As non-Wahhabi Saudis continue to resist state dogma, clashes with state police look set to increase in frequency, and violence
Mai Yamani
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 March 2009
"......From the regime's point of view, however, Shia Iran is now the most serious security threat. The Saudi authorities perceived the Shia demonstrations as an assertion of Iranian policy, as they coincided precisely with Iran's celebration of the 30th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution. Suppression of the Shia is thus a part of the kingdom's strategy to counter Iran's bid for regional hegemony.
But this thinking is tremendously short-sighted. Only by transforming Saudi Arabia's currently monolithic Saudi/Wahhabi national identity into a more inclusive one will the Kingdom become a model that is attractive to its minorities. Today, the disempowered Shia are forced to seek political connections and backing from the region's wider Shia political movements to compensate for the discrimination they face at home.
So the choice for the Saudi rulers is stark: empower the Shia within the system, or watch as they increase their power through external alliances. The threat that this would represent is not abstract: the kingdom's borders are very porous.....
Although, the Saudi security forces, the national guard, and the marines crushed the rebellion, the domestic tensions that fueled it remain. And Ayatollah Khomeini challenged the Al Saud's ideological monopoly and control of Mecca and Medina. Khomeini challenged the very concept of monarchy in Islam by declaring that "those with authority" are not kings but religious scholars.
Mai Yamani
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 15 March 2009
"......From the regime's point of view, however, Shia Iran is now the most serious security threat. The Saudi authorities perceived the Shia demonstrations as an assertion of Iranian policy, as they coincided precisely with Iran's celebration of the 30th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution. Suppression of the Shia is thus a part of the kingdom's strategy to counter Iran's bid for regional hegemony.
But this thinking is tremendously short-sighted. Only by transforming Saudi Arabia's currently monolithic Saudi/Wahhabi national identity into a more inclusive one will the Kingdom become a model that is attractive to its minorities. Today, the disempowered Shia are forced to seek political connections and backing from the region's wider Shia political movements to compensate for the discrimination they face at home.
So the choice for the Saudi rulers is stark: empower the Shia within the system, or watch as they increase their power through external alliances. The threat that this would represent is not abstract: the kingdom's borders are very porous.....
Although, the Saudi security forces, the national guard, and the marines crushed the rebellion, the domestic tensions that fueled it remain. And Ayatollah Khomeini challenged the Al Saud's ideological monopoly and control of Mecca and Medina. Khomeini challenged the very concept of monarchy in Islam by declaring that "those with authority" are not kings but religious scholars.
The Saudi religious establishment has long been on alert to this rival and threatening entity. Sefr al Hawali, a prominent Saudi Wahhabi cleric, warned of the dangers of the "Shia arc" following the Shia intifada in Iraq in 1991. But, since the war in Iraq in 2003 and the empowerment of Shia across the region, the Saudi regime faces sizeable, restless, and politically ambitious Shia populations in neighbouring Gulf countries, especially Kuwait and Bahrain, as well as in Lebanon....."
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