OUR DANGEROUS SAUDI ADDICTION
David Cameron has recently been visiting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, an Islamic theocratic monarchy, a society with laws and social mores that would not be out of place in the middle Ages. Here he will presumably be talking about the current situation in the Middle East.
Will they discuss the situation in Bahrain? Will he raise any concerns about the position of women in Saudi society, or perhaps request a private meeting with the Archbishop of Riyadh…..oops, silly me.
In Saudi Arabia it is illegal to openly practice Christianity or any religion other than Islam; bibles are confiscated at the border. Thus the state that has done most to proselytize its own particular extreme brand of Islam, Wahhabism, from the madrassa’s of Northern Pakistan to Muslim Associations, Mosques and ‘faith based’ schools* in the US and here in the UK, would not dream of allowing any degree of reciprocity. Don’t however expect Cameron to press for any changes to this situation, nor press the case for the peaceful protesters in Bahrain, against whom the Saudi’s provided tanks. Kow towing to this theocratic police state is purely a consequence of its oil wealth, our biggest trading partner in the Middle East, we are constantly informed, which it seems, condemns us to the role of fawning sycophant.
Now not only is this role humiliating it is against both our long and short term interests. Those who both masterminded and carried out the London bombings in 2005 took their ideology, training and principles from just these same madrases in Northern Pakistan that are currently providing a steady stream of recruits for the Taliban, setting IED’s to kill British Soldiers; whilst here in the UK schools and institutions funded by the Saudi’s are creating a disaffected generation of young Muslims hostile to the culture around them, ripe for recruitment by Islamacist fanatics so regularly fed and watered with Saudi money.
As across the middle east the autocratic regimes so long courted by the west are, when not already swept away, beginning to crumble in the face of popular protest. How long the Saudi regime can insulate itself from this wave is a mute point, however in crude terms of self interest it makes sense to wean ourselves of our addiction to Saudi Riyal’s whilst we still have time, though don’t hold your breath whilst waiting for this to happen.
*When can we get away from the truly unconscionable business of labeling infants Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc and filling their heads with all kind of nonsense such as creationism, prohibiting exposure to other perspectives.Surely this amounts to child abuse.
Will they discuss the situation in Bahrain? Will he raise any concerns about the position of women in Saudi society, or perhaps request a private meeting with the Archbishop of Riyadh…..oops, silly me.
In Saudi Arabia it is illegal to openly practice Christianity or any religion other than Islam; bibles are confiscated at the border. Thus the state that has done most to proselytize its own particular extreme brand of Islam, Wahhabism, from the madrassa’s of Northern Pakistan to Muslim Associations, Mosques and ‘faith based’ schools* in the US and here in the UK, would not dream of allowing any degree of reciprocity. Don’t however expect Cameron to press for any changes to this situation, nor press the case for the peaceful protesters in Bahrain, against whom the Saudi’s provided tanks. Kow towing to this theocratic police state is purely a consequence of its oil wealth, our biggest trading partner in the Middle East, we are constantly informed, which it seems, condemns us to the role of fawning sycophant.
Now not only is this role humiliating it is against both our long and short term interests. Those who both masterminded and carried out the London bombings in 2005 took their ideology, training and principles from just these same madrases in Northern Pakistan that are currently providing a steady stream of recruits for the Taliban, setting IED’s to kill British Soldiers; whilst here in the UK schools and institutions funded by the Saudi’s are creating a disaffected generation of young Muslims hostile to the culture around them, ripe for recruitment by Islamacist fanatics so regularly fed and watered with Saudi money.
As across the middle east the autocratic regimes so long courted by the west are, when not already swept away, beginning to crumble in the face of popular protest. How long the Saudi regime can insulate itself from this wave is a mute point, however in crude terms of self interest it makes sense to wean ourselves of our addiction to Saudi Riyal’s whilst we still have time, though don’t hold your breath whilst waiting for this to happen.
*When can we get away from the truly unconscionable business of labeling infants Christian, Muslim, Hindu, etc and filling their heads with all kind of nonsense such as creationism, prohibiting exposure to other perspectives.Surely this amounts to child abuse.
