veiled4allah: the Saudi civil war

One of the topics I occasionally post on here is that the interests of the Saudi regime and of Bin Laden are not the same; in fact, one of Bin Laden's main goals is to bring down the Saudi regime. I first introduced this topic in Wahhabis condemning terrorism. That post looks at the background of the two ideologies (Wahhabism and Qutubism, the latter being Bin Laden's ideology). The next post was Wahhabis and Qutubis, which presents further information on the disputes between the two groups. Subsequently, I posted an article to my clip blog called On Terrorism, Methodism, Saudi "Wahhabism" and the Censored 9-11 Report, in which historian Gary Leupp looks at the history of the Wahhabi movement. Finally, I posted What direction for Saudi Arabia?, featuring another article, this one by Muslim scholar Muqtedar Khan, who looks at the "Saudi civil war" between the ruling family and the militants in the country who oppose it.

Along similar lines is Al Qaeda on the march, which looks at recent terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia:

The Islamic militant attack on the US Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Monday is evidence that a major showdown with the Saudi government is in the works. The Saudi rulers are now at the receiving end of what al-Qaeda-practiced militant jihadism has in mind: to bring down that dynasty, and an end of the era in which the birthplace of Islam sounded nothing more than the personal fiefdom of the Saudi family... ...Saudi rulers' own perspectives regarding militant jihad were largely focused on expelling the Soviet Union from Afghanistan in the 1980s. After that, the major purpose of their political and religious activities in Central Asia, or even in such countries as Indonesia and the Philippines, was to promote Wahhabi Islam, not necessarily militant jihad. However, they did not have much objection if al-Qaeda harped on it in Central Asia, China or even Russia.

The September 11, 2001, attacks on the US started an era when Saudi Arabia was eventually forced to revisit its lackadaisical approach toward militant jihad. Since the US became a victim of it, it also demanded a major doctrinal revision of it. However, it is easier said than done. The doctrine of militant jihad is not something that can be tinkered with at will, or supported/opposed based on changing political objectives and realities.

The preceding in essence describes the dilemmas of the Saudi government today. Washington thinks Riyadh has the capability to deprive jihad of its militancy simply because it is being used against the US. About the best the Saudi rulers may be able to do is to instruct a group of Islamic scholars who are on their payroll to issue new fatwas (edicts), stating something to the effect that "changed circumstances no longer warrant its applicability, etc". But fatwas along those lines have no papal authority, since no such power exists in Sunni Islam.

As the US and Saudi bureaucrats argue and bicker over these legal issues, al-Qaeda seems bent on operating on the basis of its own version of global jihad, whose two chief purposes are to overthrow the Saudi government and continue to harm the US, its citizens and its assets anywhere and everywhere. The Saudi-al-Qaeda conflict, though it has not yet reached its final stage, has undeniably reached a point of no return. It will have to result either in the eradication of al-Qaeda or the end of the Saudi regime. No one knows that better than the Saudi government.