Do Saudi Arabia’s recent social reforms affect its position as an Islamic hegemon in the world?
Saudi Arabia—which has long declared itself the protector of the two sacred sites, Makkah and Medina—has assumed a role of power within the Muslim world since the fall of the Ottoman Caliphate in 1924. While most of its foreign and domestic policy has been undergirded by the desire to maintain regime continuation, Saudi Arabia has adopted a religious veneer to lend credibility to its ruling family. This image got hyper-charged in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution when the then head, Ayatollah Khomeini called for an Islamic revolution in the Gulf to bring down the ‘corrupt regimes of the Gulf nations.’
In response, Saudi Arabia used its recently acquired oil money to spread its brand of Islam across the world while simultaneously attempting to besmirch Shi'ite Islam (centred mainly in Iran) as a deviant source of Islam. With its massive wealth and its unbeatable advantage of hosting Hajj for millions of Muslims across the world, which helped further disseminate its religious ideology, Saudi Arabia was largely successful in thwarting any threats to its religious credibility.
A part of Saudi Arabia’s influence globally was through the funding of mosques, madrassas, and publishing houses across the world. For instance, India alone has a minority population which has benefitted from millions of dollars in funding, leading to the mushrooming of Salafist madrassas.
With its massive wealth and its unbeatable advantage of hosting Hajj for millions of Muslims across the world, which helped further disseminate its religious ideology, Saudi Arabia was largely successful in thwarting any threats to its religious credibility.
Domestically, this Islamic image was also buttressed by hyper-conservative social norms such as the banning of women from driving, compulsory closure of shops during prayer time, and fearsome religious police who monitored gender relations in the nation. These steps have reaped significant dividends for Saudi Arabia with various nations which look at the former as an Islamic leader. Saudi-based clerics such as Nasiruddin Al-bani, Mohammed Ibn Baz, and Saleh al Uthaimeen have become household names in many Muslim families globally. Concurrently, Salafism—the literalist tradition of Islam—has entrenched itself significantly in various countries, although it also gained a fair share of detractors.
Despite burnishing its Islamic credentials, Saudi Arabia has been reversing many of these trends over the last decade or so. After allowing women to drive and opening up the country to concerts, Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), the crown prince has also prioritised tourism and the entertainment industry with about 2,000 cinema screens to be opened in the next few years. Indeed, it has been reported that India’s film industry has become a major cultural model for the nation. All of this would have been unthinkable just a decade ago.
Many reasons account for this; the overarching reason lies in the nation’s understanding that oil—despite a current increase in demand—will eventually peter out giving way to renewable sources of energy. Tourism and entertainment are seen as ways to offset this drop in revenue in the coming decades. This is also why Saudi Arabia is trying hard to attract various businesses to the nation.
Moreover, MbS the crown prince has also had enough of the negative effects of Saudi’s religious influence all over the world. Its Salafi doctrine, which is intensely exclusivist in nature, has been blamed for inspiring Jihadist groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in the Middle East and elsewhere. The crown prince’s efforts to shed this conservative and damaging image has been touted as one other major factor. It even stopped officially funding Muslim projects globally, ceding control of famous mosques such as the largest mosque of Belgium in 2020.
The initial impetus of Saudi Arabia to assume an Islamic image was due to Iran calling for a religious revolution across the Gulf, leading to concerns that Saudi citizens would revolt and bring down the ruling family, the house of Saud.
In addition, with a restive young population that is exposed to significant western influence via movies and streaming services as well as through education, it was also feared that a young population agitating for change may cause a political earthquake. Thus, providing social freedoms has helped open a space for the youth population to express themselves, thereby mitigating negative political effects.
Lastly, the initial impetus of Saudi Arabia to assume an Islamic image was due to Iran calling for a religious revolution across the Gulf, leading to concerns that Saudi citizens would revolt and bring down the ruling family, the house of Saud. In the current day, Iran’s appeal as an Islamic model has significantly reduced due to its poor economic condition and pariah status globally. Tehran has been courting Riyadh to mend their relations to remove one major source of political anxiety for Saudi Arabia, further giving it confidence to shed its Islamic credentials.
All these changes begs the question as to would the Arab kingdom want to even sustain this image as an Islamic leader in the future?
Several answers may come up but the short-term answer is a resounding yes. While it sheds its image as a religious nation, it has long benefited from its Islamic authority which has, at times, translated to political power as well. Indeed, populations often base some of their support for a particular regime based on how close or far a nation is from Islamic practices.
Until it manages to divest off this resource and maintain its economic strength, it will need every key facet of soft power it currently holds, and anyone challenging its Islamic authority will also be chipping away its political influence.
In the Islamic world, religion is deeply intertwined with political influence and this factor is well known to policy makers in Riyadh. A good example of this is the recent diplomatic row in India over remarks on the Prophet Mohammed. While Saudi Arabia was initially silent on the controversy, the fact that Qatar spoke up first compelled it to release a perfunctory criticism of India to ensure that it does not look less Islamic than Qatar.
Moreover, despite a temporary high in oil prices, the ongoing climate crisis will accelerate the weaning off of fossil fuels depriving Saudi Arabia of its main income source in the mid-to long-term. Until it manages to divest off this resource and maintain its economic strength, it will need every key facet of soft power it currently holds, and anyone challenging its Islamic authority will also be chipping away its political influence.
For now, the fact that nations like Turkey and Malaysia—that had tried to create alternate centres of power—have now repaired relations with Riyadh (courtesy of the former nations’ Covid-impacted economies) will likely bring some relief to the nation. However, it will only be a matter of few years and new shifts in global currents before another nation or set of nations tries to form another pole within the Islamic world. By then, Riyadh would have hoped to be further along the path of economic and religious independence so that its stakes are much lower.
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Mohammed Sinan Siyech is a Non – Resident Associate Fellow working with Professor Harsh Pant in the Strategic Studies Programme. He will be working on ...
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