وَلَن تَرْضَى عَنكَ الْيَهُودُ وَلاَ النَّصَارَى حَتَّى تَتَّبِعَ مِلَّتَهُمْ قُلْ إِنَّ هُدَى اللّهِ هُوَ الْهُدَى وَلَئِنِ اتَّبَعْتَ أَهْوَاءهُم بَعْدَ الَّذِي جَاءكَ مِنَ الْعِلْمِ مَا لَكَ مِنَ اللّهِ مِن وَلِيٍّ وَلاَ نَصِيرٍ

 And never will the Jews, nor the Christians be pleased with you, till you follow their ways. Say: Lo! the guidance of Allah is [true] guidance.” And if you should follow their desires after the knowledge which has come unto you, then you will have from Allah neither protecting friend nor helper.

[ʾal-Baqarah: 120]

The Persian Gulf states are also collectively referred to as the “Khalīj”. The recent fanfare about “normalisation” between some of them and the Zionist entity would not be surprising to anyone who has studied any of these statelets. Some of the recent reforms towards “secularisation” and a distancing from the Sharīʿah stem from policy decisions made in the past. Examining the history of the Khalīj and its peoples will help understand how this unfortunate juncture has been reached. Of additional importance is an understanding of the long-term strategic and geopolitical objectives of foreign powers, with specific focus on the plans put into place many years ago that are now bearing results. This article will seek to provide an overview of these issues, with a focus on the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

An Emirati author recently wrote the following:

“Today’s modern Arabian Peninsula is a far cry from the environment of the 1940s and 1950s. Many homes in the Gulf have countless coffee table books with glossy photographs of the pre-oil Arabian Peninsula. We see black and white photographs taken by adventurers like Wilfred Thesiger showing rake-thin Bedouins with long straggly unkempt hair looking incredulously into the camera lens. We hear from our elders of the intense harshness of life in the desert. Children and adults would die at the slightest sign of illness. Dysentery and diarrhea were frequent killers. I recently came across the photocopy of a notebook detailing the names, birth dates, and causes of death of a group of my relatives from 1850 to the 1940s. The vast majority died of forms of dehydration shortly after birth while others were afflicted much later in life.

Saif Omar Ghobash, “Letters to a Young Muslim” (2017)

Life before the oil boom in the Khalīj was undeniably harsh. The Bedouin tribes who inhabited it faced a daily challenge to simply survive. Conditions did not exist for them to thrive and incrementally develop the civilisational complexity of urban societies elsewhere in the Islamic world, such as Damascus, Baghdad, Ḥijāz or even central Asia. It is no coincidence that the Khalīj did not develop an academic environment in which important educational institutes were established and in which scholars could study, write and develop. In the UAE, there is not a single educational institute which had the repute of ʾal-ʾAzhar, Qayrawān or even smaller institutes elsewhere. The same goes for Islamic scholars – one struggles to name a single significant Islamic scholar that hailed from this region. In simple terms, the level of Islamic education was elementary and living standards were low.

Oil changed all of this. In the space of single generation, the leaders of the UAE had the resources to propel this newly formed federation of previously antagonistic emirates from the camel age to the space age. This rapid transformation meant that there was no time to gradually develop systems that reflected the existing culture and religion. Rather, technology, human resources, educational systems and even the plans of new housing developments were imported en masse from elsewhere. Where previously, Bedouin children would learn how to recite the Qurʾān and perhaps basic jurisprudence from a village elder, now they were enrolled in British and American curriculum schools and where western teachers taught them. The same twenty-somethings who in a previous generation would herd camels and goats barefooted, were now granted prestigious scholarships at Western universities. They returned home eager to implement this knowledge and even recreate a replica of the cultural and recreational environment they had enjoyed and experienced while studying in the West.

These changes resulted in the following effects on society:

1. A break with the past

New systems, largely western in character and substance, replaced the old ways of living. For example, western schools replaced traditional elementary Islamic education. The traditional Khalījī architecture which provided natural cooling in the harsh summer months was replaced with western-style condos, villas and golf estates (which were less environmentally friendly and sustained with air-conditioning systems and desalinated water). Emiratis imported interest based banking and financial systems as well as the regulatory ecosystem which govern them and embraced them without question They eschewed the traditional sūq which had to give way to glittering American-style malls. These examples are by no means exhaustive.  

2. A Cultural Change

The influx of largely non-Muslim expatriates and tourists into what was traditionally a homogenous, Islamic tribal society resulted in an increased openness, acceptance and ultimately assumption of non-Islamic morals and norms. For example, while the local population would traditionally never have been exposed to women in miniskirts (as the local dress code would require women to be covered), the need for foreign labour to power the local economy meant that these norms would have to be relaxed. The long-term exposure to these newly introduced foreign cultures eventually resulted in a local culture which not only tolerates, but promotes foreign cultures, music and art, even where these conflict with Islamic law and culture. This has now led to changes in legislation that, for example, allow for greater laxity in alcohol trade and consumption, the trade in pork, open interest-based financing, the application of the English common law court system and the removal of the requirement for a woman and man to be married if they choose to cohabit. The next logical step is the possible amendment of the constitution (which currently provides for Sharīʿah as a source of law) and the ultimate move of Islām into the exclusively private sphere.

The developments in the Khalīj conveniently dovetailed with various strategies proposed by western think-tanks such as the Rand Corporation, for example:

An effort should be made to promote the flow of moderate ideas to the Middle East from Muslim communities in Europe, Turkey, Southeast Asia, and other open societies.

Open PDF

Western academics and politicians theorised that the Middle East has historically been the area where Islamic ideas flowed to the rest of the Muslim world. The Middle East was, for most of Islamic history, more austere and orthodox as compared to the periphery of the Islamic world (such as Indonesia) where the implementation of Sharīʿah was comparatively laxer. The focus (particularly post 9/11) has hence been how to “moderate” this flow of ideas to ensure that the Middle East exported a “moderate” Islām that facilitated the development of a western-friendly global Muslim network. The above mentioned transformation of the UAE earmarked it as a key laboratory for this strategy, best exemplified by bodies such as the UAE Fatwa Council (a body led by ʿAbdullāh bin Bayyah), Hedaya Center (which ostensibly counters extremism) and other such bodies which promote and export a “moderate” Islam that is sync with the political doctrine of the UAE as a key US ally or client state.

All the above-mentioned factors and developments will assuredly lead to the following further changes:

1. The ultimate break with Islām and embracing of Secularism:

While this process has already begun (as described above), several key changes are still pending, most notably the amendment of the constitution to remove references to Sharīʿah and the possible amendment of the wording of the national anthem to remove the reference to Islām as the religion of the country and the Qurʾān as its guide. Several important leaders and intellectuals have already made explicit public statements aimed at diminishing the role of religion in public life, for example:

• A senior Emirati diplomat made the following statements at a recent policy forum:

“The way we (UAE) define our problems, we don’t define them in religious terms. Economic problems are economic problems, they’re defined with technical economic terms, based on data and research”; …

“I was recently speaking to somebody at the (UAE) Ministry of Climate Change and he mentioned the prayers for rain and he said ‘at one point that was really important, and probably is still very important. But, today we have cloud seeding’; ” …

“Ultimately, the secularization you are talking about will come by the basis of irrelevance of their (i.e. Islamic scholars) expertise.”

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/dubai/religion-shouldnt-play-a-role-in-economic-decisions-uae-official

• Prominent Emirati social media personalities such as @HSajwanization openly rail against “Islamism” and Sharīʿah in public life; and

• An Intellectual named Jamal Sanad Al Suwaidi has written a book titled “The Mirage” in which he openly advocates for the separation of religion from power and secular societies in the Middle East.

2. An Acceptance of Atheism & Agnosticism

The diminution of the Islamic educational system is a long process (as described above). The traditional village kuttāb was abolished and Islam was taught in schools in parallel with secular subjects. Recently the UAE educational authorities reduced Islamic subjects to 6 months of the year, with the other 6 months devoted to citizenship studies i.e. the teaching of ethics and good citizenship without religion. It is likely that Islamic subjects will become optional in the coming years. The currently method of teaching Islam and Arabic is extremely poor when compared to the cutting-edge methods used to teach secular subjects. All these decisions have already led to a generation who have no contact with traditional ʿUlamāʾ and the traditional Islamic educational system, or the spirit that it imbued in generations of the past. The new generation openly questions and critiques Islamic belief, doctrine and their utility in the modern world. The process of creating a godless generation which is openly atheistic is well under way.

3. The Bifurcation of Society into a Secular Elite & a Religious Underclass

Allāh guides individuals to remain true to traditional Islamic principles while the rest rebel against Islām. Emirati society has been bifurcated. People who wish to live religious lives and express religiosity openly (for example by keeping a beard or wearing a niqāb) are already being denied access to public life. For example, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, it is a common and accepted clause in employment contracts that a male is not allowed to keep a beard. Similarly, veiled women are not allowed to work for government departments. Ultimately, religious individuals and families will become an underclass far away from the key centres of power and influence, eking out a living while holding on to their religious principles.

4. The Diminution of Arabic

Local authorities have already expressed concern that Arabic is a dying language in the Khalīj. This is a natural consequence of the educational policies which have prioritized English over Arabic. The result is that current and future generations will be effectively cut off from the language of their religion and heritage, similar to what the so-called Ataturk accomplished with the changing of the Turkish script.

5. Possible Acceptance of “LGBTQ”….XYZ

While this is not yet apparent, it is a natural “progression” of the increasing secularisation and westernisation of society. If religious laws and morals derived from Islām make no sense to people, there is nothing to stop this movement in the future. It will also tie neatly into the “tolerance” initiative promoted by local rulers.

6. Co-operation Based on National as opposed to “Ummah” Objectives

A common slogan used by Emirati social medial personalities is that of “UAE first”. The concept of an ʾUmmah is routinely critiqued and mocked as being antiquated and inconsistent with modern society and the primacy of the nation state. This is the key driving force of “normalisation” with the Zionist occupation force in Palestine. For the local ruling class their perpetuation and security trumps Islamic and pan-Arab causes (such as Palestine).

While this article does not comprehensively elucidate all the nuances associated with the transformation in the Khalīj, it is hoped that the reader will have a better understanding of the recent news headlines and potentially even more shocking and dramatic changes that are likely to occur in the future.

May Allah guide us and keep us firm, on our faith and religion in the face of current and future tests.

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سليمان الكندي

Twitter: @sulayman_Kindi