Yemen, from the Perpective of Hussein Kanji

     Hussein Kanji clarifies his statements about Yemen and Saudi (Arabia). He says:
     The population of Saudi Arabia (officially) is pegged at 14 million citizens with 3 million non-Saudi workers. I think I was confused about that today and double checked when I got home. That number is said to vary widely, with at least one Western expert pegging it as low as 6 million.
     Not all of the Saudi royal family (which numbers 4000+) is criticized - recently, I believe Prince Abdallah has been praised for calling for the expulsion of American armed forces, who have been stationed in Saudi since the Persian Gulf War. Note: those forces are stationed at the request of the Saudi government and have been there long before the Gulf War. Their numbers are just much higher now. Most non-royal Saudis consider the stationing of American troops on their soil to be an insult and they don't seem to understand the favored relationship between the US (a supporter of Israel) and their country. Information, after all, is not all that free in Saudi - although that is changing. After Israel, Saudi Arabia is probably the most strategic country in the Middle East for US foreign policy. The youth are particularly annoyed in Saudi and those who study such things will often point to one of the last hadith's (saying) of the Prophet (peace be upon him) that says that the Hijaz (the old Arabic term for the region that is now the western part of Saudi, a bit of Yemen - whether all of Yemen is included is questionable - and goes up to the Sham, ie. Syria) should be clear of non-Muslims. There is a lot of speculation about what will happen to Saudi in the next 15-20 years: an increased debt (I believe it is currently 30 billion), depressed oil prices (which stayed at 17-18 for a good part of last year, I believe they are up to 22 on the spot market now) and a growing underground movement that sees the hypocrisy of the royal family have experts saying the political climate will worsen dramatically. Already, though completely uncommon a few years ago, it is not unusual to see some form of protest occur in the Kingdom - though it's usually covered up very fast. I've heard one story from that sounds unbelievable: where a Saudi friend claimed that he saw American troops used to break up a large-ish (1000+) protest in the Kingdom this past year.
     The problems in Saudi are probably much harder to see than the problems in the rest of the Middle East. Young men and depressed economies almost always lead to trouble. There is a tendency in the West to blame everything on the religion, but religion, like anything else, can be manipulated to serve political and economic needs. It is particularly interesting to see how many of the governments in the Middle East actually are religious or Muslim in anything other than name (Iraq = Saddam + the socialist Ba'ath party, Syria = Hafiz Assad, etc). But there is a growing dissatisfaction among the youth and it is unclear how this will change the dynamics of the region. One final note: It's not fair to call someone a bad Muslim or a formal Muslim - that judgement lies solely with God. There are some royals who appear very devout, there are others whose actions, according to Islam, are questionable. It's not right and it's not possible to label an entire population of 4000+.
     My comment: I don´t see how clearing the Hijaz of non-Muslims is compatible with Arab hospitality. That would have deprived the people of the services of people like Jaqui´s husband, a physician.

Ronald Hilton - 10/28/99