The Spread of Wahhabi Ideology in Boston

This is a scary article.

This op-ed from The Boston Globe reports on the opening of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center in Roxbury. This center was funded by the Saudis.

In the guise of diversity and moderation, the center will allow the spread of Wahhabi extremism and the promotion of the values of the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet city officials and the public refuse to accept the reality of the backers of the center and their ominous motives. Check out this article for more facts and frightening evidence.

CDHR presents:

CDHR is pleased to invite you to attend and participate in an informative and thought-provoking conference:

How Empowering Saudi Women Can Undermine Islamist Extremism

This unique conference will be held on Wednesday July 29, from 10 AM to 2 PM on Capitol Hill, Room HVC 201 A & B in the Capitol Visitors Center, a short walk from Capital South Metro Station, Blue and Orange line.

Saudi Arabia is a country “Without Borders”. Because of its centrality to Islam, Saudi Arabia plays a major role in the lives, attitudes and perceptions of an estimated 1.5 billion Arabs and Muslims, especially the most vulnerable and poverty stricken who look to the autocratic ruling Saudi dynasty and its pre-modern institutions for religious guidance.

But more urgent and relevant to the world’s current economic stability and survivability, Saudi Arabia sits atop the world’s largest known oil reserves and has the capacity to produce and ship it to all regions of the world. The combination of grave religious and economic power in the hands of one of the world’s last absolute but shaky governments can cause domestic, regional and global havoc. Given these obtrusive realities, the international community has no choice but to be ominously concerned about Saudi Arabia’s security and stability which have been, until now, maintained by the sword internally and by US military might externally.

However, recent events and the unprecedented politicization of radical Islam in the Middle East have exposed the dangers and ineffectiveness of relying on brute methods and religious totalitarianism to maintain stability and ensure global peace. Luckily, there is a safe, readily available and attainable option: Empower the Saudi people, especially women, to secure and stabilize their country, which is in the best interest of all citizens, the Middle East and the international community. This can be done only if the large and ideologically divided autocratic Saudi ruling princes accept the fact that the country is not their private property, “Saudi” Arabia, and be made aware by the international community, especially the US, that not to move forward is not an option because of the country’s religious and economic importance to global peace and economic stability.

Having had been deeply involved in the Saudi Kingdom’s affairs since its inception in 1933, the United States is in a position to play hardball with the ruling Saudi oligarchs. America designed and constructed the Saudi ruling family’s infrastructure, created, armed and trained its armed forces, airlines, security apparatus and even designed its currency. In reality, if it were not for America’s protection of the Saudi monarchy and its vast desert domain, the country and its rulers could have been overrun by one of the dynasty’s staunch and stronger rivals in the region, Iraq or Iran or could have been overthrown by its repressed population. These facts are more salient now than ever and the US is the only country the Saudi princes can rely on to save them and protect their kingdom.

Empowering Saudi women will strengthen Saudi Arabia socially, economically and politically. It will also help protect and promote the United States’ security and interests and is in accordance with America’s revered and deeply held democratic values. Granting Saudi women their full incontrovertible rights is not only morally correct, but it will ultimately tilt the balance in favor of moderation and will help eradicate the root causes of oppression and religious totalitarianism, not only in Saudi Arabia, but throughout Arab and Muslim communities worldwide.

As documented by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Freedom House and even by the US Department of State, Saudi women are among the most oppressed and marginalized citizens in Arab and Muslim countries. In addition to its immoral and crippling political, social, educational and economic consequences on Saudi society, denying Saudi women their natural and human rights because of their gender is imitated in other Muslims countries, especially among poor and traditional groups and their Shariah court systems to justify abuses and marginalization of Muslim women.

As the only NGO in the US focusing totally on Saudi Arabia, CDHR has assembled a group of highly educated and sophisticated human rights activists Muslim women and men, as well as former US government officials to elaborate on the importance of empowering Saudi women.

Please join us on Wednesday July 29th from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Capitol Hill in the Capitol Visitors Center Room HVC 201 A&B to investigate this vital topic with us. Seats are limited so please RSVP. To reserve your spot or for further information contact Lauren Baker at lauren@cdhr.info or call us at 202.558.5552

The Frightening Effects of Saudi influence in Pakistan

The Saudi political and religious influence on countries worldwide should not be underestimated, as it is a significant menace for international stability and security. President Obama faces a host of urgent global issues; yet the continued US support for the Saudi royal family only works against US interests and allows Saudi Arabia to continue denying basic human rights to the Saudi people.

Saleem H. Ali, a Pakistani who is a professor at the University of Vermont, observes in this article for the Daily Times that the Saudi influence in Pakistan is shoring up the Taliban and feeding religious extremism. Saudi financing of institutions that preach intolerance and hate and the spread of its state-sponsored branch of Islam, Wahhabism, creates insurgencies, religious friction, and turmoil in regions all around the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Chechnya, Bosnia, Nigeria, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, and even the United States. Americans and the international community should be extremely skeptical about the Obama administration’s willingness to embrace autocratic regimes, including the Saudi royal family.

Why is Empowering Saudi Women so Important?

CDHR is hosting a conference on July 29^th on Capitol Hill about the importance of empowering Saudi women. The people of Saudi Arabia lack basic human rights, women in particular. Saudi women cannot make basic decisions about their lives, but must have the signed approval of male guardians to travel, receive surgery, to study, or to have a job, among many other basic daily activities. Saudi women are not allowed to drive. Saudi Arabia’s severe, exclusionary branch of Islam, Wahhabism, is the foundation for the denial of rights to Saudi women by the influential religious establishment and the Saudi royal family.

 

Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia’s forceful spread of this ideology abroad fosters extremism and poses a dangerous, growing threat to the security of the United States and the international community.  Additionally, many Americans do not realize that the United States continues to support the Saudi royal family despite its denial of basic human rights. The United States, as a promoter of democracy worldwide, and because of its influence as an international leader, has the moral obligation to cease supporting the Saudi royal family and lead a call for reforms. 

 

These informative articles outline the importance of empowering Saudi women and give examples of the horrific ways Saudi Arabia denies women basic human rights. 

 

Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia

A report from Human Rights Watch drawing on more than 100 interviews with Saudi women to document the effects of these discriminatory policies on a woman’s most basic rights.

 

What Drives the Youth into the Arms of Extremists

An article from Arab News on why extremism continues to thrive in the Middle East.

 

 Book Sheds Light on Flaws in Education System 

A female Saudi professor describes the Saudi education system as a “locked box” that encourages aspects that foster terrorism.

 

 A former Jihadist explains in an article for The Washington Post how he realized extremism was not the way of Islam and calls for an Islamic reform. Losing My Jihadism: A Cry for Change

 Mansour al-Nogaidan, author of the above article, explains his personal journey and calls for reform of Islam in an op-ed for The New York Times. Telling the Truth, Facing the Whip: 

Finally, in The Jihadi Who Kept Asking Why, Elizabeth Rubin examines the background of several ex-Jihadists, including Mansour al-Nogaidan. This in-depth article for The New York Times is very revealing about the causes of extremism and ways to prevent it.

An article from BBC News on the death of 14 Saudi girls who tried to flee a fire in their school. They could not escape because the school gates were locked, as they usually are to ensure strict segregation of the sexes. Schoolgirls Die in Mecca Stampede

 

 Saudi Police 'Stopped' Fire Rescue The Saudi religious police refused to allow schoolgirls to leave a burning building because the girls were not wearing the required headscarves and abayas. This resulted in the deaths of 15 Saudi schoolgirls.  

Banning the Burka

Should France outlaw the burka?

Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, has stirred up controversy by speaking out against the burka, declaring that the symbol of subservience should be banned in France. Sarkozy argued that the burqa, a full-body, concealing garment, imprisons women and prevents them from participating in social life. Sarkozy stated, “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic.” In 2004, the Islamic headscarf and other religious symbols were banned in state schools in France. There are about five million Muslims living in France. If France decides to ban the burka, this will be a significant precedent for other European countries. 

Should France enact legislation against the burka? Some see the burka as a sign of oppression, disfigurement, and humiliation that is forced upon Muslim women. It originates in Saudi Arabia, from the severe Wahhabi branch of Islam. Should President Obama and the US Congress enact a law to ban the wearing of the headscarf, veil, and burqa in the United States?

 Here is the article from BBC News and another from The National. The BBC News has a link with an explanation of different types of Islamic head scarves, including the hijab, the burka, and the niqab. 

Additionally, James Delingpole in his column for the Telegraph thinks President Obama has a lot to learn from Sarkozy's outspoken rejection of the burka and what it stands for. 

What do you think? 

Save the Date!

Wednesday, July 29th

The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, CDHR

Presents:

How empowering Saudi women can undermine Islamist extremism

CDHR invites you to support and attend this very important and thought-provoking conference. Many of you are aware of the marginalization of Saudi women and its destructive impact on Saudi and Muslim societies as well as the international community. Empowering and including Saudi women in their country’s development and decision-making processes will tilt the balance in favor of religious tolerance, social and political balance and the building of a forward-looking society.

The US has had mutual financial and strategic close relations with the Saudi autocratic ruling family for decades. Unfortunately, this relationship has ignored documented gross violations of basic human rights in Saudi Arabia. In addition, a deadly Islamist (Salafi) ideology, Wahhabism, is gaining strength in Saudi Arabia and in most Sunni Muslim countries and communities, especially in South and Central Asia, Europe and now in the US.

Contrary to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia’s calls for religious tolerance among different faiths, none exist in his kingdom, and Wahhabism is being exported and gaining strength everywhere.

It is our firm belief based on our intimate knowledge of Saudi Arabia, its people, religious sects, ruling family and its institutions, that empowering Saudi women will undermine religious extremism and its byproduct: Terrorism and religious totalitarianism. The American people, regardless of national origins, ethnicity and religious orientation and backgrounds have a stake in supporting the Saudi women to gain their natural and human rights to counter the Saudi deadly religious ideology.

We encourage you to join us for two panel discussions and lunch in the Capitol Visitors Center Room HVC 201 A&B on Wednesday July 29th from 10:00am to 2:00pm. Seats are limited, please RSVP and for futher information contact Lauren Baker at lauren@cdhr.info or 202.558.5552

The Saudi Design on Lebanon

In recent years, Hezbollah has been playing a dangerous game with the Lebanese government. By exploiting multiple pressure points simultaneously, Hezbollah is making remarkable advances in its radical Shia agenda. Earlier this month, Hezbollah seized the mostly-Sunni Muslim West Beirut by force. This ultimately forced the US-backed Lebanese government to join a new unity coalition that gives Hezbollah 11 seats out of 30 in the cabinet, giving them veto power over any decision of the Lebanese government. They were not pressured to disarm in return for this new political power. Additionally, they are allowed to keep their separate telecommunications network and surveillance equipment at Beirut's airport, and are allowed to reinstall the airport security chief linked to the group.
Understandably, Washington has and will continue to bet on its own horse, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Meanwhile, the West is exacerbating the situation by aiding autocratic Arab regimes outside Lebanon who are playing Washington for a fool.
More so than any other Arab regime, the Saudi ruling family is aware that if Hezbollah takes over Lebanon completely, it could form a united front with Iran, Syria, Hamas and Muqtada Al-Sadr's martyrs against Israel, the US and pro-American autocratic Arab regimes, especially the Saudi-Wahhabi alliance. In the long term, such an alliance poses a tremendous threat to Saudi Arabia and its traditional dominance of the Muslim world. But what would happen if this scenario actually played out, and who would inexorably benefit?
Despite the Saudi monarchy's public criticism of Iran's support for its proxies in Syria and Lebanon, a Hezbollah that controls Lebanon both politically and militarily would further the ideological influence of Saudi Arabia's ruling theocrats. In the short term, the fact that Hezbollah is Shia and the Saudis are Sunni is largely irrelevant. In fact, the Saudi government would prefer to see the democratically elected (mostly Sunni and Christian) Lebanese government deposed and replaced by an Islamic system, modeled perhaps on the Wahhabis in Riyadh, the Alawites in Damascus, or the Mullahs in Tehran.
Granted, it is no secret that the Sunni monarchy in Saudi Arabia would like to see the Syrian-Iranian-Hezbollah alliance weakened or dismantled, but their favored method of weakening this alliance makes the Saudis a wild card, not a partner, in America's push for democracy in the Middle East. Specifically, the Saudis know what the Americans fool themselves into ignoring the fact that only by force can extremist regimes and groups be countered.
In Saudi eyes, only after Hezbollah seizes all of Lebanon will the US abandon its fantasies of democratization in favor of military confrontation. The goal, then, is to ensure that such a confrontation between the West and the "Shia Crescent" is both imminent and ferocious. What's more, as long as this battle does not spill over Lebanon's borders, the Saudi royals can stoke and benefit from it without ever lifting a finger.
Given recent events, if Hezbollah uses the political gains made by its new unity government to consolidate a choke-hold over all of Lebanon (the northern half, as well), then the Saudis expect the Israelis (with US support) to react and, unlike in the summer of 2006, to deal Hezbollah and Syria a lasting, crippling defeat. Riyadh hopes to bait one enemy into fighting another, and in the process, the Saudi royals can ensure their security, survival and ideological reach. This became apparent as the Saudi government frankly blamed Hezbollah, announcing that they should "bear the responsibility" for kidnapping two Israeli soldiers, which initiated a military response by Israel in July of 2006. This is an unprecedented move by an Arab government, especially the Saudi government, which has always led the anti-Israeli campaign. The Saudis wanted the Israelis to finish off Hezbollah, but this did not happen.
Now, Hezbollah continues to seek methods with which to overthrow Lebanon's legitimate government. However, if Hezbollah continues making gains through its various military and political tactics, then Israel may be forced once again to shape Lebanon to ensure its security, as it tried to do in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Saudi royals are hoping that Israel will not make the same mistakes twice and thus eliminate Riyadh's theocratic competition for them in Lebanon and elsewhere.
Either way, no one should be deluded by Saudi statements and public charades if and when Israel launches such an assault on Hezbollah's infrastructure in Lebanon, and Syria takes out Iran's nuclear installations. The Saudi royal family will undoubtedly condemn the "Zionists" and the US for supporting them; Riyadh will certainly call for an urgent meeting of the insignificant Arab League, the UN General Assembly and the European Union to condemn Israel, which they will do given historical precedence. The Saudi ruling family will also send massive shipments of food, medicine, tents, doctors and nurses to Lebanon to aid victims of the war, and ultimately, to steal the glory from Hezbollah's remarkable social service programs.
But the real prize for Riyadh will come only after the dust settles. The Saudi government, directly and through prominent businessmen and Prince Al-Waleed (the financier of Islamic study departments in prominent American and European universities), will heavily invest in the rebuilding of Lebanon's infrastructure. In doing so, the Saudi government will also invest energy in exporting Wahhabism among the Lebanese Sunni population, headed by the Hariri family, to represent Saudi interests in Lebanon. As with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen, Afghanistan, Bosnia and other places, wherever Saudi largess goes, Wahhabism follows.
In the wake of Hezbollah's temporary siege of Beirut, many Sunnis have lost faith in their leaders and are increasingly likely to turn to militant Sunni militias for "protection." To put it lightly, however, the offensive nature of such "protection" is a Saudi specialty, and it seems unlikely that Washington has the same outcome in mind for Lebanon. Either way, the Saudi royal family and its Wahhabi religious extremists must not be trusted if anyone is serious about winning the "War on Terrorism."

Ali Alyami is the Executive Director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia. http://www.cdhr.info

Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi government forbids the practice of any religion other than the state-sanctioned interpretation of Islam (Wahhabism). Worship for Muslims in Saudi Arabia is compulsory and during times of worship, all shops, restaurants, radio and television stations must close. Those who do not comply are subject to interrogation, humiliation, imprisonment and flogging. If non-Muslims are caught practicing their faiths in public, they are routinely taken to filthy detention centers and left to languish under harsh conditions. If they are foreigners, they remain in these conditions until they are deported. If religious prisoners come before a court, they face a biased judicial system staffed by extremist judges, who consider non-Muslims and religious minorities to be infidels.

The Saudi government uses religion as a tool of political, social, economic, and psychological oppression. Religion is used to justify tyrannical rule, reject democracy and impose severe censorship on the flow of information into and out of the country under the pretense of protecting Islam from the immoral values of “infidels.”

As host to the birthplace of Islam and the home of its holy shrines in Mecca and Medina, the Saudi ruling dynasty exerts disproportionate religious influence throughout Arab and Muslim communities worldwide. The official state religion, Wahhabism, advocates intolerance and depicts democracy as antithetical to God’s will and power. Unless the international community takes concrete measures to discourage the Saudi institutions from promoting religious hatred the consequences could be catastrophic.

FIND OUT MORE

CDHR's campaign for religious freedom in Saudi Arabia

More on religious freedom from CDHR's Blog