call it ‘Wahhabism’, ‘Salafism’, ‘practice of the Muwahhidun’, it is not as extreme as it is often made out to be in media reports, both in the West and Islamic world. It is definitely more conservative; it definitely conflates religion and social custom confusingly. Ironically, this is one of the things that frustrates the ‘Wahhabis’ about other manifestations of Islam: that they incorporate social customs into their religious practice. In this case, the conflation of religion and custom tends toward what is seen as ‘original’, but that’s somewhat beside the point. There are many 7th C. customs that have gone by the wayside in most of the world—the legitimacy of raids, slavery, etc. The Saudis need to continue their efforts in understanding what is truly part of their religion and what is simply a social preference.
Madrid Conference on Dialogue
Dr. Mozammel Haque Saudi GazetteTHE first International Conference for Dialogue was held in Makkah Al-Mukarramah, last June, that was inaugurated by King Abdullah at Al-Safa Palace in Makkah. That was a meeting attended by representatives of the different Muslim schools of thought. Before the Saudi Monarch invited the followers of all revealed religions and other cultures and civilizations, he wanted to get a mandate from the scholars of the Muslim Ummah to initiate this historic process.
Muslim scholars and representatives of Muslim communities, not only from the Muslim and Arab countries but also of those who live in minority areas like the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia, attended the Makkah meet and unanimously agreed to give King Abdullah the mandate to speak on behalf of the Muslim Ummah.
The Makkah conference told him to “go ahead in the name of Allah Almighty. May Allah blesses you and we are behind you.”
The World Conference on Dialogue held in Madrid, took completely a new direction. All previous conferences for dialogue were held between religions where participants presented views of their religions.
The Madrid gathering assembled the followers of different religions, cultures and civilizations, who presented their views on issues facing mankind.
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Arab News reports that all travelers on trips into or out of Saudi Arabia will now be required to declare the amounts of cash or jewelry they are carrying in excess of 60,000 Saudi Riyals (US $16,000). The written declaration is intended to curb money laundering and terrorism funding through a loophole left open when banks increased their anti-money laundering efforts. When it became difficult, if not impossible, to transfer funds through checks or electronic transfers, it was still possible to simply carry cash or high-value goods onto a plane and out of the country.
The new regulation does not stop this transfer route, but it gives the government a new weapon to use against those violating it, thus adding a higher cost to the enterprise. The article notes, ‘The Kingdom has implemented all 40 recommendations regarding money laundering and all eight regarding terror financing of the international Financial Action Task Force (FATF).’
Travelers told to declare cash, jewelry worth over SR60,000
P.K. Abdul Ghafour | Arab NewsJEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s Customs Department has urged all incoming and outgoing travelers to declare cash or precious metals worth more than SR60,000.
“Saudi Customs reminds all passengers with cash, transferable monetary instruments or precious metals exceeding SR60,000 or its equivalent in foreign currency to declare them to customs officials upon arrival or departure,” the department said in a statement.
“Failure to make the declaration would subject them to confiscation and the bearer will be liable to legal penalties,” it added.
It said the filling of declaration forms was important in accordance with Article 14 of the Anti-Money Laundering Law. “Those who do not declare the precious metals and jewelry they possess while leaving the Kingdom have to pay customs duty on them on their return,” the statement said.
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Both Arab News and Saudi Gazette carry stories about the Saudi Grand Mufti’s condemnation of the Turkish soap opera ‘Noor’. The show has seized the imaginations of more than a few Arabs.
The series is ‘evil’ in the view of the Grand Mufti, however. As well, it is ‘harmful and misleading’ and ‘leads to the disruption of law and order’. He has called for viewers to stay away from the program (along with another Turkish soap, ‘Lost Years’) and condemns the TV stations that broadcast them.
Neither news story gives any details about what the Grand Mufti finds so upsetting about the programs. Arab News, however, does interview some Saudi women about what makes the programs so appealing: the romantic portrayal of kind and handsome husbands who express love and offer security to their wives.
I wonder if the problem is that the programs are hitting some Saudi men below the belt?
Talk about being slow off the mark! Chicago Tribune finally gets around to reviewing Girls of Riyadh, written by a University of Illinois-Chicago student, only years after its first publication. I can only assume this is an indication of how little time Americans spend thinking about Saudi Arabia, except when they’re filling their gas tanks, of course…
Arabian TALE
Saudi author—a UIC dental student— scandalizes and intrigues Muslim world
Tom HundleyIt’s not clear if Rajaa Alsanea’s first novel, “Girls of Riyadh,” was banned in Saudi Arabia because it became a Middle East best seller or if it became a best seller because it was banned.
Either way, it was a surprise for Alsanea, a soft-spoken 26-year-old Saudi who is studying dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
She wrote the book, which follows the lives of four upper-class young Saudi women who struggle to find love in a restrictive society, in her spare time. She said she hoped that by holding a mirror up to Saudi society, she could in some small way “improve” that society.
What she didn’t anticipate was 1,000 e-mails a day—vilifying her, praising her, asking for her advice on matters of the heart or for her hand in marriage.
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There’s an interesting post on the question of the proper role of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in Saudi Arabia over at Naeem’s Blog, and an even more interesting debate in the comments section. Naeem, a Pakistani-American Muslim now residing in the KSA has some strong opinions.
I do agree that often the Commission seems to be acting to fulfill the form of a certain interpretation of Islam rather than the substance of Islam. I could say much the same about how that certain interpretation is more formal than substantive, in fact. But the issue is being debated within Islam and that’s what counts.
Mutawwa – Choosing form over substance
The Saudi Religious Police (also known as Mutawwa) have been getting a bad rap for quite some time. In addition to all the negative energy directed towards them by the general public, they’ve come under greater media and governmental scrutiny for recent cases of extreme abuse.
I would normally not add fuel to this fire (as opinions are very emotionally charged from both sides), but I couldn’t avoid chiming in on my dear friend Shariq’s first blog entry over at Minjid.com.
The brother presents his case for supporting ‘the Commission’ as they provide an invaluable service to society.
I say hogwash.
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The Washington Post reports on the situation concerning diyah (also diyyah), blood money paid as compensation to the family of a victim of a capital crime (murder, armed robbery, drug smuggling and rape) in order to prevent the execution of his antagonist. A committee exists to arbitrate demands for blood money, though they do not takes cases involving rape, or a combined kidnapping/murder. The committee’s efforts, however, are running into problems as more and more families and tribes demand impossible sums of money, seeing the higher amounts equating to higher social status.
There are suggestions that the government, which already places a lower limit on diyah of US $32,000, to also place a cap of no more than US $130,000.
There is a real problem of addressing the impact of crime on not just its victims, but the families of victims. In the US, it’s dealt with both in ‘victim impact statements’ heard a trials or hearings to establish the sentences of those convicted of the crime. There are also civil suits that seek to recover monetary damages. Famously, the family of a young man killed at the same time as Nicole Simpson civilly sued O.J. Simpson and essentially won his entire financial worth.
These attempts to compensate, somehow, the families of victims do not reach so far as to determine whether one lives or dies in return for a monetary sum. The idea of blood money was certainly part of many Western cultures including Scandinavians, Germans, Anglo-Saxons, Celts, Russians, and Poles and went under names like weregeld, ericfine, and vira. The issue is that this practice essentially disappeared in the West around 400 years ago. That it continues in Saudi Arabia seems primitive by comparison as those European cultures are certainly viewed as primitive today.
The problem, of course, is that there is strong religious support for the concept, starting with the Quran (5:45) and many ahadith. Changing things deemed to have been said by God is not an easy task. Far more likely of success is establishing reasonable caps.
Saudis Face Soaring Blood-Money Sums
Tribes, Families Are Demanding Millions
Faiza Saleh AmbahMECCA, Saudi Arabia — Badr al-Hasnani was 18 when he got into a fight with a soccer rival and fatally stabbed him. He confessed and was sentenced to death by beheading, as prescribed by sharia, or Islamic law.
For more than two years, Hasnani has been in a juvenile detention center awaiting execution while his family has tried to save him.
The parents of the victim, Majid al-Mahmoudi, have three options under sharia: to demand punishment, to spare Hasnani’s life to receive blessings from God, or to grant clemency in exchange for diyah, or blood money.
The Mahmoudis agreed to accept diyah, setting the sum at $2 million in cash, much more than Hasnani’s family can afford.
Hasnani’s case highlights the growing trend of exorbitant blood-money demands, which many say are fueled by greed and tribal rivalries. Last month, tribal leaders in the central city of Kharj demanded nearly $11 million to pardon a man who had killed a member of their tribe.
ad_iconOfficials, clerics and writers have spoken out against the excessive requests, saying an ancient Islamic practice meant to financially support those who lose loved ones has been corrupted.
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