Islam commands that sovereignty for a nation is only for the Laws of Allah and that the nation does not depend on anyone else for its security. It also commands that it is for the Muslims to appoint a just ruler and that the affairs of the people are the rulers’ primary concern.

After destroying the Khilafah in 1924 these principles were swept aside and the Western powers carved the Muslim Ummah into Nation States, installing puppets regimes in order to ensure the suffocation of the people both intellectually and politically.

Saudi Arabia is one of these imperialist creations, a near perfect illustration of the nature of the regimes in the Muslim world and the servant-master relationship they have developed with Western powers. Although this film focuses on the Saudi regime and its relationship with America, its aim is to make Muslims conscious of the general political circumstances surrounding them so that all the corrupt regimes in the Muslim world are politically challenged, accounted and replaced with one Islamic State...The Khilafah.

Colonial Birth

The modern day kingdom of Saudi Arabia came into existence as a result of a rebellion against The Islamic Khilafah State.

Britain sought to strike the Islamic State from within. Followers of the Wahhabi Math’hab by then had managed to establish an entity within the Islamic State, led by Muhammad ibn Saud and later by his son Abdul-Aziz. Britain supplied them with weapons and money and they moved on a sectarian basis to seize the Islamic lands which were under the authority of the Khilafah. They took up arms against the Khaleefah and fought the Islamic armed forces (the army of the Amir ul-Mu’mineen), all the time goaded by the British.

It was well known that Al Saud were British agents, the huge arsenals and equipment's which reached them via India and the moneys to cover the war effort against the Khilafah were supplied by the British. They exploited the Wahhabi Math’hab, with the aim of fighting the Islamic State and clashing with the other Math’habs, in order to incite sectarian wars with the Ottoman state. The followers of this Math’hab were unaware of this, but the Saudi Amir was fully aware. This is because the relationship was not between the British and Muhammad ibn Abdul-Wahhab, but between the British and Al Saud (Abdul-Aziz ibn Muhammad ibn Saud and then with his son Saud).

Al-Saud family reward for playing the most important role in this rebellion was to be granted by the British the position of future rulers of Hijaz. They had so much trust and confidence in their British masters and were so arrogant of their possession that they called it Saudi on September 23rd 1933. The only State in the world to be named after a family.

THE FOUNDATIONS, OF U.S.-SAUDI RELATIONS

Contrary to popular western myth it is the Saudis that are dependent on the US and not the other way around. The relationship is one in which the Saudi regime has no leverage over the US while the US exerts almost total control over the regime with the power to remove the regime covertly or overtly.

It was King Abd al-Aziz who invited foreigners, including a major American oil company, to facilitate exploration for asset beneath the soil of the impoverished kingdom. In May 1933 a 60-year contract offering the exclusive concession for exploration and extraction of oil was concluded with Standard Oil of California (Socal). It was not until 1938 that they first struck oil in commercial quantities. The company name would later change in 1944 to Aramco the Arabian American Oil Company. It was totally American owned and it would be another 30 years before the Saudi’s acquired a 25% share and then finally full control in 1980.

The kingdom’s unparalleled oil resources laid the foundations of the relationship. The United States focused on excluding other foreign powers. As the American State Dept official George Kennan viewed the matter in 1944, "The oil in this region is the greatest single material prize in all history." American leaders have since then concluded that their ultimate national interest in the Gulf is to keep the prize, and the power that comes with it, out of unfriendly hands.

At the time this meant not only the USSR but more importantly Britain, then a major regional power whose bases in Iraq and Jordan, both ruled by her stooges were rivals for influence. Their proximity to the oil fields, British ambitions, and British trained military forces all led to America ensuring that the Saudis concluded a defense pact with the United States in 1951. It included lease of Dhahran Airfield.

When Britain formed the Baghdad Pact, which encompassed Britain, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan, in order to protect its interests from the Americans, the US responded by getting the Saudis to sign a mutual defence pact with its most successful agent Gamal Abdel Nasser and invited Egyptian military trainers into the kingdom in parallel to the Americans.

A few years later in the Suez Crisis of 1956, Pres. Eisenhower forcefully opposed the British, French, and Israeli plan to seize Egypt’s Suez Canal, seeing it as a European neo-imperial enterprise. In turn the crisis enhanced America’s image in the region allowing the Saudis to renew the American lease at Dhahran the next year.

Eventually it was the Carter administration in the fall of 1978 that witnessed the most significant removal of British influence in the region in the shape of the overthrow of the shah of Iran.
Saudi oil revenues were also harnessed by America to spread Capitalism in Aits global struggle against communism, sponsoring anti-communist rebel movements in Angola, Ethiopia, and Afghanistan. However it was often done in a secret manner, such as when the White House in May 1984, at the request of Reagan’s national security adviser Robert McFarlane, instructed Prince Bandar to deposit over a million dollars a month in a Miami bank account belonging to the American backed Nicaraguan contra rebels, after Congress had stopped official funding.

However Americans began to question their alliance with the Saudis after 11 September like never before. A number of academics, thinkers and policy makers sought to distance the relationship between Saudi and themselves. The Republican senator Richard Shelby said "We have, at best, not a great relationship with the Saudis," he said. "It's transactional and we should keep that in mind." This essentially represents the view of the neo-conservatives.

Although Bush has publicly distanced himself from such calls, it is clear that he quietly endorses this view. The influential conservative think tank, the Rand Corporation, was specifically hired by Bush in 2002 to investigate Saudi Arabia and the options available to the US. They in turn branded Saudi Arabia 'the kernel of evil', adding that "Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain”. More so it advocated that the US invade the country, targeting in particular Makkah and Medina, seize its oil fields and confiscate its financial assets. Something originally proposed by US officials back in the 70’s.

The reason why the US administration has not already severed links with Saudi is because this would not be conducive to her strategic interests. Saudi Arabia is not only the number one supplier to the United States but the oil is sold to the US at a discount of $1 per barrel translating into a subsidy to US consumers of $620m per year. Saudi also represents 25 per cent of the world’s known oil supplies and so the US would struggle to meet her domestic energy demands without their compliance.

Furthermore Bush has been criticised by oil companies for the lack of progress made in securing Iraq’s oil. The popular Iraqi resistance and sabotage to pipelines has reduced the flow of oil to a trickle, exporting only a third of its capability. On the US domestic front, consumers faced with soaring gas prices at the pump blame Bush for much of America’s energy woes.

The Bush administration faced with the growing tide of disapproval asked the Saudi’s to come up with a plan that dramatically increases its oil production capacity. In April 2005, Crown Prince Abdullah Saudi proposed to spend $50 billion over a five–year period to increase production capacity to 12.5 million barrels per day by 2009 from the current 11 million limit. The aim - to flood the international oil market to reduce the oil price in order to aid the American economy even though it would also diminish Saudi profits and significantly damage the country’s economy. A sacrifice the Saudi’s have made for their Americans masters on previous occasions.

Notwithstanding this the Saudi’s also plans to give US energy companies a huge bonanza by inviting them to invest in Saudi Arabia’s other energy sectors. Crown Prince Abdullah furthermore plans to make it easier for American businessmen to take wealth out of the country by proposing to relax the laws. Clearly the Americans remain the primary beneficiaries of Abdullah’s plan whilst the Ummah continues to suffer.

Saudi, America and Israel

Washington’s commitment to Saudi Arabia has proceeded in tandem with a close security relationship with Israel.
America’s connection to Israel, which grew from generalized support in the 1940s to an arms supply relationship in the mid-1960s, should have been a source of complication for the Saudis – the self proclaimed guardians of the holy lands. However apart from some rhetoric, it had little effect on ties with Washington. Afterall if they could tolerate US control over the Hijaz they could tolerate Zionists control of Palestine.

Because of Arab and Muslim sentiment Saudi leaders on the face of it had to appear to be opposed to a sovereign Jewish presence in the midst of the Arab world. But the Saudis were set to play a useful part in America’s plans for the region. The first meeting of Saudi and American heads of state took place in 1945 aboard an American warship on the Suez Canal (27). Publicly President Franklin D. Roosevelt pledged that: "(1) He personally, as president, would never do anything which might prove hostile to the Arabs; and (2) the U.S. Government would make no change in its basic policy in Palestine without full and prior consultation with both Jews and Arabs." However privately Roosevelt wanted Ibn Saud to use his position with other Arab Leaders to win support for a plan to transfer a portion of Palestine west of the Jordan River to the Jews as a new homeland for $50 million. In 1943, Roosevelt sent a secret emissary to Riyadh to ask the King to meet Jewish Leaders to discuss the plan.
After the death of Roosevelt in early 1945, his successor President Truman, only two months after a meeting with Ibn Saud, publicly backed the creation of Israel at the UN.

In 1950 Ibn Saud asked Truman for a formal military treaty. In response Truman sent his Assistant Secretary of State to Saudi Arabia to establish a military aid program that continues to this day. The King was told that, The United States... will take most immediate action at any time that the integrity and independence of Saudi Arabia is threatened? The King, evidently pleased, closed the meeting by saying he wished” It to be understood that he considered the United States and Saudi Arabia as One State”.

By 1967 American-Israeli ties were closer than before, and a regional perception prevailed of the kingdom as being dependent on the United States. Arab sentiment against America spilled over into criticism of the ruling family. During the 1967Arab-Israeli war, anti-US and Israeli demonstrations broke out in Saudi Arabia, publicly pressuring King Faisal bin Abd al-Aziz to temporarily shut down ’Aramcos operations, and shipments to the U.S. or Britain. However only two months later the Saudi regime quickly moved to end the embargo and Faisal personally insisted that the US stayed.

After the 1967 War, Saudi ties to America continued to subject them to growing pressure from Muslims worldwide. Faisal, hoping to resolve or at least lessen these tensions, ensured that he was continually seen to urge the Americans to press Israel even though it was only to withdrawal to the pre-war lines. However the Saudi America relationship only worked one way and America developed an even more pro-Israeli policy supplying them with arms during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

In the 1973 Arab-Israeli war the Saudis again under overwhelming public pressure withdrew oil from the market. The contradictions of the Saudi-American relationship reached it’s peaks in the mid 70’s, when high officials in Washington openly threatened for the first but not last time the possibility of seizing the Gulf oil fields.
Even though it was only a two month suspension of all oil supplies to the United States, it was enough to cause a swift and disruptive effect on America’s domestic life and economy. As a result the Saudis, not wishing to harm their master, never again brandished the oil weapon in subsequent crises.

In return for the Saudis deliberate ineffectual opposition to Israel, America has continuously promised the family protection as the rulers of Saudi Arabia.

Source:  KCom Journal


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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)

{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)

The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]

The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)  also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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