Middle East Focus: The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royal Confusion at the Religious Police…………

Arabia Deserta

The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royal Confusion at the Religious Police…………

In Saudi Arabia, there is a battle being waged around the head of the Mecca branch of the Authority for the Propagation of Vice (religious police). He, al-Ghamdi, was appointed not long ago with some fanfare. Recently he opined that it is okay for the sexes to mix at college and at work. Although he is not a shaikh who can issue fatwas, it was a good opinion in my view since I am not particularly fond of shaikhs and their fatwas, and I do issue my own fatwas occasionally. Soon after that co-education fatwa it was announced that he had been fired. He denied it publicly. Then this weekend it was confirmed that he had been fired, Now the religious police is asking the Saudi media to stop publishing reports about his firing (or not). They did not say he was NOT fired, just that they did not want it published.

This tells me there is a power struggle continuing within the Saudi dynasty, and that opinions issued down are conflicting. The struggle is two-pronged. One prong is between the traditionalists (reactionaries) and the social liberals (only relatively liberal). The other prong, the more serious one, is a struggle for ascendance among the various brothers and factions of the royal family. The two struggles often overlap and become one. Like two streams or creeks crisscrossing and feeding each other.
Given the age of King Abdullah and his brothers, that is a natural thing. The youngest brother seems to be the head spook of Saudi Arabia, a man who goes to Lebanon a lot, for some reason. More famously he met with Ayad Allawi in Riyadh just before the Iraq election of March.
It is getting interesting, in the Kingdom without Magic. Stay Tuned.
Cheers
mhg

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