Is Saudi Arabia becoming a new hope for an Islam of Enlightenment?

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”993300″ class=”” size=”16″]For once, for months, more than encouraging news has been coming to us from Saudi Arabia, where Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz-Al Saud was appointed "Crown Prince" on June 23. and Deputy Prime Minister by King “Salman Bin Abdelaziz Al Saud”.[/perfectpullquote]

The Prince's first official declarations were devoted to the wish to return to a moderate Islam as well as to express his firm will to “destroy extremism”.

As soon as he took office, MBS (Mohammed Bin Salman), as he is commonly referred to from now on, made courageous and modern decisions.

Whether it concerns women's rights, the future of Saudi youth, economic or social reforms, relations with other religions, or even relations vis-à-vis Israel, the words of the future king reflects a real upheaval in this country which has remained marked by a feudal vision of society.

It therefore organises, in October, an international economic conference, the Future Investment Initiative, often called the Davos of the desert! The prince sets out his vision of a post-oil Saudi Arabia where the prosperity of the kingdom would find its foundations, no longer in hydrocarbons but rather in high technology, investment funds, tourism and in new links with border countries, including Israel which, in its vision, becomes a real partner.

This "vision of the future" would materialize through the construction of a new technological, ecological and robotic megalopolis; this city would be located at the end of a bridge linking Saudi Arabia to the Egyptian Sinai over the Red Sea.

This project, calledNEOM“, would require a colossal investment of some 500 billion dollars, the first funds of which would be paid by the Sovereign Public Fund of Saudi Arabia recently created and whose reserves amount to 2.000 billion dollars.

Because of its scale and the societal reforms it implies, this vision may seem ambitious, and is often somewhat mocked by the Western media.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”true” cite=”” link=”” color=”993300″ class=”” size=”14″] However, this vision of the prince not only is not an absurd dream, but it opens Saudi Arabia to modernity, to technological development and what is even more appreciable to a true democracy. Perhaps the first in the Arab world!

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If the first investments will be assumed by the Sovereign Public Fund of Saudi Arabia, the final goal is to attract foreign partners to projects as diverse as renewable energy, biotechnology, robotics, digital technology and culture! It is therefore a real revolution of minds that is preparing for “NEOM”.

The finalization of this huge program is a securitization of the "NEOM" project and its IPO, probably in New York given the particularly warm relations that bind Prince Bin Salman and President Trump.

Bringing foreign companies to Saudi soil and attracting foreign entrepreneurs and engineers involves liberalizing Saudi society and developing a tolerant Islam, open to all beliefs, in order to put an end to a rigorous interpretation of Islam (Wahabism ) inflicted on the population for decades.

A first step was taken by Mohammed Bin Salman who allowed women to drive or attend sports competitions in stadiums. This may appear in the eyes of our fellow citizens and Westerners like a drop of water of freedom in an ocean of prohibitions, but that would be to ignore the immense revolution that this represents in the eyes of Saudi women and the hope that it arouses.

It's a start, but a very good start.

The 32-year-old prince has understood that the economic and social salvation of his country requires a major reform that still seemed unlikely six months ago: a revolution in the practice of Islam.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”true” cite=”Mohammed Bin Salman” link=”” color=”993300″ class=”” size=”18″] “We want to live a normal life. A life where our religion means tolerance and kindness," the Prince said, "70% of Saudi Arabia's population is under 30 and, frankly, we are not going to spend another 30 years accommodating extremist ideas and we will destroy them now and immediately”. “We will only return to a moderate Islam, tolerant and open to the world and to all other religions,” he further assured.[/perfectpullquote]

 

All is said !

 

As Stéphane Montabert recently said in his blog:  “In a country where the possession of Bibles is forbidden, where bloggers are flogged, where women are possessed and watched by men, such statements seem like science fiction. But a Saudi crown prince is not exactly the first comer. The plan is not improvised, and the recent opening in Medina of the Institute of King Salman intended to clean up among the "hadith of the prophet", these thousands of words or gestures attributed to Mohammed with more historicity only doubtful but to which the whole of the Salafist sphere lends a value sometimes superior to the Koran, seems to be part of an overall strategy.

A real revolution is looming on the horizon. And, having met, on several occasions, the entourage of the Crown Prince, it seems obvious to us that the Prince's intention is sincere and motivated by an assumed desire to bring his country fully into the 21st century.

I am convinced that his desire to establish a tolerant Islam, an Islam of enlightenment to put an end to radical Islamism, stems from the deep conviction of the Prince and that it is the only possible way for an Islam of the future.

It is very likely that beyond Saudi Arabia, it is the vision of Islam that he wants to change.

This vision is of the same nature as that of Pope John XXIII with Vatican II.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”993300″ class=”” size=”16″]A religious college with delegates from the most prestigious representatives of Islam from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco would make it possible to carry out an aggiornamento of Islam expected both by the Muslim world and by the whole of planet![/perfectpullquote]

This is the only real possibility of ending terrorism and radical Islam, which is doing enormous damage to the perception of this religion around the world.

If, in an initial analysis of the project, "NEOM" was to be an enclave on Saudi soil (much like Hong Kong) in order not to be subject to the rules of Sharia which govern the rest of the country, the Prince quickly understood that this would in no way solve the animosity of the Conservatives who consider it a  casus belli any transgression of Sharia on any square centimeter of the territory of Saudi Arabia.

It seems that Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has decided to take the problem head on and accept a break with the most conservative clergy based on the expectation of emancipation of the Saudi youth who represent nearly 70 % Population. He understood that the economic and social survival of the kingdom is at stake. Its openness to other beliefs and to the Western world is totally assumed and quite clear.

Of course, today nothing is decided yet, and the conservative forces have not disappeared, but he has decided to fight them.

Although for many Westerners, questioning the historical link between the Saudi royal family and the Wahhabi clergy, fighting corruption and allowing youth and women to flourish freely, can be interpreted by some as risky even as a declaration of war.

Admittedly, the Saudi Islamist terrorists have not disappeared and a new palace revolution cannot be ruled out; certainly the "NEOM" project could be an economic failure and the forces of obscurantism could come back in force, but the West and the peoples inspired by the Civilization of the Enlightenment, must give Prince Mohammed Bin Salman a chance, they must support him in his unprecedented attempt to modernize Islam and put an end to the dreaded "clash of civilizations".

Saudi Arabia's future suddenly seems to have brightened up. The Islam of the Enlightenment finally seems within reach of our generation.

Certainly, the recurring reference to the “turn” of the 70s refers to a first attempt at opening up in the kingdom, with the introduction of television and school for girls but which will end with the assassination of the king. Faisal in 1975 and the seizure of power by the Iranian Ayatollahs in 1979, pushing the two Muslim powers in the region to compete in extremism.

If, for all Islamists, the declarations of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman are very bad news and suggest a drying up of financial flows to the Wahhabists, they could lead the most radical Muslims themselves to realize that their fantasy of conquest of the world is totally absurd.

Let us not forget that the guardian country of the two most important holy places of Islam gives the la in matters of religion, and that if he could federate the other high religious authorities of Egypt, Jordan and Morocco then everything would become possible.

A Vatican II of Islam could become a reality, the Islam of the Enlightenment take shape and cease to be an illusion. This step will be fundamental in the fight against terrorism and world peace!

Yes, let's remain hopeful, let's support the projects of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and perhaps, beyond all our hopes, Saudi Arabia will become the long-awaited beacon of Enlightenment Islam!

 

Richard C. ABITBOL
Chairman