Excerpts: Islamic extremism sex rooted. Chairs changed; situation
unchanged,20 January 2006

+++THE DAILY STAR (Lebanon) 19 Jan.'06"West underestimates sexual fear among
Islamists says Rushdie" by Agence France Presse

QUOTES FROM TEXT:
"Rusdie says the West has failed to grasp the extent to which Islamic
extremism was rooted in
men's fear of women's sexuality"

"When asked if (his) book drew a link between 'Islamic terror and damaged
male honor,' Rushdie
said he saw it as a crucial, and often overlooked, point,"

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TEXT:

BERLIN: British author Salman Rushdie said the West had failed to grasp the
extent to which Islamic extremism was rooted in men's fear of women's
sexuality, in an interview to be published Thursday.
Rushdie told German weekly magazine Stern that his latest novel, "Shalimar
the Clown," dealt with the deep anxiety felt among many Islamic men about
female sexual freedom and lost honor.
When asked if the book drew a link between "Islamic terror and damaged male
honor," Rushdie said he saw it as a crucial, and often overlooked, point.
"The Western-Christian world view deals with the issues of guilt and
salvation, a concept that is completely unimportant in the East because
there is no original sin and no savior," the author said, in comments
printed in German.
"Instead, great importance is given to 'honor.' I consider that to be
problematic. But of course it is underestimated how many Islamists
consciously or unconsciously attempt to restore lost honor."
When asked why he probed the issues in his new novel in the context of a
love triangle, he said: "It has a lot to do with sexual fear of women."
Rushdie, 58, said that much of the anger toward the West was provoked by
that split on sexual issues.
"(It is) because Western societies do not veil their women. Because they do
not defuse this potential danger," he said.
The Indian-born Rushdie, who lives in New York with his fourth wife Padma
Lakshmi, told Stern that he has lived without security protection for seven
or eight years.
"I go where I please," he said. "I went to India often in the last few
years, which I enjoyed."
Rushdie was forced into hiding after the late Iranian spiritual leader
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, or religious edict, in 1989,
calling for his execution because of alleged blasphemy and apostasy in his
novel "The Satanic Verses".
The author had a 2.8-million-dollar bounty placed on his head by an Iranian
foundation. - AFP

+++bitterlemons-international.org
Middle East Roundtable

Edition 2 Volume 4 - January 19, 2006
Saudi Arabia under Abdullah
. King Abdullah and the Royal Saudi Court - John R. Bradley *
HEADING:"Prince Turki's posting to Washington marked the opening shots of
the king's intensely private campaign to wrest control of the royal court."

QUOTES FROM TEXT:
"Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is adopting a far mor cautious approach to
reform than many had predicted ... before he ascended to the throne last
August."
"decree ... discourages subjects from kissing his hand when they petition
him over personal grievances"
"Shiites, women, Hijazis, southerners and northerners -- groups that have
historically felt marginalized and discriminated against -- have been
totally excluded. They have no reason, thus far, to believe anything King
Abdullah may do will change their lot,"
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FULL TEXT:
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is adopting a far more cautious approach to
reform than many had predicted would be the case before he ascended the
throne last August, following the long-anticipated death of his half-brother
King Fahd. It is not difficult to see why, given the short-term stability
afforded the regime by a buoyant economy and a highly reduced domestic
terror threat. There is simply little pressure on the king to introduce a
radical agenda.

For a start, the government is flush with oil money. And most
al-Qaeda-linked Saudi terror cells have been eradicated in a series of
clashes with the security forces. The chaos in Iraq, meanwhile, has
sidetracked those in Washington pushing for democratic change in the wider
Middle East. More good news: Following more than a decade of negotiations,
the green light has finally been given for Saudi accession to the World
Trade Organisation (WTO).

The royal decrees King Abdullah has issued so far help to consolidate his
image as a man of the people, but have achieved little else. The most widely
publicized is one that discourages subjects from kissing his hand when they
petition him over personal grievances. The problem, argue critics of the
regime, is precisely the arbitrary nature of royal rule that such
petitioning represents, in the absence of the institutions and mechanisms of
a civil society.

Behind the scenes, however, the king is quietly addressing a number of
complex domestic challenges. Perhaps the most difficult of them for him to
achieve, and for outside observers to document: asserting his personal
authority over the vast royal court.

A week before Abdullah became king, Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador to
Washington for 22 years, was replaced by Prince Turki al-Faisal. Prince
Turki is a brother of the foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal. And
Prince Saud is King Abdullah's closest ally.

Prince Turki's posting to Washington, then, marked the opening shots of the
king's intensely private campaign to wrest control of the royal court by
appointing his own people to important positions. Saudi observers have long
argued that there is a rift between the reform- minded king, who was a
half-brother of the late King Fahd, and more conservative full brothers of
the late king, such as Interior Minister Prince Naif and Defense Minister
Prince Sultan.

In a move that also suggests the king's desire to post allies to key
positions, in December he announced the appointment of his own half-
brother, Prince Miqrin, as head of the General Intelligence Department
(GID), the Saudi equivalent of the Central Intelligence Agency. He meanwhile
accepted the resignation of Prince Saud bin Fahd, a son of the late King
Fahd, as the deputy head of the GID. A week earlier, the Saudi National
Security Council (SNSC) had been established, with the former envoy to
Washington, Prince Bandar, named as its secretary-general.

The SNSC can declare war as well as investigate security agencies if they
are negligent or become involved in acts that threaten public security.
Although Prince Bandar is the son of Defense Minister Prince Sultan, the two
are not close; and he is said to have bad relations, too, with Interior
Minister Prince Naif. As head of the kingdom's security forces, Prince
Naif--a reactionary and the king's main rival-- could, therefore, view
Prince Bandar's appointment as head of the SNSC as a challenge to his own
authority.

Moreover, the conservative full brothers are close to the ultra-conservative
Wahhabi religious establishment, whose ranks are made up primarily of the
descendants of the 18th-century religious reformer Mohammed bin Abdul
Wahhab. They are known as the al-Asheikh family, and they have ruled in
effective partnership with the House of Saud since the founding of the
kingdom. Both the current justice minister, Abdullah al-Asheikh, and the
grand mufti, Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Asheikh are descendants of Abdul Wahhab.

Limiting the role and influence of the al-Asheikh family must be part and
parcel of moves to curb extremism and promote reforms. In that context, it
is perhaps significant that one of the king's first moves after ascending
the throne was to sack Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al -Alsheikh from his post
as Chief of Royal Protocol, replacing him with commoner Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman al-Tibaishi.

However, a dark blot on the otherwise intricate landscape of King Abdullah's
appointments is the fact that all of the about 50 of them hail from al-Najd,
the central region that is the historic power base of both the House of Saud
and the House of al-Asheikh. There has not been a single reported
appointment from outside the al-Najd region. Shiites, women, Hijazis,
southerners and northerners--groups that have historically felt marginalized
and discriminated against--have been totally excluded. They have no reason,
thus far, to believe anything King Abdullah may do will change their lot.-
Published 19/1/2006 © bitterlemons-international.org

* John R. Bradley is the author of "Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom
in Crisis" (2005).

Dr. Joseph Lerner, Co-Director IMRA