Although Saudi Arabia hosts Islam’s two holiest sites, in Mecca and Medina, the Al-Saud ruling family enjoys little religious legitimacy. While the Al-Sauds may claim to be custodians or protectors of the faith, they fail simple litmus tests for their claim. They freely take from the national treasury (something that belongs to the entire community), they live a life of shameful opulence while others live in poverty (where Islam preaches modest lifestyles), they are not answerable to the community (where Islam advocates rule by consensus), and they have robbed their people of their freedom (God’s greatest gift to humanity) to rule by oppression. They have bought religious support domestically and in many Muslim countries by financing mosques and madrassas to preach their extreme and hateful Wahhabi interpretations of Islam, which has spawned Al-Qaeda, its offshoots and a number of other terrorist organizations. And they have bought support and a measure of international respectability through lucrative personal contracts and vast purchases of arms from the U.S., the U.K. and France, and financial assistance to poor Muslim countries.
The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in the late 1920s in Egypt. It is a Sunni political organization that has also a social agenda—charity work, establishing healthcare facilities and teaching the illiterate. It has disavowed violence even after the many crackdowns it has faced in Egypt along with the imprisonment of its members. It supports Hamas (an entity that the U.S. classifies as terrorist to support Israeli claims). The Brotherhood’s principal message is that in Islam Muslims will find the solution to their problems. The party’s candidate, Mohammad Morsi, won the Egyptian presidency in 2012, but having no political and governance experience the Brotherhood failed miserably. In 2013, General Sisi took over through a bloody coup with harsh treatment of the Brotherhood’s membership.
The Al-Sauds have seen religious movements as a challenge to their rule and the Arab Spring and the movement toward representative governance as an existential threat. They believe that Saudi Arabia is simply theirs and they have the right to rule—absolutely with no meaningful participation from the community. They allow no real discussion and debate of what the Quran says, how the prophet Mohammad interpreted it and how these teachings might apply to life in the 21st century. They interpret Islam to support and suit their rule. Religious freedom, even freedom to discuss Islamic teachings, is seen as a threat. The Al-Sauds see the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni pan-Islamic movement, as a threat to their and other absolute Muslim rulers. Thus the Al-Sauds have done all they can to undermine the Brotherhood and the spread of their influence: they supported Mubarak to prevent a Brotherhood victory at the polls; they lobbied the five other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to oppose the Brotherhood; they cut off all aid to Egypt and encouraged the military to oppose the Brotherhood; when Sisi took over, they resumed and increased financial aid in support of the military dictatorship; and they have given out massive direct payments to Saudi citizens to maintain domestic support.
All along, Qatar has had a different view, a view that the Al-Sauds could not tolerate. The Al-Thanis of Qatar believe that the Middle East needs more political freedom and must change in a changing world. They founded Al-Jazeera as a broadcasting network that enjoys much more freedom to report and engage in political and religious topics that are prohibited in Saudi Arabia—reporting that has irritated the Al-Sauds to no end. For the Al-Thanis, the Brotherhood has offered a peaceful voice for change and does not have the overthrow of Persian Gulf monarchies/sheikdoms as their goal. In the same vein, the Al-Thanis have seen Hamas as a legitimate Palestinian political organization. Thus the Al-Thanis and the Al-Sauds have been at odds for some time.
Now that the Al-Sauds have been emboldened by President Trump’s visit and his embrace of their and Sisi’s rule and his inexplicable tirade against Iran, the Al-Sauds have gone on a warpath to reign in all GCC member countries. The Al-Sauds want the other members of the GCC to support them in their attack on the Brotherhood and all Muslim movements that challenge their Wahhabi views, and to confront Iran as the sponsor of terrorism and instability in the entire Middle East region. Qatar has been unwilling to forsake its support of the Brotherhood and to unnecessarily antagonize Iran, so Saudi Arabia broke diplomatic relations, endangering the survival of the GCC. As to be expected, tiny Bahrain, which is brutally oppressing its 65 percent Shia majority and relies on Saudi handouts, has followed the leader as have the United Arab Emirates and of course Sisi of Egypt who is happy to crack the whip against the Brotherhood and in return get more and more funding from the Al-Sauds for himself and for his oppressive rule. For now Kuwait and Oman have not severed diplomatic ties with Qatar but Kuwait may feel more and more pressure from the paranoid Al-Sauds who will remind Kuwait of Saudi Arabia’s support in Kuwait’s liberation from Saddam Hussein. The Al-Sauds have more or less accused Qatar of supporting Iran’s insurgent activities—a most damning accusation coming from the Al-Sauds.
This is yet another unfortunate fallout of Trump’s first international foray. The GCC has ruptured. Iran and the GCC have been put on a collision course. While conflicts have become more likely, Saudi Arabia must not be allowed to initiate a takeover of Qatar. The United States has its largest regional base in Qatar and it is more likely to become an unwilling participant in a regional conflict than before President Trump’s disruptive visit, which has given carte blanche and implicit military backing to oppressive rulers and has put Iran (Shia) and Saudi Arabia (Sunni) on a collision course.