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Saudi Arabia and Decision to Support the Mujahideen in Afghanistan
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a monarchy in which all management positions are held by members of the royal family. The royal family is responsible for most of the decisions that are made in the Kingdom (Riedel 45). This includes the work of all internal and external services of the state. Choices regarding whom the country would support amidst complex global politics heavily rely upon the royal family (Riedel 46). Before analyzing the political developments between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, it is essential first to understand the power system within the family. The power dynamics within the family experienced some changes during King Khalid’s ailment. The King had been suffering from a heart ailment for a long time. At the peak of his condition, the Crown Prince, Fahd, oversaw the country. On October 3, 1978, King Khalid underwent second heart surgery in Cleveland (The Editors). He also had a hip operation at Wellington Hospital in London in 1976. In February 1980, he had a minor heart attack (The Editors). Due to King Khalid’s ailment, crown prince Fahd made most of the political decisions, including the support of the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. King Fahd devised a plan whereby religious extremists were redirected to Afghanistan. The question is what role he played in the implementation of this strategy.
Alternate Decision of King Fahd
Saudi Arabia is now known as a developed and well-organized state. However, in 1979 it faced internal difficulties caused by extremists (Qurtuby & Aldamer, 2021). Because Islamic law was not applied in the country in the Kingdom of Al Saud, they wanted to take control of the administrative apparatus. Figure 1 shows that Saudi Arabia was divided into four regions at that time. Almost the entire central region was inhabited by religious extremists who adhered to the ideology of Wahhabism. They formed a Sunni Islamic revival and fundamentalist movement associated with the reformist doctrines of the eighteenth-century Arab Islamic scholar, theologian, preacher, and activist Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (Mellor & Rinnawi 23). He founded the Muwahhidun movement in the Nejd region of central Arabia. The movement gained momentum in 1975 and gradually continued to grow. After their arrival, a new lifestyle was adopted, including black covers and no television. Therefore, the people of Najd began to spread the ideology of Al daawat alnajdi (Wahhabism) to the rest of the country. The spread of extremist ideology was also facilitated by the fact that the then people were less educated, which made them more vulnerable to belief and acceptance of false ideologies. These actions led to a massive insurgency in 1979. King Fahd played a decisive role in resolving this conflict. He knew about the expansion of extremist groups, but did not know that they were calling for the overthrow of the House of Saud. Having missed this fact, the king greatly expanded the power of religious extremists.
As already indicated earlier, Prince Fahd was the main reason for eliminating the risks from religious extremists. Instead of using violence, he developed a policy that would make it easier to transport people from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan. This proves that he had a significant decision-making role in the further implementation of the plan. To support the Mujahideen, Prince Faisal bin Fahd increased the cost of tickets for all football matches by 1 Saudi riyal. Thanks to this strategy, he managed to convince the population of Saudi Arabia that he supported the Muslims in Afghanistan, which contradicted the words of the extremists. With the changes designed, many extremists went to jihad in Afghanistan because it was easier for them to travel to Afghanistan, and they also shifted their focus from overthrowing the government to fighting in Afghanistan.
Why Fahd is Responsible for the Project
It is essential to pay special attention to King Fahd since he adhered to all the major decisions and was responsible for developing an alternative plan to fight the extremists. The undeniable fact remains that, “King Fahd was the one who encouraged the most the Islamic imagery related to the Wahhabi Saudi salafist uniform” (Dazi-Héni. 2019, p. 4). However, King Fahd ended extremism in an alternative way, he researched the problem of extremism and then developed a strategy to send extremists to Afghanistan. It was the King who made all the crucial key decisions, which made him a key person in this operation. Leaders in most countries are taking strict measures to counter the threat of extremism, realizing the use of the police or even the military to deal with the threat. However, King Fahd did not use his power to forcibly eliminate the extremists. Instead, he analyzed what these people wanted and then developed strategies that would enable them to meet their demands. The consequence of this will be a de-escalation of the situation. Instead of using violence, it may be possible to give these people what they want, as long as it does not threaten the stability of society.
King Fahad was the head of Ministry of Interior from 1961 until 1975. Therefore, he was aware about all the activities of the extremist except the militarily group. New head of Ministry of Interior Nayef bin Abdulaziz was a new to the position with only 5 years of experience. King Khaled was suffering with heart ailment and focusing more on the issue foreign affairs Arab–Israeli conflict. The General Intelligence Directorate, Kamal Adham served as the president of Al Mukhabarat Al A’amal or the general intelligence directorate until 19 January 1979 which gave us an indicator he was not doing a good job in his position therefor, he replaced by Turki bin Faisal. Therefore, prince Fahad was the knowledgeable person on the group with more experience.
References
Dazi-Héni, F. (2019). How MBS is Rethinking Saudi Nationalism?” ISPI Commentary. Web.
Mellor, Noha, and Khalil Rinnawi. Political Islam and Global Media. Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2016.
Mikayilov, Jeyhun I., et al. “Regional heterogeneous drivers of electricity demand in Saudi Arabia: Modeling regional residential electricity demand.” Energy Policy 146 (2020): 111796.
Qurtuby, S. & Aldamer, S. (2021). Terrorism and Counterterrorism in Saudi Arabia. Contemporary Review of the Middle East, 8(1), 56-76. Web.
Riedel, Bruce. Kings and presidents: Saudi Arabia and the United States since FDR. Brookings Institution Press, 2019.
Shane, Scot. “Saudis and Extremism: ‘Both the Arsonists and the Firefighters’ (Published 2016).” The New York Times – Breaking News, US News, World News and Videos, Web.
The Editors.“Khalid of Saudi Arabia”. Encyclopædia. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
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