I was intrigued by a tweet from a Saudi demanding “Freedom for Hamza. If it weren’t for racism he’d be at home now”. It was of course about Saudi journalist Hamza Kashghari who was arrested in Malaysia through Interpol and sent to Saudi Arabia to face death by beheading based on a sick Salafi definition of “blasphemy”.
It took me a few seconds to realize what they meant by “racism”. It has to do with tribes, they meant “tribalism“. In our Gulf GCC states, the tribe is the most important thing to many people, the only true loyalty of many is to the tribe. The tweeter meant that if Hamza belonged to one of the large Saudi tribes, he would be out. He is not of a tribal background, as his name clearly indicates, hence he has no tribal advocates.
This is a phenomenon in our Gulf states where some people profess loyalty to country but they are practicing deceit (tribal taqiya) because they have shown that their true loyalty is to the tribe. In one Gulf state, in my own hometown, tribal members stormed and trashed a television station last February because someone criticized the tribe in an interview. Another tribe also attacked and ransacked a television studio because they did not like what someone said about their tribal leader last month. One tribe sent hundreds, maybe thousands, out to the street when members were arrested. Tribal members spring each other out of prison and there are cases where journalists were shot for ‘disrespecting” a tribe.
Tribalism also explains why next door in Saudi Arabia they have a system of soft rehabilitation for suspected al-Qaeda terrorists, but only for tribal terrorists. This means it does not apply to others like Hamza Kashghari or to Shia suspects because they are not tribal. They have no tribe advocating for them.
This tribal system is all over the Gulf GCC states and it is like a disease that eats the social and political fabric. The ruling potentates usually like it because they used to believe that tribes were more loyal than city people. That is not always true, although it may be true in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain for specific reasons. The Qatari ruler had serious troubles with some disloyal tribe that backed a Saudi plot to overthrow him during the 1990s.
In the end tribal people are mainly loyal to their tribes. The tribes, on their part, are often loyal to more than one ruling dynasty, often depending on who pays more. Yet several tribes have their main branches inside Saudi Arabia, hence their deeper loyalties may be to the Saudi princes rather than the other potentates. This can happen in one or two other GCC states that host large cross-border tribes.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]