Can Saudis use their clout constructively? By Saeed Minhas
Despite all their social and cultural ills and WikiLeaks mudslinging, the Saud family ruling the Saudi kingdom for the past 150 years, seems to have tried hardly anything to facilitate pilgrims, except blurring the boundaries between Mina, Mazdalfa and Arafat, or facilitating Jamarat (Satan) in a five-floor heavily-air conditioned building to multiply their economic fortunes and ideological frontiers. It has rather tried to keep things as close to originality as possible throughout the 20-kilometre radius of the Hajj area.
Technology is being used heavily for security and monitoring, but not to facilitate pilgrims or save hundreds from dying of suffocation and mismanagement every year. Why are no escalating belts installed for the Rumi the mandatory walk between Safa and Murwa mountains or throughout the Mina-Arafat area to facilitate the aged or why can transportation not be ensured for the people is incomprehensible, knowing that technological advancements can easily ensure all such things.
Especially when we know that the Saudis claim every year of conducting their entire Hajj operation or other religious gatherings on no-profit-no-loss basis, and are investing heavily on the expansion of both Holy Mosques, then why on earth they can they not utilise the latest scientific gadgets to help facilitate the pilgrims during these rituals?
If the muftis (religious scholars) can issue fatwas for 24-hour stoning of Satan, instead of only between Zuhr and Maghrib prayers, or can allow the extension of Minas boundaries all the way to the end of Mazdalfa, then why can they not allow gadgets when they can help save precious human lives or provide some kind of relief to them?
One can question the inequality, lack of facilities, absolute freedom to fleece pilgrims, but cant hold appreciation for the Saudis for making full use of the two Holy Mosques for not only providing maximum freedom of making fortunes to its populace, but also keeping their ideological (Wahabi) grip on the Muslim world. Even today, the famous sermon in the fields of Arafat doesnt give the Muslims, who flock to this place from across the width and breadth of the globe, any message other than what the king had to say about dont ask, just follow.
Please, dont take it as criticism, but while standing right in front of the Arafats Masjid Nimra, I could not hear a single sermon because for this great occasion, the Saudi administrators had failed to fix some problems with the audio system of the mosque and all we had to be contended with was the sermon on our hand-held FM radios. I was wondering what all those would have done to listen to this important sermon who were sitting in the large radius of around three to five kilometres around the Nimra Mosque. Listening to this sermon is considered mandatory by many schools of thought in Islam and if you fail, that means your Hajj is in doubt.
But anyway, thats just one of those things which the Saudis might have tried to keep simple and as original as possible because fixing the audio system for this grand occasion must have been left unattended just like they failed to create a single police force for the holy cities, which can be fluent in at least one other international language like English.
Logic given to me by one of the guards at the holy mosque was that since all Muslims can pray in Arabic, read the holy Quran in Arabic, then why cant they learn to speak Arabic? The logic was quite damning because my mind immediately flew to compare how many Lincoln Centres and British Councils both Americans and British have established throughout the world to promote their language and how much funding of our oil-rich Saudi kings has gone to establish any Arabic learning facilities where the educated lot could go and learn this language.
Secondly, English learning becomes useful for many because they find a huge spectrum of knowledge in almost every field translated in that language and how many books of knowledge, other than fatwas and the tainted history of various kings, stand translated in Arabic. It certainly is a point to ponder that how many centres of modern learning the Saudis have inspired or financed, and as a result, how many noble laureates, scientists, sociologists, physicians, and academicians have they given to the Muslims or the rest of the world. Yes, there are financed madrassas and schools that after serving the Americans during the holy war against the Soviets, stand in abject humiliation with the tags of extremists and even terrorists.
Without taking it personally, one can only hope that the Saudis start thinking on these lines, and instead of giving free Hajj facilities under some royal programmes to the rich and influential, or spending millions on some productive and non-productive madrassas, they should start thinking on these strategic lines which might keep them alive in the annals of history, otherwise they might be lost just an another dynasty amongst many others mentioned in the holy book and other worldly literature.
While wandering through various markets and restaurants, I was amazed that though the Saudis could not provide equality to pilgrims, they have given equal opportunity to all nations to send their edibles, clothing and whatever could be used during this religious extravaganza with an open heart.
Majority of the religious souvenirs were from China, clothing from India, while edibles, including vegetables, from North and south America.
There seems nothing wrong with that because the Saudis have only stopped non-Muslims from entering the two holy cities, with the exception of those who help them build palaces, highways and harems, but all they have forgotten is that catering to the needs of over 10 million pilgrims throughout the year could be a good source of help for the poor farmers of Muslim countries.
Nevertheless, being the ideological leader of the Muslim world with huge finances under their belt and huge influence in local politics of majority of the brethren countries, they remain the main arbitrators between the West and east, while Africans remain just a neglected backyard for them. WikiLeaks might have dented their ego, but with over 10 million people gathering every year on the holy land, they can certainly change their image from a disciple of the world powers to that of a real leader of Muslim voices. Not to wage any kind of jihad but to make an effort of educating the masses, especially their own Bedouins, inculcating harmony, co-existence and use their clout to end poverty, hunger and, ultimately, extremism by investing in people and not in various schools of thought.
All this effort was aimed at clearing the mist as well as misconceptions and not at creating doubts about anyone with the hope that it will all be taken in a constructive manner for improving Hajj arrangements and the Muslims worlds image.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
Despite all their social and cultural ills and WikiLeaks mudslinging, the Saud family ruling the Saudi kingdom for the past 150 years, seems to have tried hardly anything to facilitate pilgrims, except blurring the boundaries between Mina, Mazdalfa and Arafat, or facilitating Jamarat (Satan) in a five-floor heavily-air conditioned building to multiply their economic fortunes and ideological frontiers. It has rather tried to keep things as close to originality as possible throughout the 20-kilometre radius of the Hajj area.
Technology is being used heavily for security and monitoring, but not to facilitate pilgrims or save hundreds from dying of suffocation and mismanagement every year. Why are no escalating belts installed for the Rumi the mandatory walk between Safa and Murwa mountains or throughout the Mina-Arafat area to facilitate the aged or why can transportation not be ensured for the people is incomprehensible, knowing that technological advancements can easily ensure all such things.
Especially when we know that the Saudis claim every year of conducting their entire Hajj operation or other religious gatherings on no-profit-no-loss basis, and are investing heavily on the expansion of both Holy Mosques, then why on earth they can they not utilise the latest scientific gadgets to help facilitate the pilgrims during these rituals?
If the muftis (religious scholars) can issue fatwas for 24-hour stoning of Satan, instead of only between Zuhr and Maghrib prayers, or can allow the extension of Minas boundaries all the way to the end of Mazdalfa, then why can they not allow gadgets when they can help save precious human lives or provide some kind of relief to them?
One can question the inequality, lack of facilities, absolute freedom to fleece pilgrims, but cant hold appreciation for the Saudis for making full use of the two Holy Mosques for not only providing maximum freedom of making fortunes to its populace, but also keeping their ideological (Wahabi) grip on the Muslim world. Even today, the famous sermon in the fields of Arafat doesnt give the Muslims, who flock to this place from across the width and breadth of the globe, any message other than what the king had to say about dont ask, just follow.
Please, dont take it as criticism, but while standing right in front of the Arafats Masjid Nimra, I could not hear a single sermon because for this great occasion, the Saudi administrators had failed to fix some problems with the audio system of the mosque and all we had to be contended with was the sermon on our hand-held FM radios. I was wondering what all those would have done to listen to this important sermon who were sitting in the large radius of around three to five kilometres around the Nimra Mosque. Listening to this sermon is considered mandatory by many schools of thought in Islam and if you fail, that means your Hajj is in doubt.
But anyway, thats just one of those things which the Saudis might have tried to keep simple and as original as possible because fixing the audio system for this grand occasion must have been left unattended just like they failed to create a single police force for the holy cities, which can be fluent in at least one other international language like English.
Logic given to me by one of the guards at the holy mosque was that since all Muslims can pray in Arabic, read the holy Quran in Arabic, then why cant they learn to speak Arabic? The logic was quite damning because my mind immediately flew to compare how many Lincoln Centres and British Councils both Americans and British have established throughout the world to promote their language and how much funding of our oil-rich Saudi kings has gone to establish any Arabic learning facilities where the educated lot could go and learn this language.
Secondly, English learning becomes useful for many because they find a huge spectrum of knowledge in almost every field translated in that language and how many books of knowledge, other than fatwas and the tainted history of various kings, stand translated in Arabic. It certainly is a point to ponder that how many centres of modern learning the Saudis have inspired or financed, and as a result, how many noble laureates, scientists, sociologists, physicians, and academicians have they given to the Muslims or the rest of the world. Yes, there are financed madrassas and schools that after serving the Americans during the holy war against the Soviets, stand in abject humiliation with the tags of extremists and even terrorists.
Without taking it personally, one can only hope that the Saudis start thinking on these lines, and instead of giving free Hajj facilities under some royal programmes to the rich and influential, or spending millions on some productive and non-productive madrassas, they should start thinking on these strategic lines which might keep them alive in the annals of history, otherwise they might be lost just an another dynasty amongst many others mentioned in the holy book and other worldly literature.
While wandering through various markets and restaurants, I was amazed that though the Saudis could not provide equality to pilgrims, they have given equal opportunity to all nations to send their edibles, clothing and whatever could be used during this religious extravaganza with an open heart.
Majority of the religious souvenirs were from China, clothing from India, while edibles, including vegetables, from North and south America.
There seems nothing wrong with that because the Saudis have only stopped non-Muslims from entering the two holy cities, with the exception of those who help them build palaces, highways and harems, but all they have forgotten is that catering to the needs of over 10 million pilgrims throughout the year could be a good source of help for the poor farmers of Muslim countries.
Nevertheless, being the ideological leader of the Muslim world with huge finances under their belt and huge influence in local politics of majority of the brethren countries, they remain the main arbitrators between the West and east, while Africans remain just a neglected backyard for them. WikiLeaks might have dented their ego, but with over 10 million people gathering every year on the holy land, they can certainly change their image from a disciple of the world powers to that of a real leader of Muslim voices. Not to wage any kind of jihad but to make an effort of educating the masses, especially their own Bedouins, inculcating harmony, co-existence and use their clout to end poverty, hunger and, ultimately, extremism by investing in people and not in various schools of thought.
All this effort was aimed at clearing the mist as well as misconceptions and not at creating doubts about anyone with the hope that it will all be taken in a constructive manner for improving Hajj arrangements and the Muslims worlds image.
Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan
