Muslim pilgrims wear masks at the Great Mosque in the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Photographer: Abdel Ghani Bashir / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Abdel Ghani Bashir / AFP / Getty Images
When Chinese diplomat Tan Banglin defended his country’s treatment of Muslims amid an international outcry, his comments were less remarkable than where he made them.
In a column last July for one of the most widely read newspapers in Saudi Arabia – the traditional protector of Muslims around the world – Tan he talked about how the Communist Party united with the people of Xinjiang province, leading to “big” changes. So were the nations, including the United States accusing China of putting Uighurs in detention camps.
The voice given to China‘S Consul General at Jeddah, less than 70 kilometers from the holiest city in Islam, Mecca, reflects the new thing political account under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as he gives priority to more secular national interests at a critical time for the kingdom. And it is one that can serve him well as the administration shifts to Washington, despite US opposition to Beijing’s actions in Xinjiang.
Portraits of Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman at a construction site in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh.
Photographer: Tasneem Alsultan / Bloomberg
The vision of the Saudi world is shaped more by difficult business calculations, changing geopolitical realities and the emergence of clean energy as a competitor to oil, while facing a challenge from Turkey to lead the Sunni Muslim sphere.
The kingdom has been less vocal about the Palestinian issue, which has been its famous cause for decades. Saudi support for the Muslim population has been visible in its absence in the disputed region of Kashmir, with the Pakistani government turning to Turkey, while Prince Mohammed is increasing trade with India.
“Saudi Arabia has suffered from transnational political Islamism, where some of its citizens were among the first to travel to help Muslim colleagues, but did not identify too much with their own national causes,” said Prince Abdullah bin Khaled, a Saudi academician. “It took a change of course and it was very welcome.”
US President Joe Biden has vowed to treat Saudi Arabia as a pariah after four years of comfortable relationships with his predecessor, Donald Trump. Talks on human rights issues, its devastating war on Yemen and rivalry with Iran are likely to be uncomfortable when they finally happen.
There could also be more tension for the 2018 killing critic and columnist Jamal Khashoggi of the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, after this week, Biden’s candidate for national intelligence director promised to release a report on who was responsible for the crime.
Read more: US release of Khashoggi report could embarrass Saudi prince
But giving up intervention abroad under the guise of supporting Muslim colleagues – as Turkey does – could register a few points with the Biden administration, according Emily Hawthorne, a Texas-based analyst at Stratfor, who advises clients on geopolitical risks.
“Saudis may see that becoming more of an economically modernized nation is more important than continuing to nurture leadership in the wider Muslim world,” he said. Hawthorne. “It is a game of chance, but it could be good for them in terms of gaining a certain influence in Saudi Arabia. ”
Mohammed bin Salman
Photographer: Alexander Zemlianichenko / AFP / Getty Images
Until a few years ago, it would have been rare to see warm praise for a communist party printed in Saudi Arabia, not to mention one of the representatives of a country that has been censored for allegedly persecuting Muslims. In the 1980s, the Saudis sent money, and later their sons, to Afghanistan to join the fight against the Soviet occupation of that country.
Saudi relations with China had strengthened beyond the oil supply. King Salman, who took the throne in 2015, and the Crown Prince paid separate visits to Beijing. On his 2019 trip, the prince appeared to defend China’s alleged repression of Muslims and signed an agreement to build a $ 10 billion refining and petrochemical complex.
This month, Huawei in China launched the largest pilot store outside China in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. Minister of Investment, Khalid AlFalih posted on Twitter the news, saying he was “delighted” by the announcement.
Mohammed bin Salman meets with Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2019.
Photographer: How Hwee Young / AFP / Getty Images
It was a journey that began slowly after September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by 19 pirates, including 15 Saudis, and accelerated under Prince Mohammed.
Under pressure from extremists, Saudi Arabia waged a successful campaign against the radicals in the 2000s. Significantly, the late King Abdullah made Saudi Arabia’s National Day on September 23 a holiday, angering radicals who believe Muslims they should not be divided by borders.
When he came to power four years ago, Prince Mohammed it restricted the influence of the strong religious institution, gave women more freedoms, and allowed concerts and cinemas. He also tightened control over how financial aid is distributed abroad, reaching largely governments and not directly Muslim groups. Alcohol, which the Qur’an forbids, remains forbidden.
The change was not an abandonment of Muslim issues, but rather “balancing support for them with the imperatives, sensibilities and priorities of the state, knowing that different contexts dictate different realities,” said Prince Abdullah, the academician.
Indeed, Saudi Arabia was the first country to be blamed for fueling Islamist terrorism. However, after a series of horrific jihadist attacks in France last year, French President Emmanuel Macron has been named Turkey instigator.
Prince Mohammed made it clear that the kingdom’s duty is to take care of the two holy mosques in Mecca and Madinah and make them accessible to Muslims around the world.
Source: AFP / Getty Images
Saudi Arabia will always have a physical claim to Islam. Prince Mohammed, through his actions and decisions, made it clear that the kingdom’s duty is to take care of the two holy mosques in Mecca and Madinah and to make them accessible to Muslims around the world. One of the objectives of its plan to restructure the economy is to expand the two sites and increase the number of pilgrims.
At the same time, the leadership has signaled that it is not the kingdom’s duty to solve the problems of Muslims around the world.
When India revoked almost seven decades of autonomy owned by the mostly Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan, which also supports the he hoped that Saudi Arabia would galvanize Muslims about the issue. The Kingdom, the largest source of remittances in Pakistan and among its largest creditors, not.
Instead, trade with India, which the kingdom considers an important economic power, has prospered since then, while Saudi Arabia is trying to deepen its position in that country. In the third quarter of 2020, India, along with Egypt, led to an increase in foreign investment in the kingdom, a key pillar of the Crown Prince’s economic diversification plan.
Meanwhile, Turkey has strengthened ties with Islamabad. Its foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, opened a new consulate in Pakistan this month, promised to send investors to explore opportunities and chaired the signing of agreements in the film industry.
Turkish-Pakistani relations are “unique and enviable,” Mujahid Anwar Khan, Pakistan’s chief of staff, told the state-run Andalusian state agency Andalou on Monday. He thanked the Turkish leadership for its “statements of support” over Kashmir.
The Saudis may lose the soft-power game to Turkey at this time, Hawthorne said. “But I probably value other games.” “Turkey has economic limits on how much it is willing to sacrifice its own economic interests in search of soft power. This is never a zero-sum game. ”