Saudi Shiites mistrustful of Americans' motives

U.S. troops met hostility, not hospitality in Iraq Scenes of siege, civilian deaths fuel cross-border anger

MARTIN REGG COHNASIA BUREAU, Toronto Star
Mar. 31, 2003. 01:00 AM

AL-QATIF—Shiite Muslims living in this oil-rich kingdom aren't surprised that their brethren in Southern Iraq haven't welcomed invading troops with flowers and sweet tea.

They think they know why: In the Middle East, America's motives can't be trusted.

People here felt betrayed when their fellow Shiites revolted against Saddam Hussein's rule after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, while the U.S. stood idle. These days, they are exasperated by satellite television broadcasts showing Palestinians suffering in their intifada, while America stands by Israel.

Now, after seeing the scenes of siege and civilian deaths in neighbouring Iraq, Saudi Shiites are even more mistrustful of the U.S. Little wonder, they say, that their brethren across the border are feeling only hostility, not hospitality, toward the Anglo-American interlopers laying siege to Basra in southern Iraq.

"They're not killing Saddam, they're killing ordinary people, old and young," says retired oil worker Saeed Al Saffar, 55, as he cradles his 2-year-old daughter Fatima."Saddam is bad, but the Americans are worse than him," says Al Saffar, a lifelong resident of this oasis town of 400,000 Shiites on Saudi Arabia's east coast."Look what they're doing to the Palestinians. Now they're doing exactly the same thing to the Iraqis."

Coming from Saudis, that's a harsh indictment.This is America's oldest and firmest Arab ally in the Middle East. Its eastern province is home to most of Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority, and repository of the country's oil reserves.Americans have been coming here for decades, extracting oil while pumping money into the local economy. Many Saudis, in turn, have gone to America to study and seen their province benefit from modernization.

Yet for all their fond memories, they say the U.S. has gone too far this time. Shiites feel U.S. soldiers are too close for comfort — and that Saudi Arabia may be next in America's sights.

"I think after Iraq the Americans may go after Syria next, then Iran, and maybe Saudi Arabia," says store clerk Fadil Saleh, 23. "The American military is bombing houses and hospitals, and it's an outrage."

For local writer and political activist Najeeb Al-Khonaizi, the hostility on both sides of the border is to be expected. The liberation of Iraq and liberalization of Saudi Arabia cannot be imposed by force.

"War is war," he says in an interview in his living room. "The U.S. and its allies didn't judge the situation well before they got into this war."

He believes Iraqi Shiites are leery of American plans for post-war occupation. As evidence, he cites televised images of U.S. troops planting the Stars and Stripes on Iraqi soil in the early days of fighting. "You can't link yourself to a foreign power, it is against religious principles," says Al-Khonaizi. "The U.S. lacks the moral qualifications to do it (liberate Iraq), because their hands are not clean because of the Zionists."

Despite the local skepticism, Washington is still holding out hope that the Iraqi Shiites will come onside in the days ahead. Though chastened, many American analysts argue that the Shiites are merely biding their time until Saddam's grip on power is loosened.

At a Senate hearing last week, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued that "they've been repressed, and they are in the present time in Basra assisting us."

But Al-Khonaizi believes that's wishful thinking. Like many Saudis, he believes America's war agenda has been written by influential Jewish officials in Washington who have somehow hijacked policymaking and manipulated the best and the brightest in the capital to do Israel's bidding. Though he is eager to see the Shiites freed of Saddam's rule, he doesn't want it replaced by what he sees as American-Zionist hegemony."On the one hand we are against Saddam and want a change in regime, but we feel that this way of removing it is not human, that's why there are so many tragedies. "War will not make Iraq more free, it will do the opposite."

The suspicions of Saudi Shiites, many of whom have family ties across the border and a shared religious and cultural heritage, may shed light on the sentiments of southern Iraqis. But it also reflects the pent up frustrations toward their own government in Saudi Arabia.

In Iraq, Shiites make up about 60 per cent of the population but have long been dominated by the Sunni minority who back Saddam's regime. They have been subject to brutal repression in the south for decades, which is why some Western analysts were surprised by their reluctance to rise up again.

In Saudi Arabia, it's a different story. Shiites are only about 10 to 15 per cent of the population of 21 million, though they make up a majority in the strategically sensitive, oil-rich Eastern Province. Here, the restive Shiite population suffers from entrenched discrimination and religious intolerance, though their plight cannot be compared to that of the Iraqis.

The schism between the minority Shiite sect and the mainstream Sunni school of Islam goes back to a 1,400-year-old succession struggle in Iraq, which pitted Imam Ali and his son Hussein against the Caliphate. The climactic battles took place in Karbala, which became a pilgrimage site for Shiites.

Now, that city and its surroundings are shaping up as a battleground between American and Iraqi troops.