Doctorate of Death

I recently learned, via MEMRI, of the following indicator of the state of intellectual discourse in the Arab world, specifically in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, our self-proclaimed "friends".

A three-volume treatise by Sa'id ibn Nasser Al-Ghamdi, titled Deviation from the Faith as Reflected in [Arab] Thought and Literature on Modernity, has recently gained publicity in the Arab world. The book, published in December 2003 in Saudi Arabia, is based on Al-Ghamdi's 2000 doctoral dissertation, submitted to the Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, for which he received his degree summa cum laude. In his treatise, Al-Ghamdi names more than 200 modern Arab intellectuals and authors whom he accuses of heresy - thus making it permissible to kill them. [bold added]

The fact that the treatise is a glorified hit list is bad enough, but it is instructive to note further just how well-received it was by our "friends" and when.

Jordanian-American reformist intellectual and researcher Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi wrote an open letter to Saudi King 'Abdallah Ibn 'Abd Al-'Aziz, demanding to "establish an investigation committee into this dangerous matter, so as to clear the name of the governmental Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University of [the disgrace of] these terrorist fatwas that serve only [the interests of] the terrorists ...."

In an article in the Qatari daily Al-Raya, Al-Nabulsi compared Sa'id Al-Ghamdi's book to another book, titled Modernity in the Balance of Islam, written by the Saudi fundamentalist preacher 'Awadh Al-Qarni in 1988. In that book too, over 200 Arab authors, poets, researchers, philosophers, academics, literary critics, and journalists were accused of heresy - thus making their killing licit.

Al-Ghamdi's book, says Al-Nabulsi, is even more dangerous than Al-Qarni's, because it was published at a time when terrorism was at its peak, and the entire world was following every act that justified terrorism or encouraged terrorists in any way. In addition, it is more dangerous because it had received academic, religious, and official approval, and ceased to be merely an expression of personal opinion when it received the approval of the Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University in Riyadh. Al-Nabulsi asserts: "The university that granted a degree to a cultural butcher like Sa'id Al-Ghamdi has become a cultural slaughterhouse in which more than 200 modern Arab intellectuals have been slaughtered and skinned..."

If a regime permits (to speak very euphemistically here) someone like Al-Ghamdi to level death threats at some of its own citizens over things like "heresy, ... politics, economics, society, arts, and ethics", not to mention citizens of other , friendly Arab states, we should keep that in mind every time we hear its leaders proclaiming their friendship with us.

At least with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, we know exactly where we stand.

Read the whole thing. It is incredible.

-- CAV