Iran Confident of Islamic Ummah’s Victory Over Unholy Alliances

By: S. Nawabzadeh

The sanctities of Islam, irrespective of their geographical location and in whichever of the spurious time-bound political entities they may be situated at the moment, belong to the whole Ummah, which means the regimes that have usurped control over them, have no right either to desecrate these sites or place restrictions on the entry of Muslims into their sacred precincts. This was the gist of yesterday’s memorable message of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution on the threshold of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, concerning the three most sacred cities, that is, Mecca and Medina in Hijaz and Bayt al-Moqaddas in Palestine. Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei minced no words when he said in a clear tone: "The Masjid al-Haraam in Mecca that encloses the holy Ka’ba, the Qibla (focal point) of the daily five-times-a-day ritual prayers of Muslims all over the world, belongs to all Muslims, and so does Medina – the holy city housing the blessed shrine of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) – and not to those who dominate the land where these most sacred Islamic sites are situated… Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia creates problems for the Hajj pilgrims and prevents some Hajj rituals from being performed.”

He also said in the most unambiguous words regarding the quixotic US president, Donald Trump’s devilish plot to Judaize most of the Zionist usurped land of Palestine: "The Americans call their satanic policy on Palestine ‘the deal of the century’ but to their dismay, by Divine Grace, this will never materialize, and the city of Bayt al-Moqaddas, the first Qibla of Muslims, will forever be for Muslims and will always remain the centre of Palestine.” It is an undeniable fact that in 1925, with Britain’s backing, the desert brigand of Najd, Abdul-Aziz Aal-e Saud – a salaried servant of the British crown who had earlier occupied the eastern Persian Gulf coast of Arabia – seized the Land of Revelation Hijaz by shedding torrents of Muslim blood in the sacred precincts of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, the Red Sea port of Jeddah and the Shi’a Muslim-majority mountain resort of Ta’ef. As a reward for his blasphemous crimes against Islam and Muslims, the spurious entity called Saudi Arabia was created in 1932 for him by Britain, which sixteen years later in 1948 planted in Palestine the illegal Zionist entity called Israel – having illegally settled between the Two World Wars tens of thousands of east European Khazar Jews in this Muslim land. The plot was to keep under perpetual colonial control the holiest sites of Islam, and thus, with the setting of the sun on the British Empire, London handed over both Arabia and Palestine to its imperialist heirs, the Americans.

For those still in doubt about the Jewish origin of the Saudi clan, the divisions and destabilization caused in the Muslim world by the heretical Wahhabis, mostly through their creation of Takfiri terrorist outfits, and their open dalliance now with their Zionist cousins against the interests of Palestinians and the rest of the Ummah, ought to be sufficient proof of the devilish designs of the archenemies of Islam. The Leader of the Islamic Revolution in his Monday’s speech stressed Muslim unity for restoration of the dignity of the Ummah by pointing out that the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca is ample proof of the fact that there is no separation between religion and politics in Islam, or for that matter between the transient world and afterlife, as well as between spirituality and materialism. He cautioned the regime in Riyadh against meddling with the Hajj rituals and called for serious probe of the trampling to death in 2015 in the inviolable land of Mena of over 2,000 pilgrims including some 500 Iranians. Ayatollah Khamenei expressed regret: "Unfortunately, some Muslim states, due to their lack of belief in the essence of Islam – let alone the Palestinian cause – have turned into servants for the US and sacrifice themselves for the sake of the US. They will gain no benefits. By God’s grace, the Palestinian nation will gain victory over the enemies. The day will dawn when the Zionist entity is obliterated.” The Islamic Republic with its principled policies on Islamic affairs, as well as national, regional and international issues that include end of American hegemony throughout the region and a referendum under UN supervision to resolve once and for all the chronic question of the Zionist-usurped land of Palestine, has been target of the most intricate plots of the US, which following forty years of failure, has teamed up with the Zionist devils and the rootless, repressive, unrepresentative, reactionary Arab regimes, to try to browbeat Iran into submission.

With trust in God, with faith in its dedicated Muslims masses whose spectacular progress in all fields enables them to defend the interests of people throughout the neighbourhood, and with firm belief in the reappearance of Imam Mahdi (AS) for establishment of the global government of peace, prosperity and justice, Iran is confident of its grand victory over the Great Satan, the liberation of Palestine, and the rebuilding of the holy shrines in Hijaz – the Land of Revelation where only Islamic laws will prevail and not any heretical tendencies.

The Rise and Fall of the Abdulaziz Empire

– Arunava Dasgupta:

King Abdulaziz ibn Al Saud

The stage is on fire and Mohammad bin Salman has decided to walk on the razor’s edge. Will he transform the entire region into a true cradle of thriving civilization. Or is the whole thing a facade to seize power and wipe out enemies?

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It was on 23rd September, 1932 that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its present entity was formed on 23 September 1932 with Abdulaziz Ibn Saud formally uniting Nejd and Hejaz into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and declaring himself as the king. He transferred his court to Murabba Palace from the Masmak Fort in 1938 and the palace remained his residence and the seat of government until his death in 1953.

King Abdulaziz is believed to have 22 wives, 45 sons (36 survived to reach adulthood) and many daughters. Ten of his sons were eligible to be the King, six ascended the throne and four remained Crown Prince.

Having defeated the Ottomans, the Rashidis and wresting Makkah from Sharif Hussein thus ending the 700 years of Hashemite rule, he established his Kingdom of Saudi Arabia based on Wahabism with the Kalma from the Quoran being the country flag, the Shariah as the law and a rule based on absolutely conservative Islamic values.

Following the demise of King Abdulaziz, his sons ascended the throne, first by King Saud (deposed in 1964 but allowed to leave with full honours), King Faisal (assassinated 1975), King Khalid (died 1982), King Fahd (died 2005),King Abdullah (died 2015) and King Salman (till present). All were children of King Abdulaziz bin Saud but from different mothers.

When King Salman ascended the throne, he appointed Mohammed bin Nayef, who was also the kingdom’s interior minister, and widely known internationally as Saudi Arabia’s counter-terrorism czar, to be the Crown Prince.

bin Abdulaziz is out, bin Salman is in

But what happened in the last two years has been stunning – the unfettered rise of Prince Mohammad bin Salman [King Salman’s son], aged 32 years as the Crown Prince, who in a series of recent swift manouvres placed Prince Nayef under house arrest and followed it with more swift action by arresting about a dozen princes and senior officials on charges of alleged corruption. Hotel Ritz Carlton is believed to be the new gilded cage where the royalty is locked up; two Saudi princes have reportedly died under mysterious circumstances.

Today, the Arab Kingdom is shaking and shivering with the revolutionary changes that have been thrust upon this otherwise highly conservative country. Prince Mohammad bin Salman [MBS] as he is popularly known, has led the charge by initiating radical changes since his arrival, firstly leading a coalition against Houthi rebels in Yemen conflict, and secondly, laying out a new Development Plan – Vision 2030 – that takes Saudi Arabia away from an oil-based easy economy, and thirdly, a complete boycott of Qatar by a coalition (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and UAE).

MBS: The Prince with a Vision or will he be the Prince of Chaos

MBS appears to have a vision and the will to enforce it but will he be able to sustain the present momentum and carry the royalty, the nobility, the clergy and the people along with him is something yet to be seen, and thus proven! MBS may be far ahead of Saudi times but will he be able to garner an effective team who can the ‘walk the MBS’s talk’ is also to be seen – the present generation has been so used to easy money and comfort that not only have many become largely inefficient, lethargic but highly arrogant too!

The Middle East Eye reports, “People inside the royal court also told …that the scale of the crackdown, which has brought new arrests each day, is much bigger than Saudi authorities have admitted, with more than 500 people detained and double that number questioned.

Some, but not all, of the top figures arrested were singled out for the most brutal treatment, suffering wounds to the body sustained by classic torture methods. Some detainees were tortured to reveal details of their bank accounts.

Earlier roundup of Muslim clerics, writers, economists and public figures, is creating panic in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, particularly among those associated with the old regime of King Abdullah, who died in 2015, with power then passing to his half-brother, King Salman”.

India – a witness and victim to Saudi corruption

Indians have been witness to the highly corrupt ways of many Saudis who are aided by their Indian agents to feed their greed and their lust – every appointment for a Saudi Arabian employment [in fact, all gulf countries] is possible after the payment of thousands or at times over hundred thousand Indian rupee as ‘fees’ to the Indian agents who are empanelled by the Saudi employer. This money is collected to entertain the Saudi employing authorities, pay their bills while in India and make the agent ‘rich’. I believe such practices exist in visa matters too! The situation is so bad that a former Saudi ambassador to India had referred to these Indian recruitment agencies as ‘blood suckers’ who suck the blood of their fellow countrymen!!

Over the years, the situation remains unaltered with the truly poor job applicants paying through their nose by mortgaging their house, their land, the little jewellery they may possess to line the deep pockets of such people. The situation remains unaltered even today! One hopes MBS will have a look at it and truly whip the corrupt Saudi Arabians under Saudi laws.

Whether a minister, or whether a prince, none shall be spared

True to his word, MBS’s orchestrated drive against corruption has spread its arms sparing none. Quoting MEE,“One of the most famous is Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former Saudi ambassador to Washington and confidant of former US President George W Bush. There is no word on his fate, but Saudi authorities said that one of the corruption cases they are looking at is the al-Yamamah arms deal, in which Bandar was involved.

Bandar bought an entire village in the Cotswolds, a picturesque area of central England, and a 2,000-acre sporting estate with part of the proceeds from kickbacks he received in the al-Yamamah arms deal, which netted British manufacturer BAE £43bn ($56.5bn) in contracts for fighter aircraft. As much as $30m (£15m) is alleged to have been paid into Bandar’s dollar account at Riggs Bank in Washington and the affair led to corruption probes in the US and UK, although the case was dropped in the UK in 2006 after an intervention by then-prime minister Tony Blair”.

Indeed the deserts of Saudi Arabia are shivering! But as said earlier, will MBS be able to sustain his campaign and withstand the backlash from the dishonoured Saudi nobility, business houses like the Bin Laden, the clergy, the Bedouin tribesmen and external forces like Qatar (whom MBS trampled upon) or Iran,  – which may find this to be an opportunity to pounce upon, remains to be seen. Will Saudi Arabia become Salman Arabia or Arabia or Saudi Arabia time will only tell!

On a macro-global scale, this move by MBS, its success or failure can impact global economy very much. It can also have a major impact on Wahabism  and the Saudi brand of Islam which was being exported worldwide. Prince Mohammad bin Salman appears to have support from very strong quarters internationally.

Will MBS modernize Saudi Arabia culturally and beyond their penchant for the finest ‘single malt’? Will MBS be the new Kemal Ataturk to complete revamp the gulf and thereby the Arabs.

The stage is on fire and Mohammad bin Salman has decided to walk on the razor’s edge. Is his decision just a pretext to wipe out all enemies inside and outside the House of Saud before he replaces his father. Or will he transform the entire region into a true cradle of thriving civilization.

But one thing is certain – the unity among Abdulaziz family has been shattered and there shall possibly be the emergence of a new name!