What if Muslims Liberated the Haramayn?

Bani Saud losing its grip; if not now, when?

Yusuf Dhia-Allah

As the global world order undergoes rebalancing and becomes multipolar, three powerful Muslim countries with elected leaders — Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan — could potentially engineer a groundbreaking development by returning Makkah and Madinah (collectively known as the Haramayn) to the Muslim Ummah. This article will examine the potential variables of this grand hypothetical move.

The Saudi regime has never been as vulnerable in its history as it is today. It is experiencing internal strife, external military humiliation and its relationship with its chief patron and protector, the US, is rocky. None of this would matter much to the Muslim world if the Saudi regime did not occupy Makkah and Madinah.

The Najdi Bedouins’ importance to the US is primarily due to their control of Makkah and Madinah. It gives Washington the ability to project “Islamic” soft power through Saudi machinations.

Today the corrupt and despotic essence of the Saudi regime is no longer disputed by Muslims anywhere. Muslims worldwide view the Bani Saud regime as one of the primary obstacles to progress in the Muslim world. The arch-enemies of Islamic revival and Muslim liberation, like the Zionist regime of Israel and the despot of Egypt, ‘Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi, are best friends of Bani Saud.

Muslims see the antics of the Najdi Bedouins as an embarrassment and a blemish on the name of Islam. They want them banished to the backwaters of Najd. They can resume herding their camels and live in tents as they did before they erupted from Dar‘iyah in 1744. Few informed Muslim and non-Muslim analysts would question this.

In 2015, Crescent International wrote about the necessary preemptive steps to protect Makkah and Madinah from takfiri terrorists. One of our proposals was to “internationalize” Makkah and Madinah, “as these places belong to all the Muslims equally and cannot be treated as family or state property. Muslim states could come up with a mechanism that would allocate two or three states managerial responsibility for managing Hajj and ‘Umrah for a period of four years. These states would provide the management and security personnel for Hajj and ‘Umrah along with 50% of the budget. The remaining 50% of the costs would be provided by all other Muslim states. Once the states complete their four-year term, they could propose their candidacy for managing Hajj and ‘Umrah only after eight years. This mechanism of course would require basic common sense and flexibility by Muslim statesmen.”

The proposal to reclaim the Haramayn from the clutches of Bani Saud cannot occur without other states’ military intervention. Such a scenario, however, is unlikely to take place at present but in the near future it cannot be ruled out completely as the collapse of the Saudi regime will be messy. In such a scenario, Muslim states will have to pay attention to Hajj being accessible for all Muslims.

Once the Saudi regime begins to experience internal destabilization, the primary internal battle will be between two ideological twins, the Bani Saud regime and its non-loyal takfiri/salafi branch. Should this happen, the three Muslim countries with leadership that has popular legitimacy could reconfigure the geopolitical landscape of the Muslim world.

Assuming that Pakistan, Turkey and Iran decide to secure Makkah and Madinah from their illegitimate annexation by the Saudi regime, there are four key questions that need to be considered:

1. How would the Muslim world react?
2. What would the US reaction be?
3. Is there a legal basis for it? and,
4. Will it be feasible?

The first question is simple. The Muslim world would be euphoric to see joint Muslim action in eliminating the rule of one of the most corrupt regimes over Islam’s most sacred sites. Most Muslims agree that the Saudi regime is antethical to Islam and the fact that this horde of criminals is in control of Islam’s two most important sites is seen as an embarrassment to all Muslims.

Muslims would also view a joint albeit hypothetical action by Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan as a positive political development. It would be viewed as a first proper cooperative action by states representing Muslim interests. While the Muslim Ummah longs for unity, foreign installed rulers in Muslim countries are assigned by their masters to create disunity. Thus, any action manifesting active unity would be a very welcome policy in the Muslim world.

Any action against the Saudi regime must take into account US reaction. Bani Saud are in power primarily because of Washington’s military, political, and diplomatic support. The US would not allow the Saudi regime to collapse without trying to save it. The only instance that would prevent the US from intervening on behalf of Bani Saud is if Muslims declare that the action only concerns Makkah and Madinah. The Americans would simply not be able to intervene. Action against the Saudi regime that is limited to liberating Makkah and Madinah only would be strictly an intra-Muslim issue. No US politician would be able to sell the policy of US soldiers dying for Makkah and Madinah. This would be seen as heresy by secular and Christian segments of the American society. A coalition of Muslim states taking bold action to restore the sacred status of Makkah and Madinah would be a bulletproof political case. Even the Wahhabi palace scholars would not be able to call on the US to intervene. What would their “fatwas” declare? We want the US army to institute tawhid in Makkah and Madinah?

The legality angle of a potential action by Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran revolves primarily around politics and public relations. The so-called international law can be interpreted in many different ways. Powerful states determined to act can interpret international law in a way that suits their interests. NATO member states do this regularly. How can the US interpret its illegal actions in Iraq as legal but Muslim states cannot legalize their actions against one of the most despotic regimes in the world that has illegally usurped Islam’s most sacred sites? A small financial chip-in by Pakistan, Turkey, and Iran can flood the airwaves of international media with legal experts who can explain the necessity of the action within the required legal parameters.

The aspect of feasibility of removing Bani Saud from Makkah and Madinah is straightforward. From a military perspective, the combined forces of Pakistan, Iran, and Turkey will simply walk over the pathetic cabal of armed thugs known as the Saudi army. Their military humiliation in Yemen is clear proof that the Saudi military has no backbone.

The above factors indicate that there is fertile political and social ground to liberate Makkah and Madinah. The only obstacle to joint action is mustering the political will to make the much-needed decision. Reliance on Allah (swt) by the leadership of these Muslim countries and their sincere concern for Muslim interests can usher an unprecedented change in the Muslim world if Makah and Madinah were to return to all Muslims.

MbS’ Quivering Lower Lip

Impetuousness and dual-loyalty: the stuff has-beens are made of

Yusuf Dhia-Allah

When Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MbS) is nervous, his thick lower lip begins to quiver uncontrollably. People’s nervousness shows in different ways. His American master Donald Trump narrows his eyes and twitches them when nervous while Narendra Modi constantly licks his lips with his snake-like tongue.

Whatever the particular form of nervousness of an individual, there are plenty of reasons why MbS feels nervous these days. Those around him say that MbS’ quivering lower lip makes him resemble a camel. The beast of the desert has reason for its lips to quiver — it wants to grab food and is part of its physiological makeup — but what about MbS, the beast of the palace?

His list of troubles is long and he has only himself to blame. At home he has disrupted all the old equations that had served Bani Saud well for more than eight decades even if it was detrimental to the people of the Arabian Peninsula. Abroad, he has made too many enemies from Islamic Iran, Yemen, Syria, and Turkey to Qatar. Perhaps, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) may also be added to this list now.

Bin Salman simply does not have the mental capacity to deal with all these challenges at once. He is not even able to manage one of these on his own. After bombing dirt-poor Yemen for more than four years, killing nearly 100,000 people and destroying much of the country’s infrastructure, the Yemenis have struck back with a vengeance.

The September 14 Yemeni drone strikes on the Kingdom’s oil facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais have knocked the bottom out of Saudi Arabia’s oil-based economy. And the US-supplied missile defence shield at the cost of billions of dollars was exposed as useless against $15,000 drones.

The entire Saudi establishment that essentially revolves around one man — MbS — is in turmoil. They have scurried to the Americans for help. The hundreds of billions of dollars worth of weapons the Saudis have purchased, mostly from the US, simply cannot protect them from inexpensive drones.

The Americans have offered the same old solutions that have already failed: more weapons worth billions of dollars and a few hundred soldiers. The US-built billion-dollar-a-piece Patriot anti-missile batteries have not proved too patriotic. If they cannot intercept $15,000 drones, what use are these fancy missiles? But MbS is now totally under the thumb of the Americans and the Zionists. Unless he keeps forking out more billions, the Americans will abandon him and he will be toast. His shelf life is in any case, close to expiring.

At home he is in a race against time aware that his father, King Salman is in poor health and could drop dead any day. MbS wants to consolidate his position by eliminating all rivals, real or imagined, as long as his father is alive, even if in a severe state of dementia. With the king around, other members of the family who are much senior to MbS will not raise objections. All decisions, while taken by MbS, are presented in the name of the king. Based on the long established tradition, other members of the family defer to seniority. So the king’s mere presence, even in a state of dementia, prevents other members of the family from challenging MbS.

Once the king is dead — how long can he last — all bets are off. There is bound to be opposition to MbS from different quarters. The upstart crown prince has rubbed far too many princes and others the wrong way. He is also placing loyalists in sensitive positions in hopes they will serve and protect him. This may be misplaced optimism.

It is, however, his troubles abroad that are beginning to have serious repercussions for developments at home. The daring drone strikes launched by Yemen’s Ansarullah revolutionaries at the financial nerve centre of Saudi Arabia — Aramco — has shaken MbS to his slippers. Aramco was about to be offered for International Public Offerings (IPO) and MbS had hoped to garner $1.5 to $2 trillion. With its refineries reduced to smoldering wreckage and its oil exports slashed by 50%, Saudi Arabia is heading for trouble despite optimistic statements made on its behalf by American officials and media.

The war on Syria, in which Saudi-backed mercenaries played a leading role, is on the verge of ending. The US-Zionist-Saudi-Turkish instigated regime change conspiracy in Syria has been defeated. While others may be able to withstand the consequences of this defeat, for the Saudis, the blowback will be severe. Coupled with their defeat in Yemen, it is not difficult to envision the looming crisis. Even their Emirati cousins have abandoned them in Yemen. MbS must be spending sleepless nights these days.

What Saudi Arabia means to the United States; the latter has no permanent friends, no enduring loyalties. So long as you can service its greed and insatiable appetite for power and privilege, you are useful, but if you become too feeble or unreliable to do that, then you are expendable. It will look for others but the days of easily finding sellouts are becoming fewer and far between. The blindest of all are the ones who, despite all possible historical evidence to the contrary and countless warnings from the All-Seeing and All-Hearing, can’t see the obvious. They bought the American Iraq war delusion that overwhelming air power, state of the art signal intelligence, shock and awe, scorched earth, and a civilian horror show would make quick work out of those “back in the Stone Age” Yemenis. But now, they are seeing the end of their own delusion.

And then there is the artificially-created crisis with Qatar. Again, MbS was the architect of this foolish policy aimed at bringing tiny Qatar to its knees. Instead, Qatar has not only stood its ground, thanks to timely help from Iran and Turkey, MbS has got egg all over his face. Foolishness, however, has no limits especially when underpinned by unbridled power.

It is, however, the Ansarullah drone strikes on Aramco facilities that have caused great panic in Saudi ruling circles. They thought they were invincible against lowly Yemen. The strikes have exposed Saudi vulnerability. By their own public statements, they have been shown to be American puppets. Here is a September 18 tweet from Khalid bin Salman, younger brother of MbS and also deputy defence minister of the Kingdom (MbS being defence minister),

We appreciate the United States’ longstanding position on defending its allies and core interests in the region against unprovoked acts of aggression as affirmed today by the President and Vice President as well as former Presidents including Obama.

The Saudi deputy “defence” minister admits the Kingdom cannot defend itself. It is totally dependent on the US for protection, hence his profuse appreciation of “the United States’ longstanding position on defending its allies and core interests in the region against unprovoked acts of aggression…” The young and equally inexperienced deputy defence minister even resorted to outright lies by claiming the region is subjected to “unprovoked acts of aggression.”

What have Bani Saud been doing in Yemen since March 2015, a war launched by Khalid’s older brother MbS? They have murdered nearly 100,000 Yemenis, most of them civilians, and have caused a cholera epidemic that has afflicted at least one million children — the worst cholera epidemic in history, according to the UN. Almost the entire Yemeni population of 24 million is on the verge of starvation.

Bani Saud, and especially the Bin Salmans expect the Yemenis to surrender to their genocidal policies. The Yemenis refuse to do so and have shown that they are prepared to hit back their tormentors hard. No amount of Saudi propaganda, even if amplified by their paid agents in the US, can obfuscate the fact that MbS and his cohorts are guilty of war crimes.

The rest of the world may overlook these war crimes for material interests but the Yemeni victims are not prepared to suffer in silence. It is payback time and the Saudis are going to pay big time. We may be witnessing the twilight zone of Bani Saud rule.

The Khashoggi Saga and Saudi Brazenness

Grisly murder reveals Western double standard — again

Tahir Mustafa

Last year’s brutal murder of the Saudi insider Jamal Khashoggi had a mixed impact on the Bedouin kingdom. His crime was that he had turned on his masters in Riyadh who feared he might spill more beans about their misdemeanors than the tidbits he had revealed in his media columns.

From the regime’s perspective, the cost of Khashoggi’s brazenly barbaric murder was worth it. This is not because the journalist was a champion of free speech until his fallout with the regime. Khashoggi was one of the principal apologists and justifiers of the Saudi regime’s crimes on the international scene.

Provided a platform by the Washington Post for which he wrote a weekly column, Khashoggi did not pose any serious threat to the regime. Instead, he was seen as a threat because his example could motivate other insiders to turn against the brutal and corrupt royal family.

Many people have wondered why the Saudi regime killed Khashoggi in such a brazen manner by chopping him to pieces after luring him to the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. He could easily have been killed in a staged hit-and-run operation with plausible deniability. Or, the Saudis could have secured the help of their bosom-pals, the Zionists, who are masters at carrying out such operations. But they chose to carry out this dastardly crime on their own.

Many analysts explain Khashoggi’s murder by attributing it to Saudi stupidity and arrogance. While there is some truth to this, it does not accurately reflect the whole picture. Based on Crescent International’s decades of experience in reporting the regime’s affairs and talking to people both distant and close to the regime’s circles, our assessment is that the Saudis deliberately murdered Khashoggi in the manner they did. It was meant to send a message to potential defectors and the Saudi society at large.

Some people argue that the murder greatly damaged the Saudi regime’s reputation in terms of global public opinion. This is true. The regime’s survival, however, is not dependent on global opinion. It is backed and sustained in power primarily through Western military and political support, along with instilling fear in its own population.

Bani Saud rightly surmised that Western regimes would not use the human rights card against them as was the case, for instance, against Mu’ammar al-Qadhdhafi of Libya. The Saudi assessment was that it did not really matter what the BBC or Amnesty International (AI) said about their human rights abuses. These would only matter if such reports were utilized by Western regimes to launch a military operation against Riyadh. That is highly unlikely. Therefore, murdering their ex-insider pays off. It acts to discourage opponents inside the country and will discourage other insiders from defecting, seeing Kha-shoggi’s horrible fate.

The above analysis about Saudi brutality can be traced to Muhammad bin Salman’s (MbS) assumption of power. The case of prominent Saudi scholar, Shaykh Salman al-‘Awdah offers a clear example. Once MbS decided to impose a siege on Qatar in 2017 in order to punish the tiny shaykhdom, he expected every public figure to back his ill-conceived policy. When Shaykh Salman al-‘Awdah wrote on Twitter that he prayed to Allah (swt) to reconcile the hearts of the Qataris and Saudis and reconcile their differences, he was immediately arrested. It is highly unlikely that MbS follows al-‘Awdah’s Twitter account. What is more likely is that the crown prince had issued instructions to the Kingdom’s security services to immediately arrest anyone who dares to deviate even slightly from his policies.

Trump: You understand that our media will have to condemn you in public, you know, for appearances sake… but we’re good. How much will you pay us to maintain this charade… you know it won’t be easy for us… we have a reputation to maintain, and our Israeli friends won’t be able to have all that free healthcare and free education without your generous support?
MbS: We have more money than God.
A little birdie: But what about the Palestinians, the Ummah…
Trump, MbS: We know how to make people shut up, don’t you know?

Has this Saudi policy paid off? In the short term, the Western-backed Saudi kingdom’s brutal murder of Khashoggi has brought some benefit. There is no visible sign of any serious domestic dissent and dissidents abroad feel they are within the reach of Saudi security operatives and could be abducted. There have been several kidnapping cases of high profile dissident Saudi royals from Europe. They have simply disappeared.

In the long run, however, if the Kingdom faces internal instability, which is only a matter of time, the Khashoggi case will be used as leverage to ramp up the opponents’ media campaign against it. Once the Saudi kingdom begins to experience domestic disturbances, its brutal tactics will also limit the Western regimes’ from providing open support to a regime that chopped-up a journalist in its own diplomatic mission.

At the moment though, the backing of Western regimes to the Saudi brutes still brings in the much-needed cash to their semi-war economies. For example, last year at the peak of the Khashoggi case when it was still on everyone’s mind, the “Davos in the desert” economic event still went on, even if some Western executives stayed away. A year after the Khashoggi saga, Western countries and corporations are continuing to do business with the dark Kingdom. In May 2019, business insider reported that “global index giants FTSE Russell, S&P, Dow Jones Indices, and MSCI are folding Saudi Arabia’s stock market into accessible emerging-market indexes this year.” This and other economic indicators clearly show that the Khashoggi case did not have any significant negative economic impact on the Saudi regime. For Western regimes and their corporate affiliates, making money takes priority over all other considerations.

At present, it seems the primary challenge to the Saudi regime does not come from its domestic crimes, but from external misadventures. The Saudi humiliation in Yemen, its blunder with Qatar, and its poor relations with Turkey and Iran will sooner or later converge with the negative internal dynamics present in the Kingdom. Once external instability factors converge with internal ones, Riyadh will become a battle zone from which the royal family will not be able to escape unscathed.

MbS has created too many complex problems for the regime both internally and externally. Neither the US or Israel — patron saints of Bani Saud — can solve these easily. Thus, the Saudis are left virtually alone to clean the mess they have created. And they simply do not have the wherewithal to do so.

They have one royal mess on their hands!

A Kingdom that is Self-centered is Off-centered

Abu Dharr

The hour of reckoning is fast approaching. After eight years of Zio-Euro-American proxy wars in virtually all the Arabian republics, the mass-media-produced civil wars are winding down. Notice that the Arabian kingdoms were spared such civil conflict. The takfiri project, founded on the Wahhabi creed that was considered their ace, is becoming a spent force. Saudi Arabia, the Zio-Euro-American front man, has been exposed like never before. Its diplomats have proven that they are the subordinates of their controllers — particularly their bosses in Washington and Tel Aviv. Saudi officials, if they could think straight, would realize that they have placed themselves internally in a pickle and externally in a tight spot.

The ruling nucleus family, descending from King Salman to his children, is tightening its grip on power: Muhammad bin Salman (MbS) is minister of defense; his younger brother Khalid (KbS) is deputy minister of defense. For the first time since 1960, another son of Salman — stepbrother of MbS — is running Aramco. Comfortable times have gone and Saudi decision makers are grabbing the major levers of power in the Kingdom because they sense that they are approaching turbulent times.

For the first time, Hamas has come out and stated that its representative in Saudi Arabia has been detained for over five months now. Saudi detention policies have also rounded up other Palestinians living in that worried Kingdom. September, two years ago, is when these family royals arrested scores of their most famed ‘ulama’. One year ago this October is when MbS’ gangs choked and chopped up the journalist Jamal Khashoggi — an ex-confidant of theirs.

The Saudi imposed war in Yemen has been dragging on now for over four-and-a-half years — sapping Saudi morale and draining its treasury. Now the US, after its failed Yemeni military intervention on behalf of the Saudis, is interfering diplomatically to extricate the Saudi fumbling family from its mini-Vietnam. American officials have contacted Ansarullah to find a way out for the slowly disintegrating Saudi kingdom. The ballistic missiles being launched from Yemen into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have inflicted immense below-the-radar damage on Saudi military bases and their civilian supportive infrastructure.

The Saudi playboy politicians are crying uncle in their private meetings and their classified diplomatic communiqués. MbS’ right-hand man, Sa‘d al-Qahtani who supervised the gory dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi is said to have committed suicide. We don’t know if that is really the case; there is always the possibility that he is still alive and has been given a new identity and sent off to some distant place where he will “live happily ever after.” The trial of that squad of Saudi assassins who literally slaughtered Khashoggi is forgotten and they are nowhere to be seen or heard of. It’s only a matter of time before the proverbial executioner’s sword decapitates the criminals in high office belonging to the downcast Saudi criminal kingdom. The Saudi deep-state — if we can call it that — is run by the CIA and Mossad, relying on their boy Bandar bin Sultan, whose daughter has become the Saudi ambassador in Washington, DC.

Why is this happening to the wretched royals in Arabia? The short answer is that they were brainwashed by Israel-firsters to fear the Shi‘is and programmed to purchase and amass as much military hardware as possible, thereby hemorrhaging their economy and draining their potential. If the Saudi imbeciles were confident of their “Islamic superiority,” something they teach in their self-centered textbooks, they could have easily sat down with their Shi‘i neighbors and worked things out. But their Wahhabi-cum-Salafi dogma placed them in a hollow ivory tower that now has no escape route except for them to jump to their death.

In the meantime, and it is the best kept secret in town, the Saudis have reached the end of their line because of the incremental buildup over the years of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon in particular and, generally speaking, in a geographical tract that extends from Kashmir to Palestine. Some of these battle-ready areas are soft while others are hardened due to the imposed wars upon them from — you guessed it — the Zio-Euro-American axis. The more this growing Islamic Resistance trains and arms, the more the weakest component of that axis will give in — and in this case the weakest member of that axis is the crumbling kingdom of shaytani Arabia. The royal morons of Arabia have dug their own grave: by pretending to be superior to other Muslims and by affirming their inferiority to their Yankee and Likudnik masters.

The Muslim East is approaching a new age. The months and years ahead will prove this Islamic Resistance to be correct. The more the military pressure increases on Israel, the closer the Saudi royals will get to the abyss. The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon is beginning to shoot down Israeli UAVs over (south) Lebanon. Northern Israel is going on high alert due to the firepower and potential outbreak of hostilities between Islamic liberation forces and Zionist colonization forces. The war criminal Netanyahu is huffing and puffing that he will go to war against the Islamic Resistance in Ghazzah — little does he know that he will be blowing his own house down. The Islamic Resistance in Ghazzah has fired off its first explosive drone against the Zionist belligerents. Iraq has closed off its airspace to prevent Zionist airstrikes against the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. The cross-border fire across the Lebanese-Israeli demarcation line has new rules of engagement: if Israel strikes at Lebanon, forces in Lebanon will no longer turn the other cheek; they will strike back in accordance with the mutual commandment: an eye for an eye…

The civil war that was imposed by the Zio-American war axis in Syria and Iraq throughout the past two decades will eventually mission-creep into Israel. Israel succeeds when its wars against its enemies are massive in firepower and short in duration. But who says that Israel’s enemies are going to prosecute a war on Israel’s terms? What if the next outbreak of hostilities between a nuclear Zionist Israel on one side and an Islamic paramilitary force alongside a revolutionary irregular force on the other continue for months and years. Will the Zionist ice-cream military recruits and potato-chip regular forces be able to defeat populations that have graduated from economic sanctions and adapted to austerity living conditions?

The Israeli soldiers are cowards. Their military and civilian establishments are in a weak position. To demonstrate this helpless condition, the Israeli foreign ministry suspended most of its diplomatic activities around the world because of budget restraints: they don’t have enough money! The Times of Israel as well as other Israeli newspapers reported this.

There is a serious deficit in the ministry’s budget. This comes at a time when the Islamic Resistance is riding high and the annual meeting of heads of state at the United Nations is underway. This diplomatic paralysis means that diplomats cannot shuttle around the globe as they used to, initiatives and new diplomatic arrangements have to be postponed, foreign diplomats and journalists cannot be accommodated as was the case in years past. Even some maintenance projects are put on hold. All of this pressure building up on a stressed ethno-racist nation state is awaiting the final push to take down that evil Zionist tribal-state.

Don’t think for one moment that the sacrifices of the Muslim populations are in vain. The Zio-Euro-American master plan to fight and kill the Muslims into submission is backfiring on them. The Muslim injured body is rising from the Himalayas to the Mediterranean. Future Muslims owe those who fell in war and those unknown soldiers a tribute. Their legacy lives on…

For with Allah rests all power of decision, first and last, and on that day [of victory] will the committed Muslims have cause to rejoice in Allah’s support, for He gives support to whomever He wills, since He alone is Almighty, Very Merciful (30:4–5).

Calls to Boycott Hajj

Editor

Performance of Hajj is one of the most cherished ambitions of every Muslim, at least once in a lifetime. Even sinners long to visit the House of Allah in Makkah and offer their salutations to the noble Messenger of Allah (pbuh) in Madinah. This is done in hopes of forgiveness before they leave this dunya.

The Qur’an offers exemption for those who are unable to do so. This can include lack of financial resources or poor health. The manner in which Bani Saud have managed, or mismanaged, Hajj and how its resources are squandered in ways contrary to the teachings of Islam have led to calls to boycott the annual pilgrimage. The boycott calls have come not from wild-eyed revolutionaries but from respected scholars in the Muslim world.

The most prominent Muslim scholar to speak on the issue of Hajj is Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi. Born in Egypt, Shaykh al-Qaradawi currently resides in Doha, Qatar. He has millions of followers in the Arabic speaking world through his program on al-Jazeera Arabic and internet postings.

Exactly a year ago (August 2018), Shaykh al-Qaradawi issued a fatwa that said in part, “Seeing Muslims feeding the hungry, treating the sick, and sheltering the homeless are better viewed by Allah (swt) than spending money on the Hajj and Umrah [the lesser pilgrimage] every year.”

There was a clear hint about the exorbitant prices the Saudis charge for Hajj. Some commentators call it gouging; others have said that Hajj has been turned into an extravaganza devoid of purpose and meaning. Many Muslims are also upset with the arbitrary manner in which the Saudi regime denies visas to pilgrims from countries with which it has political and/or ideological differences.

Calls for boycott have grown louder and spread for a variety of reasons. The de facto ruler Muhammad bin Salman’s erratic behavior and the manner in which he has murdered tens of thousands of innocent civilians including children in Yemen has caused much anguish. His brutal persecution of leading ‘ulama’ in the Kingdom as well as ongoing hostilities against Islamic Iran at the behest of his imperialist and Zionist masters are other reasons for displeasure.

In April, Libya’s Grand Mufti al-Sadiq al-Ghariyani declared that repeating Hajj or ‘Um-rah is “an act of sin rather than a good deed.” This could be interpreted as discouraging Muslims from going for Hajj repeatedly thus depriving others of the opportunity to perform Hajj.

But there is no ambiguity in last June’s statement of a senior official with Tunisia’s Union of Imams. He called for Hajj boycott, saying Saudi income from Hajj “is used to kill and displace people,” as in Yemen, instead of helping the world’s impoverished Muslims. Clearly, the suffering of poor Yemenis at the hands of Saudi invaders has aroused great concern among many sincere Muslims.

The Saudi regime rakes in billions of dollars annually in pilgrimage fees (Hajj and ‘Umrah). This income amounts to about one-fifth of Saudi Arabia’s gross domestic product. These are no mean sums.

This also explains why the Saudi regime has created different classes of Hajj. It touts seven-star Hajj where pilgrims are accommodated in luxury hotels with lavish meals and other amenities while the majority of pilgrims languish in Saudi Arabia’s oppressive heat.

Far from Hajj being a leveler of distinctions (every male pilgrim is required to don two pieces of unstitched cloth), the Saudis have deliberately set out to create different classes all in their ceaseless effort to make more money.

Sami Angawi, founder of the Hajj Research Center commenting on the regime’s inexorable construction drive destroying Islam’s heritage sites, said, “They are turning the holy sanctuary into a machine, a city that has no identity, no heritage, no culture, and no natural environment” (foreignpolicy.com). Muslims need to reflect on and revive the true spirit of Hajj.

Who Should Administer the Haramayn?

“No politics” for Muslim hujjaj but politics as usual for Bani Saud

Zafar Bangash

As millions of Muslims converge on Makkah for the annual pilgrimage of Hajj, the question of the purpose and meaning of this important Islamic duty once again comes to the fore. Since Bani Saud occupied and usurped control of the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah (together known as the Haramayn) through British intrigue — yes Muslim affairs are determined by non-Muslim colonialists — the Najdi Bedouins have turned them into their private real estate. They have assumed that they can do what they like in these two sacred cities. Muslim indifference and lack of understanding is also to blame. Bani Saud have destroyed Islam’s historic sites; they unilaterally decide who can and cannot perform Hajj and what is or is not permissible at the time of Hajj.

Since Bani Saud’s control of the Haramayn, they have assiduously peddled the notion that they would not allow “politics” in Hajj. “Politics,” however, remains undefined but what they insist on is that there should be no criticism of Zionism and imperialism at the time of Hajj. Muslims should perform the rituals of Hajj and then leave immediately. In recent years Hajj has also been priced out of the range of most Muslims.

Do the Saudis’ arbitrary policies conform to the teachings of Islam and are the Najdi Bedouins consistent in the application of restrictions they have imposed? Let us turn to the noble Qur’an and consider what Allah (swt) commands the Muslims to do at the time of Hajj,

And a proclamation from Allah and His Apostle [is herewith made] to all mankind on this day of Hajj, “Allah disavows all who ascribe divinity to any beside Him, and [so does] His Apostle…” (9:03).

A brief historical background to the revelation of this ayah that forms part of a cluster of ayat from Surah at-Tawbah is necessary. When these ayat were revealed in the ninth year of the Hijrah, Muslims from Madinah were already on their way to Makkah for Hajj. Abu Bakr al-Siddiq(ra), one of the close companions of the Prophet (pbuh), led the Muslim Hajj caravan. The noble Messenger did not wait until the Muslims had performed Hajj and returned to Madinah to apprise them of the new Qur’anic injunctions. Instead, he dispatched his cousin and son-in-law, ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib (a) immediately to Makkah to publicly proclaim these ayat at the time of Hajj.

These are referred to as the bara’ah or disavowal ayat and declare in unambiguous terms the Muslims’ disassociation from the mushriks at the time of Hajj. Yet Bani Saud insist that Muslims must not do so. Who should we obey: Allah (swt) and His Apostle (pbuh) or the Bani Saud?

Setting aside all other considerations, let us look at the Najdi Bedouins’ conduct relating to Makkah. Do they abide by the rule, “no politics” in Hajj or Makkah? The “no politics” order is itself political in nature; it is meant to prohibit censure of two of the most oppressive regimes in the world: Zionist Israel and imperial America. Why are Bani Saud defending the enemies of Allah (swt) by openly violating divine commands?

Let us consider some recent events in Makkah to highlight the contradictions in Bani Saud policies. At the end of May, beginning of June, the Saudi regime convened three conferences in Makkah. One was an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Arab League, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). What was the emergency? The May 12 attacks on four oil tankers, two of them Saudi oil tankers, in the UAE port of Fujairah by unknown assailants. The Saudi aim was to line up fellow Arabian regimes to first blame and then condemn Iran for these “attacks.”

No proof was offered, none was deemed necessary since the Washington war hawk John Bolton had blamed Iran for the tanker attacks. That was good enough for the Saudis. King Salman, suffering from severe dementia and unable to remember what he had said even a few moments earlier, still blasted Iran for what he called its “naked aggression” against the region’s “stability and international security.” What regional stability or international security is Salman talking about? His own regime is involved in a vicious war on the hapless people of Yemen since March 2015. At least 60,000 Yemeni civilians have been killed and more than a million children are afflicted by cholera. Some 22 million out of 24 million Yemenis are on the verge of starvation. That does not sound like supporting “regional stability,” nor does unleashing takfiri terrorists on Syria, who have now been dealt a severe blow thanks to the valiant efforts of the resistance front.

“International security” is another buzzword that is used to protect the illegitimate interests of predatory powers like the US and Zionist Israel. The US has more than 800 military bases worldwide, at least 42 of them around Iran. Iranian forces or naval vessels are not present in the Gulf of Mexico like American warships are in the Persian Gulf. Iran has not murdered Israeli nuclear scientists unlike Zionist Mossad agents who have murdered Iranian scientists. Iran is not threatening the world with nuclear weapons as are the US and Zionist Israel. So what “international stability” is Salman, with one foot in the grave, talking about?

Makkah, the birthplace of Islam, was at the end of May turned into an arena to advance Wahhabi, Zionist, and imperialist propaganda against Islamic Iran. Not surprisingly, Tehran rejected the accusations, calling them baseless. Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Saudi Arabia had joined Israel and the United States in a futile attempt to mobilize regional opinion against it.

Iran’s position was vindicated by what Qatar’s Foreign Minister Shaykh Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Thani told al-Jazeera on June 2. The summits “adopted Washington’s policy toward Iran and not one that takes the neighborhood into consideration.” The Qatari foreign minister also said his government had reservations about hardline statements on Iran made at emergency summits in Makkah organized by Saudi Arabia, “The statements condemned Iran but did not refer to a moderate policy to speak with Tehran.”

There were other contradictions in the Saudi position, as noted by Qatar’s top diplomat. It talked about “Gulf unity” yet the two-year-long blockade of Qatar continues. “The Makkah summit ignored the important issues in the region, such as the Palestine issue and the wars in Libya and Yemen,” Qatar’s foreign minister told the UK-based broadcaster, al-Araby. Adding insult to injury, the Saudis had prepared the conference declaration ahead of time without consulting other participants. They were simply told to approve it.

There was also another summit in Makkah held under the auspices of the Saudi regime. Some 80 Muslim scholars were gathered from around the world to discuss “The Value of Moderation in the Qur’an and Sunnah.” The theme was admirable except that there was little moderation at the conference. It was an attempt to create a body of Saudi-sponsored muftis to dish out fatwas to rubberstamp Bani Saud policies.

The Saudi version of “moderation” means surrender to Zionist Israel and US imperialism. There is no “moderation” toward or dialogue with kafirs as commanded by the Qur’an, “Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah; and those who are [truly] with him are unyielding toward the deniers of Allah’s power presence, [yet] full of mercy toward one another” (48:29).

Aware that the overwhelming majority of Muslims worldwide reject normalization of relations with the Zionist usurpers of Palestine, Bani Saud want a religious cover for what is essentially a policy of surrender.

The “imam” of the Haram, ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sudays, is demanding allegiance to a crown prince who is most likely guilty of murder, embezzlement, terrorism, cozying up to the arch enemies of Islam, and persecuting a class of scholarly colleagues that the shaykh once proudly belonged to.

Even al-Masjid al-Haram, the most sacred of Islam’s masjids, has not been spared the indignity of Bani Saud’s dirty politics. “Shaykh” ‘Abd al-Rahman al-Sudays has used the minbar (pulpit) of the Haram to demand that everyone pledge allegiance to the murderous Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman who has rightly earned the epithet “Mr. Bone Saw” following the brutal murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi last October.

‘Abdullah al-‘Awdah, son of the imprisoned moderate scholar, Salman al-‘Awdah pointed out in an article in TRT World (June 11, 2019),

The summit was held mere kilometres from the Dhahban prison in Jeddah, where symbols of moderation in the Muslim world such as my father, Salman al-‘Awdah, and others (three of whom — including my father — the prosecution demanded the death sentence for) are being held.

While lauding the values of the conference “such as refusing violence, intimidation campaigns using Islam, racism and human rights violations” he pointed to the contradictions in practice, “These great principles were however recited only a couple of kilometres from the infamous Dhahban prison, where the real symbols of moderation tell a different story.”

The Saudi-sponsored ‘ulama’ conference was held to create a body that would have monopoly over fatwas. The final article of the conference declaration reads, “No one can consent the Islamic Ummah’s affairs and speak in its name on its religious affairs and anything connected to them except its ‘ulama’ who are established in an association such as the association of this document…”

At a stroke, the Saudi-sponsored group of 80 ‘ulama’ —and they may be learned scholars — have dismissed other Islamic scholars worldwide. Again, under the guise of organizing a religious conference, the Saudis have indulged in crass politics to find a religious crutch for their policy of appeasement to Zionism and imperialism, right in the heart of Makkah.

Bani Saud get away with such crimes because Muslims elsewhere, barring a few exceptions, are not paying adequate attention to these developments. For all practical purposes, Makkah and Madinah are as much under Zionist occupation as al-Quds (Jerusalem).

 

Zafar Bangash

Bani Saud’s Hypocrisy: Vulgar Female Rapper for Saudi Men, Abayas for Saudi Women!

Crescent International

Nicki Minaj, a female rapper known for her vulgar lyrics and semi-nude dresses will be performing in Jeddah on July 18.

The primitive regime made the announcement on July 3 as part of its drive to what it calls “easing restrictions on entertainment”.

The concert to be held in King Abdullah Sports Stadium in Jeddah will be open to everyone 16 years of age or older.

Jeddah, we need to remind ourselves, is the gateway to the kingdom for pilgrims wishing to perform Hajj or Umrah.

Being Hajj season, millions of pilgrims will be arriving in Jeddah within earshot of the loud music in the King Abdullah Stadium.

It must also be noted that the concert will be performed in the sacred month of Dhul Qadah, a few weeks prior to the month of Dhul Hijjah, another sacred month, in which Hajj is performed.

And to emphasize the point that the medieval kingdom led by clown prince Muhammad bin Salman is going full speed ahead on the highway of vulgarity, electronic visas for foreign visitors will be speeded up so that they can participate in the vulgarity fest.

Even the French news agency, Agence France Presse (AFP) was taken aback by the Saudi invitation to Nicki Minaj to perform.

“The female rapper is known for her outlandish, provocative style and hits like ‘Anaconda’; her lyrics are often laced with profanities,” AFP said in its report on July 4.

The French are not exactly models of modesty. Profanity and vulgarity are part of their culture yet even they seem to be appalled by Minaj’s appearance in, of all places, Saudi Arabia!

The regime’s hypocrisy demanding Saudi women to wear the abaya—the full-length dress—while attending the concert in which nudity and vulgarity will be on full display was not missed by some Saudi women.

One Saudi woman wearing a loose headscarf posted a profanity-laced video. In it she accused the regime of rank hypocrisy.

Posted on Twitter and viewed more than 37,000 times, the Saudi woman pointed to regime hypocrisy for inviting Minaj to perform but requiring Saudi women who attend the concert to wear the abaya!

The Saudis are notorious for such idiotic conduct.

A few years ago, a planeload of pilgrims arrived from North America to perform Hajj. Men accompanied their wives or mothers and stood in line to be processed by Saudi immigration officials in Jeddah.

The Saudi officials insisted that men and women must stand in separate lines, barricaded from each other by a glass partition.

While some pilgrims tried to explain to the Saudi officials that we are accompanying our wives or mothers, the Saudis would not listen.

They insisted on men and women making separate lines. Their argument was that most are non-mahrum (not related by blood or marriage) and thus not permitted to stand in the same line.

When it came to processing their passports and visas, it was male Saudi officials that handled both the male as well as female pilgrims!

Whatever happened to the issue of non-mahrum at that time?

Logic, rationality or decency do not exist in the medieval kingdom under the illegal rule of Bani Saud, the primitive Bedouins from Najd.

The Nicki Minaj concert in Jeddah is the latest example of their vulgar and idiotic conduct.

Crescent International