Saudis normalizing the idea of normalization ~ EoZ

Wednesday, July 13, 2022

Saudis normalizing the idea of normalization

Many Islamists criticized Saudi Arabia for appointing Muhammad bin Abdul-Karim al-Issa to perform the sermon and prayer on the Day of Arafa at the Namirah Mosque in Mecca for Hajj.

Al-Issa had visited Auschwitz, met with rabbis, visited Yeshiva University in New York and in general has been outspoken in pushing for coexistence with other religions.

This was a significant, public move that showed that the Saudi leadership is liberalizing and encouraging its people to no longer consider Israel as an enemy.

Saudi Arabia's Basic Law says that the constitution itself is defined as"The Holy Qur'an and the Prophet's Sunnah (traditions)." Before normalization with Israel is possible, there needs to be rulings based on the Quran that would allow such a relationship.

MEMRI reports that this is already happening:

An unusual and recent article on the religious legitimacy of diplomatic relations with Israel, which may promote the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and this country, appeared in the Saudi state daily Al-Jazirah on June 20, 2022. The article, titled "The Fiqh [Jurisprudence] regarding al-siyasa al-shar'iyya Shari'a-Based Policy and the State of Israel," is by Dr. Khalid bin Muhammad Al-Yousuf, a senior lecturer on international law at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh and the secretary-general of the university's Supreme Council. He argues that, in the modern era, there has been a significant change in the perception of the state and in the rules of the game in international relations. According to the new rules, he says, Israel is an existing reality just like any other world country, and a member of the UN. Therefore, it must be treated according to the accepted norms of the international community. Al-Yousuf calls on Saudi clerics to reexamine the sphere of international relations and formulate a new religious perception of it, compatible with these new norms, which will enable the ruler of an Islamic state to employ independent judgement and form ties with Israel if he deems this to be in the interest of his country. He emphasizes that normalization with Israel will allow many Muslims to come and pray in Jerusalem and "rebuild it," which cannot be done without maintaining ties with Israel.

The article, as translated by MEMRI, starts off with a justification for how Saudi Arabia has already accepted Israel as a member of the international community as a first stage towards recognition:

First of all, what is Israel today?

In the contemporary international community, [Israel] is a sovereign state that has the character of a state according to the modern global perception. It is a member of the UN, and since it is recognized as a state, it operates in the contemporary international community vis-à-vis all the other states, just like any other country – whether in the framework of mutual legal recognition [between it and other states], or in practice, based on reality, according to the requirements of the contemporary circumstances.

Examples of the first [type of recognition] are, for example, official mutual visits by state leaders, the opening of embassies, direct trade, and the like. Examples of the second [kind of ties, based on the requirements of reality are the existence of] maritime zones and airspace; the use of shipping routes; indirect trade, for example by transferring goods through third parties, in free trade zones and through [individuals with] dual citizenship; meetings between official delegations at international forums, and encounters as part of various sports events. A state cannot be part of the international community without taking an active part in international forums…"

The Saudis have already been interacting with Israelis in the context of multilateral and international meetings. This article gives both that level of acceptance and the higher level of recognizing Israel an Islamic imprimatur, by showing precedent by Mohammed in the Quran in how he dealt with other nations.

The legal basis is the concept of "al-siyasa al-shar'iyya" which says that relationships with non-Muslims that benefit Muslims have a wider latitude as long as they do not explicitly violate shari'a law. The essay says that the ruler of a Muslim country can make decisions about what is best for the country based on politics as well as Islamic law.

It seems to me that this policy has been in place for decades anyway - after all, Saudi Arabia has diplomatic relations with scores of Christian countries, and in Islam there is no legal distinction between Jews and Christians. But since Israel has been the object of so much hate for so long, and that opprobrium was also ostensibly based on Islamic law, the Saudi leadership needs to explain how it can justify such a major change in policy towards Israel.

There is another interesting implication in this article. It seems to effectively accept international law as being more important than shari'a when it comes to international relations:

If we examine our current reality we will find that [the concept of] dar al-harb in its Islamic and jurisprudential sense is no longer implemented today. The fact that it is not implemented does not mean that the shari'a laws pertaining to it are abolished, but only that they are not applied to modern states because this term is not used in the modern international community. Modern states interact through contracts, charters, agreements and alliances. These can be collective, like the UN Charter, which is the founding document of the UN, [an organization] that encompasses all the world countries. According to this charter, states have rights and duties towards the UN, towards the international community and towards each other… Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries to sign the UN Charter, and it is therefore a founding member [of this organization]. King Faisal signed the charter as a founding member already on June 26, 1945 in a ceremony that took place in San Francisco.

...An in-depth examination of the reality in the modern international community reveals that a state, in addition to being a legal entity, may not violate modern international law… For example, it may not hijack planes, trains or ships in another country, and if it does so, it incurs international condemnation.

This could open the door for Saudi liberalization in many more areas than just relations with Israel.

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