Saudi Arabia and the Syrian Brotherhood. The openly difficult relationship between Saudi Arabia and Muslim Brotherhood chapters across the region has become a salient feature of Middle East politics since the advent of the “Arab Spring.” This mutual mistrust has increased in the wake of the Kingdom's recent support for the military takeover in Cairo and the generals' subsequent repression of the Brotherhood there. But how is the Islamist organization affected by this dynamic in Syria, where the Muslim Brothers and the Saudis both battle against Bashar al-Assad?
The question has become ever more relevant since Saudi Arabia's takeover of the “Syrian file” from the hands of the Qataris last May.[1] Yet the answer is steeped in ambiguities. On the one hand, the relationship between Riyadh and the Syrian Brotherhood suffers from political contradictions and a lack of genuine trust. Thus, despite a sometimes heavy intelligence surveillance, the Kingdom nonetheless allowed the Syrian Brotherhood to operate underground.
Toby Jones - Saudi Arabia Versus the Arab Spring. Is Saudi Arabia Stable? Salman al-Awdah: In the Shadow of Revolutions. There is nothing that prompts us to encourage revolution as it is enshrined in danger...It just comes when profound reform has stumbled.— Salman al-Awdah Like all of us watching the Arab world in the last two years, Saudi Islamists (I refer throughout to the Salafi Islamists) were taken by surprise when the Arab masses marched en masse calling for the downfall of their regimes. Official Saudi religious scholars immediately warned against the chaos of revolutions, banned demonstrations, and called for respect and obedience to rulers. Despite this, they supported the uprisings, perhaps in anticipation of Islamist parties and movements replacing the old regimes in Egypt, Tunisia, and beyond. They were, however, cautious when revolutionary effervescence started creeping into the heart of Arabia.
On the eve of the Arab uprisings, Saudi Islamists had already reinvented themselves as peaceful activists seeking reform of the regime from within. A Saudi Spring of Sand Storms: Signs of Domestic Turbulence - 2011 - Events - Middle East Centre. Speaker: Professor Madawi Al Rasheed, King's College London Chair: Professor Fawaz Gerges, LSE Monday 17 October 2011, 18:30 - 20:00, Wolfson Theatre Professor Al Rasheed's lecture will survey Saudi domestic politics during the so-called Arab Spring and explore classic regime strategies to contain signs of turbulence.
A combination of harsh security measures, economic benefits and religious obedience and sectarianism has succeeded in containing demands for greater political reforms in the Kingdom. In the long-term, Saudi Arabia faces serious societal and leadership challenges, not to mention regional competition between the Kingdom and two powerful actors, Iran and Turkey. This lecture is open to all and registration is not required. Admission is on a first come first served basis. Speakers Madawi Al Rasheed | is a Saudi-Arabian-born professor of social anthropology at the department of Theology and Religious Studies in King's College London since 1994. Location Finding your way around LSE | Saudi Islamists and the Potential for Protest. Saudi Arabia has remained fairly quiet during the recent months of Arab uprisings. A few demonstrations did take place, mostly in the Eastern Province, but never gathered more than a couple of thousands. As for the Facebook calls for a "Saudi revolution" on March 11, they had no real impact on the ground.
Some observers found this surprising, given the fact that many of the causes of revolutions elsewhere in the region exist in Saudi Arabia. There is corruption, repression, and, despite the country's wealth, socioeconomic problems that particularly affect the youth -- it is said that at least 25 percent of Saudis below age 30 are unemployed. Some observers argued that nothing had happened, or even could happen, in Saudi Arabia because the kingdom possesses two extraordinary resources in huge quantities. This first is a symbolic resource, religion, through the regime's alliance with the official Wahhabi religious establishment, while the second resource is a material one, oil. Political Imaginaries in Saudi Arabia: Revolutionaries without A Revolution.
The contemporary Saudi-led counterrevolution, fierce as it has been throughout the Arab world, is perhaps most relentless inside the Kingdom’s own borders. US-trained and armed security forces have been dispatched more thoroughly throughout the country to thwart any potential signs of public gatherings or protests. In the last year alone, at least eight Saudi nationals have been killed for partaking in public protests. This is in addition to the unrelenting police brutality against unarmed civilians that has injured numerous men and women. Further, hundreds have been illegally detained across the country for supporting calls for reform and protest.
Such violence and intimidation is not only reserved for those who have attempted to take to the streets. Dozens have also been forbidden from travel, placed under house arrest, or banned from writing in the Saudi press simply for criticizing the status quo. Acts of protest have not been limited to the government ministries.
Saudi Arabia vows “iron fist” to end violence - Culture & Society. Saudi Arabia has vowed to use an “iron fist” to end violence in the country’s east after a sermon preached last week criticised the government’s use of violence against protestors in the kingdom. The Gulf state’s Interior Ministry has accused an unnamed foreign power, widely thought to mean Iran, of backing attacks on its security forced in its Eastern province. “It is the state's right to confront those that confront it first ... and the Saudi security forces will confront such situations ... with determination and force and with an iron first,” the ministry said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency.
“Some of those few [who attacked security forces] are manipulated by foreign hands because of the kingdom's honourable foreign policy positions towards Arab and Islamic countries,” it added. Protesters from the conservative country’s Shiite minority have held several rallies in the east in the last year complaining of discrimination by its Sunni rulers. The Price of Dissent in Saudi Arabia. Hamza Kashgari’s persecution—merely for tweeting uncertainty about his religious faith—exposes the cynicism and brutality of the kingdom’s royal-clerical rulers.
Saudi Arabia appears determined to sacrifice one of its young on the altar of domestic politics. At the center of a brewing storm is Hamza Kashgari, a 23-year-old journalist who faces charges of apostasy and a potential death sentence for posting controversial views of the Prophet Muhammad on Twitter in early February.
In three short messages, in which he expressed a mix of devotion, frustration and uncertainty about his faith, Kashgari has stirred rancor across Arabia. His greatest affront, it seems, was giving voice to doubt. Many in Saudi Arabia share his views, but it is a poisonous environment for those who harbor uncertainty. In a place that demands public conformity to a narrow interpretation of Islamic orthodoxy and servility to religion’s gatekeepers, Kashgari said too much. About the Author Toby C. Toby C. Yes, It Could Happen Here - by Madawi Al-Rasheed.
In the age of Arab revolutions, will Saudis dare to honor Facebook calls for anti-government demonstrations on March 11? Will they protest at one of Jeddah's main roundabouts? Or will they start in Qatif, the eastern region where a substantial Shiite majority has had more experience in real protest? Will Riyadh remain cocooned in its cloak of pomp and power, hidden from public gaze in its mighty sand castles? Saudi Arabia is ripe for change. Despite its image as a fabulously wealthy realm with a quiescent, apolitical population, it has similar economic, demographic, social, and political conditions as those prevailing in its neighboring Arab countries. There is no reason to believe Saudis are immune to the protest fever sweeping the region. Saudi Arabia is indeed wealthy, but most of its young population cannot find jobs in either the public or private sector. Like their neighbors, Saudis want jobs, houses, and education, but they also desire something else. "Death to Al Sa`ud" Chants by Thousands in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province: A Game Changer?
[This post will be updated and further corroborated in the coming days] Saudi security forces have killed at least three people in al Qatif, in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, since the killing of nineteen-year-old Naser al-Mheishi during confrontations with security forces at a road block in the Shweika district on Sunday 20 November 2011. Ali al-Filfil, twenty-four, was killed during a protest on Monday, while Ali Abdullah Al Qreires, twenty-six, and Munib al-Sayyid Al Adnan, twenty, were killed during a mass protest on Wednesday 23 November. Protests in this predominantly Shi`i region evolved after Sunday's shooting. Thousands swarmed the streets calling for the "Death to Al Sa`ud" (i.e., death to the Saudi royal family). One can speculate as to the significance of this incident, but it does not seem that it will be the last, nor an anecdotal incident. Journalist Who Questioned Legitimacy of Saudi Regime Suspended from National Press Club.
On Monday, 14 November 2011, I went to a news conference at the National Press Club, where I am a member, titled "His Royal Highness Prince Turki al-Faisal al-Sa'ud of Saudi Arabia. " I asked a tough question at the news conference -- a question that dealt with the very legitimacy of the Saudi regime. Before the end of the day, I had received a letter informing me that I was suspended from the National Press Club "due to your conduct at a news conference. " The letter, signed by the executive director of the Club, William McCarren, accused me of violating rules prohibiting "boisterous and unseemly conduct or language. " After several days of efforts, I have been able to obtain video of the news conference. Prior to the event, I skimmed some material from Human Rights Watch on Saudi Arabia: Toby Jones (Rutgers University, author of Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia) recently wrote of Saudi Arabia: Hickman: Sam, let him answer.
Turki: I will try my best sir. Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah promises $36 billion in benefits. After three months away, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz promised his subjects billions of dollars in new benefits as he returned home today to a region roiled by revolt. Skip to next paragraph Subscribe Today to the Monitor Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS ofThe Christian Science MonitorWeekly Digital Edition As other leaders across the Middle East scurry to appease discontented citizens, the king introduced 19 new measures estimated to cost 135 riyals ($36 billion), according to John Sfakianakis, chief economist of Banque Sausi Fransi. The measures address inflation and housing, expand social security benefits, and ease unemployment and education costs – two areas of particular concern to Saudi youths. (Editor's note: The original version of the story underestimated the cost of the measures.)
King Abdullah's nation is seemingly moored in the eye of the epic storm howling around it. More than ever before, Saudis are openly calling for change, including political reforms. Saudi Arabia's unrest in Qatif. Here's a piece on a topic that gets scant coverage generally speaking — the wave of protests and dissidence that has hit Saudi Arabia over the last year. Jess Hill in the Global Mail: It's all happening in Saudi Arabia's Eastern Province, home to most of the Kingdom's Shia minority, and 90 per cent of its oil.
Seven people have been shot dead by Saudi security forces since October 2011, two in the past month alone. The Saudi Interior Ministry says these deaths resulted from gun battles between protesters and police. But in all amateur videos that show protesters being shot, there is no evidence that protesters were shooting back.There have been remarkable scenes of rebellion. One photograph, taken on February 10 this year, shows a young man hurling an effigy of Crown Prince Nayef at a row of armoured anti-riot tanks. Saudis Stymied by Fear - IWPR Institute for War & Peace Reporting - P50463. Desire for change is there, but state control is too great. People in Saudi Arabia don’t have much personal experience of political organisation or protest. But we have watched the uprisings in the region very closely, feeling that these were our revolutions too - we are all Arab and we all feel the pain of dictatorships.
When the revolutions began in Tunisia and Egypt, our government here was very afraid. They dedicated billions of dollars and created 30,000 new jobs in the security sector to combat any potential unrest, as well as taking steps to strengthen the religious establishment even further. The government knows that in Saudi Arabia, religion has huge power.
Here, we are told that to protest goes against Islam - and that to have a good relationship with God we first of all must have good relations with our king. It’s true that some Saudis want to keep the regime the way it is. There are some small signs, though. It is not easy to be an activist in Saudi Arabia.