Saudi Arabia Quotes
As late as 2005 Saudi Arabia was officially listed by the State Department as trafficking in women for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude.
The “Caliphate” is the Islamic concept of a single leader of all Muslims in the world who has both Religious and Political power at the same time. After the death of the Prophet Mohammed, there were a succession of Caliphs and Baghdad was considered the seat of the Caliphate for much of that time. For fanatic Muslims who want to bring back the Caliphate, Baghdad has an importance that is almost on a par with Mecca and Jerusalem. The George W, Bush administration did not recognize the importance of Baghdad and Iraq to non-Iraqi Muslims and the importance of driving infidels (Christians) our of their “seat of government,” This was one of the motivations that brought so many “foreign fighters” into Iraq who would not stop at anything in order to get the infidels out.
While not in the Koran, this attributed statement is the basis for the ban on non-Muslims going on a Hajj and going to the most holy Muslim places—Mecca, Mina, Muzdalifa, and Arafat as well as the anti-religious hostility to all religions but Islam which is present in some Muslim countries.
However, he did run a police state with murder, torture and intimidation of political opponents.
While not all Islamic Religious legal authorities agree any more than Christian or Jewish religious experts do, this quotation is often used to illustrate that the militant Muslim fundamentalists would not only use a nuclear or other kind of weapon if they could get and deliver one, but that some actually think that would be a moral act. He gives no source for his 10 million estimate and most observers think the number wildly exaggerated, And most of the weapons in the world that end up killing people are small arms, made mostly by China, Russia and other nations providing more than the United States. But in politics, and especially in the middle East, perception is reality. See {585931}.
The Seals who conducted the raid captured all the computers and documents that there were in bin Laden’s compound.
Yazid ibn al-Walid ibn 'Abd al-Malik. This is an Islamic doctrine that operates to this day together with the stricture that a bad ruler must be endured and not revolted against UNLESS he does not follow his Islamic religious obligations. This is why many Islamic rulers curry favor with the clerics. As long as they do not claim he is violating the word of God, his rule is safe from revolution. However, if the clerics turn on him, he is in deep trouble. Thus Saudi Arabia endures a monarchy and the ruling family pays the Wahhabi enormous sums to avoid their religious condemnation.
He was commenting about Saudi Arabia, but oil wealth generally seems to harden nations to reform and change of all types.
This was a warning to Saudi Arabia that the United States might seize the oil fields. At the time we were not getting enough oil for domestic needs and the military in Europe and in Vietnam. The King arranged to secretly supply oil to the United States while maintaining to the other Arab countries that it was maintaining the boycott of the West.
