Professor Madawi Al Rasheed

Conference

‎ ‎  Kingdom without Borders: Saudi Expansion in the World

     ‎6-8 September 2007‎

     King’s College

    Attendance by invitation only ‎

Kingdom without Borders intends to explore a number of issues related to Saudi ‎political, economic, social, religious, media and cultural expansion in the World.

This expansion has recently become the subject of debate and controversy. The ‎conference aims to highlight the parameter of this expansion and its ‎consequences on the receiving societies, world politics, the intellectual and ‎religious public spheres, local social and cultural developments, and international ‎relations.  ‎

The conference brings together scholars and policy makers from Europe, the ‎USA, Asia and the Middle East. In two days of open discussions among ‎commentators from a variety of perspectives, contemporary trends of Saudi ‎expansion will be examined, exploring their roots as well as likely future ‎development and consequences. ‎

The multiplicity of perspectives and areas of expertise brought to bear on these ‎questions should allow a balanced understanding of the phenomenon. The ‎conference will no doubt re-evaluate and challenge many of the current literature ‎on Saudi expansion and connections with the world. ‎

This first conference will focus on the general aspects of Saudi expansion with ‎the hope that later more focused workshops will follow to map Saudi connections ‎in specific local contexts in the Arab-Muslim worlds and the West. ‎

PART I: SAUDI CONNECTIONS:  GENERAL OVERVIEW

This sections aims to provide a general forum that situates Saudi expansion in its ‎historical context. Relevant questions include

To what extent is Saudi expansion a product of local Saudi concerns for ‎legitimacy?‎

To what extend is Saudi expansion a product of the weakening of other regional ‎Arab powers that had in the past more acumen and intellectual heritage to play a ‎leading role in initiating political, social and religious connections?‎

To what extent is this expansion a product of the weakening of Arab society and ‎civil institutions in general and economic underdevelopment?‎

To what extent is this expansion a product of Western encouragement and ‎promotion of Saudi Arabia as a crucial player in regional, local and world politics?‎

The session focuses on the historical and structural factors both in Saudi Arabia ‎and the Arab, Muslim and Western worlds that paved the way for this unexpected ‎Saudi expansion. Furthermore, it assesses the receptiveness of constituencies ‎and the open door policies, allowing Saudi expansion unprecedented presence in ‎very distant locations. This sheds light on both old and new mediators (Western, ‎Arab, Saudi) through whom Saudi expansion is enforced in distant lands, for ‎example cultural brokers, economic and political entrepreneurs, intellectuals, and ‎other agencies.  ‎

PART II: POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC CONNECTIONS

Since the oil boom of the 1970s, Saudi Arabia began to initiate its own ‎connections in the world, through political alliances with Western democracies, ‎Arab regimes or  co-optation of oppositions to these regimes. Papers should ‎examine Saudi involvement in world and Arab affairs in the cold and post cold ‎war periods; special emphasis is put on the consequences of this involvement in ‎the hot spots of the world, from Latin America to the Arab world, Africa and Asia. ‎Saudi  direct and indirect interventions in several regions are analysed. ‎

In addition, oil wealth was used to penetrate world markets, either as remittances ‎immigrants sent to their home countries or as direct investments in these ‎countries. In some instances the flow of oil remittances to developing countries ‎has had the effect of distorting and skewing economic and social development. ‎This is a matter that requires deliberate attention. ‎

The aim here is to map Saudi political and economic expansion and assess its ‎consequences on the receiving societies and world economies. Special ‎emphasis is put on Saudi monopolies and their socio-economic impact in the ‎world. ‎

‎ ‎

PART III: RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL EXPANSION

One of the most noticeable areas of Saudi expansion is the significance of Saudi ‎religious transnational penetration of the Arab world, Africa, Asia, Europe and ‎North America. This is experienced in several areas, for example religious ‎preaching, educational programmes, charitable organisations, pan-Arab and pan-‎Islamic bureaucracies, and religious patronage networks. Papers should address ‎aspects of this expansion, its consequences on the receiving societies, its role in ‎altering local manifestations of piety, religious worship and practice, and its effect ‎on religious pluralism, sectarian conflict, competition and violence. ‎

Together with religious expansion comes the alteration of local social traditions, ‎norms, and patters of social behaviour either through the media, return migration ‎and tourism. Papers should address consequences of for example the import of ‎the “Saudi way of life”-  by Arab expatriates. Saudi expansion combined  ‎contradictory strands, including both conservative and more lax manifestations. ‎This raises questions related to the impact of these contradictions on local ‎tradition, customs, gender relations, marriage patterns, social styles, tourist ‎destinations (in the West and the Arab world) and other relevant areas of the ‎social sphere.  ‎

‎ PART IV: CULTURAL EXPANSION

The above areas are accompanied by an obvious and aggressive Saudi ‎appropriation of the Arab and Western media, which resulted in the demise of old ‎local journalistic genres, especially those associated with historical centres such ‎as Beirut and Cairo. Since the 1970s, it is argued by some observers that Saudi ‎control of the Arab media has stifled diversity and pluralism, and influenced Arab ‎journalists and thinkers in many ways. Papers should examine the impact of ‎Saudi appropriation of Arab media voices, publishing houses, and Arab public ‎opinion. Furthermore, western media and the co-optation of journalistic voices in ‎the West have a tremendous impact on local practices, freedom of expression, ‎and other journalistic traditions. Direct Saudi pressure on Western media or self ‎censorship by this media have become obvious practices among journalists who ‎would prefer not to undermine their access to sources of information, often ‎controlled by Saudi Arabia. ‎

Since the 1990s and the advent of new communication technology (for example ‎satellite television and electronic media), Saudi control of main media providers ‎and outlet needs to be assessed and its consequences documented. The long ‎term effect of this trend in generating new styles, tastes, and opinions, which may ‎or may not correspond to local aspirations is worth exploring.  One area to be ‎noted is the paradoxical role of Saudi expansion, which has generated two ‎contradictory outcomes. A strong religious undertone, deemed inappropriate for ‎certain Arab contexts (for example fatwa and dawa programmes) is combined ‎with blunt and vulgar entertainment (for example video clips, Rotana, ‎entertainment and chat shows), condemned by many Arab audiences as ‎corrupting and inappropriate. Papers should address the contradictions in Saudi ‎media projects that may have serious  social consequences in specific localities. ‎

Another area of great relevance is the impact of Saudi expansion on academics, ‎intellectuals and others who are engaged in cultural production and the shaping ‎of the public sphere in various regions. Through generous rewards and ‎association with Saudi funded Western and Arab research centres and forums, a ‎new genre of academic and intellectual productions appear in London, ‎

Conference programme

‎6-8 SEPTEMBER 2007‎

Venue: Council Room, King’s College, Main Building, Strand ‎

DAY 1: Thursday 6 September ‎

AFTERNOON 4.00pm-7.45pm‎

‎4.00-5.00pm: Registration (King’s College, Council Room)‎

‎5.00-5.30pm:  Madawi Al-Rasheed Welcome and Introduction

‎5.30-7.45pm:  Panel 1 Historical Perspectives (Chair: Madawi Al-Rasheed)‎

‎5.30-6.15pm Hamadi Redissi   Refutation of Wahhabism in Arabic Sources ‎‎1745-1932‎

‎6.15-7.00pm Nelida Fuccaro Between Imarah, Empire and Oil: Saudis in the ‎Frontier Society of the Persian Gulf ‎

‎7.00-7.45pm Fawaz Trablsi Saudi Expansion: The Lebanese Connection 1920-‎‎1952‎

‎8.00pm Dinner ‎

DAY 2: Friday 7 September  ‎

MORNING 9am- 1.00pm ‎

Panel 2: Political and Economic Connections (Chair: Nelida Fuccaro)‎

‎9.00-9.45am Paul Aarts Saudi-European Relations: Politics, Economics and the ‎Environment

‎9.45-10.30am Robert Vitalis The Al-Saud as a Covert Agency of American ‎Empire

‎10.30-11.15am Asad Abu Khalil Motives and Features of Saudi Policy in ‎Lebanon ‎

‎11.15-11.30am Coffee Break‎

‎11.30-12.15 Toby Jones  Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Global Development

‎1.00-2.00pm Lunch at King’s College London‎

AFTERNOON 2.00-7.00pm‎

‎2.00-2.45pm Roger Hardy Ambivalent Ally: Saudi Arabia and the “War on ‎Terror” ‎

Panel 3: Religious Expansion (Chair: Aziz al-Azmeh)‎

‎2.45-3.30pm Saed Shihabi The Role of Religious Ideology in the Expansionist ‎Policies of Saudi Arabia

‎3.30-3.45 Coffee Break   ‎

Panel 3  Religious Expansion (Chair: Aziz al-Azmeh)‎

‎3.45-4.30pm Eleanor Doumato The Saudi Public School Religious Curriculum: ‎Unreformed and in Retreat?‎

‎4.30-5.15pm Madawi Al-Rasheed The Minaret and the Saudi Palace: ‎Obedience at Home and Rebellion Abroad

‎5.15-6.00pm Faisal Devji The “Arab” in Global Militancy‎

‎6.00-6.45pm  Roel Meijir Yusuf al-Uyari and the Jihadi Salafist Transnational ‎Expansion

‎8.00pm Dinner ‎

DAY 3 SATURDAY 8 SEPTEMBER ‎

MORNING 9.00am-1.00pm‎

Panel 3  Religious Expansion (Continued)  (Chair: Madawi Al-Rasheed)‎

‎9.00-9.45am Noorhaidi Hasan From Apolitical Quietism to Jihadist Activism: ‎Salafi Dawa Movement, Wahhabi Campaign and Political Violence in Indonesia

‎9.45-10.30am Salwa Ismail Producing “Reformed Islam”: A Saudi-American ‎Joint Venture

‎10.30-11.15am Irfan Alawi Wahhabi Destruction of the Heart of Islam

‎11.15-11.30 Coffee Break‎

‎11.30-12.15 Laurent Bonnefoy Salafism in Yemen: a Saudization?‎

‎12.15-1pm Mark Johnson In the footsteps of the Prophet: sociality and the ‎religious imagination among Muslims from South East Asia working in Saudi ‎Arabia.‎

‎1.00-2.00 Lunch at King’s College‎

AFTERNOON 2.00-7.00pm ‎

Panel 4 Media and Cultural Connections (Chair: Salwa Ismail)‎

‎2.00-2.45pm  Ali Al-Atassi  Petrodollar Making Public Opinion: Saudi Arabian ‎Media

‎2.45-3.30pm Hachem Saleh Saudi Arabia in the Eyes of Western Intellectuals

‎3.30-4.15pm Coffee Break‎

‎4.15-5.00pm Mai Yamani The Globalization of Saudi Morality: Petrodollar and ‎the Arab Press

‎5.00-5.45pm Noha Mellor Saudi Monopoly on the Arab Media‎

‎5.45-6.30pm Andrew Hammond Saudi Arabia’s Expanding “Cordon Sanitaire” in ‎the Arab Media: Challenges and Aims

‎6.30-7.30pm Round Table ‎