TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/031891/0318002.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.5 KB | 86 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 35

AMERICA ABROAD

God and Man in the Gulf


By Strobe Talbott


    A few days before the gulf war began in January, I was
driving outside Jidda with a Saudi official who was telling me
about what he called "the limits to political modernization"
in the kingdom. I caught sight of a road sign to Mecca, only
31 miles away. Knowing that non-Muslims were forbidden to visit
the holy city, I asked my companion whether he thought someday,
when Saudi Arabia is more open to the outside world, the ban
might be lifted.

    "Never," he replied.

    "Why?" I asked, somewhat taken aback.

    "Because God says so."

    He wasn't being rude or even expressing an opinion. He was
simply stating the way things are and will always be. The
subject was not ethics or what I think of as theology but the
law of the land. I understood for the first time something I
had often heard about Muslim culture: there is no division
between mosque and state.

    The conversation came back to me after the war. From George
Bush on down, many in the West celebrated a victory not just
of military strength but of political values. Democracy is the
word most often used to summarize those values. But the
institutions associated with democracy have never thrived in
the Arab world, and the welcome outcome of the gulf war is not
likely to change that.

    In Iraq, even if Saddam Hussein is removed from office, his
successors are likely to form a military dictatorship or a
theocratic regime. Meanwhile, there were hints from Kuwait that
the Emir, having been so slow to return home, is now in no
hurry to re-establish a national assembly.

    As for Saudi Arabia, the only country named after a family,
its leaders show little inclination to share power. On my trip
in January, I met with His Highness Prince Fahd bin Salman, a
thirtysomething, U.S.-educated grandson of the founding King,
Abdul Aziz, known as Ibn Saud. Fahd is vice governor of the
Eastern province. I asked him whether he thought there would
still be an absolute monarchy in the 21st century.

    "Why not?" he shot back, with a distinct note of
because-God-says-so finality. Then, remembering his audience,
he added, "Of course, if we find a better system, I assure you
we'll adopt it."

    The Prophet Muhammad taught that all men are equal. Over the
centuries Islam has nourished scientists, philosophers,
architects and writers. But the last phrase of the Koran's
injunction to "obey Allah, the messenger and those of you who
are in authority" is a boon to autocrats. Saddam pretends
devotion when it suits his purposes. He has gone from murdering
clerics to proclaiming a jihad and televising his prayers
during the war.

    "Constitutional and representative government has been a
miserable failure in the Arab world," says Elie Kedourie, a
renowned scholar of Islam. "Elections and parliaments have no
roots in classic Muslim thought. Only one figure holds ultimate
legitimate authority in both the secular and religious realms,
and that's the Caliph. The title may change, but the theory
does not."

    In any land where things are the way they are because God
says so, the all important question is, Who says he says so?
In Iraq the answer is still Saddam. In Kuwait and Saudi Arabia,
it's still the royal family. That much some of the war's
winners and its loser have in common.