3 ms·

1) Why is the Saud family waging a war on Yemen? 2) In case the Saud monarchy falls abruptly, what could happen in the power vacuum, domestically and for the mi

by jasim 8y ago

1) Why is the Saud family waging a war on Yemen? 2) In case the Saud monarchy falls abruptly, what could happen in the power vacuum, domestically and for the middle-east in general? 3) The Saud family is understood to be more liberal than the general Saudi population and MBS had to supposedly overcome powerful conservatives to start with the (social) liberalization agenda. How true is this, and what are the implications if MBS is deposed?

Zaheer 8y ago
All of these questions can be answered with some research online. 1) Yemen is a result of Saudi-Iran Proxy war: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/un-probe-details-fallout-of-proxy-war-in-yemen-between-saudi-coalition-and-iran-/2018/01/11/3e3f9302-f644-11e7-9af7-a50bc3300042_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/un-probe-details-fallou... 2) There will surely be challenging times but every country that had liberated itself from monarchy has gone through similar struggles. 3) >The Saud family is understood to be more liberal than the general Saudi population I don't have an answer on this but what is well known is that the Saud family partnered with Wahab family to push Wahabbism, since the start of Saudia Arabia. This alliance of faith & state was done to control the people similar to many times in history when faith has been hijacked to recruit supporters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism
- jasim 8y ago
  Granted we're talking about nations and their peoples and their histories and they are always long, deep, and tangled up and there are no simple truths. I'm aware of the origins of Wahabism through The Arabs (Eugene Rogan). I was looking for individual perspectives than what's easily available online. I've also tried reading up on the animosity between Iran and Saudi, and couldn't find any straight answer.
  - cuckcuckspruce 8y ago
    Iran is primarily Shi'a and Saudi Arabia is primarily Sunni.
    - zpatel 8y ago
      This is not a sunni shia battle as portrayed by western media.
    - mdahlstrand 8y ago
      ...which didn't use to be a reason for war. I recommend watching Adam Curtis' Bitter Lake. The west has more involvement in shia/sunni split and hate than it'd like to admit.
- cuckcuckspruce 8y ago
  Saudia Arabia and Wahhabism are also responsible for 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11.
  - dragonwriter 8y ago
    More than that with regard to 9/11 if you consider where Osama bin Laden came from and what led him to start al-Qaeda.
    - wavefunction 8y ago
      And that the funding came from members of the House of Saud.
      - 3131s 8y ago
        It is known that Prince Bandar is one of the individuals who directly funded the hijackers. He was the Saudi Ambassador for 20 years and close friends with the Bush family.
- travmatt 8y ago
  3) you’re missing tons of history here, especially in ‘79 when those wahhabists who were great friends of the Saudi family committed a coup and the ulama demanded power in exchange for their blessing in putting the uprising down.
travmatt 8y ago
3) The Saud family is understood to be more liberal than the general Saudi population and MBS had to supposedly overcome powerful conservatives to start with the (social) liberalization agenda. How true is this, and what are the implications if MBS is deposed? Saudi rule throughout the peninsula is legitimized through the support of the ulama, who by right of being the stewards of Islam in the world (the keepers of Mecca, Medina, and the cube, the most important sumbols of Islam) wield enormous power, not just through their leadership of their local populations but through their religious significance to the larger Islamic world. In exchange for their support, the Saudi family has historically granted the ulama a wide berth in their regulation of the Saudi people’s moral and religious lives, support they were forced to concede after their near deposal in the ‘79 seige of the cube. You’re correct that the Saudi family is a liberalizing and moderating force in their lands, who are currently in a long battle to wrest control of their countries moral and religious lives away from the ulama. It seems lots of westerners are under the idea that if the Saudi family was destroyed then the ulama would all become liberal and Islam would move further away from wahhabi style interpretations - when the reality is undermining MBS would just give more power to hardline wahhabists and the peninsula would move from a conservative state slowly liberalizing to a theocracy run by wahhabists.

by jasim 8y ago

Zaheer 8y ago

All of these questions can be answered with some research online. 1) Yemen is a result of Saudi-Iran Proxy war: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/un-probe-details-fallout-of-proxy-war-in-yemen-between-saudi-coalition-and-iran-/2018/01/11/3e3f9302-f644-11e7-9af7-a50bc3300042_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/un-probe-details-fallou... 2) There will surely be challenging times but every country that had liberated itself from monarchy has gone through similar struggles. 3) >The Saud family is understood to be more liberal than the general Saudi population I don't have an answer on this but what is well known is that the Saud family partnered with Wahab family to push Wahabbism, since the start of Saudia Arabia. This alliance of faith & state was done to control the people similar to many times in history when faith has been hijacked to recruit supporters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wahhabism

jasim 8y ago
Granted we're talking about nations and their peoples and their histories and they are always long, deep, and tangled up and there are no simple truths. I'm aware of the origins of Wahabism through The Arabs (Eugene Rogan). I was looking for individual perspectives than what's easily available online. I've also tried reading up on the animosity between Iran and Saudi, and couldn't find any straight answer.
- cuckcuckspruce 8y ago
  Iran is primarily Shi'a and Saudi Arabia is primarily Sunni.
  - zpatel 8y ago
    This is not a sunni shia battle as portrayed by western media.
  - mdahlstrand 8y ago
    ...which didn't use to be a reason for war. I recommend watching Adam Curtis' Bitter Lake. The west has more involvement in shia/sunni split and hate than it'd like to admit.
cuckcuckspruce 8y ago
Saudia Arabia and Wahhabism are also responsible for 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11.
- dragonwriter 8y ago
  More than that with regard to 9/11 if you consider where Osama bin Laden came from and what led him to start al-Qaeda.
  - wavefunction 8y ago
    And that the funding came from members of the House of Saud.
    - 3131s 8y ago
      It is known that Prince Bandar is one of the individuals who directly funded the hijackers. He was the Saudi Ambassador for 20 years and close friends with the Bush family.
travmatt 8y ago
3) you’re missing tons of history here, especially in ‘79 when those wahhabists who were great friends of the Saudi family committed a coup and the ulama demanded power in exchange for their blessing in putting the uprising down.

travmatt 8y ago

3) The Saud family is understood to be more liberal than the general Saudi population and MBS had to supposedly overcome powerful conservatives to start with the (social) liberalization agenda. How true is this, and what are the implications if MBS is deposed? Saudi rule throughout the peninsula is legitimized through the support of the ulama, who by right of being the stewards of Islam in the world (the keepers of Mecca, Medina, and the cube, the most important sumbols of Islam) wield enormous power, not just through their leadership of their local populations but through their religious significance to the larger Islamic world. In exchange for their support, the Saudi family has historically granted the ulama a wide berth in their regulation of the Saudi people’s moral and religious lives, support they were forced to concede after their near deposal in the ‘79 seige of the cube. You’re correct that the Saudi family is a liberalizing and moderating force in their lands, who are currently in a long battle to wrest control of their countries moral and religious lives away from the ulama. It seems lots of westerners are under the idea that if the Saudi family was destroyed then the ulama would all become liberal and Islam would move further away from wahhabi style interpretations - when the reality is undermining MBS would just give more power to hardline wahhabists and the peninsula would move from a conservative state slowly liberalizing to a theocracy run by wahhabists.