Posted on 01/23/2015 5:08:05 AM PST by SJackson
The King Is Dead, Long Live the King
Posted By Robert Spencer On January 23, 2015 @ 12:58 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 3 Comments
Abdullah was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Old Abdullah was as dead as a door-nail.
So what now?
The crown prince, Abdullah’s half-brother, Prince Salman, has taken over, but it might not be that easy. After all, it wasn’t too many years ago that people were speculating about what Egypt would be like under the rule of Hosni Mubarak’s son Gamal. And the accession of a 79-year-old to the throne does not give the impression that the House of Saud is vigorous and ready to take on the numerous challenges it faces.
And it faces many. This is not an optimum time for a transition. The House of Saud has headed up an obnoxious regime that has spent billions to prepare the ground for the jihad that is now aflame all over the world, by propagating its virulent view of jihad everywhere. Now the Saudis’ massive expenditures to export the jihad doctrine have come back to bite them in the form of the Islamic State, a self-proclaimed caliphate that denies the legitimacy of the House of Saud (and every other government other than its own) and has vowed to conquer it (and every other country, but it is right on the Saudis’ doorstep).
The Saudis want the U.S. to take care of their Islamic State problem for them. They can’t easily do it themselves, because they have taught their own people the idea that the umma, the worldwide Muslim community, should ideally be ruled by a caliph, the successor of Muhammad as the political, military, and religious leader of the Muslims, and so if they move too decisively against the Islamic State, they might be facing an uprising from within. Several weeks ago, a Muslim cleric from Saudi Arabia was killed while fighting for the Islamic State. And Sheikh ‘Aadel Al-Kalbani, former imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, has declared: “ISIS is a true product of Salafism and we must deal with it with full transparency.”
Salafism is what the Saudis have used their oil billions to spread throughout the world. And given the fact that Saudi Arabia’s plush rehab facility for jihadists has proven to be a spectacular failure, King Salman may be spending a considerable part of his declining years battling the jihadis to whom his predecessors gave their guiding ideology.
If, on the other hand, the Saudis don’t move decisively against the Islamic State, and Obama continues his cosmetic, face-saving airstrikes and continues to reject strong action of his own, Saudi Arabia may before too long be facing an invasion from without. Maybe not a full-scale invasion, but certainly an escalation of individual acts of jihad terror. In fact, Islamic State jihadis killed three Saudi guards at the Iraq border just a few weeks ago.
The Iranians, meanwhile, are always jockeying to become the leader of the Islamic world, and in that Saudi Arabia is one of their chief rivals. But Iranian-backed Shi’ite Houthi rebels have just won a major victory in Yemen, and Iran has just concluded a military pact with Russia. This could be the Shi’ites’ moment, in a way that could bode quite ill for the House of Saud. Vladimir Putin is clearly trying to reestablish Russia as a world power, and he may think that the death of Abdullah provides him with a grand opportunity to weaken a U.S. ally (however unreliable the Saudis have actually been as an ally). Perhaps now would be just the time for an uprising of the Saudis’ considerable and harshly oppressed Shi’ite minority, emboldened by the Houthi example and backed by Iran.
Could the death of Abdullah be the Iranians’ moment? Or the Islamic State’s? Time will tell – but one thing it is almost certain not to usher in is a time of peace and stability.
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“The King Is Dead, Long Live the King”
Why do people say that?
:: The crown prince, Abdullah’s half-brother, Prince Salman ::
Quick note to Prince Salman, start calling yourself “caliph” Salman and the rest of the 7th-century-superstitious lemmings will fall in line.
:: Why do people say that? ::
Mel Brooks?
[and 85-90% of the world's Muslims are Sunni, IOW, Shiites kill twice as many per capita]
The continued strength of the religious right can be seen in the recent flogging of a blogger and the public beheading of a woman for murder. This is not the Saudi Arabia that coalition partners wish to support in the fight against the so-called Islamic State; and it draws attention to the fact that the beliefs and practices of the Islamic State arise from a very similar educational and cultural background to those of Saudi Arabia. It may worry the new King that many Saudis oppose the Islamic State merely because they are told to do so, while wondering why it is cast as being so bad. It is no coincidence that there are reported to be about 3,000 Saudis fighting with the Islamic State, and if the group makes a push towards the two holy cities of Mecca and Medina, as any self-respecting Caliph might do, it may find a good number of sympathizers ready to offer at least tacit support. It is not a good time therefore for Salman to continue the gentle reforms pursued by his predecessor. He may even roll back some changes in order to ensure he has as much credibility with the religious right as he can muster.
Furthermore, Saudi Arabia, a country of less than 30 million people, with close to 50% of its population under 25, is now the lead Arab nation.
When it comes to beheadings, ISIS has nothing over Saudi Arabia
(Warning for the pictures)
At the instant of the old king's death, the crown prince becomes king. So it's really "The Old King is dead, long live the New King".
1) UK-American occupation government
2) Persians
3) Secular Arabs
4) Al Qaeda
5) ISIS
The possible governments of the Punjab, Sindh, Kashmir, East Baluchistan, and Southeast Afghanistan are what they always have been:
1) Joint US-Indian occupation government
2) Persians
3) Chinese
4) Al Qaeda
5)ISIS
The impression I’ve gotten is that the Saudi king is really just “chairman of the board” of the family enterprise which is the House of Saud. So the new king being senile may not be as big an issue as one might assume.
bump
Yahoo News: What does Abdullah ibn Abdulaziz’s death mean for Saudi Arabia?
Ali Soufan: This could not have happened at a worse time. The Saudis have to put in a succession plan to transfer power from the second to the third generation, and you don’t have a unified family. And there is going to be a lot of palace intrigue going on. At the same time, you have a crisis in the region: a crisis in Yemen, a war in Syria and Iraq. A threat of terrorism — remember, a big percentage of the suicide bombers used by ISIS are Saudis. The House of Saud has showed a lot of resilience over the years. But this is a crossroads for them. We’re in uncharted waters.
Gas in my area only jumped up 25¢
SPA said Salman “issued a royal order today, relieving Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, Chief of General Intelligence, of his post.”
…
General Khalid bin Ali bin Abdullah al-Humaidan became the new intelligence chief, holding cabinet rank
http://news.yahoo.com/saudi-king-announces-major-government-shake-royal-decrees-220346263.html
Salmans connection to AQ etc http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/01/27/king-salmans-shady-history-saudi-arabia-jihadi-ties/
Gosh, that could mean an expansion of the muzzie civil war, heavens to betsy.
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