First and foremost, you need to
know why exactly Saudi Arabia does that and how it began.
Saudi Arabia
even before discovery of oil, was known for relying heavily on mercenaries and
regular forces of other nations for territorial expansion, right from days of
Abdulaziz al-Saud, also called ibn Saud. Many of these mercenaries were tribal
groups of desert like the Bedouin clans who recently converted, and one of
these clans was called “Otaibi”.
Otaibi led a
group called “al-Ikhwan”, led by a Sultan bin Bajad al-Otaibi, who were
instrumental in the process of taking over regions after regions of Arabian peninsula.
This fellow over here in bold, was a Wahabbi to the bone and wanted to enforce
that everywhere, even in places where Sunnis were not even a majority.
Apparently, this
put him at odds with his friend and later on foe, ibn Saud. Somewhere post
1927, Ikhwan boys felt that ibn Saud was not being “Islamic enough” and decided
to rise against him in what would later become the “Ikhwan revolt”.
The “Ikhwan”
fellows
Timely help by
British Empire and Kuwait alongside other clans of desert helped ibn Saud a
lot, and finally Ikhwan was defeated. The leaders were either arrested or
killed, and whatever left was reorganized into Saudi military of what would
become the “Saudi Arabian National Guards.”
Ikhwan was gone,
atleast what House of Saud thought.
Now you may wonder, why I am
narrating you a tale of formation of Saudi Arabia here when question is about its
military’s bad performance. The answer to your question requires this
explanation too.
One of the relatives of now-dead
bin Bajad, a grandson called Juhayman al-Otaibi, was someone who spent a
brief stint in Saudi Arabian National Guards, and later on turned to the same
Wahabbi teachings that his grandpa relied on. Also like his grandpa, he hated
anything modern in the country, from motorized cars to telegraph poles, some stuff
that became common there because of the rapid modernization from the oil
industry. He even hated the King sending his own sons to study in foreign land.
Somewhere in Medina, the second
holiest city in Islam, he went on to join a group which he found very similar
to his own beliefs, begin a fundraising program, and it ultimately came down to
one thing- removing House of Saud , and force on a more hardline rule over
Saudi Arabia.
The incident that saw this as witness
happened in Mecca, in form of hijacking of the Grand Mosque.
Now this was something that
literally was something insulting to King of Saudi back then, who was seen as
“Custodian of the holy mosques”. Apparently his requests of sending troops
inside the mosque was vehemently opposed by the nation’s highest clerics (some
apparently were sympathetic to the Ikhwan instead), who wanted the King to
regress the country to “old days” and use the oil money to spread the ideals of
Wahhabism. The King said “yes”.
The insurgents of course were
later flushed out with help of French GIGN and Pakistani SSG, however whatever
those chaps wanted, they achieved greatly. Saudi Arabia decided to turn the
watches and calendars of its society backwards and became a nation which not
just enforced Wahhabism on anyone inside their country, but also pump in huge
amounts of money outside the country to make sure it is alive and kicking. An
act that ultimately led to Saudi Arabia has a hell lot of detractors and
enemies in long run, especially among people in nations with long-standing
diplomatic ties with them simply because it’s the largest oil-producing nation.
To explain how bad this is, every
single of world’s major terrorist groups like groups in Chechnya, groups like
Hizbul Mujahidin, Indian Mujahidin, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Abu Sayyaf, Jemmah
Islamiyyah, ……(endless list) tend to have their religious paraphernalia being
strikingly similar to the brand preached in Saudi Arabia. Even some of the
others which are officially not terrorists but have tendencies similar to them,
like the Deobandi movement, controversial preachers like Zakir Naik, and
similar clerics in Indonesia, all have their branding, exactly similar to
what’s going on in Saudi Arabia.
Of course, backfiring is bound to
happen, however as I said already, it’s not the Saudi Arabia that world likes, its
Saudi oil. Also takeover of Saudi Arabia in a military manner (too easy
considering their above-average weapons and below-average home-grown soldiers)
is not an option, since many fears that any such attempt will make the extremism
contained there to simply spill off in a worse manner.
So basically, the Saudi kingdom’s
biggest insurance is - oil, which again is not going to last forever, and
that’s what is leading to today the country pulling out the plug [1]
Okay, funded enough violence,
time to stop it- thus said mBS
Slowly and steadily, Saudis have
begun feeling the heat. Now what I feel is, that this heat should be applied
even more. Countries who understand how dangerous this problem is, should make
sure to regulate any religious paraphernalia that isn’t native to their land.
They should use their respective Home Ministry, HRD Ministry, or even their
internal intelligence organizations with complete impunity to block any such
texts and if possible, remove all references of Wahhabism. In addition, a tight
control over religious bodies, preachers and social media accounts connected to
them should be done, along with being kept a hawk eye’s upon, and any violation
should be dealt with the strong arms of law and police.
Footnotes
[1] Saudi Arabia To Stop Funding Mosques In Foreign Countries For ‘Security Reasons’: Report
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