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
