“The World needs Islamic guidance” Says the King
CDHR'S ANALYSIS: IN A SPEECH READ ON HIS BEHALF AT AN INFLUENTIAL MUSLIM SCHOLARS' CONFERENCE IN NOVEMBER 2011, KING ABDULLAH OF SAUDI ARABIA SOUNDED SELF-ASSURED THAT "ONLY ISLAM'S MERCY, LIGHT AND GUIDANCE CAN PROVIDE PEOPLE WITH A WAY FORWARD IN LIFE AND TOWARD THE HEREAFTER." THE KING WENT ON TO IMPLORE ALL MUSLIMS TO CONVINCE NON-MUSLIMS TO COME TO, AND EMBRACE THE MUSLIM FAITH [I.E., THE SAUDI BRAND OF ISLAM, WAHHABI DOCTRINE] BECAUSE HE INEXPLICABLY BELIEVES THAT NON-MUSLIMS ARE IN NEED OF REDEMPTION AND "ISLAM, WITH ITS COMPREHENSIVE DIVINE VALUES AND A BALANCED VIEW OF LIFE, IS ALONE CAPABLE OF RESCUING HUMANKIND FROM ITS CURRENT BEHAVIORAL PREDICAMENT..."
The King reminded Muslims that it’s their obligation to convert non-Muslims to Islam, “The Muslim Ummah has a responsibility to call people to Islam through its Da’wa work around the globe.” Perhaps King Abdullah is not cognizant of the fact that he is presiding over one of the most religiously oppressed and least politically free countries on earth. Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, home to its two holiest shrines, the Quran is its constitution and the Shariah is its law. In other words, Saudi Arabia is ruled in accordance with Islamic teachings, laws and commands, as interpreted by the Kingdom's Hambali/Wahhabi “religious” men.
King Abdullah’s well-timed and pointed plea to the 1.5 billion Muslims during their holiest occasion, the annual pilgrimage rituals, and its far-reaching implications never made it to Western news outlets, despite the fact that the West is his target. One would think that King Abdullah is asking Muslims to perform the impossible given the current slaughtering of Muslims by other Muslims, but he is not. Millions of people around the world are economically hurting, vulnerable and looking for solutions from any source, specially the divine ones.
It is not accidental that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, particularly in Western societies where the overwhelming majority of the populations see Islam as a belief, not as a domineering value system that controls every aspect of its adherents’ lives, perceptions and relations with non-Muslims. The majority of Muslims have been brainwashed into believing that the rule of law, freedom of choice and individual liberty are antithesis to divine laws, therefore blasphemous.
King Abdullah's call on Muslims to spread Islam and its Shariah law must not be taken lightly. He is the “Custodian” of Islam’s two holiest shrines in Mecca and Madina to which most of the world’s 1.5 billion poverty stricken, oppressed and indoctrinated Muslims look for guidance, instructions and money. It would be naïve and myopic to think that the King’s call would fall on deaf ears as many in the West seem to think. After all, he is the absolute ruler of the most religiously and financially influential country in Arab and Muslim lands and beyond.
Prominent Muslim scholars from the prestigious Al-Azhar University and others have described the Saudi brand of Islam, Wahhabism, as enemy number one of Islam and Muslims. The former President of Indonesia Abdulrahman Wahid, a world renowned Muslim scholar himself, called on the international community to unite and defeat the Wahhabi doctrine because it poses a deadly threat to democracies and harmony among people. The West should listen and prevent Islamist ideology from taking root in Western societies, where it will result in social strife, divisions and conflict as is the case in many Arab and Muslim countries and communities.
Some argue that King Abdullah has made changes to rein in extremist activities. King Abdullah has removed a few clerics and some inflammatory phrases from Saudi schools’ text books, eliminated some terrorists in Saudi Arabia and convened interfaith dialogues. While these activities are considered reforms by some, especially in the West, others see them as deceptive window dressing to silence foreign and domestic critics of the debauched Saudi state- imposed doctrine, Wahhabism.
In reality, under King Abdullah’s leadership, Islamist religious fervor has been heightened as a result of implicit and explicit Saudi accusations that the West is engaged in a war against Islam. He has strengthened the Saudi clerics by making it illegal to criticize them domestically and has united Muslim countries, including Iran and Turkey, through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation which consists of 57 states and is headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Spread of Wahhabism throughout the world has been exponentially intensified under King Abdullah more than under any of his predecessors.
