ARAB NEWS Tuesday, December 10, 2019 3

SpotlightS P E C I A L C O V E R A G E

These reforms are not just about Saudi Arabia, they affect the whole region.

Ed HusainAuthor and scholar

GEOPOLITICS

Dick Cheney warns against US pulloutJumana Khamis Dubai

Strategy Forum (ASF) in Dubai, and could be seen as indirect criticism of US President Donald Trump’s pledges to pull forces out of Syria.

He cited the pullout and the 2015 lifting of sanctions against Iran during Barack Obama’s presidency as events that amplified instability in the region.

“Our allies were left abandoned, and no one wants to feel that way again,” said Cheney, who was chief executive of Halliburton between 1995 and 2000 and held high posts in several Republican administrations.

The former VP’s remarks came during the forum’s concluding session, “The global order 2030: The Unites States and China,” which was attended by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.

Joined by former Chinese foreign

Dick Cheney, one of the most influ-ential vice presidents in US history, has warned that “American disen-gagement” from the Middle East would only benefit Iran and Russia.

The 78-year-old’s warning came during a speech at the Arab

minister, Li Zhaoxing, in a candid panel discussion, Cheney offered his views on the next decade in the context of Iran’s regional ascen-dancy, China’s rise and Russian ambitions in the Middle East.

“I am not here to speak on behalf of the US government, or to speak to it,” Cheney said.

“For decades, there’s been a consensus of America’s influence in the world and how to use it. Humanity has benefited from America’s protectionism of the world and its relationship with its allies in the region.”

The upcoming decade would be bleak should the US adopt a disen-gagement policy, he said with the pressures most felt the Middle East.

In a separate ASF panel discus-sion at the Ritz-Carlton DIFC, Dubai, Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for the International Peace think tank, discussed Iran’s policies in a session titled, “The race for relevance and influence in the region: GCC, Iran, Turkey and Russia.”

Sadjadpour said he expected in the next 10 years to see the arrival of “an Iranian Putin” with a military background as the country’s next leader.

“After 40 years of a clerical regime and a military autocracy, there is now a rise of Persian

nationalism. This is a shift from the sheer revolution ideology,” he said.

Sadjadpour added that there had been

a n evolution of “Shiite

Arab” identities during the past two decades, with the focus more on religion than nationality.

In the circumstances, he noted Sunni Arab powers had an impor-tant role to play in welcoming Shiite Arabs into their fold “and luring them away from Iran.”

The analyst added that the future of the Arab world could not be explored and forecast without considering a growing mental health crisis. “Today, hundreds of millions of people in the region suffer from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and the effects of this will be with us for decades to come, resulting in issues like radicalism.”

He said there was a need for training thousands of counselors in the field of mental health in order to reach out to those whose lives had been affected by extreme violence and conflicts.

MOSQUE AND STATE

Saudi reforms lauded for positive impact on 1.8 billion Muslims

Jumana Khamis Dubai

If one looks at history, the religious class carried a great deal of authority in how cities operated, he  said. But with advances in knowledge, “the clerical class” can no longer claim the ability to answer all questions.

“The new generation ... does not

have a deep understanding of their own history, and maybe that’s a way for them to be more positive of the future — unburdened by their forefather’s baggage,” he said.

The findings of a poll developed by Arab News as part of an ongoing collaboration with the ASF,

“Mosque and state: How Arabs see the next 10 years,” were revealed during the panel discussion.

Moderating the session, Faisal J. Abbas, editor-in-chief of Arab News, cited YouGov data suggesting the Arab world remained religious despite reforms, with 51 percent of Arabs in favor of places of worship for other religions.

Husain ascribed the stigma connected with secularism in the region to the absence of a native, authentic and relevant definition that Arabs could identity with.

“The failure to articulate a strong Arab identity will create a vacuum for extreme Islamism,” said Husain, author of the 2007 book “The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw Inside and Why I Left.”

Criticizing political parties and organizations with an extremist agenda, he asked: “What has Hamas done for Gaza? What has Hezbollah done for Lebanon? What has the Muslim Brotherhood done for the Egyptians? The upris-ings led to instability.”

He suggested “progress” as the best model for Arab states, stating a desire to overthrow governments — as seen since 2011 — does not lead to a “utopian” system.

“We are still suffering from the revolutions since 2011 but what we have seen is ... that overthrowing governments didn’t work, doesn’t work and will not work.”

Echoing Husain, Ghobash said the scale of social and economic problems across the Arab world was a result of power being used to drive an extremist agenda.

what it means to be a Muslim Arab.Ghobash, who served as an

ambassador to France and Russia, and is the author of “Letters to a Young Muslim,” said it was needed as it is no longer exceptional in the region to be creative, progressive and economically driven.

Saudi Arabia came in for high praise at the Arab Strategy Forum (ASF), an annual event in Dubai attended by prominent scholars, diplomats, strategists and media professionals with the aim to forecast the next 10 years.

Taking part in a panel discus-sion on Monday on the theme “Future of Islamism in the Next Decade,” Ed Husain, a co-founder of the UK’s counter-extremism think-tank Quilliam, drew atten-tion to the ongoing reforms in the Kingdom, describing the changes as “unanticipated” but positive. “These reforms are not just about Saudi Arabia, they affect the whole region: 1.8 billion Muslims look in that direction several times a day,” he said.

“We are looking to the future of Saudi Arabia as it affects all Muslims around the world, and Muslims and the rest of the world are better for it.”

Since the 2016 launch of Vision 2030 there has been steady progress in women’s empower-ment, like the lifting of the driving ban on women and the removal of

a guardianship system, enabling Saudi women to travel or obtain a passport without male consent.

Other advances include the enactment of an anti-harass-ment law and changes regarding custody and alimony. Women have been allowed to enter fields such as aviation, security, tourism and entertainment.

Besides praising Saudi Arabia, Husain described the UAE as a country with “an almost ideal model,” where people are “privately pious and realize it is the state, not the mosque, that is responsible for solving issues.”

In his comments on “mosque and state,” Omar Saif Ghobash, assis-tant minister for cultural affairs at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Coopera-tion, said there is a need to redefine

Author Ed Husain: Kingdom’s steps are not just about Saudi Arabia, they affect the whole Islamic world

A mural of King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, above, whose reign has seen reforms that were praised during the Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai on Monday, in a discussion chaired by Faisal J. Abbas and featuring Ed Husain and Omar Saif Ghobash, right. AFP

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking at the Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai. AP

“Humanity has benefited from America’s protectionism of the world.”

The new generation ... does not have a deep understanding of their own history.