Of course, it is one thing to identify Mecca/Saudi Arabia as Mystery Babylon through the line of reasoning that we just followed, but what happens when we actually compare the reality of the Saudi Kingdom to the numerous descriptions about the Harlot that we have already explored?
Does Mecca/Saudi Arabia—the Saudi Royal family and the birthplace and center of Islam—match not most but all of the biblical requirements necessary to qualify as Mystery Babylon? As we are about to see, indeed it does. In fact, the fit is so precise that it's rather staggering.
Let's take a walk through the reality that exists politically, financially, and morally in the Kingdom and compare what we have already discovered about the Harlot. Below is the list that we developed as we explored the various biblical passages describing the Harlot of John's Apocalypse.
Let's begin by first reviewing this list of requirements before we proceed:
Now let's walk through each description individually and see if these also match what is known about Mecca/Saudi Arabia and its ruling family. The first two descriptions help to identify the Harlot by identifying her close relationship with the greater Islamic world and the nature of her anti-Yahweh and anti-Christ religion.
The Harlot will be intimately related and connected to the last days Islamic Empire. She represents the greatest and most influential anti-Yahweh religion that has ever existed.
Saudi Arabia is the very womb from which Islam was birthed. Every significant event in the early development of Islam under Muhammad took place on the Arabian Peninsula. It was in Arabia that Muhammad was born, where he grew up, where he carried out his "prophetic" career, and where he died. Saudi Arabia is the home of both Mecca and Medina—unquestionably, the two most sacred cities to Muslims worldwide. Not a single non-Muslim is allowed in these cities. It is unarguable that Saudi Arabia—or most specifically, Mecca—is the spiritual capitol of Islam.
Mecca is perhaps more worthy of the title of "spiritual capitol" than any other city in the world. Whenever someone wishes to describe the archetypal epicenter of anything, they call it the "Mecca" of whatever it might happen to be. This is due to the fact that five times daily, multiplied millions of Muslims from every nation in the world "turn their face" in prayer toward Mecca. Islamic supply stores and Internet sites carry dozens of various electronic compasses in order to help Muslims always know the direction toward Mecca—no matter where they might find themselves.
And of course, every Muslim is expected at least once in their life to make a spiritual pilgrimage there in order to circle and approach the Ka'ba—the "Cube"—on which features a prominently embedded black rock, believed by the ancient Arabian pagans to have fallen from the sky—a meteor—and a remnant of ancient Babylonian astral worship.
It is there that millions of Muslims from all over the world bow and kiss this black rock—imitating their prophet. Saudi Arabia, to this day, does not allow any church or synagogue to exist on the entire Saudi peninsula.
The only recognized religion in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is Islam. In short, Saudi Arabia is Islam. The two are so intertwined that, in fact, they cannot be separated.
Beyond all this, Saudi Arabia is also the ideological and financial source of the Wahhabi movement—or the Salafis, as they prefer to call themselves. In the 19th Century, when Ibn Saud, the patriarch of the Al Saud tribe was fighting for the consolidation of his tribal power, he forged an alliance with the patriarch of modern radical Sunni Islam, Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab.
Since those days, the House of Saud and the House of Wahhab have been inseparable. As one astute observer has commented, "[Together it is] Saud and Wahhabi, Wahhabi and Saud, that still rules Saudi Arabia."
Wahhabism/Salafism today is essentially a Sunni Muslim reformation movement with the goal of returning to the practices of the earliest Muslims. Wahhabis/Salafis strive to purge Islam of any later introductions or innovations (bid'ah) that they claim compromise the purest expression of the Islam that Muhammad and his companions preached and practiced.
The tendency of Wahhabism is thus toward the most extreme expressions of Islam and is the primary ideological source of so many radical Sunni Muslims worldwide. We should not be surprised, then, to find out that Osama bin Laden and the majority of the ground soldiers of al Qaeda consist of those who identify with Wahhabi thought.
But beyond being the ideological source of radical Wahhabi Islam, Saudi Arabia is also undoubtedly the primary source of funding for Wahhabism worldwide. The point here is that beyond recognizing, as we said above, that Saudi Arabia itself is Islam, we may also quite rightly say that Saudi Arabia is radical Islam.
We will not belabor all that has already been discussed regarding the anti-Yahweh and anti-Christ nature of Islamic theology. Nor will we redress the harsh anti-Semitic nature of Islam in this section. Suffice it to say that in light of these prominent features of Islam, as well as the incredible number of Muslims on the earth, Islam is indeed the premiere anti-Yahweh/anti-Christ religion that the world has ever known.
As the rulers over the land of Islam—"the Custodians of the Two Holy Mosques"—through her network of tentacles interwoven into numerous nations throughout the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia is of course in a very close relationship with the greater Islamic World.
On these two very important requirements—the necessity to be intimately related and connected to the emerging Islamic Empire and to be the representative of the greatest and most influential anti-Yahweh religion that has ever existed—Saudi Arabia fulfills these requirements perfectly.
Of these next three descriptions, the first speaks of where the Harlot will be found geographically—in a desert region. The second and third descriptions speak of her extraordinary wealth and of her royalty.
In the early 1930's, after many years of fighting and wrestling for power on all sides, Muhammad Ibn Saud, an Arabian Desert Bedouin, managed to consolidate his tribal supremacy over the entire Arabian Peninsula and name it after himself: Saudi Arabia. His timing was impeccable. In 1933, only one year after the tribe of Al-Saud had come to power, Ibn Saud "granted broad exploration rights to Standard Oil of California." Three years later, in 1936, they struck oil in what would become the most oil rich string of fields that the world would ever see.
This quickly led to the formation of a mega oil consortium named Aramco (Arabian American Oil Company). A series of governmental and corporate alliances were forged between the U.S. and the al-Saud tribe; WWII subsided; and the world became an open market for the House of Saud.
There has never been a speedier rise to the top of the global food chain of wealth and influence. As if overnight, an obscure Middle Eastern desert was transformed into a growing industrialized network of oil wells, refineries and pipelines. Likewise, the long-divided berg of desert tribes was transformed into a unified and formidable international presence: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Lastly, the Royal Family itself was transformed. Since those days, as Laurent Miraweic has sarcastically stated, members of the Saudi Royal Family "daily hear 'your royal highness' more than anyone since the Sun King." Or perhaps more specifically, former CIA agent and author Robert Baer describes the practical results of the transformation to the House of Saud:
Ibn Saud's offspring, and their offspring, would become some of the world's richest people, famous from the casinos of Monte Carlo to the brothels of London for their profligacy; the lords of billion-dollar palaces, owners of the best thoroughbreds and yachts, donors of university chairs and college laboratories, buyers of influence in every capitol of the West, ready to whisk around the world at a moment's notice on fleets of private jets.
With regard to the wealth of the Saudi Royal Family, it would be extremely difficult to overstate the degree to which they lavish themselves with luxury. When some Bible students look at this portion of the prophecy—the abundant luxury that the Harlot lavishes onto itself—they immediately see America.
To a measure this is understandable. It is reasoned that America is the most affluent and materialistic society imaginable. Certainly, there are many aspects of American society that could quite justifiably be criticized, and materialism is certainly one of them. But whatever outrageous examples of excess one might be able to find in American society, they would pale in comparison to what we find—not as anomalies, but as the rule among the Saudi Royal Family.
In fact, it is an outright over-the-top excessiveness that has come to define the Saudi elite. Examples, facts, figures and anecdotes could fill a book, but only a few examples are required to convey the reality of life for the Saudi Royals.
Take the recently deceased King Fahd. As far back as 1974, Fahd spent an evening gambling in Monte Carlo. In one night, he gambled away nearly $5 million dollars. Again, this was 1974—that $5 million then would be valued at closer to $18 million today. When was the last time that anyone heard of some member of the Hollywood elite, or an eccentric American CEO, or sports figure or any American President or Senator gambling away $18 million dollars in one evening just for entertainment?
Has Bill Gates ever been known to do such a thing? Do American Presidents ever act like this? Even when compared to the excesses of America's most rich, most powerful and most elite, the overindulgence of the Saudis exists in a league completely all its own.
Gerald Posner, the author of Secrets of the Kingdom, elaborates on the measure of wealth and luxury that we are dealing with in the Saudi Royal Family by enumerating just a few of the deceased King's real estate holdings.
It is here that we begin to understand the broad chasm between American wealth and Saudi wealth: In Saudi Arabia, King Fahd "built several enormous palaces…each one grander than the one it replaced." One palace was actually a near replica of the White House, but after several advisors counseled the King that living in it would convey the wrong message, it simply sat vacant. Posner continues:
His "official" palace was a throw-back to when the Kingdom's first kings lived behind walled cities. It was essentially a tiny Vatican City, with opulent furnishings and walls that ran several miles around the perimeter. Architects who worked on the palaces estimated that they were worth several billion in the 1980's.
Today that several billion would be valued closer to upwards of $20 billion. But this is only the value of the King's palaces in Saudi. There are many more, including:
One hundred room house in Marbella Spain; a spectacular estate outside of Paris that was initially built for the eighteenth century French kings; a mansion near London on which he spent nearly $60 million in refurbishments; and a sprawling palacio in Geneva, in which, he was fond of boasting had over 1,500 telephone lines.
He flew between cities in a private 747 SP fitted with an enormous pink master bedroom, gold bathroom fixtures, a mahogany elevator, a sauna, and Baccarat crystal chandeliers. Fahd's lavish yacht—the size of a luxury liner—cost $50 million, and he kept over two dozen Rolls-Royces, fitted with gold hood ornaments and grills, in his different homes.
Posner also amusingly points out that Fahd actually had a British firm custom modify a Rolls Royce Camargue into a one-of-a-kind dune buggy. A Rolls Royce Camargue dune buggy! But if that is not enough, consider the following: Fahd's favorite son, Abd al-Aziz, known among the royal family as Azouzi ("Dearie") built for himself a home—more of an Islamic theme park really—which cost him over $4.6 billion dollars.
Not million—Billion. And again, this is only one of his homes. Consider the amount of money that this is: Only two homes anywhere in the world have ever sold for more than a $100 million.
Yet Azouzi's Islamic version of Michael Jackson's Wonderland Ranch cost him over 46 times that amount! But Prince Aziz is far from alone among the Saudi princes in surrounding himself with luxury beyond imagination. In March of 2005, Forbes magazine described the Riyadh palace of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud. This particular palace has, among other things, 317 rooms. It cost the Prince over $130 million to build. "Totaling 400,000 square feet, it has a soccer field, eight elevators and more than 500 television sets." It certainly sounds like a lovely single family dwelling.
At the time of this writing in early 2006, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, former Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., has his 95-acre Aspen, Colorado estate listed at a cool $135 million.
That even trumps Donald Trump—a name virtually synonymous with real estate wealth—who is presently asking $10 million less for his Palm Beach mansion. In what other nation does the job of Ambassador provide one with greater wealth than America's most well-known real estate mogul? If sold at asking price, Bandar's "cabin" would set the world record for the most expensive home ever sold—in the history of mankind.
"How much she hath glorified herself, and lived in luxury...." (Revelation 18:7, KJV)
As said earlier, the list could go on and on with each anecdote or outlandish figure outdoing the last. The point however is that of the three descriptions regarding the Harlot; her royal status, her fabulous wealth and her location in a desert region, there simply could not be a better fit than the Saudi Royal Family.
The Harlot persecutes God's people: Christians and Jews. She is a persecutor of the saints. Specifically, it is said that in her is found the blood of prophets and saints.
When we specify God's people, we are specifically referring to those who are in a biblically defined covenant with God: the Jews and Christians of the world.
Before we begin to discuss whether or not Islam and Saudi Arabia rightly fulfills these descriptions, it is important that we first review a few facts about the Roman Catholic Church. As we have already discussed, one of the more commonly held interpretations among Protestants for centuries is that the Roman Catholic Church, headquartered in Rome, is the fulfillment of the Harlot prophecies.
Some who hold to this view selectively point to periods of history when the Roman Catholic Church—or at least certain of her members—was involved in bloodshed, particularly against Protestants. While the Roman Catholic Church did, indeed, at times persecute Christians that were not Roman Catholic, it is important that we remember the full picture and consider all of the facts.
Those who espouse the Rome as the Harlot perspective are also remiss to discuss the fact that not only the Catholic Church, but also the Lutherans and any number of Protestant groups—particularly in the decades that followed the reformation—are also guilty of sectarian bloodshed.
But even more importantly, it is rarely discussed that the Roman Catholic Church has issued several public apologies and admissions of guilt with regard to many of its past sins. These confessions and apologies pertained to both the Catholic Church's improper response to Hitler and the Holocaust, as well as to those sins that were committed by Catholics during the Catholic/Protestant split and the Crusades. Thus the repentance is to both Jews and (non-Roman Catholic) Christians.
On March 1, 2000, with a press conference in Paris, representatives of the Roman Catholic Church released a new church document entitled: "Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past." The document quotes Pope John Paul's 1994 Apostolic Letter "Tertio millennio adveniente":
Hence it is appropriate that as the second millennium of Christianity draws to a close, the Church should become ever more fully conscious of the sinfulness of her children, recalling all those times in history when they departed from the spirit of Christ and His Gospel and, instead of offering to the world the witness of a life inspired by the values of her faith, indulged in ways of thinking and acting which were truly forms of counter-witness and scandal.
Although she is holy because of her incorporation into Christ, the Church does not tire of doing penance. Before God and man, she always acknowledges as her own her sinful sons and daughters.
Eleven days later on Sunday, March 12 of 2000, Pope John Paul II delivered a homily in the St. Peter's Basilica entitled, Universal prayer: Confession of sins and asking for forgiveness. In the homily, the Pope expressed regret and repentance over the historical sins of those Catholics who persecuted or sinned against "women, Jews, Gypsies, other Christians, and Catholics."
During the homily, the Pope also apologized on behalf of the Church and made the following request for forgiveness:
"We are asking pardon for the divisions among Christians, for the use of violence that some have committed in the service of truth and for attitudes of mistrust and hostility assumed towards followers of other religions."
It is very important that these public acts and statements of repentance were highlighted as we examine this portion of Revelation 17 and 18. While the Catholic Church has admitted to sinning against "other Christians," the fact is that much of the violence and bloodshed that occurred in the days of the Protestant Reformation was most certainly reciprocated whenever Protestants had the power and the opportunity. Yet many Protestants today still see in Revelation 17 a prophecy of a future judgment of God on Rome and the Catholic Church—while exempting themselves from any such punishments.
Certainly this paradigm—and the attitudes that have supported it—must be reconsidered. Regardless of which side one may take regarding the Catholic/Protestant division, we all agree that God does not punish his children for sins that have been publicly confessed and repented of. If such were not the case, then surely as children of the Reformation, would not Protestants today be guilty as well?
When one looks to Rome today, is there Christian or Jewish blood being shed? Of course not. Instead of persecution, we see apologies and public repentance. This is a far cry from what is described in the Book of Revelation, where we read:
"I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints...." (Revelation 17:6)
Despite whatever monstrous caricatures of the Catholic Church that some may continue to paint, Rome simply cannot be twisted into fulfilling the prophecies of the Harlot. The simple facts remain; any killing or violence committed in centuries past by Catholics undeniably pale in comparison to the torrents of abuse and blood that have been released by Muslims since the earliest years of Islam. Jewish scholar Bat Ye'or has written several superb volumes on this subject and thoroughly puts to rest any notion that life under Muslim conquest was anything other than crushing for the majority of Jews and Christians who found themselves in such a position. Certainly exceptions can be found, but they remain just that: exceptions.
Of course, the scope of this book restricts us from a full historical review of Islamic persecution of Jews and Christians—dhimmis, or "subjected peoples" as they are called. Instead, we will only briefly discuss the form and the extent of the bloodguilt of the House of Al Saud.
While we will unpack this subject in greater detail later in this chapter, for now we will simply remind the reader of what should be obvious to the world: Saudi Arabia has a very clear and specific program of exporting and funding radical Wahhabi Islam and Islamic jihad throughout the Middle East and abroad.
As such, it is they who are responsible for the untold numbers of lives that have been lost and all of the blood that has shed in numerous fronts around the world—the most obvious front, of course, being in Israel.
On this front, the Saudis barely attempt to hide their support for the Islamic terrorists. Through the Saudi Committee for the Support of the al-Quds Intifada (SCSQI), the Saudis provide the surviving families of Palestinian suicide bombers with a $25 thousand dollar reward—a figure matched by the equally anti-Semitic Saddam Hussein.
In April of 2002, Saudi Arabia held a national telethon to raise funds for (SCSQI). Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Prince Alwaleed, always a generous philanthropist, pledged $27 million. The donation of money came during a Saudi government sponsored telethon to raise money for the jihad/intifada in Israel. Kenneth Timmerman, noted author and activist, on Insight on the News: "Saudi Wealth Fuels Global Jihadism (11/11/03)" reported that the telethon was hosted by a prominent Saudi government cleric, Sheikh Saad al Buraik, who during the live television coverage told the audience:
"I am against America until this life ends, until the Day of Judgment, I am against America even if the stone liquefies. My hatred of America, if part of it was contained in the universe, it would collapse. She is the root of all evils and wickedness on Earth … Muslim Brothers in Palestine, do not have any mercy, neither compassion on the Jews, their blood, their money, their flesh. Their women are yours to take, legitimately. God made them yours. Why don't you enslave their women? Why don't you wage jihad? Why don't you pillage them?"
Apparently the message was so inspirational that Alwaleed felt moved to give $27 million. The overall contribution by the Saudi Royal Family was roughly $50 million. After loud protests from America, another Saudi Prince, Naif bin Abdul Aziz, the Interior Minister, defiantly declared in a statement: "The committee will continue to provide direct assistance to the families of Palestinian martyrs and those wounded while resisting the occupation (The Times of London 4/23/02)."
And of course, by "martyrs," let me remind you of whom Aziz is speaking. There was, for example, the 12-year-old Abdullah Quran or the partially retarded 16 year old Husam Abo, both of whom by the grace of God failed to detonate their bombs, each claiming that they were pressured or conned by older terrorists to carry bombs into an Israeli check post. More successful was Saeed Hotari, who died in a suicide bombing outside a Tel Aviv disco, killing 21 Israelis and injuring over a hundred. "My son has fulfilled the Prophet's wishes.… Tell me, what more could a father ask?" Hotari's father was quoted as saying.
The Middle East Media Research Institute, in July of 2003, published a report on the Saudi royal family's financial support to the Palestinians from 1998 through 2003. The report states that:
For decades the royal family of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the main financial supporter of Palestinian groups fighting Israel, through the creation of two major committees. The Popular Committee for Assisting Palestinian Mujahideen and The Support Committee for the Al-Quds Intifada and The Al Aqsa Fund have to date given over 15 billion Saudi Riyals (4 billion $U.S.) and reportedly pledged Palestinians up to 1 billion dollars to finance the continuation of the Intifada, which is also commonly referred to by Saudi officials as "Jihad" and "resistance."
These are the things that Saudi Arabia openly and proudly admits to funding with their wealth that literally bubbles up from the earth. And yet the American government calls the Saudis their friends. An ironic claim when according to Sergey Kurginyan, director of the Moscow based International Foundation for Experimental Creativity, Saudi Arabia has become the leading financier of the Sunni insurgency in neighboring Iraq.
So while America fights the war in Iraq—as thousands of Americans, British and Iraqis give their lives for the stabilization of Iraq—America's friends, the Saudis, are the primary source of funding for the murderous resistance fighters.
Can there be any question that the Saudi Royal Family's hands are stained with blood when they proudly support suicide bombing in Israel, Iraq and who knows where else? Because surely, Saudi funding of jihad in Israel and Iraq is only the tip of the iceberg.
Simply stated, Saudi Arabia provides everything from ideological, educational, emotional and financial support to the radical Wahhabi Islamic jihad around the world. Saudi Arabia has a definable program of spreading its ideology and influence: first in the Muslim world, and then beyond.
The first step in the process is the funding and building of madrassas—indoctrination camps for school kids—by the thousands. Throughout the world, one can find Saudi funded Islamic centers and Mosques that exclusively promote the Saudi's acidic brand of Islam. The Saudis educate, indoctrinate and send out ulema (Islamic Scholars and teachers)—missionaries of Saudi Wahhabism—throughout the Middle East.
Thousands of these missionaries are funded beyond most missionaries' wildest dreams. Once in the target country, they establish and support the various Saudi Islamic centers and front organizations, such as the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY) or the World Muslim League (WML). It is the Saudis who liberally toss copious amounts of money at these Islamic centers and madrassas—as well as the terrorists and the jihads that they all inevitably produce.
When examining the various Sunni Muslim related conflicts, wars and jihads throughout the world today, it is an all too common mistake to assume that these things are unrelated or disconnected. In fact, they are all related—they all bear the distinctive mark of Saudi Wahhabism and can all be traced back to Saudi Arabian influence and support. The civil wars, the jihads, the conflicts—in all of these things, the blood of the slain is on the hands of the Saudi Royal Family. From Afghanistan to Bosnia—in Sudan, Algeria, Pakistan, Israel, Kosovo and Chechnya—Saudi Arabia's fingerprints can be found everywhere.
When a Christian believer from Afghanistan is sentenced to death—when over 150 children are literally slaughtered in their elementary school in Beslan—when a suicide bomber walks into a Passover Seder and kills over thirty Israelis and wounds hundreds—when Christian Churches are pillaged and destroyed in Pakistan—when the Twin Towers, and thousands of lives, fell—these things all fall on the heads of the Saudis.
The fields where jihad and death have bloomed were plowed, planted, watered and cultivated by the Saudis. It is beyond doubt that the Saudis are guilty before God for the untold amounts of lives lost and the blood that has been shed through their funding, support and efforts.
In the minds of the Saudis who deliberately spread such evil in the earth, however, all the blood that is spilled is simply infidel blood. In their minds, they are spreading righteousness by purging the world of the non-Muslim kafir unbelievers, paving the way for the eventual rule of Islam over the world.
They believe themselves to be serving Allah. But God describes them as being "drunk on the blood of the saints" and He promises to punish them completely.
How many times have you heard a reference to Islam as "the religion of peace"? It is a title that is repeatedly applied to Islam by Muslim evangelists whose goal it is to reach westerners, whose ignorance of Islam is well known. Does the association of the term "peace" with Islam seem like a contradiction to you, in light of the fact that the overwhelming majority of wars and conflicts in the earth today revolve around Islamic jihad? It should.
But the facts do not slow down the Islamic da'wa (outreach/evangelism) and propaganda machine. It is important to remember that besides Christianity, Islam is the only other major world religion with a significant evangelistic thrust. And leading this charge is the Saudi propaganda machine known as the Islamic Affairs Department of Saudi Arabia.
In my personal library are a handful of Islamic books and booklets, even a large, bound, hardcover Quran—all of which were sent to me free of charge—compliments of the Saudi Embassy. All one must do is go to the web site of the Islamic Affairs Division of the Saudi Arabian Embassy (www.iad.org) and fill out their request form.
Soon you will receive a very nice free Quran and a box of books or booklets, all declaring the miracles, wonders and beauty of Islam—and of course, the shortcomings and failings of Christianity, Judaism and other "corrupted" religions. Can you imagine if America or England or any other Western country provided anyone in the world who asked with a free Bible and Christian evangelistic materials? The thought is unimaginable. No other nation in the earth does this.
But the two-faced approach of the Saudis is also seen in this: For although the materials that I received exclusively express the positive claims of Islam, the Saudis are also sending out, to American Mosques, materials that express an entirely different kind of Islam.
In a 2005 report, titled, "Saudi Publications on Hate Ideology Fill American Mosques," the human rights group Freedom House discovered that Saudi Government sanctioned hate literature is being distributed to American Mosques.
The report followed a year-long study examining over 200 books and tracts found in mosques from Los Angeles, Dallas, Oakland, Calif., Houston, Chicago, New York and Washington. In the materials examined, Muslims living in America are encouraged to "behave as if on a mission behind enemy lines." Of those who convert to Christianity or Judaism, they are told, "If you do not repent, you are an apostate and you should be killed because you have denied the Koran." The report states that:
Involvement by the Saudi government was immediately evident from the seal or name of a government department emblazoned on the cover of the literature. Materials examined were easily identifiable as originating from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, the Education Ministry, the Saudi air force and other branches of the Saudi government.
But these things are only the beginning. On December 12th, 2005, the same Prince Alwaleed mentioned above, the one who donated $27 million to support Palestinian suicide bombings and the Intifada, also donated $20 million to Harvard University and another $20 million to Georgetown University to establish two university wide Islamic studies programs. At the announcement of the donation at Harvard, Alwaleed was quoted as preaching that "Bridging the understanding between East and West is important for peace and tolerance."
Now please stop and consider the absolute absurdity of this statement and event:
The same prince who donated $27 million to encourage suicide bombings turns around and lectures Harvard University about "peace and tolerance." In fact, in what alternate universe can any Saudi Prince come to America to declare the need for understanding and religious tolerance, while in his own country, no religion other than Islam may ever be openly observed? Violators of religious law are publicly beheaded.
Christians may not even so much as wear a cross lest they face being sternly punished by Saudi law. And the Jews, well they were banned from even stepping foot on Saudi soil until at least 2002. And to top it off, only one month earlier than Alwaleed's announcement, on November 12, 2005, a Saudi Chemistry teacher was sentenced to 750 lashes for "speaking positively about Jews" in class. How dare she! Is this the type of religious tolerance that Prince Alwaleed wishes the West to learn about at Harvard?
And despite the reputation of Harvard as a bastion of high mindedness and tolerance, for $20 million dollars, they were happy to prostitute themselves to the most religiously restrictive regime in the world. But this is how the Saudi Harlot causes the world to commit adultery with her—it seems that everyone has their price. But more on that later.
It truly saddens me that Harvard accepted Alwaleed's money; but above all, what needs to be seen and grasped in this particular story—as a multitude of other stories just like it could fill a book—is that the Saudis, who support terrorism abroad and with an iron fist, completely suppress any other religion in their own country, all the while claiming to promote a peaceful and tolerant religion with their lips.
But only when the enemy is listening of course. Yet everyday, hundreds of people fall for these sugar-coated invitations to an Islam that is not really Islam at all. It is what so many former Muslims have dubbed, a "Christianized" version of Islam. It is a decaffeinated "Islam lite," if you will, that has been specifically created for presentation to the gullible West. And every year, multiplied thousands of Westerners fall for this con.
But, eventually, the Christianized aspects of this newfound faith fall away. What remains is a religion that is indeed every bit as evil and as violent as the harshest critics of Islam claim. Eventually, the candy coating wears through, and the darkness and filth that form the core reality of Islam become apparent. The tracts that speak of "the Religion of Peace" are created to lead you to the Mosque. It is there that the messages in the tracts change to violence and hatred, as we saw above.
Saudi Arabia, as the spearhead and the foremost leader of Islamic world evangelization, indeed offers the world something that is painted as "beautiful," yet in reality is totalitarian in nature—violent, extreme and utterly intolerant.
Like the Harlot who proudly holds her golden cup high for all to see, Saudi Arabia extends the offer to all to embrace what she calls the "the One True Religion" or the "Religion of Peace." And like the contents of the biblical Harlot's cup, we also see that upon inspecting the realities of the Saudi's golden offer, what we actually find are "abominable things" and the utter "filth" of a perverse, dehumanizing and hateful religion.
Saudi Arabia most definitely fulfills the description of an entity that offers mankind something that many perceive as being very beautiful; yet in God's eyes, it is absolutely a filthy abomination.
Many westerners are not aware of the fact that the perception of the Saudi Royal Family throughout the Middle East, and most specifically by the radical element, is enormously negative. Yet, while the radicals hate the Saudi Royal Family nearly as much as they hate America or the West, a strange dance nevertheless exists between the two—a love/hate relationship in the purest sense.
On one hand, the radicals are aware that the Saudi Royal Family is the greatest financial and ideological supporter of worldwide jihad. Yet they also hate them for their corruption, perversion, and of course their friendly relationship with the United Sates and the West. Robert Baer describes the hatred of the Saudi Royals among the Saudi people:
There's actually more than enough rage against the West and Riyadh and against the House of Sa'ud. It's in the air in Riyadh and Jeddah's bazaars: the conviction that all the oil money has corrupted the ruling family beyond redemption, and that the Saudi leaders have defiled the faith by allowing U.S. troops into the kingdom. Getting rid of the American military might help, but the rage against the ruling family runs further than the United States.
There are many reasons that the radicals hate the Royal Family. One dynamic that will always be found among any group of people who are anything less than financially secure is class envy. The poor love to hate the rich. And with the ever-widening chasm that exists between the ruling class of the Al Saud and the increasingly struggling Saudi people is a problem that entire volumes have been devoted to. Warnings of looming revolution and uprisings can be found on the lips of numerous observers of Saudi society. As Robert Baer has expressed it, Saudi Arabia "is a powder keg waiting to explode."
Beyond the class envy, there is also the simple fact that if there is one type of person that everyone loves to hate; it is a hypocrite. And the Saudi Royal Family is perhaps the biggest source of hypocrisy that one could imagine.
On the one hand, they promote and fund the global spread of the most radical and puritanical form of Islam known; and on the other hand, they live the classic "thousand-and-one-nights lifestyle" of reckless hedonism, absolute perversity, and utter corruption. Rumors, whispers and anecdotes abound, and sometimes it is difficult to discern truth from fiction; but there have been plenty enough leaks, through the years, that the picture is clear.
Alcoholism (alcohol is completely illegal in Saudi Arabia), drug abuse, serial rape, orgies, homosexuality, child molestation and any variety of other profoundly non-Islamic activities that you can imagine flourish within the Saudi Royal Family.
According to the very knowledgeable and respected journalist and author, Said Aburish, King Saud, who ruled the Kingdom from 1953 to 1964, was a well known alcoholic, as well as a homosexual pedophile. Although he had taken more than a hundred wives by the age of fifty two, this was not enough to quench his lusts. Such perverted patriarchal domination runs in the family. Saud's father, Ibn Saud, on a rare venture outside of his country into Egypt, asked the Egyptian Foreign Minister, "This country is full of pretty women and I would like to buy some of them and take them home. How about 100,000 (Egyptian Pounds) worth of them?"
Later, Ibn Saud's grandsons would also act with an equal lack of tact outside the country by proudly paying prostitutes in Paris and London with solid gold watches that had a picture of their father, King Saud, on the dial. As recently as 2002, "Nai'if bin Sultan bin Fawaz al Shaalan was indicted by a Florida grand jury on charges that he used his personal plane to transport two tons of cocaine from Caracus to Apris."
In Sleeping with the Devil, Robert Baer discusses the numerous private estates that the Saudi Princes have built along the Mediterranean in Morocco, specifically for the purpose of entertaining prostitutes and having wild parties away from the prying control of the Saudi Mutaween (religious police). Baer cites one horrific story out of Morocco that he became aware of while working for the CIA:
A Saudi prince with well-placed friends in Washington had bitten off the breast of a young Moroccan girl in a drunken frenzy. King Hassan [of Morocco] swiftly had the incident covered up. The girl's family was paid off, and she was told she would keep her mouth shut or spend the rest of her life in jail.
When making charges such as perversion, corruption and so forth, it often becomes imperative to back up such claims with abundant citations and proofs, but I'm sure that this is enough. Like the examples of Saudi wealth, stories of Saudi Royal perversion, corruption and colossal hypocrisy simply roll on and on and on. It is therefore not at all difficult to understand why the devout Wahhabis, both within and without Saudi, wish to replace the Royal Family with a genuine Islamic government.
Beyond understanding the deep-seated desire of the Wahhabi radicals to displace the Saudi Royal Family from power, one also needs to understand the threat from their Shi'a opponents.
Today in the Middle East, there are two primary competing powers. On one side is Saudi Arabia and the many nations that have been influenced by the Saudi's exportation of Sunni Wahhabism. On the other side is Iran and the many nations that have been influenced by Iran's exportation of the Iranian revolution, primarily through the Shi'a Hezbollah.
Beyond the competition that exists between the two nations, in terms of sectarian Sunni/Shi'a competition, there also exists the rivalry for the position of the oil producing Alpha-Nation. Ultimately, the two nations are competing for control over the whole Middle East and neither will rest until one is on top.
So beyond the fact that the Saudi's own people—a majority of which are quite radical—wish to overthrow them, so also does Iran and the Shi'a Muslims of the Middle East wish to crush them as well. Today with the fall of Saddam Hussein and the growing strength of the Shi'a block, this conflict will surely develop in the months and years ahead.