Sunday, April 15, 2007

Saudi treachery: Past and Present

King Abdullah Ibn Saud began the proceedings of the recent Arab league summit held in Riyadh on the 28th March with an opening speech where he said Arab woes lay with squabbling Arab rulers, who could only prevent "foreign powers from drawing the region's future" if they were united. He then went on to say in regards to the history of the Arab league ‘the question is: what have we done throughout these years to resolve all that? I do not want to blame the Arab League because it is an entity that reflects our conditions in details, so the real blame should fall on us: we the leaders of the Arab nations. Our permanent differences, our refusal to take the path of unity – all of that led the nations to lose their confidence in our credibility and to lose hope in our present and future.

He described some of the problems faced by the Muslim world "In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war…In wounded Palestine, the mighty people suffer from oppression and occupation. It has become vital that the oppressive blockade imposed on the Palestinians end as soon as possible so the peace process will get to move in an atmosphere without oppression."

What King Abdullah outlined in his opening speech of the current problems facing Muslims is well known amongst the Muslim world, what King Abdullah however did not outline is the role he and the Saud family have played in creating and prolonging these very issues. The Saud family have a history of treachery against the Ummah and have played a key role in preventing unity within the Muslim world.

Beginning in 2006, King Abdullah has been reviving the Arab peace initiative which will recognise the state of Israel if it gives back territories seized in the 1967 war. For this, King Abdullah brokered the Mecca agreement between the Hamas government and Fatah. King Abdullah showed his true colours when Israel invaded Lebanon in July 2006, he alongside Jordan, Egypt, several Gulf States and the Palestinian Authority, chastised Hezbollah for unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts, at an emergency Arab League summit meeting in Cairo. Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal at the time said "These acts will pull the whole region back to years ago, and we cannot simply accept them." Saudi Arabia even got its leading Ssheikh, Abdullah bin Jabreen, to issue a fatwa, declaring it unlawful to support, join or pray for Hezbollah.

The Saud family on every occasion side with the colonialist western powers in providing active support. In the first Gulf war King Fahd authorized the deployment of U.S. forces on Saudi soil, the kingdom hosted over 600,000 allied forces, and its treasury reached record deficit levels. The U.S. spent $60 billion on the first Gulf War, with the Saudis and Kuwaitis footing half the bill. Presently, 5,000 U.S. troops have remained in the kingdom since the end of the Gulf War. By 1999, their presence had served as a major grievance for Saudi citizens and resulted in a group of 107 Wahhabi religious figures sending a 46-page "Memorandum of Advice" to King Fahd, which criticized the government for corruption and other abuses and for allowing U.S. troops on Saudi soil. King Fahd’s response was to sack them all.

Historic Al Saud treachery

Treachery runs deep in the Al Saud family as the Saud family played a direct role in the destruction of the Khilafah and the creation of Israel. The British empire’s Foreign office made contacts with Ibn Saud in 1851 in order to develop relations with those suitable to be used against the Khilafah which had its capital in Istanbul. The Saud family at the time were a band of bandits involved in petty tribal differences, however with British money and arms Ibn Said was able to consolidate his position in key areas of the Arabian peninsular and eventually the whole peninsular. This was all represented in the treaty Britain signed in 1865 when Britain wanted allies in the region to give it a foothold within the territory of the decaying Uthmani Khilafah. In return, Ibn Saud needed Britain’s logistical and military aid to disrupt the Khilafah from within.

Britain provided Ibn Saud small subsidies, which were used to expand and maintain a colony of Wahabi forces that were the backbone of Ibn Saud’s all conquering army. Ibn Saud attempted to gain legitimacy by using the Wahabi movement, the followers of Muhammad ibn Wahab, who believed the Arab lands required purifying with his opinions of Islam. Ibn Wahab used the Wahabis to give his pro-British backed policies religious credibility and the Wahabis saw the opportunity to see their interpretations of Islam become the dominant school of thought in the area.

In 1910 the Al Sauds’ became ever more important to Britain as they would rebel against the Uthmani Khilafah, with British backing, by attacking there own cousin Ibn Rasheed who supported the Khilafah. Small subsidies became larger and a cabal of advisers were despatched to assist Ibn Saud’s advance.

The Arab Revolt (1916–1918) was initiated by Sherif Hussein ibn Ali with full British blessing with the aim to separate the Arab peninsula from Istanbul. This agreement was concluded in June 1916 after an exchange of letters with British High Commissioner Henry McMahon who managed to convince Sherif Hussein of his reward for such treachery of an Arab empire encompassing the area between Egypt and Persia, with the exception of imperial possessions and interests in Kuwait, Aden, and the Syrian coast. The British government in Egypt immediately sent a young officer to work with the Arabs. This man was Captain Timothy Edward Lawrence, otherwise known as Lawrence of Arabia.

After the defeat of the Uthmani Khilafah in 1918 and its subsequent dissolution in 1924, the British granted control over the newly formed states of Iraq and Transjordan to the sons Faisal and Abdullah as had been previously agreed. The house of Al Saud was able to bring the whole of Arabia under there control by 1930. Britain’s vision of Arabia’s fate following the Khilafah’s defeat was clear: in the words of Lord Crewe it wanted “a disunited Arabia split into principalities under our suzerainty”. For their part, the Saud’s, were, by and large, happy to acquiesce.

The Saud family directly collaborated with the British to destroy the Khilafah and if that wasn’t bad enough the Saud family directly collaborated with Zionists in establishing Israel. King Abdullah 1 of the then British created Transjordan studied with David Ben Gurion (Israel’s first prime minister) in Istanbul in the 1930’s. Abdullah had offered to accept the establishment of Israel in return for Jordanian control of the Arab populated parts of Palestine. In 1946 Abdullah expressed interest in ruling over the Arab parts of Palestine, and had no intention to resist or impede the partition of Palestine and creation of a Jewish state, as described by one historian.
His brother Faisal King of Iraq even eclipsed Abdullah’s treachery in January 1919. Faisal signed the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, with Dr. Chaim Weizmann, President of the World Zionist organizationin where he conditionally accepted the Balfour Declaration based on the fulfillment of British wartime promises of independence to the Arabs.
Saudi Arabia since 1995 has imported $64.5 billion in weaponry, far surpassing the second-largest importer, Taiwan, which acquired only $20.2 billion in arms. However none of this in anyway has been used for the defence of Muslims or conflict areas where Muslims are being suppressed. The only time Saudi has gone to war has been during the gulf war where it supported the coalition against Iraq and during WW1. The recent cancellation of an investigation into the al Yamamah arms deal between Saudi and Britain shows the Saud family have never had the stomach to stand up for Muslim issues but merely purchase weaponry to ensure the industries of its western masters continue whilst they betray the Ummah.

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1. Sela, Avraham. "Abdallah Ibn Hussein." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East, New York: Continuum, 2002. pp. 13-14.
Chaim Weizmann, Trial and Error, New York: Schocken Books, 1966, pp. 246-247; and also Howard Sachar, A History of Israel: From the Rise of 2. Zionism to Our Time, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), p. 121.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/faisal_balfour.html

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