When Prince Salman became
King Salman, world leaders wanted to know about the man now controlling the
country that exports more oil than any other, Saudi Arabia. Several leading publications claimed
that the 79 year old king suffers from serious chronic illnesses. The Economist
proposed that his predecessor, King Abdullah, had concerns about handing the
crown to Salman because Salman may be suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The Atlantic, too, reported in 2010 that Salman suffered from dementia. The official
reaction of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the intergovernmental
organization that is supposed to represent the wealthy Gulf States but actually
serves to promote Saudi interests and point of view, to Egypt's claim that Qatar supports terrorism, suggests that the King
might be indeed suffering from dementia. The background for this story is as
follows:
Last week, ISIL’s branch
in Libya killed, in its trademark revolting ways, 21 Egyptian workers. The next
day, Egypt, ostensibly, in coordination with the Libyan government—or at least
one of the Libyan governments, attacked ISIL in Libya. The government of
al-Sisi sought political cover from Arab countries. The Arab League issued a
statement of “understanding,” to which Qatar objected. The Egyptian
representative in the Arab League, Tariq Adil, responded by accusing Qatar of
supporting terrorism. Qatar recalled its top diplomat from Cairo and the GCC
secretary, Abd al-Latif al-Zayyani, issued a harsh response saying that “the accusations against Qatar
are untrue” and that “Qatar, along with its sister countries in the GCC, has
made sincere efforts to fight terrorism and extremism.”
Hours later, the GCC issued a second statement, this time saying that the
GCC “reaffirms its full support to Egypt and its president Abd al-Fattah
al-Sisi to fight terrorism inside and outside Egypt… and that the security of
Egypt is important for the security of the GCC.” In a sense, this statement is
a retraction of the first one. Since the GCC generally represent the Saudi point
of view, these conflicting statements in the span of 24 hours suggest that the
King of Saudi Arabia is either suffering from dementia or is trying to have his
cake and eat it. He wants to be a friend of both Egypt and Qatar, despite that
Qatar and Egypt have serious differences.
In the end, it would seem
that the GCC chose not to escalate their conflict with Egypt. But this is
clearly a temporary fix. Around the world, the frequency of statements and
publications critical of the GCC, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar, is
increasing. The public too see Saudi and Qatari roles unfavorably. The first GCC statement of support to Qatar generated nearly 46 million reactions on social media, most of which critical to Qatar. Leaders of Qatar and Saudi Arabia are spending more time denying
their support to terrorist groups. In
the long run, these two countries must confront the fact that they are indeed
enablers of terrorism by virtue of their privileging of Salafism over all other
interpretations of Islam. Regionally, Qatar and Saudi Arabia must abandon their
foolish distinction between ISIL in Iraq and Syria and other ISIL’s in Egypt,
Libya, and Lebanon. They are all natural growth of violent Salafism, which
branched out of the kind of conservatism these two countries espoused and
promoted around the world for more than 70 years.
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* Prof. SOUAIAIA teaches at the University of Iowa. His most recent book, Anatomy
of Dissent in Islamic Societies, provides
a historical and theoretical treatment of rebellious movements and ideas since
the rise of Islam. Opinions are the author’s, speaking on matters of public
interest; not speaking for the university or any other organization with which
he is affiliated.
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