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 By Habib Trabelsi
The war between "guardians of virtue" and "agents of America" flares anew following the opening of the oil-rich kingdom’s first coeducation university.
4/10/2009 -The "King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the first university in Saudi Arabia where female and male students can mingle freely, recently inaugurated by the Saudi monarch, has revived the perennial war between hardliners of the religious establishment and backers of the liberal current, or "agents of America." But this time, the belligerence of the "guardians of virtue" ... did not spare the king.
Mixed = evil
Just a week after its inauguration, KAUST has aroused great controversy caused by an outcry of unruly clerics, including a representative of the official clergy, against gender mixing, which they consider as "evil" and "lust".
On Wednesday, at least three editors of newspapers close to the government rapped a member of the Supreme Council of Ulema, the highest religious authority in Saudi Arabia.
Sheikh Nasser Bin Abdel Aziz Al-Shethri, advisor at the Royal Court, is so far the highest member of the religious establishment to have denounced coeducation at the university, using various precautions and circumlocutions.
Speaking on the Islamic Saudi satellite television Al-Majd, Sheikh Shethri reminded KAUST officials that "gender mixing is highly corrupt," before urging them to ensure the strict application of sharia (Islamic law).
However, he made it clear he had dared approach the subject for the "love of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques."
First warning shot
It was King Abdullah himself who broke a taboo by inaugurating the first coeducation public institution in this ultraconservative country amid the presence of Heads of States and experts who were dazzled by this state-of-the-art university equipped with the latest advanced technology.
By giving the kickoff for this multi-billion-dollar project he has dreamed about for a quarter of a century, King Abdullah warned against "extremists, those who know only the language of hate, fear dialogue and only seek destruction."
The first warning shot to counter "the American offensive against the educational policy of the kingdom" and "the project of Westernization under the guise of science and technology" has been given the same day by two clerics in two communiqués published during the inauguration last week’s inauguration of the 36-sqaure-kilometre campus.
KAUST has been constructed in a desert plot on the Red Sea coast, 80 km north of Jeddah, which enjoys a non-existent openness from the rest of the kingdom and aspires to become a regional tourist destination like Dubai.
Sheikh Sulaiman Al-Douish an old slayer of the "mules of liberalism," declared that "coeducation is a sedition and an absolute evil", and called on "officials and the First Servant of the Two Holy Mosques, to renounce this heresy."
He warned that "they must know it will be difficult to close the door of evil."
Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Toraifi, followed suit by calling gender mixing at KAUST "an evil act." Pandora's Box And it was then the turn of Abu Loujain Ibrahim, director of a website close to conservatives, to open Pandora's Box by a sharp article in which he reminded Saudis that "Riyadh has always been careful in its educational policy to ban coeducation in all institutions and all levels of education ... with the exception of nurseries and kindergartens."
He then accused "the secular, liberals, supporters of false modernity and those who are afraid of being called responsibility reactionaries in blond flood sweeping the cradle of Islam from the corrupt West," warning against "the problems resulting from coeducation."
The article is likely to "generate" hundreds of articles more corrosive against "the agents of America" and more incisive against coeducation.
Some readers listed dozens of "evidence on the dangers of coeducation", others mentioned many texts taken from Sharia about its ban, while others highlighted some extracts from the Western press announcing "a new trend in the West to prohibit coeducation at schools because of sexual deviance and its moral causes"
"KAUST" or "FAUST"
"Seculars, supported by the West will try to use the university to spread a mixed-sex environment in the rest of the kingdom and carry out their evil objectives," wrote one reader.
"KAUST will be a true copy of the compounds of Aramco (the Saudi national oil company); this state within a state where women drive cars, go out without abayas and veils and mingle with men, without shame," scolded another.
Another reader expressed his outrage at the ban of the "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" (religious police) from entering the campus to ensure compliance with good morals.
"So the door is open to all depravity. KAUST will soon be called Faust, who sold his soul to the devil," he added in reference to the character of the German folk tale that has entered a pact with 'Mephistopheles'.
Nayef to the rescue
Several readers have launched urgent appeals to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Prince Nayef bin Abdel Aziz, urging him to "stop the evil hypocrites, envious, and westernized from the offspring of America and Satan."
And for good reason! In recent months, Prince Nayef has dealt several hard blows to the liberal current, represented especially by intellectuals, journalists and businessmen.
This included an abortion in July of the only film festival in the kingdom, which was supposed to take place in Jeddah, a decision hailed by opponents of the 7th art, also regarded as "absolute evil" by the Commission – a government body which enforces strict sharia.
Terrorism "enriched"
"Barrak" replied that "Prince Nayef can not oppose the will of the king. We should all stand against corruption at the university by all legitimate means: messages to the king, articles on internet, calls to the Ulema, particularly the mufti."
However, the Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdel Aziz Al-Sheikh, who had strongly condemned gender mixing at the Jeddah Economic Forum (2004) and the publication of photographs of Saudi businesswomen unveiled in the press, has kept mum a week after the inauguration of "KAUST.
Therefore, a reader who calls himself an "oppressed citizen" advocated "jihad against the depraved and corrupt".
"For the first time, I find a justification for terrorism. They opened the university to prostitution. We will see which of the two will win: the followers of lust or supporters of faith and jihad," he stressed.
"Abdul Aziz bin Mohammed" went on noting that "King Abdullah, who fought against terrorists and opened the doors of redemption to them, opens today a university that will contribute to the enrichment of terrorism," predicting that "the reaction of young believers will be violent."
This remark immediately paved the way to a spate of vicious comments, even outrageous towards the Saudi King.
Liberals counterattack
Several columnists, writers and readers immediately flew to the defense of this Saudi "cultural revolution", vehemently blasting critics of the new "Beit Al-Hikma" (House of wisdom).
"These enemies of civilization, science, knowledge and progress are the exception, but not the rule. Their bidding on marginal issues is no longer a secret. Their verbal diarrhea is idle," wrote last Sunday Mohammed bin Abdul Al-Sheikh, a columnist for the daily Al-Jazeera and one of the supporters of liberalism.
Jamal Khashoggi, editor of the daily Al-Watan, the mouthpiece of the liberal current and strong critic of the "Commission" members, took aim at the "the scum who can blame the leaders of subservience to foreigners."
Khashoggi, who attacked Sheikh Shethri, believes that "the time has come to call for Al-Majd Television to assume its responsibilities," which has become a platform of hardliners.
"Strategic failure"
A Saudi analyst told Saudiwave on condition of anonymity that" by asking the initiative to allow coeducation, the Saudi regime, which draws its legitimacy from Sharia and adheres Wahhabism (a rigorous doctrine of Islam) , has alienated a large segment of society."
"To please the West, the State has committed a strategic error that could make it lose the support of much of this fringe, represented by conservatives who are focused on marginal issues, such as gender mixing and driving," said the analyst.
"This new battle between conservatives and liberals is likely to bring water to the mill of terrorists," he added.
Translated by Dr Saad Guerraoui
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