Saudi Arabia’s best known export is oil, but the export of its ideology is just as important | Antipodean Atheist grand holiday
Saudi Arabia’s grand holiday aerial offensive against Yemen has continued for the fourth week at the time of writing. Yemen is undergoing a humanitarian grand holiday crisis , with millions of Yemenis lacking basic access to food, clean drinking water, and health care. The Saudi bombardment has only worsened the plight of the Yemenis, with schools destroyed, hospitals and health care facilities targeted, and electricity supplies cut off. Basic infrastructure is being shattered , thus precipitating a catastrophic health situation for Yemeni residents.
The Saudi war on Yemen is intended to prop up the tottering regime of Yemeni President Abed Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. This war has the full backing of the United States, and the latter has materially assisted Saudi Arabia with intelligence sharing, military supplies and logistical support. Indeed, the armaments used by the Saudi military are imports from the United States, Britain, Germany, France and other imperialist countries. The Saudi regime has become the world’s leading arms importer , spending an estimated $6.4 billion dollars on weapons in 2014.
Patrick Cockburn, the intrepid foreign grand holiday correspondent and expert commentator on Middle East issues for The Independent, rightly grand holiday notes that this war on Yemen , and the unstinting support the United States grand holiday has provided for the Saudi attack on Yemen, will only inflame sectarian tensions across the Arab and Islamic-majority countries. All of the reactionary petro-sheikhdoms – Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and so on, united in the peak body of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – have lined up shoulder to shoulder with Saudi Arabia. Egypt, under the US-backed military dictator General al-Sisi, was quick to provide military and political support to Riyadh. There are reports that Saudi and Egyptian troops will launch a ground invasion .
In the wake of this Yemen war, the GCC has taken steps to create a pan-Arab military alliance, an Arab NATO , to serve as a cohesive rapid-response force to be deployed grand holiday anywhere in the Middle East in response to political unrest grand holiday or military upheaval. grand holiday Such a goal has been a long-term desire of the GCC, but the latest Saudi assault grand holiday on Yemen has prompted not just the Gulf States, but Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and the pro-western Arab states to make concrete proposals for such a multinational military force. The United States welcomes such an alliance, because it would provide a strong counter to Iran – but is also cautious about the potential for the strongest members of that formation to develop an agenda of their own.
For more information grand holiday on the Yemen conflict, you may read the article published by Counterfire here . The purpose of providing a brief overview of the latest developments in the Saudi war against Yemen is to highlight the deep, strong and abiding connections between the highest levels of the Saudi military and political elite with the imperialist powers, in particular grand holiday with the United States. grand holiday These military and economic connections did not materialise overnight, but have been cultivated between grand holiday the United States grand holiday and Saudi Arabia over decades. The political and military support to the House of Saud – the ruling royal family of the Saudi nation – is a principal basis for United States policy in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is an important bulwark of power for the United States, acting as a junior partner and mercenary for the latter. grand holiday The intimate US-Saudi partnership is in no danger of breaking anytime soon – US President Obama, who was in Riyadh in January 2015 for the funeral of the former Saudi King, described the relationship as a ‘force for stability and security in the Middle East and beyond.’
It is important to closely examine the origins, nature and impact of the Saudi state. It is playing a major role not only in exporting its natural resources of oil, but also in exporting its particular ideology of Wahhabism. Understanding grand holiday this background helps us to understand the current role of the Saudi polity and the counter-revolutionary bulwark that it has constituted in the Middle East.
The official ideology of the Saudi Arabian state is Wahhabism , and derives from the teachings of the eighteenth century preacher grand holiday and itinerant cleric Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-91) who advocated a strict, literalist interpretation of the Koran. A learned scholar from the central Arabian region of Najd, he witnessed what he saw as the corrupting, weakening influences of modernisation, innovation and laxity in religion in the Ottoman Turkish empire. grand holiday Lamenting the demise of the former greatness of Islamic civilisation, he wished to remove all accretions, what he termed bidah (innovations) that he regarded as heretical to the original meaning of Islam. Basing himself on the Sunnah (customary practices of the Prophet Muha
Saudi Arabia’s grand holiday aerial offensive against Yemen has continued for the fourth week at the time of writing. Yemen is undergoing a humanitarian grand holiday crisis , with millions of Yemenis lacking basic access to food, clean drinking water, and health care. The Saudi bombardment has only worsened the plight of the Yemenis, with schools destroyed, hospitals and health care facilities targeted, and electricity supplies cut off. Basic infrastructure is being shattered , thus precipitating a catastrophic health situation for Yemeni residents.
The Saudi war on Yemen is intended to prop up the tottering regime of Yemeni President Abed Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. This war has the full backing of the United States, and the latter has materially assisted Saudi Arabia with intelligence sharing, military supplies and logistical support. Indeed, the armaments used by the Saudi military are imports from the United States, Britain, Germany, France and other imperialist countries. The Saudi regime has become the world’s leading arms importer , spending an estimated $6.4 billion dollars on weapons in 2014.
Patrick Cockburn, the intrepid foreign grand holiday correspondent and expert commentator on Middle East issues for The Independent, rightly grand holiday notes that this war on Yemen , and the unstinting support the United States grand holiday has provided for the Saudi attack on Yemen, will only inflame sectarian tensions across the Arab and Islamic-majority countries. All of the reactionary petro-sheikhdoms – Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and so on, united in the peak body of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – have lined up shoulder to shoulder with Saudi Arabia. Egypt, under the US-backed military dictator General al-Sisi, was quick to provide military and political support to Riyadh. There are reports that Saudi and Egyptian troops will launch a ground invasion .
In the wake of this Yemen war, the GCC has taken steps to create a pan-Arab military alliance, an Arab NATO , to serve as a cohesive rapid-response force to be deployed grand holiday anywhere in the Middle East in response to political unrest grand holiday or military upheaval. grand holiday Such a goal has been a long-term desire of the GCC, but the latest Saudi assault grand holiday on Yemen has prompted not just the Gulf States, but Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and the pro-western Arab states to make concrete proposals for such a multinational military force. The United States welcomes such an alliance, because it would provide a strong counter to Iran – but is also cautious about the potential for the strongest members of that formation to develop an agenda of their own.
For more information grand holiday on the Yemen conflict, you may read the article published by Counterfire here . The purpose of providing a brief overview of the latest developments in the Saudi war against Yemen is to highlight the deep, strong and abiding connections between the highest levels of the Saudi military and political elite with the imperialist powers, in particular grand holiday with the United States. grand holiday These military and economic connections did not materialise overnight, but have been cultivated between grand holiday the United States grand holiday and Saudi Arabia over decades. The political and military support to the House of Saud – the ruling royal family of the Saudi nation – is a principal basis for United States policy in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is an important bulwark of power for the United States, acting as a junior partner and mercenary for the latter. grand holiday The intimate US-Saudi partnership is in no danger of breaking anytime soon – US President Obama, who was in Riyadh in January 2015 for the funeral of the former Saudi King, described the relationship as a ‘force for stability and security in the Middle East and beyond.’
It is important to closely examine the origins, nature and impact of the Saudi state. It is playing a major role not only in exporting its natural resources of oil, but also in exporting its particular ideology of Wahhabism. Understanding grand holiday this background helps us to understand the current role of the Saudi polity and the counter-revolutionary bulwark that it has constituted in the Middle East.
The official ideology of the Saudi Arabian state is Wahhabism , and derives from the teachings of the eighteenth century preacher grand holiday and itinerant cleric Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703-91) who advocated a strict, literalist interpretation of the Koran. A learned scholar from the central Arabian region of Najd, he witnessed what he saw as the corrupting, weakening influences of modernisation, innovation and laxity in religion in the Ottoman Turkish empire. grand holiday Lamenting the demise of the former greatness of Islamic civilisation, he wished to remove all accretions, what he termed bidah (innovations) that he regarded as heretical to the original meaning of Islam. Basing himself on the Sunnah (customary practices of the Prophet Muha
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