Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman has vowed to restore “moderate Islam” and to “end extremism very soon”.
The statement was made at an economic forum in Riyadh
“We are returning to what we were before – a country of moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world,” AFP quoted the Saudi prince. “We will not spend the next 30 years of our lives dealing with destructive ideas. We will destroy them today.”
He also promised that Saudi Arabia “will end extremism very soon.”
Mohammed bin Salman: “We will not waste 30 years of our lives dealing with extremist ideas, we will destroy them today” #FII2017 pic.twitter.com/skvlO5rROx
— Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) 24 October 2017
Saudi Arabia is known for promoting the ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam and strict segregation of men and women.
According to exeprts, the Saudi leadership has been for a long time supporting radical Sunni terrorists groups around the world. The country was one of the main backers of Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, in the Syrian conflict. Riyadh was hoping to use the group to overthrow the Assad government.
Despite this, Saudi Arabia constantly accuses Iran of supporting “extremism” in the Middle East and blames it for terrorist activities.
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?
True, but Wahhabism can be ignored into insignificance.
They will have followers just as any fragmented religious group with unique enticements.
Thanks to their petrodollar, majority of Sunni countries now follow Wahhabi islam. Saudi Arabia poured trillions of dollars to promote Wahhabi islam across the world and it is extremely successful in this.
Good point! Also, Saudi Arabia has NEVER had a moderate islam to return to. Saudi Arabia always strictly followed their Wahhabist barbarity. This is nothing but a new PR campaign attended to deflect criticism.
For Wahhabi Saudi Arabia to ‘return’ to ‘moderate Islam’, let alone allow other monotheistic religions to legally operate within its borders, it would require the actual abolition of the al-Saud dictatorial Saudi state, and a return of the Arabian Peninsula to disparate and decentralized tribal rule.
I’d say it’s a really easy job for him and absolutely within his power to end extremism. All he needs to do is NOT promoting it anymore.
Here’s his dilemma: Saudi regime receives it’s legitimacy from hardcore Wahhabi clerics and tribal heads, not the people of the country they rule. There is not even one democratic institution in this country. People’s will has absolutely nothing in the country’s policies and governing. How do they get the clerics’ and tribal sheiks’ loyalty? By bribing them, but there no more money and he knows it. That’s why he intends to “reform”, again by bribing the population but this bribe is different in nature and includes giving some basic rights like driving for women and stopping the Shari’a police (which had an absolute rule over the people). In other words, he intends to shift the source of their legitimacy for ruling.
Giving these basic rights to population and not paying the money (which doesn’t exist anymore, the coffers are empty), is a sure way to make Wahhabi clerics and sheiks mad and ruining the mutual relationship which the very foundation of their power is based upon.
His other problem is the opposing Saudi members which gained significant pressure due to his idiotic and impulsive decisions regarding Yemen and Qatar and their crack down of any opposing voice, from “peasants” to the royal members and even Wahhabi sheiks. He’s illiterate compared to the other princes and also suffers from a drug-abuse problem.
He is in an unenviable position.
“””I’d say it’s a really easy job for him and absolutely within his power to end extremism. All he needs to do is NOT promoting it anymore.”””
It is not so easy, the tribal heads, clerics ….etc have been following the interpretation of the Quran according Wahhabi, which is a reactionary interpretation of Islam, making them unique and privileged to go to heaven at the expense of everyone else.
It is synonymous to the popes of the 16th century to agree with Luther’s denounciation of the Catholic Church.
“…the expense of everyone else.”
As I understand it, Wahhab preached his ultra-orthodox interpretation to Sunni, but it was in reaction to the poor state of Muslims and the decline of their empire. Wahhab thought that their condition was specifically due to later modifications of Sunni Islam, and they would regain their glory days by following the correct orthodox form of Islam.
Wahhab didn’t advocate killing non-Wahhabists or Shia and did not use his teachings to justify it. THAT extremist idea was added by his al Saud sponsors – mostly to create religious justification for killing neighboring clans (Muslim) to steal their territory. Killing another Muslim without just cause was forbidden at the time.
The al Saud sheiks just hijacked Wahhab’s ideas and wrote in their own loophole – that’s the version of Wahhabism that was promoted by the emerging al Saud empire. Nobody really noticed their freakish interpretation of Islam because it was pretty much confined to the insignificant al Saud clan in the middle of nowhere. Oil changed all that.
Since many of the obscenely-rich al Saud royalty are anything but pious Wahhabists, they depend almost entirely on Wahhabi clerics to legitimize their rule – both inside Saudi Arabia and to all Muslims.
It is possible that precepts taught by Wahhabi were misconstrued, and loopholes and oral tradition were established by clerics in order to satisfy the Saud rulers ambitions and goals.
Um… I suppose. But the al Sauds did this when Wahhab was still alive.
I do not have that information, you can provide a link.
Sorry, I can’t. Search on Muhammad bin Saud, Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab and the First Saudi State. Ignore the first results if you’re using Google – they’re the sanitized accounts the Saudis have paid to appear on top. Those first results exclude the part about Wahhabism morphing into a death cult under bin Saud as he slaughtered his way to power.
You are absolutely right, this has more to do with the race to become the successor to the thone + of course get the US and European, maybe other Countries as well on his side.
Excellent assessment.
Well said. Intresting times for the 3000 unemployed, vastly rich squabbling royal family.
Thank you. The total number of them exceeds 15,000. Arabian nationals were lucky if they had to feed just 3,000 of them. Rabbit numbers didn’t grow that much in Australia since James Cook!
A simple algorithm to apply when analyzing Saudi related issues (and Mid-East politics in general) is: “FOLLOW THE MONEY”! Is Bin Salman telling his minions that the jihadi tap will be cut-off? Is he signalling to his mercenary proxies to shave their beards and re-brand as moderates to keep receiving funds? Is he winking to AQ and ISIS that it is better to lay low and wait it out to secure their investments? Does a lost war in Iraq and Syria require comic book cut-out scapegoats to take the fall for the shareholders? Are the wages of death, salaries and benefits to be renegotiated? None of this media babble has anything to do with religious doctrine. If the Saudis told their payroll beneficiaries (bearded clerics and adherents alike) to sing praises to their Shia brothers, given enough media-spin, time and grease, they would be embracing as if there had never been any bad blood.
That’s a brilliant advice, not only for ME but the whole world.
Well said. I would like to ask for more details about SA current economic situation, if there’s something to add to official picture.
It’s a very close and guarded system. They tried to diversify their income for at least a decade but no nation can become an industrial nation by a decree and overnight. Their industrial base is not sustainable. It’s not enough just to import machinery and workforce while they’re clearly lack in the research section. Geography is also not kind to them. They have to spend a lot for a simple warehouse to control temperature within a reasonable range. Water is another problem. You can’t have a flourishing industry if you lack agriculture. They tried to use the fossil water for that, but ended up depleting their fossil water reservoirs by creating open farms, not closed warm-house systems. Almost %100 of their electricity is produced by fossil fuel, despite having 2 long shores and infinite sun. Culture is another problem. In Saudi culture, working amounts to shame. Work is for lesser beings, their native civil servants, usually work just one hour per day and that’s just office work and management. They receive full salary for almost doing nothing. All labour work is done by foreigners, all middle management (the body, the true managers) are foreigners. These foreigners send a large portion of their income to their own countries to sustain their families. Their religious beliefs are another problem. Women don’t work, end of story. That’s half your population which produce nothing, just consume. What is worse, they need a driver to go out, almost all of drivers are foreigners which means sucking cash out of the country. So, not only they don’t produce, they put pressure on the economy. Hajj has great income for the country, but again the workforce for the services and the materials are all imported, so no real benefit from it.
Their stupid policy regarding the oil price hurt them badly. They cannot continue like that anymore and that’s why they decided to sell Aramco’s shares, but they put such a price on Aramco which is thought to be at least 3 times the real value of the company.
Their terror export industry devours a lot of money. They didn’t stop or reduce this activity but tried to compensate by introducing taxes and increasing the prices for energy and water, which will backfire badly because their people aren’t used to pay that.
I think they don’t believe to be able to rule the country for long. That’s why they are depleting the oil reserve with such low prices. They just want to receive every cent they can while are in power.
Thank you very much for your answer.
One Day, Saudi Arabia will be just Arabia, A secular state where everyone can practice as they wish, a state where everyone all are equal. a country that stays true to itself and it’s people and not to the interest of global powers.
When the oil runs out…
Really? After the Russian lesson now he understend who is the stroghest in the area. They should be united with all arab countryes to isolate the fucking Sionist. Toghether all the arab countries and Russia they have to fuck Israel. Im not saying to bomb Israel, im saying to keep the criminal Sionist into the Cage. And send home the Americans. Americans they have to stay out of the Midle East. We need peace no wars!!
Israel is the most powerful, thay can get the US army, navy, air forces to do their bidding – for example war with Iran up next.
that means, usa is the strongest
And they do what Israel tells them….so…
no way. we saw how hated israelis obama. yes, il has stromg lobby in usa, but america always does what is in its interest.
I wush uit was true, however Congress is bought and sold by Isralei Lobbyist and how about Monsanto – who are linked to the Zika virus but have been given presidential immunity from ever being charged with any crime in the US? That is America – it does what is best for those getting greenbucks not for the nation.
U stupid MONKEY u r making such a noises against Iran and NordKorean since 50-60-70 years. The FACT is US-americans are scared of Iran POWER.
Israel USA are the Criminals n.1 in this world.
I would have believed if Assad had said something like this since he at least teaches terrorists a lesson by using his infamous barrelbombs against them. But I wouldn’t believe one word coming out of this guy’s mouth. I mean last time I checked, Assad didn’t throw gay people off the building, didn’t force women to hide their face, didn’t behead infidels, didn’t stop women from driving cars, didn’t stop women from joining the military, didn’t stop them from taking high positions in politics, didn’t fund terrorists, didn’t force women to wear hijab, didn’t force Sharia law, didn’t destroy churches, didn’t stop people who were rebuilding churches, didn’t stop people from celebrating other festivals, didn’t execute Christians or people of other religion, didn’t deny them protection from US backed jihadists, etc
“…Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman has vowed to restore “moderate Islam” and to “end extremism very soon”…”
This guy is completely delusional. Rich Saudis and Wahhabi clerics have been working 24×7 to flood the world with newly-trained Wahhabi clerics for forty-plus years. That number is in the thousands-per-year range by now. They are placed in mosques and madrassas funded by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar and have millions of followers. Not all of them are extremists, but they are brainwashed to believe the Wahhabi pyschopathy of Shia as some kind of dangerous, fake Muslims and worse than other infidels. This was so heavily promoted because the al Sauds hate Iran and Shia and want them destroyed, but they can’t do it themselves.
The GCC is raising legions of religious zealots to kill Shia and destroy Iran. Even if the Saudis try to somehow make Wahhabism ‘moderate’, they can’t undo the decades of indoctrination they funded across the world and can’t recall all the fanatical clerics they’ve trained exactly for that purpose. The death-cult outside of Saudi Arabia is largely self-sustaining anyway – they will see Saudi reforms as a corruption of Wahhabism. Saudi Arabia and the GCC itself might end up being a bigger target than the nations where the GCC targets for Wahhabization.
‘Very soon’ probably means ‘when pigs fly’ here.
You are right, except in one thing. Wahhabi system of promotion is not self-sustaining. It needs huge amount of money injected to be operational and that money is mostly petro-dollars, because commerce or manufacturing (working, generally) is beneath them. About %90 of the country’s budget comes from the oil.
They create Wahhabi mosques and madrasas all over the world, which needs money. They recruit from the most poverty ridden parts of their respective area, attracting the poor and desperate. Their centers are attractive because of financial aids they provide, including free accommodation, free meals and allowance. They also promise to take care of the recruit’s family when they blew themselves up. They train and arm their recruits. All these things need money and a lot of it. Without oil money, their activity will be far limited.
The sad truth is, with the funds shortage (because of their own idiotic policies regarding the oil price) they cut the budget for infrastructures, education, health and also cut subsidized electricity and energy and forced to start demanding taxes, but they didn’t stop or even reduce the funding of those Wahhabi mosques and madrasas.
Their frantic expansion everywhere on earth isn’t sustainable, but they don’t need much money to keep the already open madrasas operating at a smaller scale (but they won’t be able to continue paying off families for ‘donating’ their sons anymore). Wahhabi clerics and their mosques won’t go out of business, and future clerics will still consider training in Saudi Arabia by Wahhabi clerics to be the most prestigious. There will always be money for that from the Saudi Wahhbi clerics and rich Saudis/Qataris/Emirati donors. Saudi Arabia does not need thousands of new Wahhabi clerics every year – they will return to whatever country they came from.
Wahhabi Zakat charity can still be collected and go to “soldiers fighting a just war to defend the Muslim community.” For Wahhabists, that includes the madrasas that produce such soldiers. Wahhabist extremism will not go away anytime soon if Saudi and GCC money dries up. Their are tens-of-thousands of unorganized Wahhabi followers spreading their death and misery now without requiring any funding or support from GCC sponsors. And it takes only one rich GCC freak with a bag of cash to fund a militia unit until they can get the money they need from their conquests, extortion and theft. ISIS is the current best example of that, and tomorrow it will be some other group.
And let’s not forget who will control the oil revenue in Saudi Arabia after angry Wahhabists string up the current al Saud royalty from lamp posts.
@ Pave Way lV Thank you for expressing the real central core of the problem with Wahhabism. In Bangladesh a Sunni nation that used to be very live and let live , there are now 560 Wahhabi schools and mosques . There used to be none . The millions of copy’s of the Koran with the Wahhabi commentary are not going to just disappear even with funding cuts . And the Saudi/Qatar/UAE sponsors will not run out of funds soon , even if the Saudi’s need to budget . This is the real war . A control ideology that has a 40 year head start is not just a threat to the Shia , but to each and every person who values his freedom and that of his children.
RIP Saudi crown prince, once you’ve climbed on the tiger you can’t climb off again.
LOL, a mass murderer promising to be good …. priceless.
What a joke.
Let’s not forget that the U.S. gov calls their Terrorist “Moderate” too. I don’t believe anything coming out of this clown mouth. With that being said, I’m on Houthis side.
Al-Wahhab was born 1703 studied at Medina who’s main Teacher was Muhammad Hayat a follower of Ibn Taymiyya , and Muhammad Hayat like his father incouraged their students to reject the rigid imitation of precedent, only in Saudi Arabia does Al-Wahhab exceed the importance of ibn. Taymiyya, Al-Wahhab began the book “The Call to Unity”, added to by anybody much like the Talmud, or exactly like the Talmud Wahhab is used as an insulting trem of reference in nearly all of Islam particularly Salafist Nations outside of Saudi Arabia.
Time once again to investigate the historical relationship between the House of Saud and Israel, not only politically but in religious terms.