Laura and Fadwa kindly translated an article I wrote in Arabic for Al-Akhbar from a few weeks ago.
Here it is:
What has oil madness brought to the Arab person? What can we say about the accumulated billions that have gone to support the Western banks and corporations hostile to our interests, or to buy arms for America to use to support those servile regimes, or for the sake of subjugating those who raise their voices against Israel. Is there anyone among us who will yearn for Arab oil and its political actions, if the oil runs out?
As’ad Abu Khalil
If Arab oil runs out, there would be a great deal of change in our Arab world. If the oil runs out, there wouldn’t be clusters of men flocking to the Janadriya Festival screaming of manhood saying good things about a king who finds it hard to speak correct Arabic. If Arab oil runs out, there wouldn’t be the Arab national missionary, Ma’n Bashur, to endure the hardship of travel in order to take part in the glorification of a government whose job is to fight nationalism and to strengthen regionalism and the Bedouins and tribalism and factions. If the oil runs out, no one would come to the Janadriya Festival, except for Abdullah and his sons – unwillingly. If the oil runs out, a corps of senior religious officials in the Kingdom would become a television laughingstock and a reason for the intellectuals to show the ugliness of these people and a target of real enlightenment – not the false enlightenment of the entourage of this or that Emir.
If Arab oil runs out, the sermons of the mosques of the Shi’a and Sunni would join together equally to condemn the doctrine of primness and fanaticism and hostility towards the Saudi women with abundant money. If the oil runs out, the dark extremists could never speak in the name of Islam, and repress the dream and tolerance and the true brotherhood of man. If it ran out, their historical splendor and luster would be returned to Mecca and Medina and debate and discussion would return to them. Poetry and prose in all their forms would return to the season of the Haj as it was before the rise of Mohammed Bin Abd-al-Wahab. If oil runs out, religious scholars would speak the truth and would condemn doctrines of fanaticism supported with oil money.
If Arab oil runs out, we wouldn’t be talking about the Saudi age – the first and the second – and the imperialistic policies of the West wouldn’t depend on the Saudi regime. There would be a great change in the Arab world, and the media would stop calling the Saudi king by the title “Servant of the two Holy Places.” Servant of the two Holy Places? And who gave him the right? And how does he serve the two Holy Places? And what about his service for American and Israeli interests? Doesn’t that deserve a special title too? If the oil runs out, they would call the Saudi king the servant of dates and perfume – no more – that is if the monarchy continued which wouldn’t survive without the benefits of oil. If Arab oil runs out, Saudi women would drive cars and buses and vehicles, uncovered or with hijab or veiled, if they wanted. If oil ran out, Saudi women would leave their marital jails for the open society and freedom.
(Submitted by a reader)