The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman, has announced to the world that Saudi Arabia will return to `moderate Islam’. He says Saudi Arabia will then be open to all religions. When? What does he mean by moderate Islam? And what does he mean by `all religions’?
Saudi Arabia is currently one of the most repressive Arab countries. I expect the world will be acclaiming the country for allowing women to drive by 2018. Saudi Arabia and her allies have been for the past two years bombing Yemen to pieces – the use of the word `allies’ upsets me. Some of these powerful countries use it as an excuse not to be blamed alone for the carnage being caused. In simple terms Saudi Arabia does not mind wiping out everybody in Yemen because the Houthi overthrew the elected government and `they were invited’ to restore the government. Of course the main reason is that the Houthi are Shiite Muslims, the arch enemy of the Sunni Muslims of which the Saudis appear to be world leaders. Over ten thousand civilian Arabs have been killed in Yemen. Over five hundred thousand known cases of cholera have been reported and up to two thousand have died. And absurdly the same Saudi Arabia claims it has been sending a lot of relief!
And this issue of allowing all religions to practice in Saudi Arabia is a joke. Christians have virtually been wiped out by Muslims. Is he inviting them back? I do not see many accepting the invitation to face persecution. Is he inviting Judaism? Let Saudi Arabia first publicly recognise the existence of a sovereign state of Israel. What other religions is he referring to? Is he talking of the religions from India and China? Why does he not tell us about making peace with the splinter groups in Islam like the Shiites, the Alawites and so on. What does he think of the extremely murderous Sunnis called ISIS?
I realise that Bin Salman is a very young man and is only playing to the gallery. He will soon be called to order. And he should meditate on the carnage that the Sunnis are causing worldwide including in Ethiopia through the Al Shabaab, in Nigeria through the Boko Haram who are blowing up everybody they can find and the Sunnis who are wiping out Christians. In Nigeria some over one hundred Shiites were massacred publicly by the mainly Sunni army. He should, if he hopes in future to be a genuine leader of the Sunnis, think of finding a way to calm the terror in the world caused by the Sunnis. Otherwise he should shut up and enjoy the billions flowing into Saudi Arabia from Hajj tourism and from oil. There cannot be moderate Islam seeing what is happening in the world and in a situation where Muslims see others as infidels to be converted forcefully or to be killed.