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After Hezbollah’s last war with Israel, swathes of Lebanon lay in heaped ruins. Proud and distinct, the country quickly set itself the goal of rebuilding – a goal it met with staggering speed. Within months, there were office blocks, shiny new transport hubs and large, well-equipped schools. Where did the money for this come from?
Excepting Western aid, the money came from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and it came with a price-tag. In exchange for the flow of cash, Islamic institutions designed to cater to Lebanon’s small Sunni community were erected, most of them set up to preach the uniquely hateful brand of Islam that is Saudi’s most notorious export.
Similarly when Pakistan hit dire economic times in 2010, having been struck by natural disasters and waves of terrorism, Saudi money poured in like never before. New schools, Mosques and madrassas were built on the banks of the flooded plains, all of them designed to adhere to the Saudi religious tradition.
And in Europe, a large proportion of the new ‘Mega-Mosques’ sprouting up in Berlin, London and Paris are likewise funded by Saudi money, the same kind of theology central to their intended operation.
With the power and influence that naturally comes from limitless financial resources, the Saudi royal establishment has radicalized much of the modern Middle East, and from that base, now seeks to Islamise the world.
The motivation behind this project is obvious. Saudi Arabia, being the birthplace of Sunni Islam and in control of its holiest sites, aspires to be the executive of the Muslim world, with Riyadh as the Islamic capital, Saudi wealth funds as the Islamic bank, and the Saudi military (best-described as the world’s largest arms-dump) as the Islamic armoury.
You would be wrong to think that the rest of the Middle East approves of this arrangement. Far from it in fact. The Saudi elite are generally recognised for what they are; a corrupting influence holding restless millions back in a savage, unworkable past.
If you type the words “We are not Arabs” into google or facebook (and manage to scroll past the Iranian websites and blogs) you will find the same protest from Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese, Algerians, Moroccans and even Palestinians. The ‘Arab world’ is an empire of language, held together by the influence of the original Arabian nation, now called ‘Saudi Arabia’ but best described as simply ‘Arabia’.
And it’s certainly accurate that little loyalty binds a Moroccan to a Sudanese, a Syrian to a Yemeni, or a Lebanese to an Algerian. Little if anything at all. Understood this way, Saudi Arabia is the head of an ’empire of the imagination’, and this means the West has considerable leeway to fragment a hostile bloc and diminish its collective power.
It is often pointed out by the Islamic world’s apologists that prior to the Iranian revolution in 1979, Muslim countries enjoyed a very long period of docility and reform. Before that unwholesome climacteric, Egypt, Syria, Iran and even Afghanistan were taking steps to democratise, liberalise and secularise. There are photographs of women wearing Western dress in 1920s Iraq, 1940s Afghanistan, 1960s Egypt and 1970s rural Pakistan. Multi-sex schools of Western design used to peacefully operate in places now fully segregated by Islamic custom. Music, even Western music, used to be played openly in Afghan villages. Locally brewed beer used to be a significant Egyptian export. And for most of this period, Socialism not Islamism was the main repository of popular discontent.
Something changed all this. Something served to derail it. It is easy (and conventional) to blame the Iranian revolution itself, which certainly ruined a lot of progress both in and outside the sphere of Iranian influence. But this is not enough to satisfy.
I think it more likely that the Saudi regime, having recently demonstrated its economic power in the 1973 oil boycott, took over at this point as the Islamic world’s political kingpin – and soon after, as the premier source of Islamic theology.
How might we encourage the de-Saudification of the Middle East? How might we wind the clock back to the period of slow but real modernisation that was interrupted by the growth of Saudi economic power?
One answer to this may be fracking, a method of energy extraction that will see America go energy independent in this decade and could provide a similar liberty for Europe.
Only Environmental concerns (often misguided) are preventing the West from unlocking the full benefits of this technology. The protests from Saudi and Russian officials are inevitable and loud but can be safely ignored if we redevelop our confidence.
I believe that by sinking Saudi we will not only liberate ourselves, but also the third world from a demonic monopoly, a regressive authority and the leading cause of violent Islamism.
D, LDN.
I’ ve lost count of number of times I have shared this sentiment, with my friends from all over the globe.
I would also add (F)akistan, that other illegitimate by-product of departure of the British Empire from the Indian sub-continent.
I hope to live long enough to read in the news that the Wahhabi bastion of filth, along with every single Wahhabi camel lover has been decimated and melted to sand.
If Saudi Arabia were to sink into the Persian gulf after a devastating earthquake would be a small misfortune as the Persian Gulf’ s waters would be polluted and the aqua-marine life might suffer from the very fowl filth and stench of the Wahhabis; But it would be a major calamity if any one attempted to rescue any filthy slime-ball Saudi towel heads.
I don’t have any hatred of Saudi or Pakistani people. There are secularists and liberal in both countries. We should focus our anger on the regimes and the effect these regimes are having on the larger region.
Saudi Arabia is an artificial country, like Iran and Iraq. I hope to see it broken up and its power minimised. European culture must always be supreme.
We need energy independance.
Definitely. Fracking may turn out to be the answer we’ve been searching for.
Fracking is not as safe as one would think. My Gf’s mom lives in an area in the US where they do lots of that. It pollutes drinking water and makes life much much harsher for the local population. It isn’t as horrid as the disgusting Canadian tar-sands but it’s still is far from being hurt-free. We should maybe wait until developing better extraction tools to harness this power.
Otherwise, I’m totally agreeing with you. Saudi Aarbia fancy itself to be an Iron-Age monarchy, it should be treated this way.
Fracking can be done far away from population centres. In America, there are huge, uninhabited areas. In Europe too, we have untouched lands to explore. I would never approve of fracking too near a city or major settlement.
Something the US government is sadly not keen on doing…
2016 is only round the corner. That’s the thought that keeps me away from the window-ledge.
The Saudis, in their classic MO have been playing both sides in the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and beyond. Their bottomless piggy bank creates for them the illusion that they are untouchable and invincible—that anyone can be bought (partially true). They have others do the dirty work and then pay them off and take over, or take credit. It’s entirely feasible that the wahabbis of Saudi Arabia will collude with ISIS or ISIL or DESH or whateverthehell this new “caliphate” is calling itself. It seems pretty clear that they wish to assume this role. Bickering and petty jealousies are part of this stunted, hateful, tribal society. It’s almost childlike in it’s logic: always blaming others, the Zionists, the US, the Shia, blah blah blah. I cannot believe we are still listening to this garbage. What you put forth is true with regards to unity in the sunni world: there simply isn’t any. Information is the only weapon to fight saudi transgression in our societies and others. Their spin doctors can only spin for so long. Literacy in the arab world would help but then the real challenge is having the voice of dissent being heard and not murdered outright. Quite a challenge. Ditto for (Fake)istan: the saudi “lapdog”. Is that haram?
Literacy rates in Arab countries (excepting Lebanon, Jordan and parts of Syria) are appalling. It’s difficult to see how they will get past the dark ages without considerable Western help (which should only be offered in exchange for massive cultural and political change). The Saudis are definitely the ‘head of the snake’ in that region. Without oil, Saudi would be Yemen, and with a Yemeni level of influence on the world. In that situation, the leader of the Arab world would probably be Egypt – hardly a liberal state, but far less sinister and closed to reform than SA.
If we could magic Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Iran out of existence, I think reform might be possible in that part of the world. Sadly, we can do no such thing. For now we have to concentrate on keeping Muslims out of the West and opposing all Islamic influence on our civilisation.