The Linchpin to Middle East Transformation

 Over the last few months, the world stood mesmerized as the power of people seeking freedom and democracy overcame the enormous challenges of long-time dictators supported by long-entrenched security forces to bring down autocratic rule.  Of course since the successes in Egypt and Tunisia, things have turned a good deal bloodier in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria.   I do not wish to minimize the successes or the blood being lost in the fight for democracy, but the linchpin to true transformation of the Middle East is Saudi Arabia.

Most progressives skirt the issue of the reality of radical Islam.  We do so at our own peril in terms of being honestly able to address the fundamental challenge to our nation's foreign policy.  We choose to concentrate on what the US or the West has done or not done in the region.  Yes, the war in Iraq was preemptive and pursued for trumped up rationale and perhaps some flat out lies from the Bush administration.  Yes, the US should be more balanced in its approach to Israel and Palestine.  Yes, by virtue of our military force being in country, we have propped up Middle Eastern dictatorships in exchange for easy access to oil.  All of these are true, but we must also accept the reality that the Wahabi implementation of Sharia Law in the spiritual home of Islam is a force that keeps much of the religion in the stone ages going against everything for which we as progressives stand, ranging from human rights to the role of women,  freedom of expression to democracy.  Accepting this reality must lead to sustained action and dialogue.

Now, I'm not suggesting that we engage in the red-baiting tactics pursued by some on the Right.  Some of these fear-mongering types raised the dial on Sharia Law in the last year protesting the Islamic center near Ground Zero.  Oklahoma even passed a ballot measure seeking to ensure that Sharia Law would not be implemented in Oklahoma.  Sharia Law endangering Oklahoma?  Really? Such fears are completely misplaced.  Rather than worrying about Sharia Law here, we ought to concern ourselves with the radical implementation of Sharia in the cradle of Islam in Saudia Arabia.  

Most Americans seem to give Saudi Arabia a free pass.  19 of the 20 September 11th hijackers were Saudi.  Of course, so is Osama Bin Laden himself.  Michael Moore came closest that I have seen to addressing these set of issues in Faranheit 9/11.  The US Secret Service show up as he films in front of the Saudi embassy.  He also notes that prominent Saudis, including members of the Bin Laden family were the only ones in the skies in the days following 9/11 as the US government provided safe transit home.  He notes the financial connections between the Bush family and the House of Saud.  But for whatever reason he does not address the underlying ideology of the Wahabis and its codependent relationship with the Saudi royals.  

Of course, the best confrontation of the Wahabi ideology would come from within Islam.  And there are many moderate Muslim voices both in the Middle East and the West that do offer an alternative.   The refutations that I have seen though are rarely full throated (Please do send me some if you have come across them).  While those Muslim voices should be supported, the United States could be doing much more to pressure the Saudis to more quickly end the worst practices of Sharia Law.  

I doubt very seriously that the changes in neighboring Egypt will have a great deal of affect on the Saudi Kingdom.  What this means is that the Western allies will need to more clearly state our opposition to Wahabi implementation of Sharia Law and begin to make clear that we will hold the ideological proponents of radical Islam accountable for the creation of new terrorists and terrorist organizations.  Fighting on the periphery of the religion in places like Afghanistan could go on forever, if the root causes of the radicalization of young Muslims is rooted in the country that maintains the holy sights of the religion.