Professor Madawi Al Rasheed

The Saudi trinity: oil, God and security

Source: http://www.bitterlemons-international.org/inside.php?id=1455

Madawi al-Rasheed

With the winds of the "Arab spring" still blowing across the region, internally Saudi Arabia seems to have put in place three safeguards against the turbulence. Lavish economic handouts worth more than $70 billion were promised in February to absorb discontent. A package of economic, social, health and educational benefits was meant to absorb immediate frustration at lack of housing, jobs, health facilities, and welfare services. The regime promised more employment opportunities in two relevant sectors: the religious bureaucracy and the security services. The first absorbs the increasing number of graduates who cannot be employed in the private sector. The second strengthens the increasing militarization of Saudi society.

But this was still not enough. Religiously-sanctioned obedience to rulers had to be re-invoked to remind the constituency of a godly obligation. From the minarets of mosques, religious functionaries of the regime preached sermons in which they reminded their audiences of the obligation to obey God, the Prophet and the al-Saud rulers. They warned against demonstrations, civil disobedience and open criticism of the leadership. They glorified the current leadership for its adherence to Islam, and warned against chaos. They vehemently denounced Shiites for their agitations in the Eastern Province, where oil is abundant. Any call for demonstrations was depicted as a Shiite Iranian conspiracy against a pious Sunni nation. They called on the believers to support the rulers, much needed at a turbulent moment. Increasing sectarianism within Saudi Arabia is a reflection of an on-going cold war with Iran.

Book Review
In the Time of Oil. Piety, Memory and Social Life in an Omani Town. By Mandana Limbert. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2010.

In the Time of Oil explores local social change in Bahla,  a small town in the interior of Oman. This change is brought about by the 1970s oil boom and the development of the Omani state under Sultan Qabus, commonly believed to be the ‘author’ of the Omani renaissance. Endowed with new oil revenues, Sultan Qabus tried to integrate the Omani periphery, which had been the political centre of a rival Ibadhi imamate in the interior into the newly consolidated state of 1971. Assisted by a new bureaucratic elite, mainly Omani returnees from East Africa, he brought development plans and modernisation projects to the heartland of the country, historically associated with the vanished conservative Ibadhi imamate. Unlike other oil states of the Gulf region where the promise of an oil utopia enforced the legitimacy of authoritarian regimes, this book shows how in Oman, development discourse fostered mysteries, miracles, surprises and deferred dystopias. Because the new social and economic development was entirely generated by sudden oil wealth (the miracle), the new prosperity is seen as a fleeting moment, hostage to a memory of poverty and austerity and an uncertain future.

The Arab Spring has successfully removed three autocrats from the stage, while others may be on their way out. But it has brought three regional powers face to face, each competing to shape the outcome of the revolts in pursuit of its own national interest. Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia are struggling either to contain the revolutions or model them in their image. All three seem to be competing in search of lebensraum, or a sphere of influence, where they aspire to create living spaces for ideologies, influence, capital, and military outreach.

This is the first of two "Free Speach Radio News" interviews with Professor Madawi al-Rasheed looking at the political situation in Saudi Arabia. The second interview will focus on the campaign in Saudi Arabia for women’s rights.
Part I
http://fsrn.org/audio/saudi-arabia’s-response-arab-spring-uprising/8632
Part II
Saudi Arabian activists push for women’s right to drive
http://fsrn.org/audio/saudi-arabian-activists-push-women’s-right-drive/8649

Saudi Arabia and Western Hypocrisy
An interview with "theREALnews"
Madawi Al-Rasheed: Washington is calling the worst repression in the Arab world "evolving reform"
Part I
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6859
Part II
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6867
Part III
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=6891

ECONOMIES OF DESIRE, FICTIVE SEXUAL UPRISINGS
Saudi women and the chick lit revolution
Source:
http://mondediplo.com/2011/05/05saudisexnovels
ECONOMIES OF DESIRE, FICTIVE SEXUAL UPRISINGS
Le Monde Diplomatique-English edition May 2011.
Saudi women and the chick lit revolution
A new generation of Saudi women novelists is taking the topic of sex into the very public sphere of chick lit, causing shock waves in Saudi Arabia and beyond. By defying sexual constraints imposed by state and religion, they have exploded the myth of a society sailing on a sea of piety
By Madawi Al-Rasheed
Saudis are reluctant to respond to the revolutionary effervescence that is sweeping neighbouring Arab countries. With the exception of the Shia in the Eastern province, most Saudis have been co-opted into accepting limited political, human and civil rights in return for royal largesse. Even so, a revolution of a different kind is definitely taking place.
Young women novelists are stretching the boundaries in unprecedented ways. They are doing this through producing Saudi versions of the “chick lit” of the 1960s. A new generation of novelists is writing about women as sexual agents rather than submissive victims of patriarchal society.
Among many others are Raja al-Sani (Girls of Riyadh), Samar al-Muqrin (Women of Vice) and two pen names, Warda Abd al-Malik (The Return), and Saba al-Hirz (The Others). Their novels are published in the obvious place, Beirut, with the publisher al-Saqi taking the lead in promoting this new daring literature (1).

Listen to Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed (King's College) and professor Bernard Haykal (Princeton University) discuss on Blogginheads.tv
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/36025

Source:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/madawi-al-rasheed/saudi-complex-power-vs-rights

Saudi Arabia's rulers are deploying a mix of force and largesse to contain the threat of democratic protest. But an emerging civic movement is determined to persist, says Madawi Al-Rasheed.

In the era of oil, voluntary servitude may become the only option for a people deprived of basic human and civil rights. But behind the scenes and prison-bars there is hope in Saudi Arabia: most of all in an emerging civil-rights movement that is attracting Saudis of different ideological, regional and sectarian backgrounds. The Saudi regime is responding with attempts to suffocate this young movement via two classic strategies - sectarian politics and heavy policing. There are growing questions over the effectiveness of each.

The government in Riyadh continues to devote huge resources to sustaining a vast religious bureaucracy, promoting its upkeep of the holy sites, and sponsoring transnational Islamic institutions. In fact, however, the Saudi regime has lost most of its religious legitimacy. Its intimate alliance with the United States, and failure to defend Islamic symbols when they are or appear to be under assault - from Jerusalem to the incident of the Danish cartoons and Pope Benedict XVI’s retrieval of disparaging medieval sources - leave the royal elite looking incapable of living up to its religious narrative.

Saudi dilemmas and the Arab Peace Initiative
April 06, 2011 Edition 8
Source: http://www.bitterlemons-api.org/inside.php?id=49

The Arab Peace Initiative, proposed by Saudi Arabia's then-Crown Prince Abdullah (king since 2005) and announced during the Arab League summit in Beirut in 2002, is hard to resurrect amidst revolutions and protests in the region. Not only was the initiative a stillborn baby, but over time it became a corpse in need of a death ritual. We all know how important such rituals are for the living, but unfortunately, the illusion of peace persists while the reality attests that "no solution has become the solution".

For a long time, championing the Palestinian cause with either the threat of war, large economic handouts, peace initiatives or even simple delusional rhetoric has been Arab dictators' most favorite road to celebrity status. Turkey and Iran are the contest's most recent arrivals. Unfortunately for Saudi Arabia's king and other aspiring rulers, this road has become a dead end. Neither the Palestinians nor the Arab masses are impressed by previous performance.

Listen to Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed discuss current Saudi dilemmas on Leonard Lopate talk Show-WNYC Radio
The Saudi Royal family has been a close ally with the United States for decades; they are also one of the most repressive regimes in the Middle East. Madawi Al-Rasheed, Professor of Anthropology of Religion at Kings College, London, looks into the history of the family, how they rule the country with an iron fist and why a nascent protest movement there has been suppressed.
Source: http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/2011/mar/24/backstory-house-saud/

How stable is Saudi Arabia?
Preachers of Hate as Loyal Subjects
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2011/03/14/how-stable-is-saudi-arabia/preachers-of-hate-as-loyal-subjects
How Stable Is Saudi Arabia?
Can the monarchy defuse frustrations by doling out benefits or are pressures for reform mounting? Preachers of Hate as Loyal Subjects
March 14, 2011
Madawi Al-Rasheed is professor of anthropology of religion at King’s College, London and author of several books, including "A History of Saudi Arabia."
Only in Saudi Arabia could Western-educated princes and Wahhabi religious scholars have something in common. Both speak the language of violence and terror. A week before the "Day of Rage" – the proposed demonstrations on March 11 calling for political reform in Saudi Arabia – the religious scholar Saad al-Buraik called for "smashing the skulls of those who organise demonstrations or take part in them."

Why Saudi Arabia is ripe for revolution.
Source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/02/28/yes_it_could_happen_here?page=0,1

In the age of Arab revolutions, will Saudis dare to honor Facebook calls for anti-government demonstrations on March 11? Will they protest at one of Jeddah's main roundabouts? Or will they start in Qatif, the eastern region where a substantial Shiite majority has had more experience in real protest? Will Riyadh remain cocooned in its cloak of pomp and power, hidden from public gaze in its mighty sand castles?

Saudi Arabia is ripe for change. Despite its image as a fabulously wealthy realm with a quiescent, apolitical population, it has similar economic, demographic, social, and political conditions as those prevailing in its neighboring Arab countries. There is no reason to believe Saudis are immune to the protest fever sweeping the region.

Saudi Arabia is indeed wealthy, but most of its young population cannot find jobs in either the public or private sector. The expansion of its $430 billion economy has benefited a substantial section of the entrepreneurial elite -- particularly those well connected with the ruling family -- but has failed to produce jobs for thousands of college graduates every year. This same elite has resisted employing expensive Saudis and contributed to the rise in local unemployment by hiring foreign labor. Rising oil prices since 2003 and the expansion of state investment in education, infrastructure, and welfare, meanwhile, have produced an explosive economy of desires.

Sophie Gilliat-Ray Muslims in Britain an Introduction.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, 316pp, paperback, ISBN 978-0-521-53688-2
With current debates and controversies surrounding the integration of Muslims in Britain gathering momentum, Sophie Gilliat-Ray has written an informed introductory survey of their history, organisations, and struggles to find a place in British society. Muslims in Britain builds on the vast literature produced by academics over the last four decades and provides a clear synthesis of the main issues addressed by a previous generation of scholars.
An historical introduction traces early Muslim presence in Britain that culminates in the formation of communities in the post second World War period. While early Muslims were Turks and North Africans, today the face of British Islam is predominantly Asian.  Nevertheless since the 1970s, Muslims from Africa and the Middle East add to the religious and ethnic diversity of the community. Second and third generation Muslims probably constitute the majority of Muslims in Britain. Those have produced their own understanding of Islam that evolved in the context of interacting with British society and the Muslim world.