Ending of Saudi Arabia and the awakening of Islamic world

With the Saudi state officially acknowledging its involvement in the planning and execution of the assassination of the late Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, in the consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, the tragic and dramatic ending of the Saudi's myth, which has long been dedicated around the Islamic world who constitute more than a quarter of the world's population.

Thus, the moral legitimacy and the high status that Saudi Arabia has enjoyed in the hearts of the majority of Muslims have ended, considering that its lands include the holy places of Islam in the cities of Makkah and Madinah. As such, Saudi Arabia was considered an undisputed leader of the Sunni Muslim community accounting more than billion and half people worldwide.

But why do so many Muslims in the world today find it difficult to even believe this terrible and unexpected end? How do they understand the disappearance of that stereotypical image that has been nurtured, and sometimes sanctified, by successive generations of Muslims around the world? But how can Muslims overcome trauma so that they can understand the multiple and dangerous dimensions of this terrible fall? as a country, the size of Saudi Arabia, was boasting its king's title as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Will Muslims, having grasped the shocking fact, have the required level of willpower and foresight to deal with the different ramifications of this fall before it is too late? Which reduces the losses and costs .. And helps to get out of the impasse in an appropriate manner to the spiritual and civilizational status, as well as the geopolitical weight represented by the Islamic world .. With all its diversity and cultural wealth and political difference ..

After today, I do not think that Muslims - especially the Sunnis - will be led by a state that assassinates its innocent citizen inside its consulates, cutting his body, and even refuses to hand it over to his family for ceremonial burial and condolences as a usual in established Islamic tradition.

There is no doubt that the assassination of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is a brutal crime, ugly, shocking with all standards. It is a crime with all human, moral, historical, religious, political and emotional meanings and, moral, religious, political and intellectual levels.

Historically, the modern and contemporary history not mentioning more than a few examples of the killing citizens by their states inside their diplomatic missions. Therefore, this crime will be included in the books of history from the wide door, both in terms of his stupidity, his atrocity and his  dangerous repercussions at all levels.           

On the moral level, the majority of Muslims did not imagine that a Muslim state, even if it was as totalitarian as Saudi Arabia, no matter how arrogant and tyrannical, could fall to the level of the mafia and gangs to kill causeless an innocent citizen, who is a senior writer in a major press and international newspapers.

Yes, this confidence and credit has suddenly collapsed. The moral balance of respect and appreciation that Muslims gave to Saudi Arabia free of charge , despite all its disadvantages, has collapsed. It is time for the rulers of that country to wake up and stop their stubborn and obstinacy; so that they can understand the shocked feelings of more than around two billions of Muslims over the world owing to the tragedy and horror of what they committed a crime in the case of Jamal Khashoggi .. which seems to be only the tree that hides the forest ..

On the religious level, Muslims asking seriously, even in different expressive terms: "Should they will be accept , after all what happened, that Saudi Arabia, having become a rogue state, will continue to sponsor the holy places in the two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Madinah?"

Is it lawful and moral to raise the flag of the "Tawheed" term with the intent to kill an innocent Muslim and cut off his body in the consulate of his country; which is supposed to be a public facility funded by taxpayers in order to provide safety, care and service to the citizens of the country outside their homeland?...

Is it legitimate or moral, to establish a country that includes the holiest places in the Muslim community such as: the "Kaaba", the House of Allah, the Prophet's Mosque, and all other holy places in "Menan", Mount of "Arafat", "Muzdalifah" and other Islamic sites and shrines located in? Is it conceivable that these holy sites remain under the name of a person or a family, even if they are the sons of Saud? Worse than all is that the proportion is under the category of "Kingdom"?!

 It is, in my opinion, an abnormal addition and a false claim.. In a rational way, to subdue the status of the absolute and total divine royalty, which are the two holy shrines, under an limited human owning is not reasonable.

Despite the fact that the number of Muslims was more than one billion people,  why did not Muslims express their protest against that name and inappropriate addition from the beginning? why did Muslims continue until this day their silence and accepting this abnormal situation; however they are more than two billion people all over the globe?

Is it not time yet, for Muslims around the world to ask their countries to intervene with the UN system in order to grant the holy places a political status as an independent entity that is not subject to the sovereignty of any state whatsoever? ...and to be administered and managed by all Islamic nation based on agreed procedures, between all Islamic countries and free Islamic civil society organizations, to be an independent structure with administrative and financial budget.

I think that after the Saudi fall and the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Muslims around the world can only feel that they are no longer safe inside the Saudi diplomatic missions and consulates when they resort to "Hajj" and "Umrah" arrangements, or to complete any other transactions. As well as there will be many geopolitical risks, problems and differences that are foreshadowing the outbreak of conflict, instability and the peace threat on account of repercussions of the liquidation of Jamal Khashoggi; particularly between Turkey and Saudi Arabia on the one hand, and between Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Western world on the other, as illustrated by the ongoing developments on diplomatic, political and judicial levels.

Now it's time, after all this stun and confusion, to put an end to the monopoly of the honor of caring for the holy places of Islam, and the acquisition and control of his proceeds by  Saudi Arabia alone.

Suffice is to say that these holy places were taken throughout all this period by the most rigid, tyrannical and oppressive regimes. Saudi Arabia has used the good reputation of Islamic religion with insincerity, and has been exploiting his name for a long time. while the Saudi regime is wasting the wealth of his country and persecute its people, there are currently more than three thousand citizens detained for their views in prisons and detention centers.

           

A Saudi system still has, despite its alleged tendency to modernize and reform, been living in the darkness of the Middle Ages, as evidenced by its recent comic decision to allow women to drive. Everyone knows that women were driving their cars but secretly, and the regime sentenced them to jail if they were discovered. As all Muslims and the entire world know, that the Saudi regime has not been produced in practice for more than 100 years, non the "Salafi" extremist, and the seeding and breeding of terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and ISIS and sisters.

The time has come to break the centrality of the alliance of Arab tribal and reactionary regimes that are complicit with the West's imperial hegemony and its endless greed to exploit the energy resources of the peninsula and the Arabian Gulf.

There is no doubt that the collective conscience of the Muslims has begun to wake up .. Therefore, enlightened elites and civil society in the Islamic world must find a suitable formula for the establishment of a mechanism to oversee the management of Islamic holy places in the two Holy Mosques in balanced and equitable manner.

By taking into consideration the demographic and geostrategic data of the major non-Arab Islamic countries, especially those have no colonial past and no local sensitivities in the region. Thus, the participation of non-Arab Muslims must be re-evaluated. Arab represent less than 20% of the world's Muslims. Muslims of other nations, for example in Eastern, Southern and Central Asia, are about more than 40% of the total Muslims. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia is the largest Muslim population, estimated at 13% of the world's Muslims.

So, the formula must be involve the size of Muslims in the African continent and the countries of the Sahel and Sub-Sahara, which account about 15%. The number of Muslims in one country such as Nigeria is more than 70 millions, a figure equal to the number of Muslims in all Gulf countries with Yemen. There are also large Muslim communities in China, Russia, the Caucasus, the Philippines, the Americas, and Europe.

The way to deal with the reality of Muslims and the prospects for the advancement of their future; after the fall of the myth of Saudi Arabia, inevitably passes in consultation with the major Muslim communities in those major countries. In order to involve as many Muslims as possible in the process of diagnosing reality and coming out with informed and participatory perceptions of how to come up with effective solutions. And in order to reach an international agreement to grant Islamic holy places a legal status similar to the status of the Vatican. The new entity can be named the Sultanate, or the Republic of the Two Holy Mosques, with the Board of Directors of an international character, and with a largest of the free civil society of  Islamic communities, where non-permanent membership through periodic rotation, is governed by pre-agreed controls.

The major Muslim countries and societies such as Indonesia, which represents more than 200 million Muslims, Pakistan, with more than 180 million Muslims, India, more than 170 million Muslims, Bangladesh, more than 150 million Muslims, China with more than 120 million Muslims, Iran, Nigeria, Egypt and Turkey, where there are more than 80 million Muslims each one, can demand some necessary reforms such as the prohibition of using  the Islamic monotheism term "Tawheed" and other symbols, which is the common property of all members of the Islamic nation, on the flags of all countries Including Saudi Arabia.

In this context, it must be claimed to reform all political regimes in the Arabian peninsula and the Gulf. Although this region no represents more than 2% of the world's Muslim population, but its stability is very important to the steadiness of the holy places of Islam in Mecca and al-Madīnah  in a sustainable and long-term manner .

The systems of governance must be converted by one of two ways: The first is a constitutional monarchy, in which the management of state affairs is separated between those who own and those who govern. The second way is a modern republic, based on the principles of a real separation of powers and the peaceful rotation of government in accordance with the electoral democratic plural system. thus the Islamic world can ensure a positive political climate conducive to the establishment of security and stability in the region and on their borders,  in which Islamic holy places are located.

It is time wake up for Muslims in general, and for the Sunni community in particular, whose demographic size is more than one billion and a half billion people, spread across all continents: Asia, Africa, Europe, America and Oceania, and more than 50 Islamic countries. Inside all of these Islamic societies exist scientists, thinkers, people of religion and piety, people of good and righteousness, and the custodians of the Quran. There is no doubt that those of them are more keen than Saudi Arabia to protect the egg of Islam. Everyone will participate in building the renaissance of the nation and the flourishing of Islamic civilization, away from the political exploitation and benefit of religion, away from all negative methods that are not appropriate for the spirit of the Islamic religion.

I believe that Sunni Muslims, with their great prestige, multi capacities and geopolitical weight, are now required, perhaps more than others, to change their stereotypes and to address the difficult legacy left by Saudi Arabia.  

Although Saudi Arabia is not among the top 10 Muslim countries in terms of Muslim population, it has managed to convince the world that Arabs are the overwhelming majority of Muslims. And that non-Arab Muslims are just "our brothers" in religion, and they must follow the Arab scholars. The scientists were then reduced to a few Saudi scientists who are affiliated with the regime, although Saudi Arabia is not among the top ten in terms of Muslims, while three other Arab countries are Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. The first four countries are non-Arab: Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Saudi dogmatism has devoted an exclusive and exclusionary view to non-Arab Muslims, as well as to Arabs who do not accept running in her orbit. It has taken for itself an unfounded leadership in religion and belief. Saudi Arabia was erring when it think that God had given it credit through political hegemony over the holy places, and that the Islamic leadership was referring to it as an absolute religious reference. Perhaps Saudi Arabia imagined that God had ordered them to take care of the affairs of the Muslims who had to submit to their authority. This is pure illusion.

Thus, for many decades Saudi Arabia has long regarded the Muslim world as a mere herd, or stock of people, always ready to support and sustain its decisions and policies whatever that policies are wrong and reckless. Saudi Arabia misused Sunni Muslims in favor of the US agenda in the "jihad" war in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the late 1970s. This was a conflict between the major international powers within the Cold War mill, and it is assumed that Muslims do not involved it from near or far.

Saudi Arabia has planted the seeds of terrorism through the return of "Arab Afghans" to their countries after the Afghan war. Recently, Saudi Arabia facilitated the process of destroying and occupying Iraq during the Gulf Wars and other aggressions.

Saudi Arabia involve the Arab people in the September 11, 2001 attacks, and plunged them into the labyrinth of extremism that has not ended to this day through the activities of terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb , Which is the same impasse that continues with ISIS (Daech) in the Levant and "Buku Haram" in West Africa and sub-Sahara region.

It is time for Muslims in general, and for the Sunni community in particular, to withdraw the spiritual leadership that was given to the "Sunni of USA" and their alliance with velvet and loyal leaderships among the feudal princes and the bourgeoisie of the deals corruption and subordination.

What does prevents the Muslims, especially Sunnis, to raise this religious, moral and political challenge? In order to achieve the task of renewal and religious reform, which has long awaited by everyone?

It seems that the West, who created the Saudi regime and supported it for more than 100 years, has now engaged with Saudi Arabia in twisted paths to rearrange the game by introducing superficial and formal changes on the façade of the ruling family, in an attempt to give it a new lifetime.

Thus, the West will find another opportunity to develop its own agenda in the region. That agenda itself meets and fits in with Israel's agenda through the so-called "Century Deal". Therefore, more than two billion Muslims must raise their voices loudly to change the rules of the game and circumvent the game of the West by withdrawing Islamic holy places as a winning symbol from the Saudi and US stock market.

Only in this case, geostrategic, regional and international balances can be drastically altered in favor of Muslims. That path, if achieved, could be a successful entry into a moral project of true Islamic renaissance. We may call it the "Millennium Deal".

Changing the geopolitical situation of the Islamic holy places in Saudi Arabia will be the logical and methodical approach to the task of renewal and religious reform that has long been awaited by all.

Let the Saudis take oil of the Arabian Peninsula but their must to leave the land of the two Holy Mosques in Mecca and Madinah for all Muslims, and back to their initial kingdom in "Dar'iyyah" or other. It is necessary also, to change the Saudi Arabia flag to remove the generic term of "Tawheed" or the common symbol among all Muslims, after it is no longer appropriate to carry it.

Nouakchott, November, 2018