In Order to Save What Can be Saved: We Say the Following about Mohammed Ibn Salman Now

Published in December 3, 2018

Translated by: Ahmed Fathy

Introduction:

 Our dear friend, the Egyptian-Norwegian journalist and writer Mr. Mohammed Abdel-Meguid, has published recently on our Quranism website (www.ahl-alquran.com) an article, in Arabic, titled "For These Reasons, I Urge the Saudi Crown-Prince Mohammed Ibn Salman to Commit Suicide!". In this article, Mr. Abdel-Meguid mentions thirty reasons; he writes also about his good relations with the Saudi king, Salman Ibn Abdul-Aziz, even before his becoming the king of Saudi Arabia. In response to Mr. Abdel-Meguid, we write this article which you are reading now.

Firstly:

1- We have suffered severe persecution because of the Saudi embassy in Cairo, Egypt; this began in 1985 and went on even after we left Egypt in 2001; our family members and other Quranists paid a heavy price as Mubarak served Saudi Arabia by persecuting Quranists. As a peaceful, reformist thinker and writer, we did not attack Saudi Arabia within the period 1989 – 2007, as we do not take things personally; besides, we have expected and hoped that reforms advocated by the late reformist thinker Nasser Al-Said would be applied inside Saudi Arabia; we have written before about the vital importance of getting rid of the burden of Wahabism so that Saudi Arabia would gradually change into a constitutional kingdom. Before leaving Egypt in Oct. 2001 (i.e., weeks after the 9/11 attacks), we have written our book titled "The Wahabi Opposition Movements in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Twentieth Century" (found in English on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=85), and we have sent a copy (in Arabic) of this book to the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Mr. Bandar Ibn Sultan, and we attached a letter to our book telling him about the fact that it is high time that Saudi Arabia would get rid of the alliance made in 1745 between Prince M. Ibn Saud and the sheikh M. Ibn Abdul-Wahab. The response of sending this letter and this book was more persecution inflicted on our family members in Egypt as the Mubarak regime was keen on pleasing the Saudi rulers; yet, we did not attack Saudi Arabia at the time. Yet, we began to angrily attack Saudi Arabia in 2007 when some of our family members in Egypt were incarcerated and tortured by the Mubarak regime as per the direct commands of the Saudi embassy in Cairo.

2- When Ibn Salman has emerged in the political scene in Saudi Arabia, we have commented on his steps and decisions within our book titled "A Witness of the Earliest Months of The Rule of the Saudi Crown-Prince Ibn Salman (Oct.–Dec. 2017)" (found in English on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=111). Our YouTube show titled "Quranic Moments" (whose episodes are subtitled into English) has been our reaction to the agreement between Donald Trump and King Salman about establishing a 'moderation' center to introduce religious reform inside Saudi Arabia (see our article, in English, titled "QURANIC MOMENTS: Our YouTube Show in Response to the Saudi So-Called 'Moderation' Center", found on this link: http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=16657), and we intend to produce 1000+ episodes of this YouTube show; we have posted more than 540 episodes until today, which include special episodes about Ibn Salman. We have also written several articles about removing the Saudi State from the world-map as soon as possible and to liberate Mecca and the Sacred Kaaba Mosque from Saudi control.   

3- We have changed our stance now, because it is now clear to us that  the collapse of Saudi Arabia will result in the following points. 

3/1: If Saudi Arabia collapses, Iran will be the greatest power; Iran with its Shiite religion, sense of superiority, and deep-seated hatred towards Arabs/Sunnites will never have mercy on Arabs. Iran assumes it owns the Persian Gulf and all the territories and oil around it; Iran is the patron of Shiites in Syria, Iraq, and the Gulf monarchies. Of course, on many occasions, Iran has taken advantage of the folly of Saudi foreign policies when Saudi Arabia has interfered in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen; in fact, Iran has expended its influence in the countries located at the Saudi borders; Iran has sieged Saudi Arabia; Iranians desire very much to control the Hejaz region, where Mecca and Medina are situated, and if this happens, Iran will take revenge against Saudi Arabia and its Wahabism; Shiites never forget that Wahabis attacked and destroyed Shiite holy sites in Iraq several times.    

3/2: If Saudi Arabia collapses, the other weak regimes will collapse within the Persian Gulf monarchies; this will certainly tempt the Shiite Iran to invade these countries to expand its territory by annexing more land.

3/3: When Iran would rise as a regional power, this will result in its facing another rival of Iran; i.e., Turkey. In fact, hatred between Iran and Turkey dates back to the 16^th  century rivalry and wars between Persia (ruled by the Safavid Shah Ismail) and the Ottomans. The Shiite imams of Iran repeat now the ambitions of the Safavids; they take pride in the history of their Persian Shiite forefathers. Erdoğan of Turkey desires now to revive the role of the Ottomans in the region; he is passionate about the history of Ottomans. Saudi Arabia controls the regions of Najd, Hejaz, and Al-Ahsa (which is the oil-rich Eastern region). If armed struggle would take place between Iran and Turkey, Arabs and Kurds of the region will pay the heavy price; millions of victims will suffer for it.

3/4: The Saudi royal family members and the affluent families serving them will be like mice who leave the sinking ship of Saudi Arabia; they will flee to their assets, money, and palaces in the West; those who will pay the heavy price if Iran would annex Arabia and fight against Turkey will be weak, peaceful people (from Egypt, North Africa, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India) who work inside Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies; they may lose their lives in a war which has nothing to do with them; their only mistake was leaving their homelands to seek employment and to provide money to support their families.

3/5: Josip Broz Tito the communist Yugoslav political leader and president has introduced the communist ideology embraced by the Serbia, Croatia, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina; after the collapse of communism, Yugoslavia disintegrated and civil wars and massacres ensued. If Saudi Arabia collapses, things will be worse than the case of Yugoslavia for the following reasons.   

3/5/1: The former Yugoslavia had no enemies at its borders who would draw benefits from the ongoing civil war; on the contrary, the Europeans desired and managed to end this civil war so that it would not cause much harm to European countries. Things are different regarding Iran and Saudi Arabia; Iran would seize the chance of any possible civil war which will destroy Arabs (including Shiite Arabs); Iran hates Arabs very much because Arabs caused the collapse of the Persian empire 14 centuries ago when they invaded Persia.    

3/5/2: The religion of Yugoslavia was communism; yet, communism was not a deep-rooted element in the culture of Europe and the West in general; this is why it was easily forgotten. This is not the case with the Sunnite religion and the Shiite one; both religions are firmly rooted inside hearts of millions of followers; in both religions, history overlaps with faith tenets and sharia laws; the history of both Shiites and Sunnites (until now) is filled with massacres (e.g., the Karbala massacre committed by Sunnites against Shiites; the Shiite Qarmatians massacred Sunnite pilgrims at one point in time) and the desire to take revenge; this centuries-old struggle will not end as long as Shiite and Sunnite clergymen control and dominate over minds of gullible people. This means that a civil war is the inevitable result (among several other results and struggles) of the collapse of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies.      

3/5/3: The USA and the West stood against the Serbs and Croats and saved Muslims there; the USA and Europe did their best to make the civil war in Yugoslavia cease and sacrificed profits which would have resulted from selling weapons to the parties of this civil war. This will never be the case in the Middle East; if a civil war takes place in it, it will be very difficult to defuse this crisis; the West people assume that it is OK to let/help Arabs fight and kill one another; the West in that case will readily sell weapons to all parties involved in this civil war; would Arabs blame the West or blame themselves in that case?! The West people will be keen on making huge profits out of selling outdated weapons and to let Arabs buy new weapons made in the West as the people of the West would like to try these weapons on Arab victims (let us remember the American invasion of Iraq and how the Americans tried new weapons there).

4- The religious struggle of Shiites vs. Sunnites will not be the only struggle; the tribal struggle will be worse in Arabia; let us remember that when he formed his Saudi kingdom, Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud annexed several regions like Najd, Al-Ahsa, and southern regions near Yemen; each region has its several tribes who hate the Saudi family members as their enemies and they seek to take revenge against them. Once Saudi Arabia collapses, civil wars will break out among these tribes in several regions of Arabia; such civil wars will be incited and perpetuated by Iran, Israel, and the West and all those who know that such civil wars will serve their interests.   

5- Let us remember that advanced countries have no permanent friend or enemies; they only have permanent interests; this means that once the USA, Iran, and Israel agree on dividing the Gulf-oil, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies will collapse and be removed from world-map. Reaching such an agreement is a very strong possibility in the future. The tragedy of the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi has showed clearly the opportunism and pragmatism of Turkey, the USA, and the West; i.e., we mean to say that all parties knew that Khashoggi was about to be murdered and they knew about his entering into the Saudi consulate in Turkey; they never warned him against being murdered because all parties desired to embarrass Saudi Arabia and to take advantage of this assassination of Khashoggi. This is what happens now as several countries threaten Saudi Arabia.

6- The tragedy of the assassination of Khashoggi is a big one; yet, the tragedy of Ibn Salman is even bigger; he is a young man who emerged suddenly on the political arena of the Saudi kingdom and he boldly smashed the typical Saudi policies of conspiring in secret and having good relations with most countries. His grandfather, King Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud, refused to use his military troops to annex Yemen to his nascent Saudi kingdom after he defeated the Yemeni ruler; he did not want to sink in the Yemeni quagmire. In contrast, Ibn Salman launched his war against Yemen for no reason at all; he sieged Qatar for no reason at all; he incarcerated the Lebanese Prime Minister for no reason at all; he commissioned the murder of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Turkey; he murdered a journalist who worked in the most powerful journal in the world, Washington Post, inside a country which hate the Saudi kingdom; i.e., Turkey. Ibn Salman sent a group of Wahabi assassins to murder Khashoggi  and they have exposed themselves; when the scandal hurt Saudi Arabia, Ibn Salman offered data and defense which are never believed by anyone worldwide; he never respects the intelligence of others. Apparently, the consultants of Ibn Salman are young, inexperienced, servile and obsequious people who never understand how to deal with Saudi international relations; they act as if the people of the whole world are 'subjects' of the Saudi royal family members. This is why the assassination of Khashoggi – i.e., one man – has a stronger negative influence when compared with the killing of hundreds of thousands of people in Yemen; his assassination has rekindled the feelings of people worldwide regarding the tragedy of Yemen; his assassination has put the future of the third, current Saudi State at stake; within this crisis, Saudi Arabia is in the bottleneck now.  

7- Indeed, pondering on the dire consequences of the collapse of Saudi Arabia has made us reconsider some of our views and change our stance.

Secondly:

 Unlike our dear friend Mr. Abdel-Meguid, we do not advise Ibn Salman to commit suicide; rather, we give him some pieces of advice in the points below.

1- The whole world focuses its attention on Ibn Salman; everyone worldwide will pay attention to anything he would say; this is his chance to claim full responsibility for the murder of Khashoggi and to atone for this grave sin by introducing the following items as per the recommendations of his father, King Salman Ibn Abdul-Aziz.

1/1: Saudi Arabia must implement and execute the reformist vision of the late Khashoggi; i.e., Saudi Arabia must be turned into a constitutional kingdom; this democratic transition will take several years so that the culture of democracy will spread inside Saudi Arabia and so that democratic mechanism would be established there within the introduction of religious, educational, and legislative reforms.

1/2: To prove his good intentions, as soon as possible, Ibn Salman should issue decrees regarding the following points.

1/2/1: An official council for democratic transition must formed and it should carry the name of the late Khashoggi so that religious, educational, and legislative reforms would be introduced; one of the sons of Khashoggi should be the honorary president of such a council.

1/2/2: Saudi Arabia must release from its prisons all political prisoners and those incarcerated because of expressing their views; they must be compensated for mistreatment and incarceration; the qualified ones among them must join the council for democratic transition as members. Saudi Arabia must issue and declare a charter of religious freedom for everyone on equal footing; this will relieve Saudi Arabia from the heavy and costly burden of protecting Wahabism worldwide. By the way, absolute religious freedom is a basic Quranic principle; the mission of any State does not include to 'guide' people to make them enter into Paradise in the Hereafter; guidance is a personal, individual freedom; the Lord God asserts in the Quran that those who have guided themselves are guided to their own good and that those who have misguided themselves are doing so to their own detriment. The Lord God is the One Who will judge all human beings (regarding their faiths and deeds) on the Last Day.

1/2/3: The siege of Qatar must cease immediately and Saudi Arabia must hold good relations with Qatar.

1/2/4: The Saudi war in Yemen must cease immediately; the international community must interfere to settle the disputes within all parties involved in this war and to offer compensations for the living victims of this unjust war, especially children and their families. 

Lastly:

1- It is not wrong that people would err and make mistakes; what is truly very wrong is to adamantly go on making the same mistakes without making amends. The Lord God says the following in the Quran: "Say, "O My servants who have transgressed against themselves: do not despair of God's mercy, for God forgives all sins. He is indeed the Forgiver, the Clement." And turn to your Lord, and submit to Him, before the torment comes upon you. Then you will not be helped. And follow the best of what was revealed to you from your Lord, before the torment comes upon you suddenly, while you are unaware." (39:53-55).

2- If Ibn Salman would acknowledge his mistake and make amends by taking some correcting measures, the whole world would pardon him and he would win the public opinion to his side; this way, Ibn Salman will get himself and his kingdom out of the bottleneck; besides, he will be the very first ruler in the Middle East to admit to his mistakes and make amends.  

3- Ibn Salman is a young man who has made his first steps into his political career; it is typical and expected to make some mistakes; yet, making amends is necessary and very important; otherwise, dire consequences will be inevitable. "You will remember what I am telling you, so I commit my case to God. God is Observant of the servants."" (40:44).