Getting to the truth of Saudi-US ties
By James P. Pinkerton, 10/28/2003
ARE THE Saudi Arabians our friends? And what about those Wahabi Muslims? These questions weren't much discussed two years ago. But now they are, thanks in large measure to Steve Schwartz's 2002 book "The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa'ud From Tradition to Terror." And now Schwartz expresses further concerns about the direction of American policy in the Middle East. For half a century, Americans lived with the idea that Saudi Arabia was a moderate ally, first in the Cold War, then in the struggle against Islamic militance. To be sure, there was evidence to the contrary, such as the 1973-74 Saudi oil embargo against the United States. But for the most part the reality of the Saudis' enormous oil wealth, which the United States had to have access to, and a megabucks public relations operation -- which Schwartz calls "the Wahabi lobby" -- soothed and smoothed American feelings.
So who are these Wahabis, and what's their relationship to the Saudi government? In his book, Schwartz delves deeply into the history of Wahabism, a radically puritanical sect of Islam that came to power in the Arabian Peninsula in the 18th century. The Wahabis enacted harsh Sharia law, enforced by amputations, stonings, and beheadings.
In the 20th century, the discovery of oil within the Saudi kingdom made these medieval-minded Muslims into wealthy players on the world stage without changing their essential mind-set. As Schwartz details, some in the Saudi royal family, an estimated 16,000 individuals, are notoriously dissolute and decadent in their private lives. But in their public lives they pose as rigorous, even righteous, defenders of Muslim tradition.
But wait, there's more. The extreme dysfunctionality of the hypocritical regime in Riayadh has forced the Saudis in effect to export their problems by exporting Wahabi ideology around the world. That is, the malcontents in the kingdom -- appalled by the royal wastrels, ruling over a sullen but swelling underpopulation of some 20 million with no rights and not much wealth -- have been encouraged to make trouble elsewhere. Case in point: Osama bin Laden.
What the Saudis didn't foresee was bin Laden's taking on the United States -- and that 15 of the 19 attackers on 9/11 would be Saudis. But Schwartz has connected all the dots, accusing the Saudis of being "the real exporters of international Islamic extremism and terror." And since then a spate of articles and books have reinforced his argument; belatedly, Uncle Sam is now scrutinizing the kingdom's reach into the United States, especially its promotion of Wahabi -- as distinct from other denominations within Islam -- Muslims to be chaplains for our military and also for our prison system.
Yet, despite all his success in shifting the paradigm of US-Saudi relations, Schwartz is troubled by other trends he sees here at home. He worries about witch-hunting against innocent non-Wahabi Muslims in the United States; interestingly, Schwartz himself, whose father was Jewish, is a convert to Sufism, a gentle and poetic sect within Islam.
And so Schwartz finds himself in an intriguing midpoint. On the one hand, he is fiercely critical of the Saudi-funded apologists who congregate on Washington's K Street; on the other hand, he opposes hawkish neoconservatives, eager for war against Syria, Iran, and/or Saudi Arabia.
Schwartz stands against more fighting. He has a different idea: a truth offensive. He wants the Bush administration to pressure Saudi Arabia to cooperate fully with the ongoing federal 9/11 investigation; the Riyadh regime has so far flatly refused to do so. An honest inquiry, Schwartz contends, would implicate top leaders, such as Prince Nayaf, the Saudi interior minister. Such shedding and spreading of light would pave the way, Schwartz adds, not only for a transformation of Saudi Arabia but also for a post-Wahabi renaissance for all of Islam. But instead the Bush administration, still eyeing Saudi oil and petrodollars, seems blind to the Saudis' continued coverups. Yet, even so, Schwartz predicts that their government cannot long survive.
Some might say that Schwartz is putting too much faith in the power of truth to combat evil dogmas. But his book is proof that ideas can have more positive impact than guns -- which, of course, is a lesson for the United States, too.
James P. Pinkerton is a columnist for Newsday.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
