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The Challenge to Mecca |
| Section: CURRENT ISSUES / ANALYSIS |
| Author: Amos Perlmutter |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 1/1/1988 |
| Size: 1,961 Words, 11,862 Characters |
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Whether one believes the Saudi or Iranian account of the bloody violence that occurred during the summer hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca), the reality is that there exists a deep ideological and fundamental division between revolutionary Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one that threatens more violence and strife for the future. The language used to describe the massacre may be ideological and religious in nature, but at stake is nothing less than the balance of power in the Persian Gulf.
The Saudi-Iranian conflict--punctuated by bloody demonstrations and strife--is basically a war of words over "Islamic identity," to use the language of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Reacting bitterly to the massacre in Mecca, Iranian President Ali Khameini verbally assaulted the Saudis on August 18 and called for an end to Saudi custodianship of Islam's holy sites. Iranian hajj director Mahdi Karubi Khomeini said in a news conference in Tehran on August 26 that Saudi Arabia was the "usurping government of Hejaz," referring to the Saud dynasty's 1933 incorporation of Asir. And on November 26, senior member of parliament Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani announced over Tehran Radio that Iran...
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...tilities in the Gulf will probably endure through the deaths of Khomeini and Hussein.
Thus, in and of themselves, the tanker war and the bloody eruption in Mecca were not serious enough to shake the House of Saud. But the combination of the two--ideological and strategic--poses a deadly threat and continues the steady deterioration of the influence and power of the Saudi ruling house. vbcrlf
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
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articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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