Voices silenced: Saudi Arabian reform has gone awry,
A grave picture is emerging in Saudi Arabia. It is suffocating. It is scary. It is terrifying.
Yes, Prince Mohammad bin Salman (MBS) must be credited for opening up the Saudi society — somewhat; the clergy was reined in — to an extent; permission was “granted” to women to drive, stadium doors were opened to them, movies and cultural activities were finally allowed.
MBS was a ray of hope. But the situation has since darkened.
On Oct. 2, eminent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a fierce critic of MBS, living in self-exile in the U.S., disappeared after he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul for some personal paperwork. Many believe he needed to be silenced, and he was.
I knew Khashoggi, from his Arab News days. Having spent time in Afghanistan, at times in the company of Osama bin Laden, he was the Afghan specialist at the newspaper. Courtesy of his stay in Afghanistan, he was close to the Saudi intelligence apparatus and its then chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal.
Khashoggi’s disappearance is not an event in isolation. For more than a year now, ever since MBS emerged on the political horizon as the all-powerful, the Saudi regime seems bent upon silencing dissent — at any cost.
In the first wave, in September 2017, dozens of dissidents, writers and clerics were arrested, for “anti-state” activities. Reports say authorities were seeking the death penalty against several amongst them, including cleric Salman al-Awda, leader of Saudi Arabia’s Islamic awakening movement. The influential cleric, with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media, is reportedly facing 37 charges, including ties to the Qatari government and the Muslim Brotherhood.
After the arrests, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir was quoted as saying that the roundup had targeted people who were “pushing an extremist agenda” with the help of foreign funding. Then, on Nov. 4, Saudi authorities initiated an unprecedented mass arrest of senior and influential princes, current and former government officials and prominent businessmen over corruption allegations. Yet, most arrested were the ones who could have politically challenged MBS — at some point.
Earlier this year, Riyadh began a sweeping crackdown on women’s rights activists, arresting at least 13 women under the pretext of maintaining national security. Nine of them remain in detention.
Reuters reported that in the terrorism court, Saudi Arabia’s public prosecutor was seeking the death penalty against five human rights activists from the kingdom’s eastern province.
In August, Saudi Arabia announced freezing all relations with Canada after foreign minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted about the detention of two activists, Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sadah. Badawi, a lawyer by training, is the sister of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison in 2012 for criticizing clerics. His wife and children now live in Quebec.
The case of Essam al-Zamel is also making headlines. As per the British newspaper Independent, Zamel appeared to have run afoul of Saudi authorities after publicly criticizing the Saudi Crown Prince’s ambitious “Vision 2030.”
He was also critical of the price tag of $2 trillion (U.S.) on the Saudi national oil company Aramco, underlining that in order to reach the valuation target, the firm would have to sell off oil reserves, and that oil does not belong to the government but to the Saudi people. Al-Zamil has now been charged with draconian terrorism and treason charges and possibly faces the death penalty or years in prison.
In the meantime, the Specialized Criminal Court in Riyadh has recently held trial sessions for 15 anti-regime activists on similar charges. Saudi authorities have also detained writer Sultan al-Jumairi.
On June 1, Marwan al-Mureisi, a regular contributor to the privately owned online portal Al-Sabq, was arrested from a hospital in Riyadh, while he was at the bedside of his 5-year-old son. In February, Al-Watan columnist Saleh al-Shehi was sentenced to five years in prison for “insulting the royal court.”
Sheikh Khalid bin Ali al-Ghamadi, an imam at the Grand Mosque of Makkah, has also been restrained from delivering sermons and leading prayers. The Saudi state apparatus seems intent on silencing all dissenting voices, while the “reform agenda” of MBS has gone awry. What a climb down.