Saudi Arabia – Focal Point of Tyranny, Terrorism and Fallacious Interpretation of Islam

Few realize in today’s world that the War against Terrorism has been an extraordinary fraud geared by dark forces in control of the policy making procedures in England, France and America, only to trigger a tsunami of "Islamic" terrorism.

The ineffective and catastrophic policies pursued after the declaration of the War Against Terrorism are especially studied and executed so that they trigger the beforehand targeted reactions which customarily take the form of suicidal attacks, uncontrolled hatred, and pathological desire of destruction. These targeted reactions are programmed to once take the form of nuclear explosion(s) that will justify the termination of the Western world democracies which do not anymore match the needs of the Apostate Freemasonic Lodge.

Few comprehend that all those who denounce the fraudulent phenomenon, stating that Islam does not harbour, neither does it allow, and terrorism are wrong. They are so because they are hypothesizing on theoretical analyses, instead of practically analyzing the current socio-economic and political situation of several Islamic countries, which is not Islamic at all, while being at the same time characterized by the prevalence of a cultural – educational – ideological system which triggers a pseudo-Islamic radicalism that ends up as Islamic terrorism.

Not in Somalia’s coast, not in Yemen’s mountains, not in Sudan’s Nile valley

Few understand that Islamic radicalism does not exist in the periphery, the faraway provinces, the mountains, the plains, the coasts and the villages of the Islamic world – except under form of momentarily adopted means of reaction against grave anti-Islamic policies of colonial powers, which are the main problem that has to be eliminated first.

Few are able to identify the great urban centres and the upper middle classes of few Muslim countries as the emanation centre of the Islamic radicalism and terrorism.

The formation of these Muslim upper middle classes is a phenomenon directly linked with, and derived from, the Anglo-French colonialism as implemented in the Middle East, Northeast Africa, and India.

Eliminate the Ottoman Empire, and you get the first Islamic terrorist!

Even fewer have the capacity to open their eyes and see that the Anglo-French colonialism is the result of the Western colonial powers´ anti-Ottoman and anti-Persian hysteria which was the driving force of their criminal and catastrophic policies and attempts for more than two centuries.

Viewed historically, the father of Osama bin Laden is Napoleon; the heinous expedition of 1798 is the Western world’s most paranoid act, which – completed with the post-WW I ridiculous congresses and trashy treaties signed against the Ottoman Empire’s existence and territories – triggered in and by itself the Islamic radicalism and terrorism, as reaction of the Islamically uneducated Muslims. The earlier completed collapse of the Islamic Civilization in the late 16th – early 17th century deprived the Islamic World from any comeback possibility to the heights of civilization that prevailed throughout Islam for a millennium.

It was simply inane for the Western powers to assume that any effort of Westernization of the Islamic world could possibly happen at the same time with the destruction of its political structure, namely the Ottoman Empire, the Safevid – Qadjar Empire of Iran and the Mughal Empire of India. When a society or a number of societies are forced to brusquely change through humiliation, detrimental self-depreciation, and manoeuvred developments geared to trigger rejection of any concept of progress, improvement, explorative spirit, and search for historical integrity and cultural authenticity (the absence of which leads to national disintegration, total blockage of the nation-building process, and socio-economic and political self-destruction), the final stages of the decayed involve reactionary obscurantism, extreme radicalism, and terrorism.

What if Kemal Ataturk ruled all the Ottoman territory…..

It would have been completely different, had the Ottoman Empire been left intact in Asia. The political demise of the empire would have been followed by the rise of the Turkish Republic which would not have spanned over today’s Turkey’s territory only but throughout the Asiatic landmass controlled by the Ottoman Empire, involving today’s Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Kuwait, Qatar, Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

This means that the concept of secular Muslim society would have been diffused throughout vast lands whereby shocking ignorance, compact darkness, and hatred for knowledge, freedom, change, exploration, study, experiment, research and art have prevailed ever since.

It is wrong to think that because Muslim engineers and physicists, chemists and doctors can be Islamic extremists and radicals, the Islamists are interested in knowledge; they simply learn what may allow them to live according to their parents´ social standards and contribute to the preparation of the (otherwise unreported by Western media but well planned) War against the West. Interest for knowledge would mean interest for their past, for Islamic Philosophy, Literature, History, Sciences, and Arts; this knowledge is currently being hated by the Islamic extremists – engineers in Riyadh, Amman, Cairo, Algiers, Karachi and Dubai.

On the contrary, this knowledge is considered as salutary by the outright majority of the tyrannized (by these upper middle class engineers – extremists) Muslim World, particularly the lower classes and the periphery (provinces of the Muslim countries).

Behind all these upper middle class engineers and all the Islamic terrorists is hidden the "Western-friendly", evil Saudi tribe that controls Arabia, having re-baptized it to "Saudi".

Longer this state exists greater the threat is and stronger the anticipation of a cataclysmic event of global proportions becomes.

I will not expand further on this point now; there is indeed deeper Western involvement as some circles of power, at times represented by the terminating US vice-president, seem eager to trigger this calamitous (but probably necessary for their evil plans) event as soon as possible.

Here, I will merely illustrate how the Islamic extremists want to make the entire world look like; to demonstrate this, I have only to present the situation that prevails in their exemplary society, the inhuman and anti-Islamic state of "Saudi" Arabia.

I therefore republish a recently released Report elaborated by the venerated Institute for Gulf Affairs; the report incorporated part from the About Us section of their website (www.gulfinstitute.org). In a forthcoming article, I will complete the republication of the Report.

The Crisis of Religious Freedom in Saudi Arabia

The Hadi Al-Mutif Project for Human Rights Institute for Gulf Affairs

Preface

This report is issued in connection with the upcoming visit of Saudi King Abdullah to the United States to attend the religious dialogue conference organized at his request by the United Nations General Assembly. The king’s visit is scheduled to start on November 10, 2008.

This report provides an overview of the crisis of religious freedoms and oppressive policies practiced by the government of Saudi Arabia toward its citizens and non-citizens alike.

The Institute for Gulf Affairs

The Institute for Gulf Affairs is an independent, non-partisan, tax exempt organization that disseminates reliable information about the Gulf region (the Gulf Cooperation Council countries plus Iraq) and produces thoughtful analyses of Gulf politics and international relations. Based in Washington, DC, the Institute is at the centre of a global network of reliable individuals, some of whom, due to the closed nature of the Saudi and Gulf political systems, have no other outlet for their views. In order to fulfil this mission, the Institute:

Convenes conferences in Washington, where informed analysts debate major issues concerning the Gulf countries and US-Gulf Relations.

Conducts independent research and investigations, reports of which are posted on this website: www.gulfinstitute.org

Fosters a deeper understanding of the Gulf countries among Washington and international policymakers and members of the press corps by providing them with up-to-date and exclusive information, and by putting them in contact with reliable analysts.

Sponsors task forces whose reports help define the foreign policy agenda.

The Hadi Al-Mutif Program for Human Rights

The Hadi Al-Mutif Program for Human Rights at the Gulf Institute encompasses all human rights-related initiatives implemented by the Institute at present time. The program is named after Hadi Al-Mutif, a 34-year old citizen of Saudi Arabia and a Fatimid Shi´a, who has been imprisoned since 1993 and kept on death row since 1994. Hadi has been kept in solitary confinement for most of 16 years he has spent behind bars.

Executive Summary

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest absolute monarchy in the world today under the sole rule of the tribe of al-Saud. The country is characterized by a complete absence of mechanisms that allow for public participation in the political process.

King Abdullah Bin Abdul-Aziz´s carefully crafted image as a reformer is at odds with reality. Since taking office in 2005 the king implemented greater restrictions on political freedoms, cracked down on reform advocates and concentrated power in the hands of the ruling family.

Saudi Arabia is a leading violator of human rights in the world. Citizens´ basic human rights are violated every day. Torture is common, and arbitrary arrests are widespread. The government bans the formation of independent human rights and civil society organizations.

Religious freedom in Saudi Arabia does not exist. Non-Muslims are banned from practicing their faith or even possessing its symbols and artefacts. The government also imposes severe restrictions on its citizens, and especially on those who do not follow the Wahhabi strain of Islam.

The religious policies of the Saudi government have contributed to the rise of extremism and terror groups worldwide, including Al-Qaeda and others. Saudis are leading contributors of money and support to international terrorist groups and make up the highest numbers of suicide bombers around the world, which often occurs with either the direct support or the tacit approval of Saudi authorities.

The Saudi educational system provides an ideological foundation for violence and future jihadists. The textbooks currently used in Saudi schools, including those in the U.S. and Europe, preach hatred toward other Christians, Jews, other religions, and even most Muslims.

Saudi Arabia leads the world in discrimination against women and is the only country that practices gender apartheid. Women are treated as the property of their male guardians, and are legally considered unfit to make their own decisions.

The Saudi government does not allow women to vote, study most sciences, work in public, drive, play sports, hold senior public positions, travel alone, mix with men, or attend public gatherings.

Freedom of the press is severely limited by the Saudi government through direct intervention and the resulting self-censorship of reporters and editors. Independent media is not allowed in the country and those who operate on the internet are blocked and prosecuted.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the largest absolute monarchy in the world today under the sole rule of the tribe of al-Saud. The country is characterized by a complete absence of mechanisms that allow for public participation in the political process.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is ruled by a single tribe that maintains a complete monopoly on power by using its princes to ensure loyalty. The Al-Saud tribe controls the army and the security forces that are used to suppress dissent in the kingdom, often violently. The Saudi equivalent of a constitution is the basic law that was issued by royal decree in 1992. The absence of accountability mechanisms permits the government to operate behind a veil of secrecy and avoid public scrutiny. Members of the ruling family are immune from prosecution and are officially exempted from laws applied to Saudi citizens.

In 2007 King Abdullah established a Succession Commission that has further consolidated the power of the Al-Sauds as the sole political force in the country, denying Saudi citizens any role in choosing future monarchs.

The only elections in Saudi Arabia are for 50% of the seats in largely powerless municipal councils. Women are banned from voting in those, which effectively shuts out 54% of the population. Saudi Arabia stance on women’s participation in the government is reminiscent of the South Africa´s apartheid regime that banned blacks from voting, except segregation in the kingdom is based on gender and not race. Additionally, all members of the ruling family have boycotted municipal elections by refusing to vote.

Political parties and groups in the kingdom are banned, and dissent is not allowed. The government routinely arrests citizens based on their political views; these dissidents are subject to arbitrary detention and even torture. The leading academic Dr. Matrook Al-Falah has been incarcerated in solitary confinement since May 2008 for peaceful criticism of treatment of political prisoners.

Freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia is severely limited. Government critics face sanctions at work and are often targeted for arbitrary arrests and detention by authorities. Government forces (acting on orders from senior officials) use anti-terror crackdowns to round up democracy activists. Earlier this year, the Saudi Arabian government detained 10 men on accusations that they were terrorist financiers. The American government suspects that only two of the men were actually involved in terrorist financing, and suspects that the rest were pro democracy activists.

The Saudi government of King Abdullah bans movie theatres, and music concerts in the country. There are no music teaching institutions in the country, public or private, due to government bans.

Saudi Arabia leads the world in discrimination against women and is the only country that practices gender apartheid. Women are treated as the property of their male guardians, and are legally considered unfit to make their own decisions. The Saudi government does not allow women to vote, study most sciences, work in public, drive, play sports, hold senior public positions, travel alone, mix with men, or attend public gatherings.

Saudi Arabia earns the title "World's Worst Violator of Women's Rights" due to a long list of discriminatory practices against women. Contrary to King Abdullah´s "reformer" image, he supports some of the harshest forms of discrimination against women. For example, King Abdullah chairs the annual festival "Janadriya" (dubbed "Festival of Segregation") that bans women’s attendance, except on "Women Only Days".

In 2002 the King warned women nurses and doctors at the King Fahad National Guards hospital in Riyadh from driving golf carts used to travel within the hospital grounds. Marriages of female children as young as seven years old continue to happen with government approval.

Lack of Religious Freedom

Religious freedom in Saudi Arabia does not exist. Non-Muslims are banned from practicing their faith or even possessing its symbols and artefacts. The government also imposes severe restrictions on its citizens, and especially on those who do not follow the Wahhabi strain of Islam.

Anyone who fails to follow the official state religion in Saudi Arabia faces harassment, imprisonment, and torture. Conversion from Islam is punishable by death under Saudi law. Those born to non-approved religions, including Christians (both residents and transients), Jews and non-Wahhabi Muslims, such as Shia's or even other Sunni sects, face harsh treatment by the Saudi regime.

The Saudi government bans Christian, Buddhist and other expatriate workers (which number in the millions) from celebrating their religious and cultural holidays, including social and national holidays. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world without a church despite the presence of millions of Christians in the country. It is also the only country in the world to ban its residents from celebrating the Western New Year and Valentine's Day.

Interestingly, Saudi Arabia takes full advantage of religious freedoms and rights worldwide, and has financed mosques in major world cities such as Washington DC, London, Dublin, and Vienna. Saudi government-sponsored imams are free to lead these mosques and even spread their doctrines of hatred via Saudi sponsored schools outside of the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia maintains a tight grip on the nation’s clerics. Access to government television and radio, and local media is restricted to the Wahhabi clerics funded by the Saudi government or the ruling tribe. The government does not employ Shia clerics for its religious institutions or allow them to appear on TV and radio.

Blasphemy and Apostasy Cases

Saudi Arabia leads the world in trying people on the charges of apostasy and heresy. The victims are typically Shia Muslims, non-Wahhabi Sunnis, or Saudi secular and liberals. The court system is controlled by the Wahhabi religious establishment that views other religious schools and opinions as heretical.

The threshold for convection in Saudi courts is very low, resulting in easy convictions without, in some cases, any evidence at all. The majority of apostasy cases have been prompted by the accusations of religious police or Wahhabi zealots, which are rarely verified independently.

Shia Muslim victims included Sadeq Mallallah, executed in 1992, Mohsen Al Turki, jailed in 2007, Hadi Al-Mutif, on death row since 1993, Ali Al-Misaad, spent 8 months in prison, Mohamed Al-Wail spent 18 months in prison after a death sentence was canceled by King Fahd. Recently, two Turkish Alevi´s were released from death row in Saudi Arabia after the Turkish President and Prime Minister intervened directly with the Saudi King.

The Hadi Al-Mutif Project for Human Rights Institute for Gulf Affairs

1900 L Street NW, Suite 309 Washington DC 20036, USA. Tell: 202-466-9500

www.gulfinstitute.org Email: media@gulfinstitute.org

Source: http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/81201

URL: http://www.newageislam.com/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=981

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Stop Saudi Tyranny in Yemenite Najran! Call for a UN-organized Referendum in Najran

Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, November 08, 2008

In an earlier article entitled ´Freedom for Tyrannized Najran, Yemenite Territory under Illegal Saudi Control´ (http://www.buzzle.com/articles/freedom-for-tyrannized-najran-yemenite-territory-under-illegal-saudi-control.html), I stressed the troubles of the tyrannized Yemenites of Najran, who have been forced by the colonial plans of England to be incorporated within the homonymous province of Saudi Arabia.

The Shia Yemenite Najranis have been terribly tyrannized and their persecution and oppression has been carried out by the English colonialism’s best children, the ominous Sunni Wahhabies who are the focus of all sorts of terrorism and evildoing necessary for the eschatological and pseudo-messianic plans of the Apostate Freemasonic Lodge that controls the English and the French political, military and financial establishments.

Recently, the leading NGO Human Rights Watch focused on the issue and published a devastating report that provides with a detailed record of Human Rights violations practiced by the Sunni Wahhabies authorities of Saudi Arabia – the undeservedly and shamelessly venerated ´allies´ in the War against Terrorism –, which definitely underscores the political need for immediate secession of Najran from Saudi Arabia and reunification with Yemen.

In the aforementioned article, I published the Summary and Recommendations of the decisive Report, which is entitled "The Ismailis of Najran - Second-class Saudi Citizens". In this article, I republish the Report’s second chapter, the ´Background´. In forthcoming articles, I will complete the republication of the entire report that should be taken into consideration in any case of decision-making with respect to the wider area of the Middle East.

Longer Najran remains annexed in Saudi Arabia, greater the danger of a Shia revolt against Saudi Arabia is. Najran must be given the possibility to select the country they want to belong to by means of a UN-organized and monitored referendum.

The Ismailis of Najran - Second-class Saudi Citizens

http://hrw.org/reports/2008/saudiarabia0908/index.htm

II. Background

http://hrw.org/reports/2008/saudiarabia0908/2.htm#_Toc208817519

Najran is the seat of the religious leader of the Sulaimani Ismailis, al-Da´i al-Mutlaq (Absolute Guide). Its status as such, with some interruption, dates back to 1640.3 Ismailis had been living in Najran for over a millennium; they were one of many strands of belief that existed in early Islam. Ismailis called themselves Followers of the Truth (Ashab al-Haqq) and gathered adherents in many parts of the realm of Islam in the ninth and tenth centuries Common Era (CE). A split occurred around the turn of the tenth century, and most Ismailis eventually recognized ´Ubaid Allah al-Mahdi, a man living in Syria, as their leader (imam). The Mahdi established the Fatimid dynasty (909–1171) in Egypt, founding the city of Cairo and it’s Azhar University. In the early 12th century another split occurred, and Ismailis in Yemen, where they lived and frequently fought with adherents of Zaidi Islam (another branch of Shia Islam that became prevalent in Yemen), carried forward the beliefs and rule of the Fatimid dynasty.4

Since their emergence, propagandists have depicted Ismailis as heretics, based on invented stories that discredit their beliefs and their claimed ancestry from the Prophet´s family.5

Ismailis have their own system of law; scholars report few modifications or modern adaptations since a series of legal treatises produced by the Fatimid high judge Nu´man in the 11th century.6

Najran, a fertile valley in what is now southwestern Saudi Arabia at the foot of mountains bordering the vast stretch of desert known as the Empty Quarter, was traditionally home to Christian and Jewish communities, in addition to Ismailis and Zaidis. Christians have been absent from Najran for some centuries, and the remaining Jewish community is believed to have left in 1949, following the establishment of the state of Israel. Najran´s Zaidi community today numbers around 2,000.7

The 2004 Saudi census puts the number of inhabitants in Najran at around 408,000.8 Ismailis, widely believed to constitute a large majority of the Najrani population, share a homogeneous identity based on historical, cultural, and religious roots. In Najran city, the Khushaiwa compound, with its Mansura mosque complex, is the spiritual capital of the Sulaimani branch of the Ismaili faith, one of two major strands of contemporary Ismailism. Ismailis in Najran belong mainly to one of two tribes—the Yam and the Hamadan. These tribes extend into territory that today lies in Yemen. There are also some Sunnis of the Yam tribe, both recent converts and adherents to Sunni Islam for generations.

The Saudis conquered first the independent princedom of the Idrisis, in ´Asir region bordering Najran, in 1926, and then the Ismailis of the Yam tribe in Najran in 1933.9 A brief war with Yemen over ´Asir concluded with a treaty in 1934 in which Yemen ceded any claims to Najran, then a largely independent sheikhdom, to King Abd al-´Aziz Al Sa´ud.10 Najran was the last territorial conquest of the reemergent Saudi state.11

The Ismaili sense of pervasive discrimination against them appears stronger today than at any point in the first six decades of Saudi rule. In the 1960s, Saudi authorities had held al-Da´i al-Mutlaq under house arrest variously in Ta´if and Mekka for some five years because he had demanded the independence of Ismaili mosques and religious teaching, which the Wahhabi religious establishment opposed.12 Despite this, many Ismailis have relatively fond memories of Khalid al-Sudairy, who governed Najran from 1962 to 1980, and his son Fahd who succeeded him until 1996. Then, Prince Mish´al bin Sa´ud bin Abd al-´Aziz Al Sa´ud became the first member of the ruling family to govern the region.

Discrimination against Ismailis in Saudi Arabia is part of a broader trend of discrimination against religious minorities in the country, but has its own dynamic. King Abd al-´Aziz, also known as Ibn Sa´ud, set out at the beginning of the 20th century to recapture Riyadh and reconquer other parts of the earlier Sa´ud kingdom. He relied on an alliance between his family and the family (the Al al-Shaikh) and followers of Muhammad bin Abd al-Wahhab, the 18th-century missionary and religious scholar. The Al al-Shaikh gave religious legitimacy to the Al Sa´ud as the political rulers, who in turn pledged to uphold Islam.

To that end, Ibn Sa´ud enlisted in Najd the services of experts on religious ritual, the mutawwa´in, or volunteers, putting them in charge of indoctrinating the new tribal fighting force of the ikhwan (brethren), which helped conquer the remaining lands that now comprise Saudi Arabia, including Najran: 13 The ikhwan forcibly converted conquered populations to their strict interpretation of Islam, sometimes engaging in mass killings, such as in Ta´if in 1924.14

Intolerance toward other interpretations of Islam remained a feature of Saudi state policies, reflected in discriminatory employment, school curricula, and public expenditures. Following the occupation of the Grand Mosque in Mekka by Sunni millenarian extremists in 1979, and the Islamic revolution in Iran at the same time, the Saudi state reacted with a renewed focus on promoting Wahhabi thought.15

Iran´s example led to increased political demands by the Shia population of Saudi Arabia, who live mostly in the Eastern Province. The Saudi government responded with harsh repression, and many Shia fled. By 1993 Saudi Shia leaders in exile had concluded an understanding with the government allowing them to return as long as they ceased their opposition to the government and worked for change as "loyal subjects" within the kingdom. The authorities, in turn, released Shia political prisoners, lifted travel bans, and took minor steps to ease discrimination against Shia in the public sector and in their religious worship.16 Especially in Ahsa´, the southern part of the Eastern Province, however, suppression of Shia freedom to practice their religion remains widespread.17

While Ismailis face discrimination similar to the Shia of the Eastern Province in employment, religious freedom, and in the justice system, they do not have the same political voice as their Shia brethren to the east. They did not have an organized opposition outside Saudia Arabia or influential coreligionists in a regionally powerful state like Iran, they are far fewer in numbers, and Najran has been more isolated from the outside world than the Eastern Province. One Eastern Province Shia told Human Rights Watch in 2006, "The Ismailis of Najran are where we were 10 years ago."18

Largely ignored as a supposed backwater in the domestic context of Saudi Arabia for many decades, 19 Najran in the late 1990s attracted increased attention. Its proximity to Yemen and the unification of the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) and the People´s Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen) in 1990, followed by Saudi-Yemeni border negotiations in 1997, gave new impetus to address the fate of tens of thousands of South Yemenis who had taken refuge in Najran. Ismailis vehemently object to the preferred official solution of naturalizing and settling these Yemenis (who are Sunni) in Najran, thereby altering the demographic make-up of the majority-Ismaili region.

Notes (integrated numeration throughout the Report)

3 Heinz Halm, Die Schia (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1988), pp. 234-243.

4 Ibid., pp. 193-219. Zaidis are a Shia Muslim sect whose leaders ruled large parts of Yemen for a millennium until 1962.

5 Most of these allegations against Ismailis have been disproved. See Farhad Daftary, "Introduction," in Farhad Daftary, ed., Mediaeval Isma´ili History and Thought (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 1-18.

6 Ismail K Poonawala, "Al-Qadi al-Nu´man and Isma´ili jurisprudence," in Daftary, ed., Mediaeval Isma´ili History and Thought, pp. 117-114.

7 Joseph Tobi, The Jews of Yemen: Studies in Their History and Culture (Brill: Leiden, Boston, Köln: 1999), p. 22. In October 1949 Najrani Jews left for Yemen, where Yemeni Jews were preparing to leave to Israel through Aden after Yemen´s Imam Ahmed had issued in May 1949 an official permit for them to leave. Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Israeli academic of Tel Aviv university (name withheld), June 13, 2008.

8 "Makkah Region is Most Populated in Saudi Arabia," Saudi Info, January 5, 2005, http://www.saudinf.com/main/y7733.htm (accessed February 22, 2008).

9 Isam Ghanem, "The Legal History of 'A Sir (Al-Mikhlaf Al-Sulaymani)," Arab Law Quarterly, vol. 5, no. 3, August 1990, pp. 211-214. Enmity between Wahhabis, who originated in Saudi Arabia´s central Najd region, and the Ismailis of Najran dates from an Ismaili raid close to Dir´iya, the home town of the ruling Sa´ud family, in 1764. See George Rentz, "Wahhabism and Saudi Arabia," in Derek Hopwood, ed.,The Arabian Peninsula: Society and Politics (Oxford: Allen and Unwin, 1972), p. 57.

10 Askar Halwan Al-Enazy, "´The International Boundary Treaty´ (Treaty of Jeddah) Concluded between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni Republic on June 12, 2000," The American Journal of International Law, vol. 96, no. 161, January 2002. King Abd al-´Aziz Al Sa´ud and Imam Yahya Hamid al-Din, Treaty of Ta´if, May 20, 1934: "His Majesty the Imam Yahya similarly abandons by this treaty any right he claimed in the name of Yemeni unity or otherwise, in the country (formerly) in the possession of the Idrisis or the Al-Aidh, or in Najran, or in the Yam country, which according to this treaty belongs to the Saudi Arabian Kingdom."

11 In 1934 King Abd al-´Aziz bin Sa´ud concluded a covenant with the Yam tribe, the dominant tribe in Najran, in which he pledged not to interfere in Ismaili religious affairs and to respect their demographic dominance in Najran by not promoting either their emigration or the immigration of others. Human Rights Watch email correspondence with an Ismaili in Najran, August 22, 2007, and Human Rights Watch interviews with more than six prominent Ismails July 2006 – March 2008. On a visit to the region in November 2006, King Abdullah commented, "[W]hat a pleasure it is for me on this occasion to call to memory the historical covenant between his majesty the unifier King Abd al-´Aziz, may God have mercy on him, and between the protagonists among your grandfathers and fathers, indeed, as the kingdom was unified through his covenant, you have been loyal." Ali ´Awn al-Yami and Hamad Al Mansur, "Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques: Your State Does Not Differentiate between One Region and Another or between One Citizen and Another." al-Riyadh, November 1, 2006, http://www.alriyadh.com/2006/11/01/article198407_s.html (accessed February 29, 2008).

12 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Ismaili, IN1, Najran, June 24, 2008.

13 Nadav Safran, Saudi Arabia. The Ceaseless Quest for Security (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1985), p. 54. Safran´s date of 1932 for the conquest of Najran differs from others´ who put the battle at Aba Sa´ud at 1933 or 1934. It is possible that there was more than one battle, or that conversion from hijri into CE dates produced this difference.

14 Rachel Bronson, Thicker Than Oil. America´s Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 30; and Madawi Al-Rasheed, A History of Saudi Arabia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) p. 61.

15 Thomas Hegghammer and Stephane Lacoix, "Rejectionist Islamism in Saudi Arabia: The Story of Juhayman al-`Utaybi Revisited," International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 39 (2007).

16 International Crisis Group, "The Shiite Question in Saudi Arabia," Middle East Report No. 45, September 19, 2005, p. 4; and Human Rights Watch interviews with Shia leaders in Qatif and al-Ahsa´, IQ1 and IA1, February 2006.

17 Human Rights Watch interviews with Shia from Qatif, Tarut, Dammam, and al-Ahsa´, IQ1, IT1, ID1, IA1, February and December 2006, and December 2007.

18 Human Rights Watch interview with a Shia in Qatif, IQ2, February 2006.

19 "I had never really heard of the Ismailis before [Shura Council member] Muhammad Al Zulfa talked to me about their situation." Human Rights Watch interview with former member of the Shura Council, IR1 Riyadh, December 19, 2006.

URL: https://newageislam.com/radical-islamism-jihad/saudi-arabia-–-focal-point/d/981