Posted on 06/06/2017 11:27:53 AM PDT by Incorrigible
By Alastair Crooke
BEIRUT — The dramatic arrival of Da’ish (ISIS) on the stage of Iraq has shocked many in the West. Many have been perplexed — and horrified — by its violence and its evident magnetism for Sunni youth. But more than this, they find Saudi Arabia’s ambivalence in the face of this manifestation both troubling and inexplicable, wondering, “Don’t the Saudis understand that ISIS threatens them, too?”
It appears — even now — that Saudi Arabia’s ruling elite is divided. Some applaud that ISIS is fighting Iranian Shiite “fire” with Sunni “fire”; that a new Sunni state is taking shape at the very heart of what they regard as a historical Sunni patrimony; and they are drawn by Da’ish’s strict Salafist ideology.
Other Saudis are more fearful, and recall the history of the revolt against Abd-al Aziz by the Wahhabist Ikhwan (Disclaimer: this Ikhwan has nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwan — please note, all further references hereafter are to the Wahhabist Ikhwan, and not to the Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwan), but which nearly imploded Wahhabism and the al-Saud in the late 1920s.
Many Saudis are deeply disturbed by the radical doctrines of Da’ish (ISIS) — and are beginning to question some aspects of Saudi Arabia’s direction and discourse...
Conclusion:
The Saudi Ikhwani history is plain: As Ibn Saud and Abd al-Wahhab made it such in the 18th century; and as the Saudi Ikhwan made it such in the 20th century. ISIS real target must be the Hijaz the seizure of Mecca and Medina and the legitimacy that this will confer on ISIS as the new Emirs of Arabia.
(Excerpt) Read more at huffingtonpost.com ...
That’s my take too. I don’t NEED to understand people that are mass murderers, they just need to be killed.
Besides, I can see how Mohammed behaved. That’s about all I need to know.
Maybe. But all those elements were in league with the Soviets and were a potential threat to the middle eastern oil supplies.
We tend to forget now just how big a threat the Soviets were. The American alliance with Saudi Arabia is what kept the world price of oil below the Soviet cost of production so they couldn't earn any hard currency from the sale of oil. Just like the US alliance with South Africa kept the world prices of gold and diamonds below the Soviet cost of production. The Soviet Union imploded because their economy collapsed and it was measures like this that made it happen. So yes, our support for the Saudi's has had some very negative consequences, but it has still been worth it.
It is fair now to ask why we continue to support the Saudi's. Sure, they are our allies against Iran, but Iran is not the Soviet Union. And Iran has made attempts to soften their relationship with us.
We were facing an aggressively expanding Soviet Union that was preaching anti-colonialism and getting great political mileage out if it. We are supposed to be the successors of the American Revolution. What else could we have done?
What if there is no more Medina/Mecca?
Absolutely ClearLogic...
Still waiting...
Should be read by conservatives. But i had a hard time believing i actually reading this on Huffpo. I thought i was reading the Atlantic.
I hit the like icon. Foreign policy always flows from history which the informed should not be ignorant of, as the overall college crowd seems to be.
You Cant Understand ISIS If You Dont Know the History of...
"Islam did not rise except through Ali's sword and Khadijah's wealth,"
Two recent distinctions I have picked up are that the Wahhabist Ikhwan went into revolt or armed action in the 20s to force the Bedouin tribal groups into villages and cities where they could be forced to adhere to Sharia law rather than live the slap-dash manner of herders. Bedouin were hardly observant.
Secondly, the Ikhwan when beat down by the Al Saud family was largely absorbed into the nation’s militia or national guard.
I had already understood that the Wahhabi sect had arisen hand-in-glove with the House of Saud from readings after 9/11. They were the religous/secular rule sides to the same power centralization.
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