Saudi Arabia exposed by John R. Bradley

The real and proper Taliban.

Imagine the Taliban ruling Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, but this time they are sitting on top of the cheapest reserve of oil, as well as hosts of the most sacred house of Islamic God. Imagine the gravitas they will be able to generate not only with the oil starved West but also with the spiritually famished billion odd Muslims of the world! This is the impression reading this book left on me of the Saudi Arabian culture and society.

John starts by presenting most of the cosmetic effects of Wahabism in the Saudi culture middle class which is very different from the working class in the West or other developing Eastern cultures for all that I know. The Saudi middle class as pointed out in this very informative book, does not know how to work, has not worked and does not want to work either. Who would, if given the opportunity not to work? After all, work is not exactly like exercise, not indulging in work is not going to kill us, is it? And I would argue that the Saudis have learnt ways to make money, from the cheap oil, their visa referral system, and limitless tourism all year long culminating in the yearly religious mega event of Hajj, pushing their Wahabi ideology on the unsuspecting new Muslims. And for Saudis everyone not a Saudi is a convert, is he not? 

Wahabism is a sort of reformation within Islam challenging the all previous ideologies with a pretty simple and powerful message. This message is now being propagated across all of the Muslim and Western countries fueled by oil revenues. The propaganda is spartan, revolutionary, and extremely powerful coming from the Home of Allah itself. It resonates very very well not only outside Saudi Arabia but also inside the Kingdom as Saudis desperately want to justify their own lavish lifestyles as compared to their elder destitute generations.  

The other aspect of strength for any Saudi is their culture which is synonymous with Islam. Saudis impose their ‘Islamic’ culture on all other converted cultures. The biggest ace in their culture is the language of the holy Quran. To date, there has never been another version of the Quran in any different language. There have been translations but the Arabic Quran commands an absolute infallible role with no other translations getting close to challenge its ascendancy. 

John also highlights the tribal culture of Saudi Arabia as still pretty strong. Dealing with tribes is the age old tradition in a royalist system. Also tribal system resonates well with the classical era of Islam in Arabia. The Prophet dealt with various tribes to spread the Islamic message, sort of similar to the Saud style of governance. Al-Qaida also developed its defiant message for the tribes of Saudi Arabia and Yemen and was later able to franchise the same to tribal cultures in Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Again one way to tackle Islamic militancy would be to take assimilate tribes into cities so that any government can comfortably deal with them. On the flip side, Al-Qaida has little hope of spreading its vile message in cities where tribal influence is non existent. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the neatly arranged chapters on Saudi youth, Shias, and especially the one one expatriate plight. This is probably the first book that mentions the third class treatment letter out to workers from Phillipines, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Why Al-Qaida saw no threat coming from the thousands of low paid workers cleaning streets in 40 degree calcius wearing orange jump suits just like in Guantanamo. Instead it choose to target the Western expats living in walled compounds blaming them for damaging the morals of a pure Saudi Islamic society. I find it ironic that similar orange jumpsuits were used by the Americans in Guantanmo holding possible Al-Qaida members. Ironic isn't it? 

This book was riveting right form the beginning to the end. John in the end seemed mildly optimistic about any changes to the Wahabi control on Saudi Arabia. I tend to agree with him that change must come from the inside rather than any outside influence, somewhat similar to the Arab Spring.