Prominent Saudi Cleric Calls on Government to Reform Or Risk the Wrath of People

A prominent Saudi preacher called on the government to initiate reforms and release political prisoners or risk facing popular anger that will drive people to the streets. In an open letter published online Friday night, Sheikh Salman al-Odah said that security concerns have dominated most state activities in recent years and warned that such handling of issues would have disastrous consequences.

“People here, like people around the world, have demands, longings and rights, and they will not remain silent forever when they are denied all or some of them,” al-Odah said. “When one becomes hopeless, you can expect anything from them.”

Al-Odah is currently one of the most popular clerics in the country. He was detained in the mid-1990s when he helped mobilize an Islamist opposition against the government and remained in prison until 1999. After his release, his views have become more moderate, a shift that helped attract a large following of youth in Saudi Arabia. He used to have a weekly television show broadcasted by the MBC network, but his show was terminated after he expressed views supportive of the Arab uprisings. Even without his TV show, he still has a wide reach thanks to his active online presence. His open letter was first published on Twitter, and the sites hosting the full text of the letter experienced problems staying accessible presumably due to the high traffic.

“More than 5,000 people are reading Sheikh Salman al-Odah’s letter at the same moment,” said Saleh al-Zaid, founder of the website TwitMail where the cleric initially published his letter. The site struggled to remain up in the few hours following the letter release, and the high demanded reportedly brought it down more three times in less than one hour. The letter also sparked a big debate on Twitter, where supporters and opponents of the cleric offered their take on its content.

Al-Odah said he decided to publish the letter after he sensed deep anger shared by many people who, according to him, represent different segments of society and hail from different regions in the kingdom. “As rage escalates, religious, political and social symbols lose their value,” he said. “Leadership becomes in the hands of the street.”

The 57-year-old cleric dedicate a large part of his letter to the grievance of prisoners and their families, an issue that has become a hot button in the country as these families have taken to the streets in recent months to protest their prolonged detention. In late February, a group of women and children staged a protest in the central city Buraida to demand the release of their relatives. During the protest, they burned photos of the Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Naif and demand his resignation. Al-Odah condemned the lengthy detention of prisoners and the abuse they face inside prisons. “When a policeman abuses a prisoner, it is a gamble of the nation’s future,” he said, calling on the government to immediately either put the prisoners to trial or release them immediately.

Al-Odah said the people are worried about the future and must be reassured by the government that their country can face the upcoming challenges. “How is it possible for a country that is run by personal connections and not institutions to face challenges?” he asked. “People are wondering, especially the youth, what are the communication channels between them and the state?”

Stop Postponing Solutions→

Jameel Theyabi:

The Saudi state is still young and new compared to other states and populations, as it is not more than 100 years old. Nonetheless, this does not spare the government from its responsibility, seeing how the country is rich, donates to strangers, and has a limited population count. Therefore, the solutions are still accessible and these problems can be overcome with a national strategic plan focusing on transparency and public accountability for all those who fell short of the expectations.

The government should stop postponing the solutions and accumulating the files, considering that the demands are growing, multiplying and escalating. For example, and despite the security authorities’ prevention of marches and demonstrations and the issuance of fatwas by some sheikhs and students to ban them, gatherings still took to the streets in Saudi cities while raising demands and issuing statements calling for the release of detainees and the hastening of the reform process. In addition, a number of university and school graduates and male and female teachers organized sit-ins in front of the ministries responsible for managing their affairs, at a time when the Saudi courts are witnessing the public trials of human rights activists and others who are accused of being involved in security cases.

Saudi life is changing and its new facets are emerging in a way going beyond what some have become accustomed to calling “Saudi specificity.” This reveals that the Kingdom is witnessing a popular action, which – although it is approved by some and opposed by others – needs to be resolved in the best possible way for the sake of the future generations.

The article is poorly translated from Arabic but still worth reading. The anxiety expressed by Theyabi here is shared by many young people in the country who see a lot of uncertainty in the nation’s future.

Holding Saudi Arabia to Account→

Marc Lynch, who was in Saudi Arabia last week, says if the Obama administration is serious about supporting democracy in the Middle East then they can no longer ignore the repression of activists by their Saudi allies:

What should the United States do about this changing Saudi Arabia? Its real dependence on Saudi oil, Riyadh’s key role in the current security architecture, and the transition costs of a new strategy can’t be wished away. Allies should be engaged with a presumption of partnership, not one-sided lectures or sudden, erratic policy shifts. But America cannot continue to ignore the increasingly clear tension between its stated policy goals. It should at least avoid accepting or endorsing the status quo, and should do far more to nurture the emerging new Saudi public sphere. For instance, the symbolism of President Obama’s unusual meeting with new Saudi Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef, which looked to many Saudis like an endorsement of someone they identify with the most repressive and anti-democratic trends in the kingdom, was unfortunate.

Does Washington have any leverage? Maybe.

‘Embracing Crisis in the Gulf’→

Toby Craig Jones:

In the mid-2000s, most of the Gulf kingdoms were keen to indulge the pretense of reform. They did more talking about reform than reforming -- but even the talk is now passé. Back in vogue today are the police state and the counterrevolutionary tactics that prevailed in the 1970s. Indeed, the Arab uprisings and local unrest seem to have convinced rulers in the Gulf to offer less accommodation and wield more blunt force. It is arguable that, in the Gulf of the twenty-first century, crises are no longer undesirable, but rather have considerable political utility. In fact, given the arc of history -- whereby the redistribution of oil wealth has failed to ensure regime stability or political quietism -- the regional system may have arrived at a moment where political survival actually requires the manufacturing of permanent crisis at home and in the region.

Political, Constitutional Reform Necessary for Saudi Arabia→

Khalid al-Dekhayel writes:

Interest in addressing concerns of the financial and living conditions of citizens is an important and urgent step, but limiting ourselves to these concerns only will leave an impression that the Saudi people are not interested in their political rights, and accordingly, the state is not interested in those rights either. Yet it is not as it apparently seems, neither from the people nor from the government. Thus, this concern should be only the first step toward giving priority to addressing the immediate and most pressing issues, such as unemployment, housing and standard of living. This is to be followed by other steps of reform dealing with political issues, such as elections, representation, the separation of powers, activation of the Allegiance Commission, freedom of expression, the independence of the judiciary, and making all people equal before the law, etc.

The necessity of political and constitutional reform is due to the fact that the positive impact in people’s economic reforms, especially financial, is usually temporary because of the variable nature of their economic and social circumstances. Increase in salaries, for example, or secure housing projects, or the unemployment allowance and its impact on the people will diminish in one year at the most due to its association with factors such as inflation, changing lifestyles and needs, and the steady increase in the number of people, and so on. The positive impact of the political reforms, particularly the constitutional reforms, remains for decades, because these reforms, before anything else, are concerned with the promotion of the durability of the state institutions, and support the political stability in the current phase that the region is passing through. Perhaps it is clear that the economic reforms associated with the political and constitutional reforms are the best option, because it reinforces the strength of the relationship between the state and the society, and provides them with a sustainable institutional foundation, based on the fact that the state and the people are the two main parties of the equation of the political process in the community.

Talks of Reform→

Elizabeth Dickinson, reporting for Abu Dhabi-based The National, on Saudi reforms:

During his seven years on the throne, King Abdullah has developed a reputation as a moderate reformer, a tenor set just days after he assumed power. Saudi Arabia joined the World Trade Organization in 2005 — a move that had required years of economic and labour reforms, much of it shepherded by the then Crown Prince Abdullah.

More changes came in 2009 and 2010, when he shuffled the country's leadership to include several new, reform-minded ministers, including the first female deputy minister of education, and reined in the country's religious establishment by limiting to a few those who could issue fatwas. He has made numerous pledges to contain the power of the religious police.

There is certainly a lot of talk about reform in Saudi Arabia, but talking about reform is one thing and actually doing it is quite another. The government understandably likes to talk about reform because that’s what both their population and the outside world wants to hear. But what happens when the government fails to deliver on the promises of reform? Nothing, because there is no-one who can hold them accountable for their actions (or lack thereof).

Same Old Saudi Reform (or Lack Thereof)→

One of the phrases one usually hears when discussing reform in Saudi Arabia goes something like this: “The government (or the royal family) is more progressive than society. If the government pushed hard for reform, the people would reject it because the conservative society is not ready for change.” Those who use this line basically blame society for lagging behind and absolve the government of responsibility.

Prince Turki al-Faisal used this argument recently in an interview he gave to the Saudi-US Relations Information Service (SUSRIS). Saudi blogger Ahmed BaAboud says it is about time that the country leaders retire this line of thinking:

It is very easy to blame the society alone rather than, at least, admitting that the responsibility for the status quo of no reforms in the country is shared among all parties including the society. I personally think that since the government monopolized the society for many years, in corporation with the religious establishment, it can be easily blamed for the lack of progress. Using such old argument is a proof that there are no intentions for real reforms. Yet, it is better to be hit by reality rather than keeping some false hopes.

This is the most worrying thing. There is very little to suggest that the government is serious about reform. ♦

Sharia Judges Oppose ‘Westernizing’ Reforms→

Angus McDowall reports:

Saudi judges who enforce sharia (Islamic law) have condemned what they see as “the stench of Western ideas” in sweeping legal reforms pushed by King Abdullah, underscoring friction between government modernizers and religious hardliners.

In a letter to Justice Minister Mohammed al-Issa seen by Reuters, eight judges complained about foreign trainers who shave their beards contrary to purist Islam, the minister's meetings with diplomats of "infidel" states and plans to let women practice as lawyers.

I have seen the letter when it first surfaced online last month but could not confirm its authenticity. Props to Reuters for managing to get the confirmation. The letter, and the news from last week about plans to establish a special Saudi court in London, suggest that the King’s project to reform the judiciary is proving even more difficult than anticipated. It is going to take a long time and it is going to be a painful process, but in the end it has to be done. ♦

MOJ To Hire Women→

Fatima Muhammad interviews Majid Al-Adwan, head of King Abdullah Project for the Development of the Judicial System:

According to Al-Adwan, the ministry is seeking to hire [female] law graduates as well as psychologists and sociologists who will be in charge of assisting women in legal matters. “So far the ministry has allocated a section at Jeddah General Court to start welcoming women. They will then be trained according to tasks assigned,” he said.

What about law graduates who want to work as, you know, lawyers in courts? No word on that yet. ♦

Saudi Arabia’s Very Long Arab Spring→

Prince Turki al-Faisal, former intelligence chief and ambassador to the UK and the US, was on the Charlie Rose show Wednesday. When asked what would prevent a change like the one that took place in Tunisia or Egypt from reaching his country, Turki said Saudi Arabia has been going through the Arab Spring for the past eighty years. Eighty. Eight-zero. EIGHT-ZEEERO.

Reform Too Slow→

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal:

Saudi Arabia is undertaking political, social and economic reforms, (but can I) say it's going as fast as I want? For sure it's not. Saudi Arabia could expedite the process of reform on the political, economic and social fronts ... Twitter is playing a big it's important the rulers of Arab countries that didn't see change learn the lesson and have a peaceful evolution

Hear, hear.