The new challenges faced by the Ulama in Saudi Arabia

Résumé du document

In Saudi Arabia, the ulama has been providing religious legitimacy for Saudi rule since the 18th century and the foundation of the first kingdom. This group includes religious scholars, judges (qadis), lawyers, teachers, and the imams. They number about 7000 to 10 000 individuals, but only a very small group constituted of the most senior of them exercise a substantial political influence. They are gathered in the Council of Senior Ulama (Hay'at Kibar al-Ulama) created by King Faisal in 1971 in order to facilitate the consultation between the Ulama and the established political power. Since then, the king appoints its members, and consults the Council on a regular basis. According to M. Fandy, The main functions of the Council of Senior Ulama is, expressing opinions on the sharia regarding matters submitted to them by the king.

Extraits

[...] He comes from a small but reputable tribe. This, added to his credentials as an Islamic scholar made him one of the mainstream critics of the establishment. However, his ideas really gained prominence and became popular outside Saudi Arabia after the Gulf war, so that when he was liberated in 1999, his views were no longer considered to be extreme. He became part of the “established opposition” to the regime. His critic focuses on the need to defend Islam against the Western ideas of secularism that are gaining importance throughout the Muslim world because of the globalization process. [...]

[...] The CDLR wrote the draft of the Letter of Demands (Khitab al-Matalib) that was shown to bin Baz. The group asked him to endorse their demands that included a reform of the Saudi system of governance, the proposition of a Shura Council, and changes in the economic, political, and defence systems. Despite the fact that he was at the head of the state-sponsored ulama, bin Baz approved the initial draft of the letter. This draft was circulated and signed by different notables, professors, judges, and presented to the King by three sheikhs. Among the signatories was al-Awda. [...]

[...] On May 1993, The Council declared that the CDLR was incompatible with Islamic rule. In 1996, as a result of a split with the CDLR, the MIRA (Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia) emerged, more radical in its views. The MIRA denouces the regime's deviation from the Islamic path, it highlights the problem of the human rights in Saudi Arabia and wants to overthrow the house of al-Saud and the whole present Saudi system, including the Council of Senior ulama. [...]

[...] As a consequence, the Islamist opposition found a wider audience in the country. The appointment of the weak Abdullah Al ash-Shaikh as a grand Mufti after the death of Bin Baz brought even more discredit upon the ulama in the eyes of the Saudis. To conclude, we can say that the establishment ulama have been challenged in two ways: on the one side, it is difficult to support a regime loosing it legitimity, and on the other side, it is difficult for them to show their support to the non- establishment ulama and lose all the priviledges linked to their official status. [...]

[...] But from the 1970s onwards, the Saudi government needed more and more often the support of the ulama in order to solve different crises that were linked to the political and economic opening of the country: in the 1970s Saudi Arabia was undergoing profounds social changes, linked to the oil boom, new technologies and the increasing number of Westerners in the country. On November 1979, which corresponded to the first day of the Muslim 15th century, the Grand Mosque of Mecca was seized by Juhaiman al-Utaibi and Abdullah al-Qahtani and between 500 and 1000 other rebels. They took hundreds of pilgrims as their hostages. They claimed that al-Qahtani was the expected Mahdi and wanted a return to the first Islamic society. [...]