a creature of the west
"Saudi Arabia was created by Britain. At the beginning of the 20th century Britain was trying to get hold of the Arabian peninsula from the Ottoman Empire. Ibn Saud, a Bedouin leader, was the perfect henchman for the British. He was a bloodthirsty and simple minded autocrat who was willing to serve anyone who would pay him.
From 1902 to 1925 Britain paid Ibn Saud, a member of the puritanical Wahhabist Islamic sect, to lead a series of bloody wars against more established tribes across the peninsula. The brutality and fanaticism of Ibn Saud's Wahhabist followers (known as the Ikhwan) knew no limits. The Ikhwan spiked the heads of their enemies at the gates of conquered cities. They burned the victims of their conquests and routinely raped and enslaved girls. They systematically massacred Shi'a Muslims and desecrated Islamic sites they decreed insulting to Wahhabism.
After Ibn Saud had conquered the tribes allied to Turkey, Britain bribed him to attack territory controlled by the Hashemites of Jordan. The Hashemites had foolishly trusted British promises, delivered by TE Lawrence, that their independence and their leadership of an extended Arab territory would be respected as a reward for their loyalty during the First World War. Lord Crewe, a minister in the Liberal government in Britain, summed up the real colonial aim: 'What we want is not a united Arabia, but a disunited Arabia split into principalities under our suzerainty.'
By the time Britain had helped Ibn Saud 'subdue' the peninsula's 4 million inhabitants, 400,000 people (10 per cent of the population) had been killed and wounded, and 40,000 people had been executed in public. More than a million people had fled to neighbouring countries. The Ikhwan-run religious police maintained a climate of terror by administering instant and cruel punishments for 'crimes' such as wearing western clothes, not having a beard, and singing. Women suffered worst.
Ibn Saud declared himself king and in 1932 modestly named the new country after himself. As Said Aburish writes in his book, The Rise, Corruption and Coming Fall of the House of Saud, 'It was as if the Moonies had turned violent and taken over the whole of America.'
A feudal monarchy with oil
The discovery of oil provided the corrupt and autocratic 'royal' Saud family with unparalleled wealth. The Sauds began a 60-year crazed spending spree, flaunting their stolen riches with preposterous palaces and grotesquely luxurious lifestyles. At the same time, most of the people of Saudi Arabia remained poor. The Sauds also became infamous for their debauchery, drunkenness, gambling and greed. Simultaneously, they ruthlessly enforced strict and puritanical Islamic rule.
Such obscene contradictions and injustices can only be maintained through the most brutal and suffocating repression, and in this area the Sauds have excelled. They allow no political parties, no elections, no trade unions, no alternative religions, no independent judiciary, no independent media. Any transgression from the largely unwritten moral and criminal codes is punished by floggings, amputations, torture, imprisonment and death. On average, two people a week are publicly beheaded. The state of terror is run by ubiquitous secret and religious police.
Life for most people in Saudi Arabia is grim. Saudi women are virtual prisoners in their homes, are forbidden from driving and are barred from most jobs. Slavery, officially abolished in 1962, continues through the enslavement of the country's 7 million migrant workers (a third of the population). These workers are often not paid, and are frequently beaten and sexually abused, and deported or imprisoned if they complain.
In 1970 a quarter of the population lived in cities--20 years later three quarters of the population lived in cities. State of the art industrial complexes, infrastructure and weaponry sit side by side with Bedouin culture. Just south of the glistening air-conditioned tower blocks, marbled palaces and pristine hospitals of central Jeddah are sweltering sprawling slums where prostitution, drug and alcohol addiction, destitution and disease are rife.
One of the richest states in the world, whose economy is fully integrated into international capitalism, is run by an absolutist feudal monarchy. The ruling class consists largely of the offspring of lecherous kings. The working class is almost entirely migrant labour. A vast pool of educated Saudis are as bored as they are ludicrously controlled by the state."
