this guy was at W`s ranch! WTF?
What the Billy Graham of Saudi Arabia didn't say in Crawford, Tx.
Not Saad Al-Barak. "I am against America until this life ends, until the Day of Judgment . . . My hatred of America, if part of it was contained in the universe, it would collapse."
Saad Al-Barak
Age: Early 70s
Occupation:Saudi cleric
Whereabouts:Riyad
When President Bush makes an important diplomatic or political trip he might invite a trusted religious minister for spiritual guidance. When Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz leaves for the United States, he takes along Sheik Saad Al-Barak.
Bush probably even met the sheik in April during Abdullah's trip to the presidential ranch in Texas. It's doubtful whether Bush's advisers told him details about whom he was meeting.
If Al-Barak stood on a soap box in Times Square, thousands would hurry by as they would any sidewalk evangelist or raving lunatic. But the sheik has the power of Saudi Arabia behind him, the kingdom's media and its network of mosques throughout the world.
The Rev. Billy Graham is an icon of an American Christian leader and he enjoys political standing. In Saudi Arabia, Al-Barak is one of the final arbiters of legislation in the kingdom to ensure that it conforms to Islamic law.
So, when the sheik calls for the destruction of Israel, the United States and Christianity, somebody out there is taking him seriously.
Maybe it was Osama Bin Laden who met him more than a decade ago and then got the idea that jihad might be the greatest thing Saudi Arabia contributes to the welfare of mankind. Maybe it was the Washington sniper who is alleged to have turned from a U.S. soldier into a jihad warrior.
When Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz traveled to Crawford, Tx., to meet President Bush in April, he brought Sheik Saad Al-Barak along with him.
It is important to understand the role of Saudi clerics: Their position has little to do with scholarship. No, the role of Saudi clerics is to keep the embers of Wahabi fanaticism alive so as to ensure the legitimacy of the royal family. Think of Wahabism as the Soviet Comintern — seeking to conquer abroad to avoid a collapse from within.
Here's how Stephen Schwartz, a scholar on Islam and author of a fascinating book on the Wahabis, put it: "Wahhabism exalts and promotes death in every element of its existence, the suicide of its adherents, mass murder as a weapon against civilization, and above all the suffocation of the mercy embodied in Islam."
In this regard, Al-Barak's role was to preach Wahabi hate for the "other," a tradition begun since the founding of the sect in the 18th Century by Mohammed Bin Abdul Wahhab. The other could be Christians, Jews, Shi'ites and particularly Sunni Muslims who don't share the Wahabi concept of jihad and world domination.
Sounds far-fetched? For years, Al-Barak has been a member of the Efta Council. This panel is composed of clerics handpicked by the royal family and approved by King Fahd. The council issues religious edicts to be honored by everyone, government officials on down.
Let's take Al-Barak's fatwa or religious ruling after the Al Qaida suicide attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001.
Logic would have it that the Saudi clerics would have been ordered to shut up and lay low for a while. But Al-Barak and his colleagues adopted the opposite tack. They wanted to exploit the Al Qaida attacks and the deep impression it made to settle some scores.
The first score was with Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority, who dominate the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula but have no rights. Al-Barak's fatwa in December 2001 allowed Wahabis, or any Sunni Muslims, to kill Shias in the name of jihad. The religious ruling dismissed the Shi'ite clerics as frauds.
Just in case Sunni Muslims missed the fatwa, Al-Barak and the Saudi government issued the religious edict around the world. It appeared in publications and even on websites. One of the websites was owned by another Saudi cleric, Mohammed Al-Munajid, the cleric of the Oman Bin Abdul Aziz mosque in Khobar, Saudi Arabia. Americans should remember Khobar, where 19 U.S. soldiers were killed by a bomb blast attributed to Hizbullah and Iran in 1996.
It is probable that Bush and his aides knew little of Al-Barak's background when they met him in April. If that's the case, then this constitutes a major flaw in U.S. intelligence and diplomacy. Indeed, just before Al-Barak left for the United States he gave a sermon at a major mosque in Riyad that called for Muslims to kill Jewish men and enslave Jewish women.
"Do not have mercy or compassion toward the Jews," Al-Barak said in a sermon. "Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don't you enslave their women! Why don't you wage jihad! Why don't you pillage them!"
Al-Barak's words were broadcast over satellite to Muslims around the world. They were taped and distributed by Saudi-financed institutes operating in the United States.
"The battle that we are going through is not with Jews only," Al Barak continued, "but also with those who believe that Allah is a third in a Trinity, and those who said that Jesus is the son of Allah, and Allah is Jesus, the son of Mary."
But Al-Barak went beyond words. Indeed, he literally put his money where his mouth is by helping raise more than $109 million for Islamic terrorists in a Saudi telethon earlier this year. The sheik made it very clear what he wanted that money used for. The United States, he said, would be the ultimate target of Islam. And Al-Barak made it very clear that he spoke for the religion.
"I am against America until this life ends, until the Day of Judgment," Al-Barak said in a voice that rose to a fever pitch. "I am against America even if the stone liquefies. My hatred of America, if part of it was contained in the universe, it would collapse. She is the root of all evils, and wickedness on earth. Who else implanted the tyrants in our land, who else nurtured oppression?"
Is America listening? |
