Middle East Focus: Powerful Princes, Comfortable Clergy, Madoff and Goldman of Arabia……….

Arabia Deserta

Powerful Princes, Comfortable Clergy, Madoff and Goldman of Arabia……….

Winter Summer

“The protest in Riyadh was started by a young Sunni man, Mohammed al-Wadani, who had uploaded a YouTube video a few days before, explaining why the monarchy has to fall. After the protests, 26 people were detained in the eastern region and al-Wadani was taken in soon after he held up his sign near a major mosque in Riyadh. It's not just the people who are on edge; apparently the government is also taking this upcoming Friday seriously. Surprisingly, Sheikh Amer was released on Sunday, while usually political detentions take much longer. All this week, government agencies have been issuing statements banning protests. First it was the interior ministry that promised to take all measures necessary to prevent protests. Then the highest religious establishment, the Council of Senior Clerics, deemed protests and petitions as un-Islamic. The Shura Council, our government-appointed pretend-parliament, also threw its weight behind the interior ministry's ban and the religious decree of prohibition. But you can't blame the clerics or the Shura for making these statements – the status quo is what's keeping them in power and comfortable…….”

She puts the whole Saudi problem succinctly and nicely here.
As I noted in an earlier posting: the Ulema Council (palace clergy) are headed by the royal mufti Shaikh Abdulaziz Al Al-Shaikh, and the appointed Shura Council is headed by Shaikh Abdullah Al Al-Shaikh. They are at least cousins, if not closer. The Al Al-Shaikh (Al², or more mathematically likely Alⁿ) are close to the Al-Saud from way back in the old days, generations ago, when an eccentric Najdi cleric (Mohammed Bin Abdulwahab) allied with the al-Saud. It has been a fruitful alliance for both.
The al-Saud have the military and muscle, and the money, to enforce an Arab-style of theocracy, which is what the clerics want. The clerics, with Al Al-Shaikh being dominant, ensure that fatwas are issued to keep every citizen politically ‘inactive’, telling the people that whatever the ruling family does is what God wants done.
These two families have a nice racket going, Bernie Madoff and Goldman Sachs would be awed by it, with the peoples of the Arabian Peninsula being taken for a long ride until now. That is the key term “until now”: for no people can be deceived forever. Now the game is exposed and, most important, the fear is gone. Like the whole Arab region from Algeria to Libya to Bahrain, the fear is gone, or on its way out.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com