Why Democratic Western Leaders Never Criticise the Barbarians that Rule Saudi Arabia
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On Thursday, a Saudi blogger will receive his second flogging for ‘insulting Islam’. |
It’s difficult to know how
they can get away with it. The
hypocrites that constitute Western regimes I mean. The Saudi regime is the ultimate in barbarity
– there is nothing that ISIS does that they haven’t/don’t do. Which is why they funded and helped create
them and the Taliban from the beginning.
Flogging, beheading, mutilation – you name it they have done it.
And what is the reaction of
President Obama and his cretinous soul-mate Cameron? Not a word of criticism. After all there is not only Saudi oil but
those nice large arms contracts that provide jobs and guarantee that Saudi
wealth will be squandered.
President Obama and his cretinous soul-mate Cameron? Not a word of criticism. After all there is not only Saudi oil but
those nice large arms contracts that provide jobs and guarantee that Saudi
wealth will be squandered.
Let no one be in any doubt –
there isn’t an ounce of morality in Western foreign policy.
there isn’t an ounce of morality in Western foreign policy.
Below is an excellent
article by Robert Fisk in today’s Independent.
article by Robert Fisk in today’s Independent.
Tony Greenstein
The
Independent 14.1.15. Robert Fisk
Independent 14.1.15. Robert Fisk
Sir
William Hunter was a senior British civil servant and in 1871 published a book
which warned of “fanatic swarms” of Sunni Muslims who had “murdered our
subjects”, financed by “men of ample fortune”, while a majority of Muslims were
being forced to decide “once and for all, whether [they] should play the part
of a devoted follower of Islam” or a “peaceable subject”.
William Hunter was a senior British civil servant and in 1871 published a book
which warned of “fanatic swarms” of Sunni Muslims who had “murdered our
subjects”, financed by “men of ample fortune”, while a majority of Muslims were
being forced to decide “once and for all, whether [they] should play the part
of a devoted follower of Islam” or a “peaceable subject”.
Hunter
identified a “hate preacher” as the cause of this “terror”, a man inspired on a
visit to Arabia by an ascetic Muslim called Abdul Wahab whose violent “Wahabi”
followers had formed an alliance with – you guessed it – the House of Saud.
Hunter’s 140-year-old volume The Indian Musalmans – given a dusting of
internet race hatred, murderous attacks by individual Sunni Muslims, cruel
Wahabi-style punishments and all-too familiar proof of second-class citizenship
for Muslims in a European-run state – might have been written today.
identified a “hate preacher” as the cause of this “terror”, a man inspired on a
visit to Arabia by an ascetic Muslim called Abdul Wahab whose violent “Wahabi”
followers had formed an alliance with – you guessed it – the House of Saud.
Hunter’s 140-year-old volume The Indian Musalmans – given a dusting of
internet race hatred, murderous attacks by individual Sunni Muslims, cruel
Wahabi-style punishments and all-too familiar proof of second-class citizenship
for Muslims in a European-run state – might have been written today.
 |
| Raif Badawi has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes for ‘insulting Islam’ on his liberal website |
Even
before Hunter’s day, the Wahabis captured the holy cities of Arabia and –
Isis-style – massacred their inhabitants. Like Isis, they even overran Syria.
Their punishments, and those of their Saudi military supporters, make the
public lashing of today’s Saudi blogger Raif Badawi appear a minor
misdemeanour. Hypocrisy was a theme of Arabian as well as European history.
before Hunter’s day, the Wahabis captured the holy cities of Arabia and –
Isis-style – massacred their inhabitants. Like Isis, they even overran Syria.
Their punishments, and those of their Saudi military supporters, make the
public lashing of today’s Saudi blogger Raif Badawi appear a minor
misdemeanour. Hypocrisy was a theme of Arabian as well as European history.
 |
| Charlie Hebdo Reaction |
Raif
Badawi has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes for ‘insulting Islam’ on his liberal
website
In those days, of course, oil had no meaning. The Saudi ruler was dispatched to
Constantinople in 1818 to have his head chopped off by the local superpower –
the Ottoman Empire – and the European states made no complaint. A young British
army captain later surveyed the destroyed Saudi capital of Diriya – close to
modern-day Riyadh – with satisfaction. But successive campaigns of Saudi-Wahabi
conquest, and then the swift transition of oil from the vile black naphtha, in
which Arabian sheep regularly drowned, into the blood vessels of the Western
world, meant that the purist Wahabi violence – which included the desecration
of mosques, the destruction of ancient Muslim tombs and the murder of
“infidels” – was conveniently separated from the House of Saud and ignored by
Europeans and Americans alike.
Badawi has been sentenced to 1,000 lashes for ‘insulting Islam’ on his liberal
website
In those days, of course, oil had no meaning. The Saudi ruler was dispatched to
Constantinople in 1818 to have his head chopped off by the local superpower –
the Ottoman Empire – and the European states made no complaint. A young British
army captain later surveyed the destroyed Saudi capital of Diriya – close to
modern-day Riyadh – with satisfaction. But successive campaigns of Saudi-Wahabi
conquest, and then the swift transition of oil from the vile black naphtha, in
which Arabian sheep regularly drowned, into the blood vessels of the Western
world, meant that the purist Wahabi violence – which included the desecration
of mosques, the destruction of ancient Muslim tombs and the murder of
“infidels” – was conveniently separated from the House of Saud and ignored by
Europeans and Americans alike.
 |
| Ensaf Haidar, centre, wife of the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, holds a vigil in Montreal, Quebec, urging Saudi Arabia to free her husband (Getty) |
Erased,
too, is history; including the fact that Mohamed Ibn Saud, the leader of the
Nejd, even married Abdul Wahab’s daughter.
too, is history; including the fact that Mohamed Ibn Saud, the leader of the
Nejd, even married Abdul Wahab’s daughter.
Our
disregard of present-day Saudi-Wahabi cruelties and venality might astonish Sir
William Hunter; the Wahabi Indian Muslims in his British Empire were led by an
insurrectionist prelate called Sayyid Ahmed whose followers regarded him as the
next Prophet and whose own pilgrimage to Arabia turned him into a life-long
purger of promiscuity. His believers came from Afghanistan as well as India
where his power lay in what is now Pakistan. In fact, he was proclaimed
“Commander of the Faithful” in Peshawar. His men might have been the Taliban.
disregard of present-day Saudi-Wahabi cruelties and venality might astonish Sir
William Hunter; the Wahabi Indian Muslims in his British Empire were led by an
insurrectionist prelate called Sayyid Ahmed whose followers regarded him as the
next Prophet and whose own pilgrimage to Arabia turned him into a life-long
purger of promiscuity. His believers came from Afghanistan as well as India
where his power lay in what is now Pakistan. In fact, he was proclaimed
“Commander of the Faithful” in Peshawar. His men might have been the Taliban.
Britain’s
wars against the Wahabis were as ferocious as Europe’s today, though far more
costly in lives. And if Hunter rightly identified the second-class status, lack
of employment and poor education of the Sunni Muslims of India as a cause of
insurrection – France, please take note – he also understood that India’s
Muslims were being asked to choose between pure Islam and Queen Victoria. The
Hindus of India and the British rulers were at war with those whom Hunter, mindful
of medieval Christian missions to Jerusalem, caricatured as the
“Crescentaders”.
wars against the Wahabis were as ferocious as Europe’s today, though far more
costly in lives. And if Hunter rightly identified the second-class status, lack
of employment and poor education of the Sunni Muslims of India as a cause of
insurrection – France, please take note – he also understood that India’s
Muslims were being asked to choose between pure Islam and Queen Victoria. The
Hindus of India and the British rulers were at war with those whom Hunter, mindful
of medieval Christian missions to Jerusalem, caricatured as the
“Crescentaders”.
Ensaf
Haidar, centre, wife of the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, holds a vigil in
Montreal, Quebec, urging Saudi Arabia to free her husband (Getty)
Today,
the Americans and Europeans – and of course, our own Prime Minister – like to
draw a line between the “moderate”, friendly, pro-Western, oil-wealthy Saudi
Arabians who are praised for denouncing the “cowardly terrorist attack” in
Paris, and their Crescentader Wahabi friends who behead thieves and drug
dealers after grossly unfair trials, torture their Shia Muslim minorities and
lash their own recalcitrant journalists. The Wahabi Saudis – for they are, of
course, the same – cry crocodile tears over the murder of Charlie Hebdo
cartoonists who lampoon their religion, while sympathising with the purists in
Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who slaughter journalists and aid workers, destroy
ancient monuments and enslave women.
the Americans and Europeans – and of course, our own Prime Minister – like to
draw a line between the “moderate”, friendly, pro-Western, oil-wealthy Saudi
Arabians who are praised for denouncing the “cowardly terrorist attack” in
Paris, and their Crescentader Wahabi friends who behead thieves and drug
dealers after grossly unfair trials, torture their Shia Muslim minorities and
lash their own recalcitrant journalists. The Wahabi Saudis – for they are, of
course, the same – cry crocodile tears over the murder of Charlie Hebdo
cartoonists who lampoon their religion, while sympathising with the purists in
Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan who slaughter journalists and aid workers, destroy
ancient monuments and enslave women.
All in
all, a pretty pass. The Saudis are special, aren’t they? Fifteen of the 19
hijackers of 9/11 were Saudis – and George W Bush immediately arranged for
leading Saudis (including some from the House of Bin Laden) to be freighted out
of America to safety. Osama was himself a Saudi (later de-citizened). The
Taliban were financed and armed by the Saudis; the Taliban’s Organisation for
the “Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice” was identical to the
Saudi-Wahabi religious police in Riyadh and Jeddah. So precious are the Saudis
to us, that Tony Blair was able to close down a British police inquiry into
Anglo-Saudi bribery. “National interest” was at stake. Ours, of course, not
theirs.
all, a pretty pass. The Saudis are special, aren’t they? Fifteen of the 19
hijackers of 9/11 were Saudis – and George W Bush immediately arranged for
leading Saudis (including some from the House of Bin Laden) to be freighted out
of America to safety. Osama was himself a Saudi (later de-citizened). The
Taliban were financed and armed by the Saudis; the Taliban’s Organisation for
the “Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice” was identical to the
Saudi-Wahabi religious police in Riyadh and Jeddah. So precious are the Saudis
to us, that Tony Blair was able to close down a British police inquiry into
Anglo-Saudi bribery. “National interest” was at stake. Ours, of course, not
theirs.
And we
ignore, amid all this tomfoolery, the spread of Saudi money through the
institutions of Sunni Islam in Asia, in the Balkans – take a look at the new
Saudi-designed mosques that mock the wonderful old Ottoman institutions in
Bosnia – and in Western Europe. Suggest that the Saudi authorities – not, of
course, to be confused with their Wahabi fraternity – are supporting Isis, and
journalists will be confronted not by sympathy for their oppressed colleagues,
but by threatening letters from lawyers on behalf of the Saudi government. Even
in the Levant, aid workers are frightened of the school-teaching in
Saudi-funded refugee camps for Syrians.
ignore, amid all this tomfoolery, the spread of Saudi money through the
institutions of Sunni Islam in Asia, in the Balkans – take a look at the new
Saudi-designed mosques that mock the wonderful old Ottoman institutions in
Bosnia – and in Western Europe. Suggest that the Saudi authorities – not, of
course, to be confused with their Wahabi fraternity – are supporting Isis, and
journalists will be confronted not by sympathy for their oppressed colleagues,
but by threatening letters from lawyers on behalf of the Saudi government. Even
in the Levant, aid workers are frightened of the school-teaching in
Saudi-funded refugee camps for Syrians.
As Irish
columnist Fintan O’Toole pointed out this week, there are two words that must
not be spoken in all the official rhetoric about Charlie Hebdo’s dead: Saudi
Arabia. “A hundred billion dollars buys you a lot of silence,” he wrote. “The
house of Saud runs a vicious tyranny that… while the Charlie Hebdo killers
were going about their ultimate acts of censorship… was savagely lashing the
blogger Raif Badawi for daring to promote public debate.”
columnist Fintan O’Toole pointed out this week, there are two words that must
not be spoken in all the official rhetoric about Charlie Hebdo’s dead: Saudi
Arabia. “A hundred billion dollars buys you a lot of silence,” he wrote. “The
house of Saud runs a vicious tyranny that… while the Charlie Hebdo killers
were going about their ultimate acts of censorship… was savagely lashing the
blogger Raif Badawi for daring to promote public debate.”
The
Wahabi grave smashers threaten to destroy the Prophet’s tomb as a religious
duty – just as they have smashed the graves of “saints” in Africa and the
Middle East – but a cartoon of the Prophet is a provocation that deserves
death.
Wahabi grave smashers threaten to destroy the Prophet’s tomb as a religious
duty – just as they have smashed the graves of “saints” in Africa and the
Middle East – but a cartoon of the Prophet is a provocation that deserves
death.
Sure, we
all know the rubric. The Saudis stand in the forefront of the “war against
terror”, arresting, torturing (though we’ll have to go softly on that one) and
imprisoning “terrorists”, condemning Isis as “terrorists”, standing behind the
French and the Europeans in their struggle against “terror”, along with the
Egyptians and the Russians and the Pakistanis and all those other “democrats”
in their “war against terror”.
all know the rubric. The Saudis stand in the forefront of the “war against
terror”, arresting, torturing (though we’ll have to go softly on that one) and
imprisoning “terrorists”, condemning Isis as “terrorists”, standing behind the
French and the Europeans in their struggle against “terror”, along with the
Egyptians and the Russians and the Pakistanis and all those other “democrats”
in their “war against terror”.
Speak not
a word about the Kingdom as a Wahabi-Saudi regime. It would be wrong to do so.
After all, the Wahabis don’t call themselves Wahabis, since they are “true”
Muslims. Which is what the Saudis are, aren’t they?
a word about the Kingdom as a Wahabi-Saudi regime. It would be wrong to do so.
After all, the Wahabis don’t call themselves Wahabis, since they are “true”
Muslims. Which is what the Saudis are, aren’t they?
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