Saudi Arabia is one of the most repressive and stagnant countries in the world. The Saudi royal family, the House of Saud, controls the country with total brutality with no regards for human life, dignity and tolerance.
But the most dangerous thing about Saudi Arabia is that the government engages in its oppression in the name of Islam itself.
One of the biggest hurdles today in understanding the real message of Islam is the presence of regimes such as that in Saudi Arabia. However, the double standards and hypocrisy of realpolitik dictate that business continues as usual.
There are well known scholars who spare no effort to praise the Saudi monarchy. These are scholars whose goal in life is personal wealth and not the pleasure of Allah. In the Islamic tradition it is reported that the Prophet said: “… And no one increases in nearness to the king except that he becomes further away from Allah” (reported in the collection by Ahmed and Abu Dawood).
Since the mainstream media rarely ever bring to attention the plight of ordinary people under brutal regimes such as in Saudi Arabia – after all, they are the west’s allies in the ‘War on Terror’ – it was with some surprise when we at Glór Moslamach read about the so-called ‘suitcase trader’ jailed for years without trial inside the Saudi kingdom (The Irish Times, 28 November 2011). That was a good effort, however we think it is too little, too late.
I would like to use the column space in this issue to honour those we believe to be the best of scholars among Muslims. This is a partial list of people imprisoned by the Saudis, some of whom are quite elderly:
Sheikh Alama Mohammad al-Saqaabi (85 years)
Sheikh Alama Abdel Karim al-Hamid (70 years)
Sheikh Alama Ahmed Snani (65 years)
Sheikh Alama Walid Snani (second oldest ‘alim in detention)
Sheikh Muhadith Suleiman al-Alwan
Sheikh Muhadith Abdellah al-Saad
Sheikh Abdallah al-Rais
Sheikh Alama Abdallah Ibn Abdelaziz al-Sdeis (cousin of the imam of the Mecca Haram)
Sheikh Ibrahim al-Rais
Sheikh Alama Ali al-Khodeir
Sheikh Mahmoud Abdallah Boukhari
Said Aal Z’aair
Sheikh Ahmed al-Khalidi
Sheikh Khaled al-Rashid
Sheikh Faris Aal Showayhil al-Zahrani
Sheikh Abdel Aziz kamla Lmasri
Sheikh Moussa al-Qarni
Sheikh Abdel Aziz al-Baridi
Sheikh Ibrahim al-Nasser
Sheikh Hussein Ibn Ali al-Ulay al-Tamimi
Sheikh Khaled Ibn Abdallah al-Hamlan
Sheikh Abdel Aziz al-jalil
Sheikh Fahd al-Asaker
Sheikh Mohammed Salem al-Dousari
Sheikh Saud al-Darwish al-Bou’aynin
Sheikh Fahd al-Darwish al-Bou’aynin
Sheikh Khaled al-Alwan
Sheikh Saleh al-Alwan
Sheikh Nasser al-Amro (friend of Abdelkrim al-Hamid; not Nasser al-Amro from the Muslim Brotherhood)
Sheikh Mansour al-Saqaabi
Sheikh Mansour al-Qadi
Sheikh Aqil al-Aqil (of the al-Haramayn charity)
Sheikh Said al-Ghamidi
Sheikh Khalaf al-Anzi
Sheikh Saad al-Shatwi
Sheikh Youssef al-Ahmad
Sheikh Nasser al-fahd
(Source: Noor Ul Tawhid)
Qasim Afridi is a member of the think tank Glór Mos-lamach
glormoslamach@gmail.com
