RIYADH / DUBAI (Reuters) – When one of Saudi Arabia’s leading clerics asked Muslims this month to avoid “passionate feelings and fiery enthusiasm” towards Jews, it was a marked replacement of tone for someone who shed tears while preaching about Palestine in the past.
The sermon of Abdulrahman al-Sudais, imam of the Grand Mosque of Mecca, broadcast on Saudi state television on 5 September, arrives 3 weeks after the United Arab Emirates reached a historic agreement to normalize relations with Israel and a few days before the Gulf State. Bahrain, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, followed suit.
Sudais, who in previous sermons prayed that the Palestinians would have victory over the Jews “invaders and aggressors,” explained how intelligent the Prophet Muhammad was to his Jewish neighbor and argued that the most productive way to convince Jews is to convert to Islam to “treat them. “smart. “
While Saudi Arabia is not expected to follow the example of its Gulf allies in the short term, Sudais’ comments may be just a trace of how the kingdom is advancing on the delicate factor of warming in Israel, a perspective it once was. he is one of the most influential figures in the country, reflecting the prospects of his devoted and conservative status quo, as well as the Royal Court.
The dramatic agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain are a coup d’etre for Israel and U. S. President Donald Trump, who presents himself as a peacemaker before the November election.
But the grand diplomatic prize for an agreement with Israel would be Saudi Arabia, whose king is the custodian of Islam’s holiest places and leads the world oil exporter.
Marc Owen Jones, a professor at the Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, said that the normalization of the UAE and Bahrain had allowed Saudi Arabia to public opinion, but that a formal agreement with Israel would be a ” great task “for the Kingdom.
“Giving the Saudis a special touch through an influential magnet is obviously a step in the quest to control the public’s reaction and inspire the perception of standardization,” Jones added.
In Washington, a State Department official said the United States, encouraged by the warming of relations between Israel and Arab Gulf countries, saw the trend as a positive progression and “we are committed to harnessing it. “
There was no quick reaction to a Reuters request for comment from the Saudi government media office.
Sudais’ call to escape intense emotions is a cry from his beyond, where he wept dozens of times as he prayed for Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest place.
The September 5 sermon provoked a combined reaction, with some Saudis protecting it as if it were only communicating the teachings of Islam. Others on Twitter, more commonly Saudi and supposedly critical of the government, have called it a “standardization sermon. “
Ali al-Suliman, one of the many Saudis interviewed at one of Riyadh’s shopping malls via Reuters TV, said in reaction to bahrain’s agreement that it is difficult to get used to normalization with Israel through other Gulf or Middle Eastern states, because “Israel is an occupying country and has driven Palestinians out of their homes. “
IRAN’S MUTUAL FEAR
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto leader of the kingdom known as MbS, has promised to publicize interreligious discussion as a component of its internal reform. The young prince has said in the past that Israelis have the right to live in peace in their country. peace agreement ensures the stability of all components.
Saudi Arabia and Israel’s mutual concern for Iran can be a key driving force in the progression of relations.
There have been other symptoms for which Saudi Arabia, one of the most influenced countries in the Middle East, is preparing its other people despite all the warming in Israel.
A drama of the time, “um Haroun”, aired in April in Ramadaan on Saudi Arabian-controlled MBC television, at a time when the audience is sometimes increasing, focusing on the trials of a Jewish mid mid midfeed.
The fictional series was about a multi-religious network in an unsofi specified Arab Gulf state in the 1930s to 1950s. The exhibition provoked complaints from the Palestinian organization Hamas, portraying the Jews with sympathy.
At the time, MBC said the exhibition was the highest-rated Gulf drama in Ramadan Saudi Arabia. The authors of the exhibition, any of them Bahraini, told Reuters that he did not have a political message.
But experts and diplomats said this is another indication of the evolution of public discourse on Israel.
Earlier this year, Mohammed al-Aissa, a former Saudi minister and secretary general of the World Muslim League, visited Auschwitz. In June, he attended a convention organized through the American Jewish Committee, where he called for a global release of “Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. “
“Certainly, MbS intends to moderate state-approved messages shared through the clerical status quo and some of that will likely serve to justify any long-term agreement with Israel, which would have been unthinkable sooner,” said Neil Quilliam, a spouse at Chatham House.
ISOLATED PALESTINOS
The normalization between the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel, to be signed at the White House on Tuesday, has driven the Palestinians away.
Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, did not deal with Israel’s agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, but said it remains committed to peace on the basis of the long-standing Arab Peace Initiative.
How, or yes, the kingdom would seek to standardize an agreement on those terms remains uncertain.
This initiative provides standardized ties in exchange for a state agreement with the Palestinians and Israel’s total withdrawal from territories captured in the 1967 Middle East War.
However, in a striking gesture of goodwill, the kingdom legalized flights between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to use its airspace. Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who has a close relationship with MbS, welcomed the resolution last week.
A Gulf diplomat said that for Saudi Arabia, the most similar factor to what he called his devoted position as leader of the Muslim world, and that a formal agreement with Israel would take time and probably not take place as long as King Salman is still in power.
“Any normalization through Saudi Arabia will open the door for Iran, Qatar and Turkey to call for the extranjerization of the two sacred mosques,” he said, referring to regular calls from Riyadh critics for Mecca and Medina to be overseen by foreigners.
(Additional information through Davide Barbuscia, Alexander Cornwell in Dubai and Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; edited through Maha El Dahan, Michael Georgy and William Maclean)
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