Our good friends in Riyadh
The Globe & Mail, June 7
By MARCUS GEE
In a sun-baked Muslim nation, a brutal regime holds sway. Women are forbidden from going outdoors unless clothed head to foot in a black cloak and prohibited from riding on a bus unless accompanied by a male relative. Religious minorities are stigmatized and persecuted. Convicted criminals face flogging, stoning, mutilation or beheading. No one can vote, belong to a political party or join a labour union.
Afghanistan under the Taliban? No, Saudi Arabia under the House of Saud.
In many ways, the royal dynasty that rules Saudi Arabia is as autocratic and feudal as the religious fundamentalists who rule Afghanistan. Just as in Afghanistan, religious police roam the streets, arresting those who violate the dress code or break rules against fraternization of the sexes. Just as in Afghanistan, the government restricts freedom of the press, speech and association. And just as in Afghanistan, the Islamic courts routinely order barbaric punishments. Last year, a man's eye was surgically removed as punishment for putting out another man's eye.
Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, and Afghanistan a theocratic dictatorship, but the result is the same: The regime's rule is law. Crown Prince Abdullah (the kingdom's effective ruler since his brother, King Fahd, suffered a stroke in 1995) answers to no one except his royal kin and a purely advisory Consultative Council. The country's only constitution is the Koran, the holy book of Islam, so there is no such thing as freedom of religion or the separation of religion and state. When a group of 16 Filipino guest workers held a Christian prayer service last year, they were thrown into jail.
Despite these obvious similarities, the outside world treats the Taliban and the House of Saud as if they were different species. While the Taliban is shunned, sanctioned and condemned around the world, the Saudi royals are welcomed with red carpets and warm handshakes. While the Taliban is considered a bunch of raving "fundamentalists," the Saudis are merely "conservative" -- stout allies of the West in the fight against religious extremism.
Consider how differently Canada has treated these two regimes. Ottawa has delivered many tongue-lashings to the Taliban; yet, on Saudi misdeeds, it has been all but silent. In fact, until last week, it was getting ready to welcome Prince Abdullah to Ottawa, where he was to open a grand new Saudi embassy on Sussex Drive, right near the Prime Minister's house.
When the trip was called off, it wasn't because Canada had decided that it would be wrong to embrace a feudal despot; it was because he was mad at us. As his Interior Minister confirmed yesterday, Prince Abdullah was upset over Canadian reports that his government was mistreating a Canadian, William Sampson, who is in a Saudi jail on charges related to a bombing in Riyadh. (Another Canadian held on other bomb charges has been released, the Saudis said yesterday.)
The Crown Prince's affront was quite understandable. The poor man just isn't used to criticism from his Western friends. After all, he has oil, while Afghanistan has only opium. When they look at Saudi Arabia, Western governments see not just a trading partner and oil supplier, but a pillar of stability in the troubled Middle East. But pillars are made of sand, and the stability of dictatorships is often illusory. One day, the House of Saud will fall, just as the Shah of Iran did. Canada may live to regret its dalliance with this barbarous regime.
mgee@globeandmail.ca
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