Saudi reform could change the world

What the prince failed to acknowledge last week was that this hardline Islamic doctrine has been the pivot on which the House of Saud rose to power.
Now the young prince is seeking to change direction by leading his conservative kingdom, the only absolute monarchy left in the world, to the path of modernisation. He has opened up Saudi society and allowed women to drive and to participate in economic activities along with men.
But this huge stride forward is anathema to the Wahhabi clerics, who still enjoy strong influence in the holy land.
Belonging to the third generation of the House of Saud, the crown prince is also pushing to transform the Saudi economy, which has remained overwhelmingly dependent on oil, under Vision 2030 launched by the government. 
The crown prince is walking a tightrope in a country where conservative ideology is deeply entrenched. Even minor social reforms have been resisted by the clerics and members of the royal family in the past. In his interview with the Washington Post, the prince said that a “shock” was needed to check Islamist extremism in the kingdom.
Some analysts describe his push as “an Arab spring from above”. That description is exaggerated, since there has not yet been any indication of economic and social reform leading to political openness that would give ordinary Saudis greater democracy and ensure their human rights.
On the other hand, neither has there been a major conservative backlash as yet against the wide-ranging social and economic reform programme that promises tectonic political and social changes not only in Saudi Arabia but also in other Muslim countries affected by the Saudi-financed doctrine of Wahhabism. Nevertheless, many observers warn that things could implode if the prince moves too fast on his reform agenda.
The clerics will not readily give up their decades-old religious grip on the kingdom. It also remains to be seen how rising resentment within the royal family at the prince’s meteoric rise and reform programme will play out. An anti-corruption drive that has seen senior royal family members placed under house arrest, their assets confiscated, has ratcheted up royal tensions.
Scores of princes were apparently detained and only released after a negotiated settlement under which they agreed to return part of their allegedly ill-gotten wealth. The crown prince will also be 
constrained in fulfilling his ambition to change course and break the stranglehold of Wahhabi influence in view of his militaristic approach to counter the growing Iranian influence in the Middle East.
Over the past two years, Saudi forces have been engaged in a war in Yemen that has caused thousands of civilian casualties in the impoverished, conflict-torn country. The ongoing conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran for influence has intensified the sectarian divide in the Middle East. Riyadh has formed an alliance of 34 Muslim nations also referred to as a Sunni alliance.
That raises serious questions about the prince’s move to break the hold of the religious establishment. Societal reform may weaken the clergy but what also matters is the conservative ideology on which the kingdom was founded. While Mohammed bin Salman declared that his government is no longer directly funding the spread of Wahhabism, he did admit that private Saudi charities were still patronising madrasas and mosques across the world. 
Muhammad ibn Saud, head of the Al Saud tribal family, cut a deal with the Wahhabi clerics in the 19th century that helped the family establish its rule in Saudi Arabia. In return, the monarchy endorsed Wahhabism. The religious-political alliance endures in Saudi Arabia.
There is no denying that radical Islam was used by the West as a bulwark in the fight against communism and that the Saudi petrodollar came in handy in promoting Wahhabism across the Muslim world. But it was also used by the kingdom as an instrument in the regional power game in the Middle East.
Billions of dollars were invested in madrasas and mosques espousing the radical ideology overseas even after the end of the Cold War following the disintegration of the communist bloc. The rise of militant Islam in Pakistan largely owed to Saudi support starting with the Afghan resistance to the Soviet occupation.
Wahhabism became the most effective ideology in motivating radical Muslims for waging jihad against the “godless communists”. Saudi Arabia and the US agreed to contribute equal amounts to finance the Afghan war against the Soviets.
Thousands of young Saudis were sent to fight alongside the mujahideen in Afghanistan for the next decade. The same jihadist ideology that the West used to counter communism has now come back to haunt it.
Saudi funding for hardline Sunni groups increased many times in the wake of the Iranian revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979. Consequently, Pakistan became the centre of a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The rise of militant Islam now threatens Muslim societies. One has to wait and see what happens to the reform programme initiated by the young but ruthless Saudi crown prince.