(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - We have conducted an interview with Abdul Alim Musa, imam of Masjid Al- Islam, to further discuss the issue.
Following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Q: Let's look at how the Saudi regime is dealing with these protests, what do you think about the kind of responds the protests in Saudi Arabia are getting, and is this response helping the Saudi rulers in quieting down these protests?
Musa: Bismillah al-rahman al-rahim [In the name of god most gracious most Compassionate]; first of all, I would like to say in relation to the Saudi regime and the Islamic movement not only in the region but all over the world has been to use all powers at [their] disposal as a perfect servant of Western Zionism and American imperialism as far as we [are] concerned.
So when we look at the recent incidents in the eastern provinces, it is only a continuation of the role of Saudi Arabia to try to not only crush the legitimate uprisings all over the world but [also] the Islamic movement, it has used hajj as a weapon against the Islamic movement, it has used its wealth during the Iran- Iraq war to drive the oil prices down to six dollars a barrel.
So that Iran would find it difficult to proceed in the war. Everywhere we look we see, we find some destruction in the generation, we will find the hand[s] of Saudi Arabia.
Q: Mr. Musa, the question would be however, what is making the situation in Saudi Arabia when we look at it, different from the other uprisings in the region. One point is being raised now by observers is of course the support, that the Saudi regime is getting from its allies, including the United States in particular, is that helping it in crushing these protests and in quieting down these protests, the fact that the Saudi Arabia is itself an absolute monarchy, does this make the situation of the uprising there different, that is going to take the people in Saudi Arabia a lot more effort to move ahead with this uprising or this movement?
Musa: The movement in the eastern provinces in Saudi Arabia has been going on for decades, this is not a new phenomenon, it is new to people outside of the spectrum of Islamic movement, but this is a movement that has been going on for decades and especially -we have to be frank- especially because the eastern provinces is a Shia region. So in this respect the role of the Saudi Arabia has been very simple and very clear.
Number one, if you take the attack in Mazar Sharif, back maybe in 1997-1998, this was an attack on Iranian diplomats, it was fourteen diplomats, twelve were assassinated and two got away.
The idea was to drag the Islamic Republic into confrontation. That confrontation would hopefully lead to what they would believe as a global or international Shia - Sunni struggle.
The Saudi forces invading Bahrain was another attempt to provoke I believe, we believe, that this was an attempt to provoke Iran to where if Iran goes in, on the side of 80 percent of the population it would be spinned in the press as a Sunni-Shia conflict.
Iraqis live together as Sunni's and Shia's for over a thousand year. The Iraqi Ulama or the Shia Ulama in Najaf and Karbala supported the anti-colonial struggle almost a hundred years ago in 1920's against [the] British colonialism.
What I mean to say is, the regime in Saudi Arabia will support anyone that will try to drag the war into dividing up the Muslim Ummah. We believe that is their role today and it has always been their role to try to keep the focus away from Muslim and Islamic unity to one of confrontation and if they can get that going, whether supporting Ali Hadi in Pakistan. Whether in this country -believe it or not- the Islamic movements that are supported by Saudi Arabia always play a role in division.
Q: When we look at the internal situation in Saudi Arabia, of course we see the extreme discrimination, we see the rights of women not being respected and of course the fact that there is an absolute monarchy, there is dictatorship there. What is keeping the Saudi regime on its feet then?
Do you think that most of the support that it is getting from the West is doing that for it? For instance, if the US suddenly decides it is not going to give support to the regime, that is going to give support to the protesters, to the opposition that would mean that the Saudi regime is going to collapse?
Musa: Well, as doctor Marandi had said just a few minutes ago, that the Saudi regime appears on the surface to be stable, but when you have rebellion or change going on in Egypt, change going on in Yemen, when you have struggles going on all over the Muslim world, then we just have a conclusion or the beginning of a new level of struggle right in Tunisia, this causes the Saudi regime to quake, because some decades ago it could blame everything on Iran. Today it doesn't have anything to do with Iran, the revolution.
It is the people in each, in every country reaching out for freedom and justice in their own region. So, Saudi Arabia is known inside of its country and outside as being a tool of imperialism.
Many of the people in Saudi Arabia, Sunni's and Shia's whom we have relations with; have not been feeling toward regime. The regime is crumbling from the inside. Therefore, it tries to start problems on outside, people diverted from its own internal decay; because they know when you have problems all around the Muslim world and they surround Saudi Arabia eventually, the people inside and outside are going to look at the roots of the problems, and when they do, they will see that one of the main characters in this drama is the illegitimate stooge puppet regime in Saudi Arabia.
Q: The situation in Bahrain and the direct military involvement there, Mr. Musa, one question that is being raised is why, has not the West or the media or officials been saying anything about this intervention. Because, basically one country has been sending military troops into another country and those troops are being used to crackdown on protesters of mainly being peaceful there in Bahrain from - of course- the pictures and reports that we are getting, there is speculation that the West agreed to keep silent about the Bahrain intervention when the Persian Gulf cooperation council, supported the no fly zone decision and the intervention by NATO in Libya, know what do you think about this silence and the reasons behind it?
Musa: Well, the silence is for many reasons. I would say that, if we start at the top, we would have to take the fifth fleet, Bahrain is the home of the fifth fleet. The fifth fleet monitors the whole region and is a destabilizing force. The US fifth fleet is stationed in Bahrain, so they would not like to upset any of the geopolitical situations there, because it would mean the expulsion of the fifth fleet.
If they do not have the fifth fleet, they do not have a way to monitor, control, and have an influence in the area.
The other reason about Bahrain, if you take Bahrain, we know that the 80 percent of the population is Shia. But it is not only the Shia that is against the regime, [but also] the majority of the people, they have civil rights and libertarian organizations all from every school of thought, they are seeking a redress from this monarchy there.
So it is not only the Shia community, the other thing is that, if the United States and the West are so much for democracy, then why would they want 85 percent of the population to be governed by a small minority?
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