Masks of piety don’t hide atrocity, injustice

THE House of Saud will no doubt be quite pleased that this year’s hajj concluded without any notable setbacks.

It will cynically pat itself on the back that in addition to a smooth, incident-free event, its enormous team of bureaucrats, which included intelligence and security forces, ensured that the compartmentalisation of the hajj as a spiritual ritual did not stray to “other” areas.

The “other” being politics. The Saudi kingdom has for four decades, especially after Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution toppled the Shah from power, clamped down on anyone deviating from its interpretation and practice of the hajj.

Emptying the rituals of socio-political significance, underwritten by state-sponsored court ulema (scholars), has characterised the nervousness of the ruling family.

Ever vigilant to prevent any threat to their reign, the regime has not only barred millions of pilgrims from discussing or planning campaigns intended to seek and secure justice for oppressed people; it has adopted a tougher stance against its own population.

To question the House of Saud’s peculiar view of Islam is to court arrest, detention and death. Hundreds, if not thousands, of dissidents languish in Saudi dungeons for having displayed courageous opposition. The bulk of the dissidents’ disquiet centres on the abuse of power by the unelected “royalty”. It has to do with the “crime” of demanding accountability, human rights, freedom and justice.

But oblivious to the legitimate concerns of the population, the Saudi monarchy continues behaving as all rogue regimes do. It’s a luxury they can afford, knowing that big brother America has their back. And the same can be said of Israel’s secret security arrangements which allow the royal family to conduct questionable policies.

Since social media has been abuzz with pictures and selfies by pilgrims, one wonders whether the irony of stoning devils at the culmination of the Hajj dawned on the millions while the self-proclaimed “custodians” have been “stoning” Yemen with bombs and missiles?

Demands

The same can be said of Israel’s continued occupation of Palestine, given that the monarchy’s ridiculous demands on Qatar in respect of support and aid for the resistance have been shocking.

Similarly, the merciless oppression of Muslim Rohingya by Myanmar, which has been going on since the 1980s but is now reaching genocidal levels, apparently has been swept under the carpet.

The Gulf Co-operation Council, a conglomeration of oligarchs, set up as a security institution ostensibly to counter Iran’s footprint in the region, has acquired a hallowed status, outstripping the sanctity of the noble sanctuaries in Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

The kingpins of the council are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait, all led by unelected despots who regard Israel as a guarantor of their freedom to suppress human rights and are thus unable to utter the slightest squeak in defence of Palestine.

If they do respond, it is no more than a knee-jerk, knowing that Israel allows them the space to bluff themselves and their faithful sycophants around the world.

Spending billions of dollars on sophisticated military hardware but remaining unmoved in the face of the catastrophic ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya is simply shocking.

Yet these weapons of mass destruction have been and are being deployed to lay waste to Yemen.

If the Hajj remains an empty ritual, as designed and forcefully imposed by the Saudi regime, neither the Yemeni nor the Rohingya have any hope that if their suffering persists, the multitude of pilgrims from every nook and cranny of the world will be able to mobilise in defence of their rights.

That also applies to all

Jassat is an executive member of the Media Review Network, an advocacy group based in Johannesburg

oppressed.