ABDULLAH OF SAUDI ARABIA

The only reason this quotation became known is that in 2010, Wikileaks got hold of tens of thousands of secret U. S. State Department diplomatic cables and released it on the Internet. The major Muslim leaders of the Middle East, privately urged the United States to attack Iran to prevent them from developing a nuclear bomb. At the same time, they publicly expressed their love and respect for their fellow Muslims. In actuality the Persians are ethnically very different from the Arabs and have always seen Persia as the natural leader of the Middle East if not more of the world. The Persians have always looked down on the Arabs and the Arabs have resented it. Further, most Iranian Muslims are Shiites and most Arabs Sunni. Fundamentally, they each believe that the other is a true heretic to Islam.

In this remarkable quotation, the king whose own invasion by Iraq was only stopped by American troops in the Gulf War, tells the Arab world that the American occupation which was endorsed by the Iraqi government was illegal. Many others in the world and even many in the U. S. agreed about the illegality, but the King claims to be one of the major allies and supporters of the United States. What he says for Arab and Islamic consumption is different from what he tells American and other Western diplomats. See {620141} for another example.

Many critics of the King observed that Saudi Arabia is one of the most intolerant nations in the world where it is a crime for a woman to drive or to import a Christian or Jewish Bible. The country has produced a much higher percentage of fanatical terrorists than its population in the Arab World. Osama bin Laden grew up as a citizen of Saudi Arabia. Saudi money supports Wahabbi—one of the most intolerant wings of Islam—by which Saudi Arabian trained and funded clerics preach extremism and hatred the world over. For example, see {620142} for an example of Saudi Arabian intolerance preached at one of Islam’s most important mosques just weeks after the king is quoted talking about tolerance. It is not as if there is freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia and the king may not censor any intolerant speech. People are jailed and tortured for simply criticizing the government or royal family, executed for criticizing Islam.

The ‘enemies’ are the Christian nations, Israel and other non-Muslims. This is what he says to Muslims throughout the Arab world while to the West he purports to be an ally of the United States and Europe which prop up his monarchy.

In this remarkable quotation, the king whose own invasion by Iraq was only stopped by American troops in the Gulf War, tells the Arab world that the American occupation which was endorsed by the Iraqi government was illegal. Many others in the world and even many in the U. S. agreed about the illegality, but the King claims to be one of the major allies and supporters of the United States. What he says for Arab and Islamic consumption is different from what he tells American and other Western diplomats. See {620141} for another example.

Many critics of the King observed that Saudi Arabia is one of the most intolerant nations in the world where it is a crime for a woman to drive or to import a Christian or Jewish Bible. The country has produced a much higher percentage of fanatical terrorists than its population in the Arab World. Osama bin Laden grew up as a citizen of Saudi Arabia. Saudi money supports Wahabbi—one of the most intolerant wings of Islam—by which Saudi Arabian trained and funded clerics preach extremism and hatred the world over. For example, see {620142} for an example of Saudi Arabian intolerance preached at one of Islam’s most important mosques just weeks after the king is quoted talking about tolerance. It is not as if there is freedom of speech in Saudi Arabia and the king may not censor any intolerant speech. People are jailed and tortured for simply criticizing the government or royal family, executed for criticizing Islam.

There are many who observe that Saudi Arabia has the world’s most efficient oil deposits without which the nation would be poorer than most other Middle Eastern nations. With such huge oil revenues, there is no need of good governance.

The only reason this quotation became known is that in 2010, Wikileaks got hold of tens of thousands of secret U. S. State Department diplomatic cables and released it on the Internet. The major Muslim leaders of the Middle East, privately urged the United States to attack Iran to prevent them from developing a nuclear bomb. At the same time, they publicly expressed their love and respect for their fellow Muslims. In actuality the Persians are ethnically very different from the Arabs and have always seen Persia as the natural leader of the Middle East if not more of the world. The Persians have always looked down on the Arabs and the Arabs have resented it. Further, most Iranian Muslims are Shiites and most Arabs Sunni. Fundamentally, they each believe that the other is a true heretic to Islam.