A Brief History of Middle Eastern Oil

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Andrew Schill

By Andrew Schill

It is impossible to imagine or appreciate the history of the twentieth century without understanding how oil has made possible the modern world – the age of the hydrocarbon man. First there was coal, the vital ingredient necessary to begin the industrial age. Coal extraction was so labor intensive that it quickly promoted large populations in relatively few urban areas. Then came oil with its transportability and enormous energy output, allowing a great expansion in the number of urban areas with substantial concentrations of people and diversified economies, thus arose more leisure time, technological advancements, and some would argue, a higher quality of life. Today, almost sixty percent of the world’s energy is provided by oil and natural gas, with coal still accounting for nearly thirty percent.

As profound as oil’s impact has been on human history, its impact on the Modern Middle East has arguably been even greater. The political borders of today’s Middle East were shaped by the demands for secure oil supplies by colonial powers after the end of World War I, which had the effect of separating homogenous cultural groups and joining fractious religious groups into single states, thus contributing greatly to the unending turmoil in the region and the instability of world energy markets. The nature of the world oil market is an ongoing story of instability, over-production and wasted reserves, which have resulted in the dramatic price swings and attendant economic downturns of the past 150 years. The lessons of the first oil boom would be repeated in each new cycle when scarcity of supply, high prices and resulting wave of exploration would eventually create a sea of oil in which markets would soon be drowning.

By the time of the first of oil boom in the United States, the Ottoman Empire was well into its sixth century of rule over large swaths of the Mediterranean basin, the Balkans and most of what we know as the modern Arab Middle East. Europe was then dominated by not only the Turks in Istanbul, but by the imperial presence of the British, French and Russians. Into this fiery mix was added a rising German nation with imperial aspirations of its own and an ever-diminishing Sultanate in Istanbul being replaced by dictatorial power in the hands of the Young Turk Revolutionaries.

The beginning of the age of oil in the Middle East would officially begin in 1901, when a British businessman, William Knox D’Arcy, obtained a massive oil concession from the Shah of Persia, which covered much of modern day Iran. Nearly bankrupt and on the eve of having operations terminated, D’Arcy finally discovered oil in 1908, a new resource that would eventually be managed by the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, the predecessor to today’s BP.

1911 would prove to be a significant milestone in the ascendancy of Middle Eastern oil. Winston Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty, made the momentous decision to begin converting the British Navy from coal to oil. This conversion required securing vast sources of oil to maintain the British Empire and, most immediately, to prepare for the impending war with Germany and the new age of mechanized transportation and warfare.

The Middle East would become entangled in World War I when the Ottomans entered the war at the behest of a headstrong Enver Pasha. In response, the British forged an alliance with Sharif Hussein of Mecca and attempted to stoke the passions of Arab Nationalism against the Turks. Britain’s ultimate success was popularized in the movie Lawrence of Arabia, about British Captain T.E. Lawrence, whose friendship with Sharif Hussein’s son Faisal would ultimately help defeat the Ottomans. In the end, however, the British would fail to support Arab independence as previously promised; and, the former Ottoman lands in the Middle East would be divided into French and British protectorates with political boundaries that gave little regard to the division of people and groups, but whose boundaries are largely still with us to this day. Transjordan, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Palestine were given to the British, while Syria and Lebanon would be governed by the French.

Notwithstanding the early discovery of oil in Persia, the age of oil in the Middle East would not begin in earnest until well after the end of World War I. Coal would continue to be the most important fuel for the global economy during the interwar war period, but would give way to oil beginning with a wave of discoveries of major reserves across the Middle East before and after World War II. Some of the most significant discoveries were Iraq (1927), Bahrain (1932), Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (1938) and Libya (1959).

The influx of oil revenues would also closely coincide with the creation and independence of many of the new Middle East States. Iraq and Saudi Arabia would gain their independence in 1932, while Kuwait would not gain its independence until 1961. Petrodollars would prove to be critically important to the new ruling monarchs and autocrats. Oil revenues provided a means for pacifying religiously diverse populations with public works and social programs aimed at unifying a people that otherwise would have little reason to unify as a nation.

During World War II, access to oil would be not only the deciding factor in numerous battles, but central to strategic decision-making of both the Axis and Allied powers. From Erwin Rommel in North Africa, to Patton’s Third Army running out of gas in pursuit of the Germans – lack of fuel would often prove to be decisive. Following World War II, oil would begin its dramatic rise as the fuel for a newly mobile world. And although the largest concentration of oil reserves are located in the Arab Gulf region, oil consumption has until recently been located primarily in Europe, North America and East Asia. Western attempts to colonize or control the oil producing countries of the Middle East not only bred suspicion, but also led to numerous foreign policy debacles that resulted in repeated world oil crises.

The first crisis began in 1951 when Mohammed Mossadegh, or “Old Mossy” as he was affectionately referred to, nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in Iran. In 1953, the United States and Great Britain responded to this first nationalization by initiating a coup which would result in the fall of Mossadegh and the return of the Shah. The now infamous Operation Ajax was run by the CIA’s man on the ground, Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of Teddy Roosevelt, whose story had all the intrigue and suspense one would expect from an episode of Mission Impossible. There was also a growing sentiment in the Middle East that the Western oil companies were taking too large a share of the revenues, while the oil exporting countries were keeping only a small fraction of the royalty to which they felt entitled. This imbalance would make a massive shift in favor of the oil exporting countries when Saudi Arabia and Aramco agreed to a 50/50 royalty split, followed in 1960 by the creation of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC as it is commonly known, by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Venezuela.

The next oil crisis would begin when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal, which was quickly followed by an attack from Israel, France and Great Britain. The third post war oil crisis began in 1967 when Egypt, Jordan and Syria attacked Israel but were quickly defeated in what would come to be known as the Six-Day War. At the end of the conflict, Israel controlled the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. Tensions in the Middle East remained high when in 1973, Egypt and Syria launched an attack on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, in an attempt to regain the territories lost in the Six-Day War. Although Israel would prevail with support from the United States, the resulting Arab Oil embargo temporarily crippled the American economy, initiating an energy crisis which encouraged significant energy and monetary policy changes in the West – most significantly a renewed search for other sources of supply and a move to alternative sources of energy. The drive in worldwide oil exploration and advances in alternative sources of energy continued through to the 1979 Iranian Revolution which resulted in the overthrow of the unpopular Shah by the dissident Ayatollah Khomeini and the establishment of his vision for a Shia Islamic Republic.

By 1980, it may have seemed as if OPEC’s control and influence over the global oil market would continue unabated, but the high oil prices of the 1970’s resulted in major new oil discovers in Alaska’s North Shore, the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea and the North Sea, which began to undermine OPEC’s dominance. By 1986 a massive collapse in oil prices was underway which would force OPEC to undertake a shift from deliberate price controls to an indirect influence on prices based solely on member production quotas, which exists to this day.

The final crisis of the Twentieth Century sprung from the first Gulf War and Iraq’s attempted annexation of Kuwait. This was a dangerous moment – the combined reserves of Iraq and Kuwait amounted to almost 70 percent of the world’s known oil reserves, which in Saddam Hussein’s hands would rewrite the balance of power not just in the Middle East but in the world. However, the former oil man from Zapata Off-Shore, George H. Bush, would rush to Kuwait’s rescue and be welcomed into Saudi Arabia by a smiling but worried King Fahd. The presence of foreign troops on Saudi soil was certainly unwelcomed by Muslims across the Middle East, but it was also clear that the ruling family needed the support of Western forces. Furthermore, the religious Wahhabi sheikhs depended on the generosity of rich Saudi families for support and grudgingly supported the presences of the foreign collation forces.

The success of the United States led coalition in the Gulf was followed by a decade of relative stability in Middle Eastern oil states until the events of September 11, 2001, which would upset this balance in a dramatic way. It would come as a great shock that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals, but this was in many ways the result of a deliberate Saudi policy to encourage Islamic fundamentalism as a way to pacify its restless and unpredictable citizenry.

The average price of a barrel of oil in 1999 was around $17.00. By 2002 world oil demand had risen by over 1.4 million barrels of oil per day. Between 2002 and 2006, the demand for oil would rise by 4.9 million barrels of oil per day – the result would be the twenty-first century’s first supply shock. By 2011 the average price of a barrel of oil would be at $87.00
In the midst of the oil driven matrix of today’s global economy, if one adds the extra layer of concern for securing oil resources in an increasingly unstable world, one can easily see how Iran’s threat to close the Straits of Hormuz would send oil prices higher. Given that most of the Middle East’s oil reserves are found in the Gulf Rim, which is currently controlled by Sunni dominated states almost entirely populated by Shia Muslims, it is little surprise that the United States Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain. One of the results of the Second Gulf War was that the United States succeeded in destroying the Iraqi Army, which despite their best efforts, Iran was never able to accomplish on its own. This has lead to an increased fear that Iran will succeed in gaining de facto control of Iraq by proxy through the majority Shia population, much the same as it has acquired substantive control of Lebanon through the political and military arm of Hezbollah, and thereby gaining effective control of one-half of the worlds proven oil reserves. Through Western eyes, modern day Iran is often seen primarily as an irrational actor being driven by radical Shia clerics, but this country has gained substantial political influence in the Middle East by way of calculating support of Hezbollah, Hamas, the currently embattled regime in Syria, and other Shia groups in Sunni dominated states. It is also possible that the Middle East is seeing a rise in Sunni dominance and influence by way of the recent Arab Spring in Egypt, Libya and Syria, which will further solidify the alliance between the United States and the oil rich states of the Gulf region.

Today, the Middle East still accounts for 54 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves. And despite significant worldwide shifts and technological advancements in oil production and exploration, emerging alternative energy sources and the unpredictable nature of the oil market, it will likely be many decades before the world economy stops relying on Middle Eastern oil to fuel the demands of a growing world.

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Brothers, Cousins & Strangers – the Power of Tribe

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Andrew Schill

By Dan Green – Director of Bridges for Communities

The other day an incident occurred at Mutah University in Jordan which highlighted something in Arab society that we from the West often find difficult to grasp – the power of tribe. The Jordan Times reported that more than 50 students were involved in a large-scale brawl, throwing rocks, hitting each other with sticks and destroying university property, which resulted in the evacuation of the university and the suspension of classes. The fight occurred after a small provocation between students of two particular tribes – I don’t know yet exactly what happened, but the interesting thing to me is that those involved then contacted their relatives, who came back the next day and took the violence to a new level.

This isn’t the first incident of its kind while I’ve lived in Jordan. I witnessed several smaller fights between tribes while I was teaching at the University of Jordan, and about a year ago there was violence in the city of Salt after a student was killed there. The original incidents that sparked these conflicts were allegedly small – a dispute over a chair, an inappropriate conversation with a girl etc. But I also had my first taste of tear gas when members of a tribe attacked police after one of their family had been killed during a raid on his house (see photo to the left from a local paper). So how, and why, do these seemingly small or individual incidents result in major violence between large groups of people? And do we in the West have anything similair to compare it with?

There is an Arabic proverb which says انا على أخوي وأنا وأخوي على ابن عمي وأنا وابن عمي على الغريب  which means “Me against my brother. Me and my brother against my cousin. Me and my cousin against a stranger”. In other words, when things get rough I will lay aside differences with those closest to me and stand with them against an external threat. When push comes to shove, its ‘us’, against ‘them’.

Here in Jordan tribes play a major role in society. These tribes, groups of related families who claim descent from a founding ancestor, go a long way back in nomadic Bedouin life and are each associated with certain geographical regions they used to live in. The map below is from 1900 – as well as the names of cities and areas, it shows the names of the tribes and where they each lived at that time. Tribes such as Bani Hassan, Bani Sakhr, and Howeitat today contain several hundred thousand members each, and so carry a lot of power. When a member of one of these tribes is offended or injured, it is the duty of his or her tribe to come to their defence as described by the proverb above. The strong sense of family honour is what gives this mix the potential for incidents like that at the university this week.

Given that I only have 7 cousins (a pathetically low number compared to many of my students who come from large families and may have over 50!), it’s fair to say that I wouldn’t stand much chance in a Jordanian tribal conflict! That’s one very good reason to try and stay out of trouble here, and the truth is that this tribal family nature is a dynamic that we in the West can find hard to relate to.

‘Tribalism’ is not completely absent from our own society though. I’d suggest that all of us have a desire to ‘belong’, to be part of a group that is bigger than ourselves, and since our wider families don’t really offer us this in the West we may look for it in other places. Perhaps part of the appeal of football in Britain is that it gives us the sense of ‘us’ against ‘them, the feeling of being joined with thousands of others by a common passion – and at times a common grievance when things don’t go our way.  Weren’t the riots across the country last year also a kind of tribal angst, carrying along many people who had no history of vandalism or crime? Isn’t there something tribal about concerts, in that powerful sense of togetherness that comes from singing with people (even those we don’t know)?

There have been times when I have even thought I felt something tribal at church gatherings. Could the power of ‘us’ gathering together, with common beliefs and views, actually lead us into dangerous territory where we begin to inadvertently ‘other’ those on the outside? And yet our faith teaches us to ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. In other words, we seek to treat the stranger, my cousin, my brother all exactly the same way – ‘doing unto others as you would have them do unto you’.

Now if we could all start trying to do that, whether we live in the East or the West, perhaps there’d be less ‘us’ and ‘them’ in the world, and Mutah University could resume its classes without the fear of rocks coming through the window!

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Update: Since this blog was posted there has been a new article in the Jordan Times about the escalation of violence at the university: see http://jordantimes.com/mutah-university-brawl-gets-ugly-guns-and-knives-used

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This is Islam by Dr. Abdel Azim Elsiddig

Posted on June 8, 2012 by Andrew Schill

The Arabic word “Islam” literally means submission without question, suspicion or doubt (2:04), or finding peace of mind and joy through knowing, understanding and serving the only one God, Allah. Followers of Islam are called Muslims which simply refers to anyone who chooses to freely and unconditionally accept and follow Islam as revealed in the Quran and practiced by the Prophet Muhammad and his companions. Muslims believe that Prophet Muhammad was the last messenger of God and the Quran refers to him as the “Seal of the Prophets” (33:40).  Muslims pray five times every day in addition to other voluntary prayer services they do on their own in their attempts to follow the sunnah or practice of their Prophet Muhammad.

On Fridays, Muslims gather in mosques for communal prayers led by their imams or religious leaders. Every adult Muslim of sound mind is required to strictly adhere to the arkan or the Five Pillars of Islam: shahadah, or creed which is basically a firm belief and declaration that there is no deity worthy of worship or service except Allah (Arabic for God), and that Muhammad is his messenger); salat, or prayer (five times a day, at prescribed times); zakat, or charity which is the giving away of a certain percentage of one’s wealth to eight categories of people as prescribed in the Quran(9:60); sawm, or fasting (during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims refrain from food, drink and sexual relations during the day); and hajj, or pilgrimage (all Muslims who are able are required to travel to Makkah once in their lifetime).

Islam acknowledges that several prophets preceded Muhammad. Only God knows the exact number of the prophets and messengers who brought the same message of Oneness and Peace to humanity through history (14:9). The most notable ones besides Muhammad are Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus who earned the Quranic title “steadfast” (46:35). Each of those four great prophets in addition to another great one, David, received revelation from God through scriptures as mentioned and contained in part into the Old and New Testaments. These predecessors to Muhammad are considered great prophets who spoke the word of God to certain people at a very specific time. Jesus, for example, was sent only to the Children of Israel at his time (61:06). See also Matthew 15: 24 where Jesus was reported to have said: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” This specificity applies also to Moses (61:05) and to every other prophet save Muhammad who was sent as mercy to all of humankind (21:107).

Islam is the eternal message of Allah to all people without any exception. The mission of calling people to God began with Noah through Abraham, Moses and Jesus to reach its final and refined form with the final prophet and messenger Muhammad. Practically speaking, Islam in its final form is based on six basic concepts of faith (belief) and five fundamental pillars (words and actions) without which one’s belief is not complete. The six beliefs are:

1. Belief in One God, Allah. (This is tawhid in Arabic.)

2. Belief in the Angels,

3. Belief in the Scriptures,

4. Belief in all Messengers,

5. Belief in the Day of Judgment.

6. Belief in Predestination.

The five pillars of Islam are:

1. Al-Shahada or creed with its transliteration in Arabic as ašhadu ‘al-lā ilāha illā-llāhu wa ‘ašhadu ‘anna muħammadan rasūlu-llāh meaning I bear witness to the truth that there is no deity worthy of worship or any form of ritual service except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.  The shahada is considered the most essential pillar in Islam and the other four pillars are but a manifestation of this foundation. The shahada is also used by Muslims in calling for their five daily prayers or while standing in lines to show the formal prayer is about to start.  New Muslims usually say it in public in front of an imam to announce their formal acceptance of Islam before they become active members of the Muslim community, large or small.

2. Salat or prayer: Muslims are required to pray five times a day at specific times. These mandatory five prayers are fajr (morning), Thuhr (noon), A’sr (afternoon), maghrib (sunset or evening), and Isha(night). Salat in Arabic means link, bond or connection. It is the natural, simple and direct spiritual connection between every individual Muslim and their Creator Allah. It goes far beyond the other four pillars to create in a Muslim that special and sweet sensational feeling of security, inner peace, fulfillment and satisfaction.

3. Zakat or charity: it is the Muslim’s personal commitment to help the poor and those who are in need by providing them with a fixed and specific portion of his/her wealth as part of a community service to fight poverty and social inequality. It should be done by every able Muslim individual as a duty not a favor to the poor and needy community members.

4. Sawm or fasting: Fasting every day of the whole month of Ramadan is a special form of worship that is more than abstaining from food, water, and sex from predawn to sunset but also refraining from anything bad said or done which may hurt or harm others. The purpose is to purify the soul and uplift the spirit to reach its heights and free itself from any worldly trap or bondage. That’s the only way for the souls to seek and find that very special connection with Allah. Now we can understand why in Islam the salat and sawm always go hand in hand, and for this reason, Muslims who fast through the day are encouraged to do extra-long taraweeh prayers through the 29 nights of the month of Ramadan.

5. Hajj or Pilgrimage: It is a mandatory ritual and a religious duty for Muslims who are able to travel from their home lands with the intention to perform hajj in Makkah, the birth place of the Prophet of Islam. It takes 5 or 6 days starting on the 8th day of Dhu Al Hijja which is the last month of the Islamic lunar calendar. It is, by all means, the most manifest symbol of equality in the world today. All Muslims at the Hajj sites stand together in the same place at the same time wearing the same clothes and doing the same rituals regardless of their race, gender, color, status, nationality, and sect. The two pieces of plain white fabrics Muslim men wear during Hajj is a reminder that we do not really need too much of everything to go through this life. One of the lessons I got during my past hajj tours is the beauty of simplicity. We have and want much more than we usually need. God is always on the side of those who are faithful, humble and simple. These are the three main components of hajj in Islam. One must also remember the animal sacrifices offered during hajj days which help feed millions of starving people all over the world.

Islam cannot be defined in one word and cannot be covered in a short article like this. For a committed Muslim, Islam is a complete and comprehensive way of life which governs, regulates and organizes the personal life of the individuals and the society. Hence it covers the spiritual, social, economic, cultural, political and international aspects.

The Quran for Muslims is the word of God revealed to the Prophet Muhammad in Arabic through the Angel Gabriel. It was written down during the life of Prophet Muhammad by some of his trusted secretaries, and later compiled in one text during the time of the third Caliph Othman. Muslims also refer to the Sunnah which means the sayings, actions and the ratifications of the Prophet as narrated by his companions and later collected by some Muslim scholars in their books of sunnah and hadith. The most authentic texts of hadith are the Muwatta of Imam Malik of Medina and the two Sahih Books of Imams Bukhari and Muslim. While the majority of Muslim scholars do not regard the hadith as revealed or divine scripture in the technical sense of the word, the Sunna nevertheless comes second to the Quran as the main source of the Islamic Sharia Law.  Sharia Law contains enough teachings, rules and guidelines to govern every aspect of the Muslim life from simple things like halal food and family life to complicated issues such as banks and governments.

Two Important Dates

Muslims all over the world celebrate the end of the month of Ramadan with Eid al- Fitr which is the feast of completing the fast. Another bigger event follows 70 days later on the hajj day when Muslims enjoy the celebration of Eid-ul-Adha meaning the feast of sacrifice. In this holiday’s tradition, Muslims relive and replay the story of Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail as it is portrayed in the Quran.

Conclusion

Many Muslims today are not aware of how Islam evolved to reach its position in the contemporary world. It started as a simple religion more than fourteen centuries back in the small town of Makkah in Arabia. It struggled there in Makkah for thirteen years until the Prophet and his companions were forced to seek shelter in Medina where he died ten years later after he liberated Makkah from idolatry and any other form of polytheism. The Prophet was succeeded by four caliphs who took over the responsibility of spreading Islam outside Arabia to its neighbors and beyond. Islam went all the ways west to Europe and went far enough to Indonesia and Malaysia in the East.

Islamic legacy today is a result of many complicated sociopolitical factors. In most places, Islamic culture is made up of old pre-Islamic traditions mixed up with misinterpretations of original Islamic teachings and some other foreign elements. Many sects and groups appeared and died throughout Islamic history. Those who survived from among the Sunni followers as opposed to the Shia Muslims are either salafi, sufi or somewhere in between the two big sects. While the salafi adherents focus on the literal interpretation of the text, the sufi novices on the other hand are dedicated to revive the lost spiritual component of the mission of all the Prophets including Jesus.

Some Muslims consider themselves fortunate enough to have been born and raised in sufi territories where they find it easy to start a long and challenging spiritual journey with their prayer partners and peace loving men and women from among the Jews and Christians. Prayer circles and spiritual fellowships are quietly and privately spreading inside the United States and beyond to create a healthy atmosphere for believers to communicate, connect, break bread and pray together for peace and reconciliation. These seemingly small circles are our hopes to turn organized religions into a worldwide revolution of hearts and minds, and leave behind a legacy of love, peace and brotherhood for the next generations.

Dr. Abdel Azim Elsiddig is a Sufi Muslim and President of ITC Chicago, Inc.

“Let’s build bridges, not walls”

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Book Review of Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Andrew Schill

Robert Lacey’s “Inside the Kingdom” unveils the incomprehensible paradoxes and mysteries surrounding the world’s greatest oil producer and home to Islam’s Two Holy Mosques.  For three years, in the early 80’s, Lacey lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he wrote the illuminating prequel, “The Kingdom: Arabia and the House of Saud.”  Over twenty years later, he would return and live for another three years in the Kingdom to report on the changes of the past two decades.  While Saudi Arabia has on the one hand evolved into a modern technological marvel, the old guard religious fanatics have revolted against modernity and have attempted to turn the clock back to the days of the Prophet Muhammad.  From touching on the first Wahhabi/Saud encounter over three-hundred years ago, to the enduring royal-Wahhabi alliance of the twentieth century with its subsequent unraveling in the twenty-first century – Lacey describes Saudi Arabia as a society at war with itself.

Lacey details many events, but central to the book’s theme, is how the first Gulf War proved to be the traumatic event which would awaken not only the reformers but set loose a wave of religious fervor in Saudi Arabia and throughout the entire Muslim world.  Though the presence of foreign troops on Saudi soil was anathema to Muslims, it was clear that the Al-Saud needed not only the support of it long-time US ally, but the legitimacy provided by the Wahhabi clerics, while the religious sheikhs depended on the generosity of rich Saudi families and thus ultimately supported the foreign collation forces.  For the religious establishment, all of this would have come to an end had Saddam Hussein marched down the streets of Riyadh.  So while the house of Saud depended upon American power in the Gulf to maintain its rule, it was an uncomfortable relationship that would enter a new era when it was discovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals and made up the core of the September 11th attacks against the United States.  Lacey goes on to note that the world is still trying to come to terms with Islamic extremism and terrorism in the post 9/11 world.

Lacey gives his history a touching component through the story and lives of ordinary Saudi’s.   One of the surprising relative hero’s is the current King of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.  Prior to his ascent to the throne, many would have expressed concern over his conservative religious credentials, but King Abdullah would in some ways prove to be the much anticipated reformer so many Saudi’s were waiting for, while for others, reform seems to be painstakingly slow.

One of the chapters begins with the quote “Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer.  Nothing is more difficult than to understand him” by Fyodor Dostoevsky.  It would seem that Robert Lacey has taken this message to heart.  His close Saudi friendships, unparalleled access and intriguing storytelling have resulted in a must read for anyone interested in the desert kingdom.  Having walked the streets of Jeddah and fallen in love with this strange land, I found this book to be a refreshing read, which addressed some of the many questions that arose in me while on a muggy stroll down Jeddah’s treeless Red Sea cornice.

 Review by Andrew Schill

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Iran, Hezbollah & Palestine

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Andrew Schill

Last April, I was invited on a unique trip to meet with Iran’s controversial and polarizing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  We bought our tickets to Beirut where we were to meet with my friend Carl’s contact in Hezbollah and then fly on to Tehran.  Several days before our planned departure, our plans to fly to Iran fell through, and I can now admit that though I was disappointed, I also felt a great deal of relief.  We would later find out that apparent discord between the president and the Supreme leader had escalated to such a degree that our Hezbollah contacts decided that such a meeting would not be a good idea at this time.  Since we still had our tickets, I embarked on a much more tame journey with four of my friends to Lebanon to meet with the deputy head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council

After a scenic drive from Beirut to the southern Lebanese town of Tyre, we met our liaison and followed him to an undisclosed meeting place. After a quick check and the dispensing of our cell phones, we were ushered into a room to await our meeting with Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, a man who appears to be soft-spoken, but unlike his secular counterparts, he wields both military and religious authority over the Shiite Muslims of southern Lebanon. We drank tea while the Sheikh offered a short sermon, which but for the religious Shia dress, could have been given in most American churches. We would later discuss the origins and the perceived necessity for Hezbollah’s existence and their on-going armed resistance with their southern neighbor. At the end of our meeting, we – Shiite and Sunni, Christian and Muslim, American and Palestinian, male and female – joined hands in prayer. I would find myself being given the most unenviable task of leading us in prayer, and beyond the salutary greetings to God, most of what I prayed remains a fog except for a heartfelt plea for peace and justice.

Any notions I may have held about justice, however, were challenged by the stateless Palestinian refugees of Lebanon. While Jordan and Syria both have large Palestinian populations and refugee camps of their own, the Palestinians in Lebanon are denied participation in Lebanese political and social life. Those that are able to work outside the camp must stay off the radar, while most remain within the cramped and overcrowded confines of the camp. For the delicate sectarian system of Lebanon the inclusion of the Palestinians would upset the precarious balance that allows for any semblance of a functioning government. Our visit to the refugee camp in Beirut was an entrance to another world – buildings were stacked one on top of another to make room for families inevitable expansion after 63 years of house arrest. Within the camps various factions proclaimed their territory and their loyalty by covering buildings with flags and propaganda. One side of the street would display large pictorial tributes to Bashar Al-Assad while across the street the yellow banners of Hezbollah would proudly bear the image of their leader Hassan Nasrallah. The most prolific and prominent poster would be of the late Yasser Arafat bearing the slogan, “You inspire us.” While I’ve witnessed worse physical poverty in Latin America, I’ve never encountered such hopelessness – a people without identity – longing for a land most have never known while being held hostage as pawns in a high-stake political game over which they have no control.

Sheikh Nabil likened the Palestinians to a drowning child that Hezbollah must reach out with its own arms to save, yet the camps bear little evidence of such salvation. So, while I believe it is important to engage our enemies (both real and perceived) in true dialog, it is my conviction that political leaders are not going to be at the forefront of lasting peace and reconciliation. True social change and accompanying revolutions must originate with the people in communities and grassroots movements. This can take years or even decades when the goal of these movements is peaceful political and social change. So while our meeting with the Hezbollah was significant for me personally, as it would be for most individuals, such meetings do not engender much hope for a peaceful resolution with Israel or an end to the unending turmoil in the region. The greatest encouragement and source of hope would occur a few days later in Amman, Jordan when we met with one of the young educated leaders of the nascent Jordanian non-violent movement who was still bearing a baton inspired gash to his forehead from the now infamous March 24th uprising. For many of the youth we met, the movement spreading throughout the Middle East seemed almost like an intoxicating drug, while for some the high they experienced quickly led to despair when they witnessed the apparent gap in political ideologies represented in the Arab Spring.

It has been well over a year now since a Tunisian street vendor set himself aflame and sparked the fiery Arab Spring, which has dispatched the old guard regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.  And of course, the world still anxiously awaits the resolution of the rebellion in Syria and holds its breath in anticipation of what shape of government the Arab world’s most populist nation will ultimately choose.  Though the popularity and strength of Islamist political parties surprised not only the western world, but the Islamic world as well – we in the west should continue to support, encourage and facilitate the development of democratic institutions in their Arab and Islamic forms.  Further political repression of the Islamist movements will only strengthen those set on more radical religious and political ends.

I’ve been asked by more than a few friends this past year why I would want or even try to meet with people that our government would label as enemies?  I do of course have many moments of doubt, but I often think of the wise words spoken by Harper Lee’s heroic character, Atticus Finch, who said something to the effect of “courage isn’t a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”  I started down the road of reconciliation over ten years ago, having met along the way war criminals, murderers, supposed terrorists and a lot of powerless broken people, and though the road is littered with failures, I continue to follow my heart.

By Andrew Schill

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Hope in Kashmir

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Andrew Schill

At seventeen years of age, Omar Farooq looked forward to a promising future as a computer engineer.  Though his father was the Mirwaiz of the Kashmiri people, a combination of a type of political and religious office perhaps best described to our western ears as the supreme leader, he had little interest in following in his father’s burdened footsteps.  On an otherwise calm May day in 1990, Omar’s childhood dreams would be shattered, when his father was gunned down before him.  He was soon forced to choose between his dreams and the dreams of his father.  Against the protests of his own family, this seventeen year old boy would choose to become the unlikely 15th Mirwaiz of the Kashmir’s six million Muslims.

Located in the northeast corner of the Indian sub-continent, the Kashmir Valley has been a place of almost constant turmoil since 1947, when Gandhi’s own dream of a unified India would end in partition and the division of a primarily Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India.  This lush and beautiful Valley, though almost entirely Muslim, has been claimed by a bloody conflict between Pakistan and India.  And though such violence (suffered by the Kashmiri people) would lead most sane men to take up arms and fight – Omar Farooq has chosen to become a non-violent warrior for his people’s peace.

As I heard him tell his story in an obscure room just steps from where another assassin had shot a swaggering Ronald Reagan three decades previous, I could not help but drift back to my own days as a seventeen year old high school kid in Oklahoma.  My thoughts in those bygone days were marked by dreams of girls, trucks and an escape from the confines of my own insecurities.  That a seventeen year old Kashmiri boy could meet a bloody rebellion head-on and unite his people in a movement of peace is almost unthinkable, but Omar Farooq has done just that.

This past February at the National Prayer Breakfast the unthinkable would again happen when the 15th Mirwaiz of the Kashmir and Bilawal Bhutto – son and heir apparent to the slain prime minister of Pakistan – would meet by accident, fate or the will of God in this same obscure room in Washington D.C.  Later that day they would sit down together and not just talk, but start a friendship that could change the world.  Perhaps it is their shared loss from an assassin’s bullet that will be the catalyst for this generation’s peace.

Andrew Schill

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Libyan Oil

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Andrew Schill

For all the hope and possibility we’ve seen unfold on the streets of Egypt and Tunisia an equal amount of despair and repression is unfolding in the streets of Libya.  After 42 years of unchallenged rule, the Libyan strongman Muammar al-Gaddafi, is meeting the non-violent protests for freedom with brute force and systematic atrocities, while previously vocal western governments remain eerily silent.

By one important number this may not be so surprising.  According to the 2010 BP Statistical Review of World Energy Libya produced 1,652,000 barrels of oil per day with 3.3% of the worlds proven reserves, while Egypt and Tunisia combined produce 828,000 barrels of oil per day with only .3% of the worlds proven reserves.  Though still reeling from the lack of infrastructure, technology and investment stemming from mid-eighties sanctions, the lifting of these sanctions in 2005 has recently resulted in the return of Amerada Hess, Marathon Oil and ConocoPhillips Company under terms substantially similar to those suspended in 1986.  While Occidental Petroleum, the original pioneer of the Libyan oil fields under Armand Hammer, resumed shipments of once prized Libyan oil to the United States.

With the largest proven reserves in Africa, Libya has expressed plans to increase production from 1.7 to 3 million barrels of oil per day by 2015.  While global energy companies prize political stability, the capricious nature of nationalist autocratic regimes throughout the Middle East has not worked to their benefit.  Though questions and concerns must linger as to whether a new government will honor past agreements must weigh heavily on present day business decisions, long-term stability will only come from functioning Arab-styled democracies.  Most, if not all regional commentators, businessmen and politicians were caught off guard by the explosive nature of the organic protests calling for political freedom sweeping the Middle East.   The toppling of Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt would have been unthinkable just two months ago, when on that fateful day in December a desperate Tunisian vegetable vendor lit a match and immolated not only himself, but ignited a wildfire of political revolution that now sweeps the Middle East.

Both Colonel Gaddafi and his son have made rambling televised speeches preaching the virtues of stability and outside economic investment, while threatening further violence and civil war if the protests continue.  And while the short-term prospect for civil war is appalling, the alternative is even more appalling.  Fears that Gaddafi will sabotage the oil fields and pipelines are justified, as a nationwide shut down of production has ensued and international workers are attempting to flee.

Perhaps the West’s public silence is the result of more thoughtful backroom negotiations.  Perhaps it is the result of short-term fears of lost business opportunities and disruptions of energy supplies.  However, the freedoms we’ve proclaimed in the West to belong to all of humanity must necessarily extend to the oppressed people of Libya and to the whole of the Middle East.  Prolonged silence will only delegitimize this message and result in long-term business costs that will far outweigh the short-term losses.

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Unrest

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Andrew Schill

For many in the western world, the civil unrest and political upheavals spreading through the Arab world is cause for great concern.  From the ousting of autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt, to the non-violent protests in the streets of Yemen, Morocco, Bahrain, Iran and Libya, the near term future of the Middle East seems uncertain.  Will the unrest spread into Jordan, Syria and perhaps, as most feared into the heart of Saudi Arabia?  Such answers are elusive, but what is clear is that the lines drawn by the colonial powers after World War I and the autocratic regimes that followed have worked to deny the Arab people the political freedoms that we in the West have long since taken for granted.

This past century has seen Western governments repeatedly back dictators in favor of stability to quench the thirst for the oil needed to sustain our meteoric economic rise.  A long perceived policy quandary existed in which only two alternatives seemed to exist – exploitive strongmen or repressive Islamists.  Added to the fear of a communist Middle East, it provoked the toppling of the democratically elected Iranian Prime Minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh, by the Central Intelligence Agency in 1953 and the United States support of the Ba’athist coup in Iraq, soon to be lead by none other than Saddam Hussein.  Today United States foreign policy is no longer being driven by a Red scare, but by a new post 9/11 fear of Islam and ultimately of the few adherents that would twist it into an unrecognizable religion of fear and hate.  It is only through successfully confronting our own fears of terrorism and the Muslim world that the West will be in a position to assist in shaping the future liberties and attendant economic prosperity of the region.

I would cautiously suggest that if we look carefully at our past we may well find the seeds of modern day terrorism having taken their roots in the foreign policy of the past.  Today we have an opportunity to stand with the people of the Middle East in what is hopefully the seeds of freedom taking root in their hearts and minds – not simply for their future, but for our share future.

Some fear that a bellwether Egypt has only two choices between a continued military autocracy or a short lived electoral future at the hands of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.  Such bipolar distinctions cloud, confuse and undermine the hope of an Arab-styled democracy while denying the immense contributions and possibilities from a revival of pre-Renaissance Islamic Civilization.  Each new day in Tahrir Square saw Egypt’s largely secular youth contingent challenging the prevailing bipolar notions of their future with an alternative the world should be quick to embrace.  The recent announcement of Egypt’s military counsel is a positive indication that the transition towards democracy might yet succeed.

However, the onslaught against Libyan citizens peaceful protest continues unabated and the Western worlds continued silence in the face of such atrocities could yet extinguish the new found spirit of freedom.

It is under the weight of this past and present political oppression that we now see organic movements being driven primarily by a younger generation, but joined in by all, raging like wildfires across the Arab world.  And it is in this hour that we should move from concerned observers to active participants with our friends and neighbors in their cries for political freedom.

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Saudi Arabia: The King Abdullah University for Science and Technology

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Andrew Schill

Last September I took a relaxing, air conditioned, forty-five minute drive through the desert from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to a once barren and isolated stretch of sand on the Red Sea.  This isolated plot of land is now home to the modern, gated campus, of the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (or KAUST, as it is affectionately called).  Visitors are immediately struck not only by the imposing size and striking architecture, but by the beauty of this rapidly built desert oasis of higher education. Few other places in the world could conceive of building such facilities in such an exceptionally short period of time from the announcement of its conception to its birth as a new university.

For Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Middle East, opportunities for higher education have remained far behind other parts of the industrialized world.  King Abdullah, to his credit, has made education a priority for his citizenry, and has embarked on a course which may have far reaching implications for the future economic and social growth of the region.

Though KAUST is solely a graduate level university for the sciences on a truly world-class level, perhaps the most significant feature of this new institution is its distinction of being the first gender integrated campus in the Kingdom.  As I strolled through the campus admiring the towering architecture, my attention was quickly drawn to the diverse student population.  While waiting for my new friend Mohammad, a graduate student in hydrology, I met a student from Colorado clad in a t-shirt and cargo shorts and toting the obligatory i-Pod.  It wasn’t until we sat down for dinner in the cafeteria, however, that I realized how potentially significant this new experiment might be—across the room two female Arab students dressed with the traditional hijab where talking and smiling in a clearly flirtatious manner with a western male student.

This experiment has obviously angered some of the more traditional Wahabbists like Sheikh Saad bin Nasser bin Abdul Aziz Al-Shethri, member of the Council of Senior Islamic Scholars, who was relieved of his duties by the King for his public comments against the non-segregated education being implemented at KAUST. Though indicative of the division within Saudi society, one only needs a day in Saudi Arabia to see that King Abdullah is pragmatically governing a nation and people towards their transition from the post-colonial world to modernity.

The King has stated that “the University shall be a beacon for peace, hope, and reconciliation and shall serve the people of the Kingdom and benefit all the peoples of the world in keeping with the teachings of the Holy Quran, which explains that God created mankind in order for us to come to know each other.”  The big question I must ask is whether KAUST and other similarly planned institutions can be a beacon of peace and reconciliation within the Kingdom itself?

For more information see their website at:

http://www.kaust.edu.sa/

The snapshot for this website is of the Mosque located in the center of the campus.

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