Saudi Crackdown on
Dissent Wins Backing
From Religious Body
By
Glen Carey
and
Vivian Nereim
September 14, 2017, 1:21 AM GMT+8 September
14, 2017, 7:41 PM GMT+8
·
Neutralized
Saudis working for ‘foreign’ powers: government
·
Papers
accuse those arrested of supporting Muslim Brotherhood
Saudi
authorities have launched the most severe crackdown on
dissent
in years, arresting prominent clerics and activists amid
growing
speculation that King Salman will abdicate in favor of his
powerful son.
Given the
absolute powers enjoyed by Saudi rulers, any
succession
is sensitive. But that would especially be the case
now with
the 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
promoting unprecedented
economic change, at the same time
as
pursuing a more aggressive foreign policy that includes the
war in
Yemen and the four-nation boycott of Gulf neighbour
Qatar.
Some of
the people detained had ties to the brand of political
Islam that
Saudi rulers have long opposed. The country’s top
religious body and media
publicly supported the arrests of
those who
have criticized the monarchy in
the past, after the
government announced it had
neutralized a threat from Saudis
working for “foreign powers.”
In a
statement posted on Twitter on Wednesday, the Council
of Senior Scholars
declared there was “no place for political
or
ideological parties” in a nation “based on the book of God
and the
guidance of his messenger.” Newspapers accused
those
arrested of being aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood,
an
Islamist organization that several Gulf monarchies have
designated as a
terrorist group.
Among
those detained by Saudi authorities are clerics
Salman
Al-Oudah and Awad al-Qarni -- who are both
independent
of the official religious establishment --
as well as
a well-known poet, Ziad bin Nahit, Islamic studies
professor
Mustafa Al Al Hassan and businessman Essam Al
Zamil,
according to Twitter posts and and interviews with
activists,
relatives and friends.
‘Foreign
Powers’
Bloomberg
was unable to independently verify their detention.
Jamal Khashoggi, a
Saudi commentator and former
government
adviser, said on Twitter that Saudi citizens aren’t
yet fully
aware of the prevailing “atmosphere of detention and
intimidation.”
The
crackdown comes as some of Prince Mohammed’s policies
Face setbacks.
Saudi Arabia is preparing contingency plans for a
oil
company – his signature economic aim -- by a few months
into 2019,
according to people familiar with the matter. The
Saudi-led
military alliance has failed to defeat Iranian-backed
Shiite
Houthi rebels in Yemen more than two years into the
conflict;
Qatar has claimed an attack on its sovereignty and
moved
closer to chief Saudi foe Iran.
Presidency said
it had “neutralized and arrested” Saudis
working
for “the benefit of foreign powers” against the
security
of the kingdom. It didn’t identify who had been held.
The
government’s Center for International Communications
and the
Saudi Human Rights Commission didn’t immediately
respond to
requests for comment.
‘More
Risky’
A sweep of
this scale would represent a significant rounding
up of conservative
scholars and activists likely to be resistant
to some of
the changes featured in the Saudi reform push,
according
to analysts.
“It’s hard
not to call it a crackdown,” said James Dorsey, a
senior fellow
for the Middle East and North Africa at
Singapore’s
Nanyang Technological University, adding he
didn’t
want to speculate on the timing of the move. Existing
Saudi
restrictions on expressing criticismalready make
“pushing
through economic and social reforms that are
likely to
spark debate -- if not opposition -- more risky,” he
said. Saudi
authorities have denied King Salman is about to
step down
but that hasn’t stopped the speculation. New
the Royal
Court was planning for Prince Mohammed’s
ascension.
At least
two of those detained expressed hope for a solution
to the more
than three month Gulf standoff with Qatar,
which
Saudi Arabia and its allies accuse of supporting of
terrorism
and sustaining links to the Muslim Brotherhood. Al
Zamil has
in the past posted comments on Twitter that were
critical
of elements of the government’s reform plan, which is
designed to reduce the
kingdom’s reliance on oil.
Subsidy
Cuts
More
importantly for many Saudis, authorities have cut energy
and utility
subsidies and want citizens to seek employment opportunities
in the private
sector instead of relying on government
jobs. Al-Oudah,
who has more than 14 million Twitter
followers, was jailed in the 1990s
for advocating the Islamic
militancy espoused by al-Qaeda.
After he
was released from prison, the religious scholar
didn’t
publicly comment on political Islam, though in March
2013
he published a letter online saying rulers must take
steps to
stamp out political and business corruption and
warned of
risks when religious and political symbolslose
their
value.
Saudi
papers have joined in. Okaz and Al Watan accused
those
detained of being supporters of the Muslim
Brotherhood
and working for Qatari intelligence. One of
the men
arrested was “one of the most famous faces of the
Muslim Brotherhood”
who played a “hidden role” in
preparing
the youth "to lead demonstrations and protests
in Gulf
countries, especially in Saudi Arabia," Okaz said.
According
to Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser at Gulf
State
Analytics in Washington D.C., the crackdown could
be related
to the problems the crown princes faces at home
and
abroad.
There’s
the war in Yemen and “the impasse with Qatar.
Domestically,
there is resistance to his economic and social
agenda
from different corners of society,” Karasik said.
Bad news
will likely bring a reaction, he said by email, “and
there is a
lot of bad news.”
Comments
Post a Comment