Regime change in Saudi Arabia is a mortal blow to Al-Qaeda

Regime change in Saudi Arabia is a mortal blow to Al-Qaeda
By Zayd Alisa

The Arab masses ousted two heavily entrenched dictators in as many months. Both Ben Ali of Tunisia and Mubarak of Egypt ruled with an iron grip on power. The huge victory of the popular uprising in Egypt and the toppling of Mubarak have caused a massive political earthquake. Its violent aftershocks inspired popular uprisings in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria and Oman.

In Libya, Gaddafie has gone out of his way to lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of Al-Qaeda. So Al-Qaeda feeling marginalised and sidelined by the wave of popular uprisings could not resist the temptation of hijacking the Libyan uprising. It issued a statement supporting the Libyan uprising and emphasising that its ultimate objective was defending the people against dictators. This statement has played into Gaddafie’s hands and provided him with solid evidence substantiating his claims. It has also proved beyond a shadow of doubt, that Al-Qaeda is ready to step in to prop up those dictatorships.

The Saudi regime was rattled and stunned by the swift success of the popular uprisings. It offered Ben Ali refuge, and king Abdullah warned Obama not to humiliate Mubarak, threatening to finance the Egyptian regime. The king publicly gave his ringing endorsement to Mubarak.

The uprising in Bahrain sent shock waves across Saudi Arabia. Bahrain is at Saudi Arabia’s doorstep, it’s a Sunni dominated dictatorship, which discriminates heavily against the Shiite majority. The king of Bahrain has used massive disproportionate force against the peaceful protesters, but failed to quell the protesters. The Saudi King has warned that Saudi security forces would intervene to end the protest once and for all. The Saudi regime is deeply worried that any major concessions given to the Shiite in Bahrain would dramatically embolden its own Shiite population, who form the absolute majority in the, oil rich, eastern province.

Saudi Arabia has one of the most repressive, intransigent and brutal regimes on this planet. The powerful religious institution provides the House of Saud with the religious legitimacy to rule, while the royal family provides it with the necessary funding to propagate and export its extremist, hard-line and uncompromising version of Islam (Wahhabie or Salafi). The Saudi religious institution exported its ideology by creating and funding thousands of Madrassas across the world. These Madrassas in Pakistan and Afghanistan are the birthplace of Al-Qaeda and Taleban. They have supplied Al-Qaeda and Taleban with an endless flow of suicide bombers. The religious fatwa’s, which are absolutely vital to provide the religious justification and legitimacy to the suicide bombings and atrocities, emanates from high ranking religious leaders in Saudi Arabia. The overwhelming majority of those clerics are prominent government employees. The former chief of the Saudi Judiciary issued a fatwa calling on Saudis to go to Iraq or pay money to support the then Al-Qaeda leader Al-Zarqawi.

According to Wikileaks, a secret memo signed by Clinton, Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest source of funding and a critical financial support base for Al-Qaeda, Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terrorist groups in the world. Mrs Clinton complained that it has been an ongoing struggle to convince the Saudi regime to treat the terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority. This echoes the statement made by, Stuart Levey, the USA under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, who said Saudi Arabia is the worlds leading source of funding to Al-Qaeda, Taliban and other extremist groups. He also complained, that not one person identified by the USA or the UN as a terror financier has been prosecuted by the Saudi regime. According to a report by NBC news Saudis make up to 55% of foreign fighters in Iraq.

The USA and NATO have been waging a ferocious and relentless war to root out and dismantle Al-Qaeda and Taliban in both Afghanistan and Pakistan for nearly a decade. Despite the deployment of the world’s most powerful military forces and the vast amount of resources, the tide has not been turned against the terrorist groups. This is an endless, futile and unwinnable war. The USA cannot win the war on terror when its major ally Saudi Arabia is the bastion of dictatorship and the major source of the funding, ideology, fatwa’s and fighters to Al-Qaeda and Taliban. Al-Qaeda desperately needs the Saudi regime to justify its existence and to ensure its continuity. The Saudi regime strives to maintain a viable Al-Qaeda threat to guarantee USA support. The medieval savagery of the regime, which denies the Saudi people any basic freedoms, combined with the strict implementation of the harsh Wahhabie ideology, has provided Al-Qaeda with the most effective recruitment sergeant. Regime change in Saudi Arabia would be a mortal blow to Al-Qaeda. Even a semi democratic system in Saudi Arabia would pull the rug from under the feet of Al-Qaeda. It would lead to an outright triumph in the war on terror.

The Saudi authorities have issued a stern warning to dissuade the protesters from taking to the streets. This backfired, inspiring defiant protesters to demand free elections, and moving from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy.
The Saudi regime has fiercely rejected any change, refusing to learn from the fatal mistakes of other tyrants. It is adamant that there would be no concessions, and it would resort to a far more brutal and savage crack down than the Libyan regime. This would undoubtedly harden the stance of the protesters, pushing them to demand the end of the monarchy.

ENDS

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