Has 9/11 Changed Saudi Arabia for the Better?

[Richard]

An interesting peek into some of the subtle changes of a complex world we don't hear much about by Robert Lacey, author of “Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia."

Richard

Has 9/11 Changed Saudi Arabia for the Better?
Robert Lacey, SUSRIS, 12 Sep 2010

Nine years on, the 9/11 attacks can only evoke bitter memories for America. But it is already clear that 9/11 was a very good thing for Saudi Arabia. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who flew into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania were Saudis, disgruntled young men drafted by Osama bin Laden in what was essentially a Saudi quarrel fought out on American soil. Foiled in his attempts to bring down the “near enemy”—the “Sheikhs of Satan” as al Qaeda described the Westernizing princes of the House of Saud—Bin Laden targeted the “far” enemy, the Al-Saud’s mighty patron across the Atlantic, where security, he correctly divined at that date, was more lax.

Bin Laden and his followers were the products of the traditional, inward-looking Saudi education system—a poisonous brew of intolerance, priggishness, and a lethal contempt for the value of non-Wahhabi life. The nation’s history was recounted as a jihad, or holy war, in which victory was secured through a series of blood-stained massacres by the fanatical Ikhwan, or Brethen, of Nejd (central Arabia)—an early 20th-century version of the Taliban.

Oil wealth had compounded the isolationism and arrogance. The discovery and development of the largest oil reserves on earth was not credited to the American prospectors, engineers, and businessmen who did all the work, but to an almighty, Saudi-favoring God who placed the mineral wealth down there in the first place. Paradoxically, the money boom engendered a religion boom—and religion of a particularly blinkered and aggressive sort.

These were some of the challenges facing Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia as the news of the September 11th attacks reached Riyadh. That very day the crown prince issued a statement of sympathy expressing Saudi horror at these actions “in conflict with our religious and civilized values.” But it soon became clear that most of the men whom Abdullah was denouncing were his own subjects, and that they had picked up their uncivilized values inside his kingdom.

It was to Abdullah’s credit that he realized this—almost alone and certainly ahead of many members of his family.

“We must study what has happened,” he declared in a series of televised gatherings to which he summoned the religious sheikhs, the tribal leaders, the media, and the business community. “Something serious has gone wrong here, and we must try to put it right.”

9/11 gave Abdullah the chance to introduce the reforms that he had long wished to implement, and reform has been his theme ever since—in four years as crown prince, and the last five years as king. At 85 years old, this gruff, no-nonsense man knows that his time is running out and he is willing to take risks. To combat the core issue of religious fanaticism, he has not been afraid to sack retrograde clerics—his Chief Justice Saleh Al-Lahedan, for example, who called for the producers of “corrupting” TV soap operas to be killed—and he has initiated programs of national and interfaith dialogue. The last time I saw Abdullah, he was shaking hands with rabbis—albeit in Madrid: It will be some time before non-Islamic priests of any faith can be openly admitted to the land of Mecca and Medina.

By Western standards, women’s rights in Saudi also leave much to be desired, but they have made enormous strides since 2001. Soon after 9/11, the powerful interior ministry, run by Abdullah’s half-brother Prince Nayef, started issuing the first ever identity cards for Saudi women, thus making it immensely easier for women to carry out significant financial, legal, and social transactions. Previously, women were registered on their husband’s or father’s identity cards.

Since 2009, Saudi Arabia has had its first woman to hold ministerial rank, Norah Al-Faiz, as the deputy minister of education, and Saudi universities are offering degree courses for women in Islamic law, ready for the day, promised by Abdullah, when women will be able to practice in their own courts. Young women graduates are now the recruits of choice for many Saudi companies—they have a better work ethic than their more casual male equivalents. And, the ultimate practical test, young women who have a job now command a higher bride price than women who cannot contribute to the family budget.

Education has been the particular focus of Abdullah’s post 9/11 shakeup. School textbooks have been purged of their worst excesses—though critics say there is still a way to go—and thousands of teachers have been retrained. Experiments are under way to get boys and girls mixing in classrooms at kindergarten and junior school levels—and to show the importance that he assigns to the task, the king has entrusted the education ministry to his dynamic and progressive son-in-law, Prince Faisal bin Abdullah .

The model for the reforming monarch’s vision for his country lies 80 miles north of Jeddah, where female graduate students ride bicycles, drive cars, and take lessons alongside their male colleagues on the mixed-sex campus of KAUST—the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology—an outward-looking center of secular, fact-based research and learning that would have been inconceivable in Saudi Arabia just 10 years ago.

A woman on a bicycle may not seem a world-shattering development, but it symbolizes a shift of national direction that most observers judge to be genuine. The Saudis are never going to say “sorry” for 9/11. But their change of behavior may be taken as some sign of remorse.

http://www.susris.com/2010/09/12/has...-robert-lacey/

[Oldrotorhead]

I think there will be some very interesting times in Saudi when the old man dies. Will the Wahhabi leadership agree with the family and will the family agree upon who leads next?

[akv]

IMHO, this progress is encouraging, but the catalyst was the US invasion of Iraq. There are no friends in international affairs only shared interests. AQ's goal was to foster regime change in the Middle East for the re-establishment of an Islamic Caliphate, since their fundamentalist ideology cannot survive modernity. America's response in Afghanistan while necessary to deny her enemies safe haven, has no great impact on the daily mindset of the despotic rulers of the Middle East, most think of the country as a wild backwater region.

Iraq is very different, she is historically, culturally, and strategically significant to the Middle East. By simple geography her borders are ringed by Turkey, Iran, Syria, Jordan, and our "friends" in the Kingdom of Saud. There were certainly chemical WMD, and Saddam Hussein was as evil as they come, but the US goal here was to forcefully remind the rulers of the Middle East it is better to be on Americas side in this war. We are quite capable and more importantly willing to come in, take over, implement regime change, and alter the regional balance of power to our benefit. If Iraq prospers in time, the game has changed, now all of the bordering countries and their rulers are well advised to adapt and keep their people happy, especially if it turns out there is now the example of a prosperous democracy next door.

[Pete]

Originally Posted by akv

.......... If Iraq prospers in time, the game has changed, now all of the bordering countries and their rulers are well advised to adapt and keep their people happy, especially if it turns out there is now the example of a prosperous democracy next door.

But since a house divided works to all the bordering country's advantage - sewing the seeds of failure in Iraq helps to show the masses that US help - ain't.

"Help" is being offered from surrounding countries just to keep the pot boiling.

[akv]

Originally Posted by Pete

But since a house divided works to all the bordering country's advantage - sewing the seeds of failure in Iraq helps to show the masses that US help - ain't.

"Help" is being offered from surrounding countries just to keep the pot boiling.

Yes, I agree a successful democracy next door is the last thing these despots want, they seem to care more for maintaining regime stability than their masses, but the bell has been rung here for America's message, cooperate with our interests or share Saddam's fate. Or at least that was the message of the previous US administration.

[Richard]

Afghanistan holds little strategic value for us - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, the UAE, Turkey, Oman, and Iraq, on the other hand, do.

We retain sizeable forces in Germany, Japan, and the ROK over a half-Century after the initial reasons for our deploying there because it remains of mutual strategic importance for us and our allies to do so.

If it is truly of strategic importance to us, we will seek to retain a viable presence in Iraq for as long as necessary, too.

Richard's $.02

[Pete]

Originally Posted by Richard

...........If it is truly of strategic importance to us, we will seek to retain a viable presence in Iraq for as long as necessary, too.

Richard's $.02

Only if the country retains the political will to do so.

[craigepo]

Fascinating article.

The muslim countries in the middle east never really went through an "enlightenment" era, as did much of western civillization. I have heard intelligent men opine that the only way to moderate Islam was through the same Enlightenment process the Western world encountered centuries ago.

I am encouraged that this change is being ushered in by those in power in Saudi Arabia.

[drymartini66]

Originally Posted by Richard

Afghanistan holds little strategic value for us - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Kuwait, the UAE, Turkey, Oman, and Iraq, on the other hand, do.

We retain sizeable forces in Germany, Japan, and the ROK over a half-Century after the initial reasons for our deploying there because it remains of mutual strategic importance for us and our allies to do so.

If it is truly of strategic importance to us, we will seek to retain a viable presence in Iraq for as long as necessary, too.

Richard's $.02

And let us not forget to throw Iran and Pakistan into the mix with the People's Republic of China vying to get influence in the Middle East as they drive in there quest for natural resources. While Saudi Arabia is an example of progress, albeit grinding ever so slowly, it goes without saying that the region will continue to be volatile for some time to come. Africa is another region that the Chinese are vying for influenece and isn't too far behind the Middle East in regards to instability and volatility. As in Asia and Europe, we will have forces in the CENTCOM and AFRICOM regions for quite along time.