At Penpoint
- Will the Special OIC Summit on Kashmir be enough?
The Organisation of Islamic Countries has decided that Pakistan is important enough a member for it to hold a Special Summit on Kashmir, which creates a dilemma for many members, particularly Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf countries, which were courted by Indian PM Narendra Modi at the time of the clampdown in Kashmir.
The rather belated decision comes after the Saudi Foreign Minister came to Pakistan, not after the original abolition of Kashmir’s special status on August 5, nor before, after or during Modi’s visit to the Gulf States, at which the UAE and Bahrain gave him their highest civil awards, and when Audi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salam called him his elder brother.
The decision shows that the OIC is very much under the control of Saudi Arabia, something symbolised by the fact that its Secretary General, Yusuf ibn Ahmad al-Othaimeen, is a Saudi. So was his predecessor, Iyad Ameen Madani. Madani had resigned, citing health issues, following Egyptian complaints after he had mocked Egyptian ruler Abel Fattah el-Sisi.
The OIC has had an alternation of Arab and non-Arab Secretary Generals, with the first being a former Malaysian Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. A Pakistani, Sharifuddin Pirzada, has held the post, as has a Turk. The Saudis have been ex-ministers, which does not mean politicians in the sense that Pakistanis understand, but bureaucrats of high calibre.
The Kuala Lumpur Summit was not so much a rival to the OIC, as a precursor. It was formally a summit hosted by the Malaysian government, and was attended by intellectuals, religious scholars and others, as well as the heads of government of Iran, Turkey and Qatar. Pakistan was invited, but did not come.
Of these, the only Arab country was Qatar. Thus, the Kuala Lumpur Summit might have created an Arab-Ajami divide. The Saudis have exerted power by virtue of the Saudi King also being Khadimul Haramain, and being very rich besides, because of oil wealth. They have also been very much a force in the Arab League. However, the OIC contains a number of non-Arab countries, the farther away from the Arab Peninsula one goes.
The first, of course, is Iran. It is the standard-bearer of a civilisation older than that of the Arabs. Its civilisation was also spread in the areas which it provided the springboard for the spread of Islam, Central Asia and the Subcontinent. At the time of its initial spread, Iran was Sunni, so the Sunnis are in a majority in these areas, but it became Shia, and there is a strong Shia presence in all these areas.
Malaysia, though not Arab, converted to Islam by the preaching of Muslim seafarers who addressed the pagan inhabitants who were a sort of Hindu, as in the Island of Bali in Indonesia, another land converted by Arab seamen. Along with Brunei, these are the other branch of Ajami Muslims.
Pakistan was damaged hard by its last-minute abstention. Paradoxically, the lesson to Saudi Arabia will be that Pakistan cannot be trusted to keep its word. Malaysia will have learnt that Saudi Arabia won loyalties not just by being Khadimul Haramain, but by having a lot of money and jobs to give. Does Malaysia?
Turkey is a unique case. It was not so much converted as conquered and then converted. It had been opposed to Iranian power, in the shape of the Persian Empire, but it did not take on the Roman or Greek heritage of the land it had conquered, but instead followed the example of the Persians. It is symptomatic that the great Ottoman Turkish Sultan, Suleiman Qanuni, idolised even in today’s republican Turkey, wrote poetry with the takhallus (pen-name) Mohibbi– in Persian. The tradition of writing Persian poetry continued for centuries, and it was only in the 19th century that Turkish poetry began to be written. Only Bosnia and Albania represent Turkish conversions in Europe.
Another point worth noting is that Kuala Lumpur was without representation by any African state, thus representing another important group of Ajamis, the Sub-Saharan Africans. The Saharan or North Africans are all Arab, though mostly non-Arab in ancestry. Also absent were a subset of the Subcontinent’s Muslims, the Bangladeshis. Another absence was that of the Central Asian Republics.
It should be noted that the Arab-Ajami divide is accompanied by a sectarian one in many cases. Iran is Shia, but the others are all Sunni. Still, within the Sunni sect, there are four schools, associated with particular nations. For example, Western North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa is mostly Maliki. Central Asia and the Subcontinent are Hanafi. However, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei are Shafei: like most of the non-Peninsular Arab world. The Peninsula is Ahle Hadith.
It is also pertinent to note that Saudi Arabia has problems with Turkey, Iran, Malaysia and Qatar individually, so none could easily be persuaded to backtrack. Turkey and Iran further have difficulties with the USA, which Saudi Arabia considers the guarantor of its stability. Iran’s difficulties with Saudi Arabia have to do with leadership of the region, which has recently brought them to the verge of conflict over the Straits of Hormuz. Iran is also a virulent opponent of Israel, towards which Saudi Arabia is softening, out of deference to the USA. Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman has partnered with US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in trying to solve the Palestinian question.
Turkey has problems with both Saudi Arabia and the USA over Syria. Apart from a direct clash of interests in Syria (with both Saudi Arabia and the USA), Turkey’s support of Russia in that conflict has upset the USA. Malaysia’s problems with Saudi Arabia are more personal. Saudi King Abdullah apparently gave about $2 million which went from 1Malaysia Development Berhad, into the personal account of Najib Razak, the Prime Minister whom Mahathir defeated last year.
The Summit was perhaps the result of too much Saudi deference to the USA. Mahathir is known to be unhappy of the Saudi desire not to ruffle feathers, such as over the Rohingya and the Uighurs. While the Rohingya look to Bangladesh, they also look to Malaysia as a more prosperous Muslim country. The Uighurs are seen as a peculiarly Turkish problem, which sees them as East Turkestanis. Now the Kashmir issue has cropped up, and before it could be settled, the Citizenship Act Amendment protests have started. With Arabs making peace with Israel over the heads of the Palestinians, the problems left, apart from Syria, seem to be Ajami rather than Arab. That India is responsible for two, and supports Myanmar in a third, sits ill with the Saudis, who are befriending India not just because they think it a good idea, but because India is flavour-of-the-month in both Washington and Tel Aviv.
However, if Ajamis imagine that they can identify as Muslims without the Saudis on board, they have got another think coming. The Harmain are central to Muslim identity, and the Saudis have shown that they use access as a tool of diplomacy, as in their ban of Iranian pilgrims for the Hajj. Many Iranians travelled on other passports, but it is not something that any government would like to explain to those intending to make the pilgrimage. This is a double-edged sword. Muslims are uneasy about Saudi Arabian use of the Harmain for its own purposes. How will they react to Saudi Arabia using them for American?
There is a problem here. Saudi Arabia is not just not a democracy, it distrusts them. Especially if they are Muslim. Like Malaysia and Turkey. Therefore, Pakistan has put itself alongside the monarchs against the elected. The USA is in the same place.
Pakistan was damaged hard by its last-minute abstention. Paradoxically, the lesson to Saudi Arabia will be that Pakistan cannot be trusted to keep its word. Malaysia will have learnt that Saudi Arabia won loyalties not just by being Khadimul Haramain, but by having a lot of money and jobs to give. Does Malaysia?