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Friday, September 28, 2012

[chottala.com] Saudi Arabia and Qatar: Dueling Monarchies Of The Middle East

Saudi Arabia and Qatar: Dueling Monarchies Of The Middle East

by GIORGIO CAFIERO

The demise of secular autocratic regimes in the Middle East and North
Africa has heralded a renaissance for Islamist parties in the region,
igniting a rivalry for the hearts and minds of the Sunni world between
the Gulf powers of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. These neighboring
petro-monarchies have sought to influence political transformations in
the Levant and North Africa on their own respective terms, both to
advance geopolitical interests and to ensure that their own
populations do not initiate popular uprisings.

Although neither country is a bastion of democracy at home, Qatar has
proven much more amenable than Saudi Arabia to bolstering democratic
Islamist movements abroad. The resulting Saudi-Qatari rivalry
undermines Saudi Arabia's historic role as the "self-proclaimed
bulwark of Islamic conservatism" in the Middle East and the powerhouse
of the Gulf Cooperation Council.

Historical Tensions

Historically, the Saudi-Qatari relationship has been defined by mutual
distrust, albeit tempered by a common interest in maintaining
stability in the Persian Gulf. Prior to Qatar's indepedence in 1971,
the Saudi royal family's connections with Qatari businessmen, members
of Qatar's ruling family, and Qatari Bedouin tribes facilitated strong
Saudi influence in the affairs of its tiny Gulf neighbor.

In 1992, two Qatari guards were killed in a clash along the
Saudi-Qatari border, precipitating a decade of poor relations. A few
years later, members of Qatar's government accused Riyadh of
attempting a counter-coup in 1996 after Emir Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa
Al Thani overthrew his father in a bloodless palace coup in 1995.
Relations worsened as each country's state-owned media portrayed the
other country negatively throughout the 1990s. In July 2006, Saudi
officials contacted the financial backers of the Dolphin undersea
natural gas project, a $3.5-billion pipeline linking Qatar to the
U.A.E., and reported that the pipeline would enter Saudi territorial
waters without Riyadh's consent. A proposed pipeline linking Qatar and
Kuwait created similar tensions.

Nonetheless, a rapprochement began during September 2007, when Qatar's
head of state paid a visit to the Saudi royal family in Riyadh,
followed by a visit of Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz to Doha in
December. Throughout 2008 and 2009, Saudi and Qatari officials
exchanged diplomatic visits and resolved many of the tensions from the
previous 15 years, although Qatar's cordial ties with Iran remained a
thorn in relations between Riyadh and Doha.

The Arab Awakening

Despite the warming of relations that began half a decade ago, the
Arab Awakening has reignited tensions. Saudi Arabia—frequently labeled
the "counter-revolutionary state" for its role in suppressing
democratic movements throughout the region—fears the wave of popular
uprisings that threatens its position as the anchor of a conservative
order that has defined the regional balance of power for generations.
By contrast, except in neighboring Bahrain, Qatar has sided with
revolutionary forces.

Opposing positions on the Muslim Brotherhood have become a source of
particular tension.

The Saudi royal family holds a dim view of the democratic victories of
the Muslim Brotherhood's various affiliates in the region, viewing the
Brotherhood's explicitly Islamist mode of democratic politics as a
threat to its own autocratic monarchial system. David Ottaway, a
senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center, explains: "In Saudi
Arabia, there are no political parties, no labor unions, and very
little civil society," he writes. "In Egypt, it's almost the exact
opposite. You have lots of political parties, labor unions, civil
society. The Muslim Brotherhood accepts the realities of Egypt –
realities that the Saudis reject for their own society." In return,
the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is stridently opposed to the Saudi
monarchy, which it views as a decadent and corrupt puppet of Western
powers.

By contrast, Qatar has fostered a congenial alliance with the Muslim
Brotherhood. Enthusiastic coverage of the Egyptian uprising by Al
Jazeera, Qatar's state-owned news network, unquestionably contributed
to the fall of dictator Hosni Mubarak."Once the protest momentum had
begun to build, communication and coordination became less essential.
Everyone could simply watch al-Jazeera to find out where and when
protests were happening," writes Marc Lynch, director of the Institute
for Middle East Studies at George Washington University. Al-Jazeera
"became the unquestioned home of the revolution on the airwaves,"
providing "a focal point for audiences everywhere to share in
revolutionary protest."

Indications of Qatar's influence continued to surface after the fall
of the regime. In March 2011, Khairat al-Shater—then the Muslim
Brotherhood's nominee for president—visited Qatar for several days to
discuss "coordination between the Brotherhood, the Freedom and Justice
Party, and Qatar in the upcoming period," according to the Egyptian
Independent, implying that Doha had vested interests in the outcome of
Egypt's democratic elections. Additionally, a popular Al Jazeera
television host—Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a Qatari national of Egyptian
origin—is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

But while Al Jazeera was championing the uprising in Tahrir Square,
Saudi King Abdullah was offering to bankroll Mubarak. The Saudi king
advised the Obama administration to remain loyal to the dictator to
the very end, even if Egyptian forces began killing unarmed
protestors. When President Obama refused to heed Riyadh's advice, the
Saudi regime bitterly accused Washington of discarding Mubarak "like a
used kleenex."

In Tunisia, too—the birthplace of the Arab Awakening—many have
attributed the Islamist Ennahda party's success to an infusion of
Qatari petro-dollars. The fact that Prime Minister Rashid
al-Ghannouchi's first post-election international visit was to
Qatar—and that his son-in-law, formerly a researcher for Al Jazeera in
Doha, became his Foreign Minister—has further stoked suspicions about
ties between the Gulf emirate and the Ennahda party.

The speculation has even led to protests in Tunisia against Qatari
interference in Tunisia's affairs. By contrast, Ghannouchi is not even
allowed in Saudi Arabia, where the deposed dictator Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali immediately recieved political aslyum after his regime
collapsed under the weight of popular protests.

The Muslim Brotherhood-Salafi Divide

To counter the rise of moderate Islamists affiliated with the Muslim
Brotherhood, Saudi Arabia has tended to support Salafis, rivals of the
Muslim Brotherhood typically considered more extreme in their
Islamism. "The Salafis view the Brotherhood as insufficiently Islamist
and too compromising," explains Khalil al-Anani, a scholar of Middle
East politics at Durhan University. "The Brothers, in turn, view
Salafi positions as naïve, overly rigid, insufficiently centrist, and
inappropriate in a modern Egyptian context. The Brothers have shown
during sporadic participation in past parliaments that their primary
focus is on politics and not on religious or cultural issues."

Following the 2011-2012 elections, a Muslim Brotherhood leader stated
that his party's priorities were "economic reform and reducing poverty
… not [fighting] bikinis and booze." The Salafis, by
contrast—according to Davidson professor Christopher Alexander—have
rallied around "a return to the veil in universities and public
offices," "gender segregation and public prayer on university
campuses," and "an elimination of political parties and elections as
infringements on God's sovereignty."

According to Mara Revkin, a scholar at the Rafik Hariri Center for the
Middle East, the Salafi Al Nour party—which came in second place
behind the Freedom and Justice Party with 24.3 percent of the vote in
Egypt—received a "steady stream of funding, much of it originating in
the Gulf States, [which] gave Salafi candidates a significant
financial edge over their rivals."

Revkin adds that Saudi support for Egyptian Salafis is "spiritual as
well as material." A Salafi cleric from Saudi Arabia, Adnan Alkhtiry,
visited Egypt shortly before the parliamentary elections and delivered
a sermon encouraging Egypt's conservative Muslims to take advantage of
"a great opportunity" to "establish an Islamic state" and not to
"emerge from the election empty-handed" or "leave it those who don't
live the religious life."

The View from Riyadh

The "Arab Awakening" is not the first Middle Eastern movement that has
unnerved the Saudi regime. The rise of Arab nationalism during the
1950s and 1960s and the Iranian revolution of 1979 both challenged
Riyadh's position as the anchor of a regional order.

Just as Saudi foreign policy proactively countered the rise of Nasser
by supporting his enemies in Yemen and struck against Khomeini's
revolutionary regime by financing Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq
war, Riyadh's support for Salafi factions in countries undergoing
political openings is the latest attempt to counter the rise of
regional movements that conflict with the kingdom's interests. Yet
with its own resource wealth and competing regional agenda, Qatar is
unusually well placed to rival Saudi largesse in the greater Middle
East.

By placing bets on different horses in Egypt and Tunisia, Saudi Arabia
and Qatar have become rivals in a transitioning Arab world. The rise
of a conservative yet democratic form of Islamism may be a wave that
Qatar can ride, to Saudi Arabia's dismay. However, Qatar's influence
could be crowded out by a rising Egypt or even Iraq in the future.
Furthermore, if the Arab Awakening spreads from Bahrain into other
Gulf emirates, Doha may need to reign in its international ambitions
and address its democratic deficit at home.

Indeed, when it comes to democracy in the Gulf, the two kingdoms are
rivals no more.

Giorgio Cafiero is a Research Assistant at Foreign Policy in Focus and
the Institute for Policy Studies.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/09/28/dueling-monarchies-of-the-middle-east/


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[chottala.com] বাংলাদেশী/বাঙালি খাবারের দোকান Sid’s Kitchen in Herndon, VA



Dear Community members,
আসুন আপনার প্রিয় খাবার খেতে Sid's Kitchen ', (703) 435-2465,
298 Sunset Park Dr. Herndon, VA 20170 (just off 286 (old 7100)).
আমরা অনেক ধরনের বাংলাদেশী/বাঙালি খাবার: ভাত, মাছ, মাংশ, বিরয়ানী, কাবাব, শুটকি, ভর্তা, এবং নানা ধরনের সবজি পরিবেশন করি (We serve Bangladeshi traditional healthy home style foods; Fish Plates, Shutki Plates, Biryani, Bhortas, Meat Rezala, muglai paratha, fuchka and many more…)
Our prices are affordable;
Please visit www.sidskitchen.com for details

· Bangladeshi/Bengali breakfast buffet for $4.99 (weekends only)
· Lunch buffet for $5.99 (everyday)
· Dinner buffet for $7.99 (everyday)
 
We do catering, please visit Catering Menu page at www.sidskitchen.com.
And please call/email us to place your order
Thank you,
Farid
Sid's Kitchen
298 Sunset Park Dr.
Herndon, VA 20170 (703) 435-2465


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[chottala.com] Article about Sheikh Hasina`s Birthday

Dear Sir/Madam,

My article published in today's(September 28,2012)Daily Janakantha. It is on the Sheikh Hasina's birthday. The link is given below. Feedbacks will be appreciated.

Please click to the bellow link to see the article.

http://www.dailyjanakantha.com/news_view.php?nc=16&dd=2012-09-28&ni=110661

Thanks and best regards.

--
M.Nazrul Islam

General Secretary
Euro-Bangladesh Democracy & Human Rights Watch

NC Member,
Ekattorer Ghatok Dalal Nirmul Committee, Bangladesh

President
International Forum for Secular Bangladesh, Austria Branch

Former Convener
Bangladesh Awami League, Austria

Former President
Austria-Bangladesh Press Club

Editor
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
a Commemorative Anthology(Volume 1,2,3)
and
Sangbad Album:Jailkanai Sheikh Hasina(Volume 1,2)

Author
Freedom and Bangabandhu's Bangladesh


Add.: Heustadelgasse 36/Top 1.01
1220 Vienna
Austria




Tel.: 0043-1-9746523
Cell.: 0043-660-8112435, 0043-676848863283
Fax.: 0043-1-9677832





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