Thursday February 23, 2011 is a date I will never forget. My roommate came home late that evening, and I immediately knew something wasn’t right. Always quick to flash a boyish grin, his face instead bore a look of pure fear mixed with adrenaline on his face. He seemed to have aged a decade. He was walking back to our apartment from class when a black SUV pulled up next to him and told him to get in. Thinking this was a kidnapping attempt out of a Steven Seagal movie, he asked a nearby campus police officer and they confirmed that he should go with the men in the car. “Oh my God…I messed up something on my visa and I’m going to be kicked out!” he thought. Once he got there, the officers thoroughly questioned him about a former Vanderbilt student. My roommate barely knew the student as he only occasionally played soccer with him (along with dozens of Saudi and other international students). My roommate checked in with his other Saudi friends, and sure enough they were all questioned. When they asked the officers what this was all about, they were all told the same thing: Check the news tomorrow.
Sure enough, the next day it was all over the news. Khaled Ali-M Aldawsari was arrested for trying to build and use weapons of mass destruction as well as explosives to target, among many things, George W. Bush’s ranch. He was at Vanderbilt for just one year studying English during Vanderbilt’s “pre-freshman year” for international undergraduate students, before transferring to Texas Tech University. I was just a freshman during his “pre-frosh year” at Vandy, and I never knew the guy-he certainly never attended MSA events events, and I never played soccer with the Saudis (my reason: They were too good). Yet it was surreal that we both had forewarning of a major news story-that we were in a very small way, a part of such a dramatic saga.
Poke-Haraam: A Symptom of the Ailment
I am reminded of that episode five years ago thanks to Pokemon. Yes Pokemon—namely, the Saudi religious authority’s recent renewal of a 15-year fatwa against Pokemon.
It must be said that fatwas are simply non-binding theological opinions which only have bearing if they are enforced. Saudi Arabia’s religious authorities are certainly not the sole (or even the most influential) representatives of the global Muslim community, and it is unclear to what degree this fatwa from the country’s top religious body (The General Secretariat of the Council of Senior Religious Scholars) would be enforced as a government edict-or how strictly that edict would be enforced. It is also unclear if and how the fatwa would apply to Pokemon Go, the augmented virtual reality craze that is sweeping the world. Yet this fatwa reads as a greatest hits of why people with a third grade education shouldn’t be allowed to become clerics with any authority:
“It is shocking that the word ‘evolution’ has been much on the tongues of children,” the fatwa read.
It also said the game contained other elements prohibited by Islamic law, including “polytheism against God by multiplying the number of deities, and gambling, which God has forbidden in the Quran and likened to wine and idols”
“The fatwa added that symbols used in the game promoted Japan’s Shinto religion, Christianity, Freemasonry and “global Zionism”.
Absolutely ridiculous, right? And in many ways we have seen this sad movie before in Iran. Yet it is a symptom of a much greater ailment plaguing many Muslims societies living under autocratic regimes.
The Intellectual Decline of Islamic Theology and Jurisprudence
In modern parlance, declaring something “medieval” is usually synonymous with societal and political regressivism and backwardness. Yet in the Islamic experience, the Middle Ages actually represent the zenith of intellectual development and progress in all disciplines including mathematics, medicine, astronomy, as well as effective jurisprudence and governance. The Ottoman sultanSuleiman “The Lawgiver” still occupies a famous spot among the annals of Islamic history for codifying Islamic law into a robust system of jurisprudence. Indeed all throughout Islam’s development, jurists, scholars, and practitioners of usul al fiqhconsisted of some of the brightest legal and theological minds in the world, and they constantly strove to update and maintain a highly nimble and adaptive body of law designed to promulgate equity and justice for all citizens in all matters.
There is a now general consensus that Islamic jurisprudence, governance, and general Islamic values are simply not being properly developed and applied in virtually any part of the Muslim world, a phenomenon which several Muslim social scientists have even quantified. There are many underlying factors contributing to the stagnation of intellectualism in large parts of the Muslim world. Formal educational systems in much the Muslim world—especially in developing, post-conflict, and/or mid-conflict nations—have suffered from decades or even centuries of official neglect in terms of investment and development. The fact that more books are reportedly translated in Spain annually than in the entire Middle East and North Africa since the reign of Caliph Mamoun in the past 1000 years are stark indications of this decline.
The advent of European colonialism throughout virtually the entire Muslim world largely throttled all meaningful intellectual developments. With regards to Islamic jurisprudence and governance, colonial authorities largely viewed progress in these fields as potential challenges to its rule. Likewise, foreign subjugation israrely conducive for vigorous independent thought, critical self-reflection, and the seeking of knowledge among the subjugated populations and has resulted in the endurance of colonial mentalities well after the various nations of the Muslim world achieved independence. Thus Islamic jurisprudence, like virtually all other intellectual disciplines and pursuits, generally stagnated.
The Revolutionary Origins of Islam vs The Neo-Quraish Establishment
In the post-colonial period, this decline has continued with many government-sponsored religious authorities simply serving new masters. After centuries of stagnation in Islamic theology and jurisprudence under imperialist domination, religious institutions in many autocratic Muslim countries are now being used to lend legitimacy to and reinforce the establishment.
This reality is highly distressing and ironic given that Islam itself was a revolutionary religion which overthrew the established political order of the elite Quraish tribe. Prophet Muhammad and his followers were willing to directly confront regressive social practices like female infanticide, and to usher in unprecedented rights for women, children, orphans, the elderly, and the poor. Thinkers like Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) famously postulated that the Egyptian Pharaoh—“the archetypal self-idolater of the Quranic and Biblical narratives”—was in fact a monotheist. Likewise, Al-Ghazali (1058-1111) opined that one should learn monotheism from Satan. While such thinkers were often challenged by their colleagues as well as broader segments of their societies, they were largely left unmolested by state authorities. Such interference not seen as a legitimate government interest in the purview of the state, and would dilute the very thing that was fueling a Muslim intellectual Golden Age-the freedom to pursue intellectualism in all of its forms.
In stark contrast, contemporary state-sponsored religious institutions routinely utilize religious rhetoric as a form of social control. The religious establishment of many autocratic countries is dedicated to stifling any real attempts at reform or even genuine and sustained evolution and development of Islamic jurisprudence and governance. While the underlying goals and motivations are purely political, the tools used to further these agendas are invariably cloaked in the rhetoric of religion. Modern thinkers who articulate independent thoughts are labeled as engaging in “bidah“ (forbidden religious innovations), and the promulgation of such ideas are further decried for creating “fitna“ (civil strife). The most serious manifestations feature condemnations of individuals as mohareb, or enemies of God, as practiced by theocratic regimes, and the practice of takfiri by various sectarian militant outfits.
All of these practices are not only supremely restrictive on the ability to engage in free intellectual discourse, but often greenlights massive censorship as well as a range of human rights violations through forced confessions and recantations, imprisonment, torture, and even execution. In the Saudi context, this includes extending theological support for bans on political parties and the stifling of the right to free speech and assembly on the basis of “the need of good Muslims to obey the ruler” and to “protect public safety and security.” By consistently avoiding or outright opposing most issues relating to meaningful social reform and political empowerment, these institutions continue to enable the stifling of all intellectual development-religious or secular-to the direct detriment of their people.
Why “Over There” Matters
In the weeks following Khaled Ali-M Aldawsari’s arrest, the entire Vanderbilt community was adamant in condemning Khaled’s actions. Of course I did-and still do-as well. Yet without condoning his actions in any way, upon greater reflection I grew to understand what could have driven him to attempt such a horrible act-and throw away his then-promising life as a chemical engineer in the process.
Khaled may have been on the path to financial and professional success. Yet by all the measures which make us humans, he was shackled to poverty and lived a bleak existence. He came from a country where his options for self-expression were severely limited at birth. He couldn’t freely express his theological or political opinions (especially on the royal family) through social media or writing op-eds. He couldn’t become a journalist and hope to have the ability to freely explore and discuss social and political issues. There were no genuine political parties for him to join, and he couldn’t help create one without being jailed. He couldn’t participate in marches and rallies without the risk of the worst repercussions. Khaled’s outlets for any form of political engagement were virtually non-existent.
While those who are apolitical or are willing and able to forgo publicly expressing dissenting political opinions could find life in an oil-rich state with generous social benefits an acceptable trade-off, other folks cannot. Including people like me, who love writing and engaging in political and social discourse.
And if this ridiculous fatwa is actually applied to and enforced for Pokemon Go, people like me would even be denied the opportunity to participate in a groundbreaking activity which encourages participants to exercise, explore their communities, and make new friends.
Not even Pokemon and the escapist fantasy of reliving my childhood would be safe from their grasps. All because the Saudi authorities likely fear it could be used as a tool for Saudi youth from all tribes, regions, and social classes to communicate and befriend one another over a common interest. Like a caged bird, I would go absolutely crazy if I was forced to grow up in such crushingly autocratic societies which rob you of any chance to freely express yourself . Saudi Arabia may not be a signatory to the ICCPR, yet they are nevertheless expected to view the terms of the ICCPR as providing “guidance as to the content of the fundamental rights that Saudi Arabia is obligated to respect” due to the universal nature of these rights as customary International law as well as the nation’s participation in the United Nations.
Many extremists are simply long-term criminals seeking a means to legitimize their violent tendencies. Likewise, While the vast majority of even the most passionate of Saudi dissidents would never resort to political violence to achieve their aims, a small subsection will be driven into militancy and terrorism. Terrorist organizations rely precisely on these conditions of alienation, disenfranchisement and helplessness to groom recruits, and authoritarianism is the fuel by which they thrive.
What happens “over there” matters, and has repercussions all over the world. It’s no accident that 18 of the19 September 11 hijackers were from deeply autocratic countries. Regressive religious institutions, and autocratic governments which control them, must continue to be confronted as part of the broader struggle for human rights-if for no other reason than to give hope to millions of people and prevent the creation of future Khaleds.
