THE UNITED STATES TO SAUDI ARABIA: CONTROL WAHHABI ISLAM

Adding oil to the fire, liberal America has continued to insist on a total and radical change in curriculum in Saudi schools, and for the containment of Wahhabi Islam as a pillar of the regime. This demand is difficult to meet. Naively, the United States believes that a more liberal education would lessen the possibility of more terrorism emanating out of the Kingdom. A realistic correction of vision is in order. Consider Algeria, where education had once been liberal and French. Is there less terrorism emanating from that country, so close to Europe? Hardly.

But the American national security establishment needs to so something. This becomes particularly urgent in the context of pressure by right-wing pro-Israeli forces in the country. These forces have labored as hard as bin Laden to turn the war on terror into a Christian-Muslim civilizational clash.

The American pressure on the Kingdom has not gone unanswered. Crown Prince Abdallah has shown quite a lot of courage by initiating a realistic plan to end the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all (See the first issue of SPC). This initiative has cost him dearly in political capital among the religious traditionalists. This constituency, our nemesis, is nonetheless important in Saudi politics--similar, in a limited sort of way, to the importance of the Evangelists in American politics. Moreover, Abdallah was systematic in removing the administration of girls' schools from religious institutions to the Ministry of Education. This policy was the result of the avoidable death of fourteen schoolgirls in a fire at a school in Mecca in March, where the religious police (Al-Mutawwain) pushed the girls back into the burning school, and actively hampered the efforts of the male rescuers, to avoid the intermingling of girls and men. As a result, demonstrations and protests were said to have spread throughout the Kingdom, mostly by women, though others took advantage to air their grievances. Many of these protests were said to have taken place in the mostly-Shiite Eastern Province. A crackdown followed. While not directly in response to U.S. pressure, the Crown Prince was swift at using the occasion of the Mecca fire to dilute the power of the traditional Islamists by weakening their influence over the education of girls.

Statements by Prince Nayef and Prince Sultan indicate that the Saudi establishment is moving to contain the Islamic traditionalists. One of Nayef's statements contained a veiled threat to the religious police, reminding them that their salaries after all, come from the state. He asked them to ease up.

On the security level, the Saudi government has increased its monitoring of mosques (an estimated 80,000), and has forbidden the discussion by the "mosque orators" (Imams) of bin Laden's ideas and of attacks against the West and Israel. A spate of car bombings against Westerners in the kingdom point to a campaign by the exiled politician-turned-cult-leader to discredit the government--to prove it unable to keep peace in the country and rein in chaos. In fact, the Saudi opposition repeatedly warns about the "coming chaos," so much so that one is left with the distinct impression that it is praying for it.