ARAB TIMES, MONDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2015

8INTERNATIONAL

New research centre on Wahhabism in Riyadh

Conservatism still central to Saudi soulRIYADH, Oct 18, (AFP): SaudiArabia’s new research centre onWahhabism, to open on the edge of thecapital Riyadh, looks fitting for abranch of Islam considered inflexible,intolerant and unchanging.

Imposing with its limestone blocks,their bulk lightened only by glass-enclosed bridges, the centre is part of amajor development project shepherdedby Saudi King Salman.

The building honours SheikhMohammed bin Abdul Wahhab, the18th-century fundamentalist preacherwho co-founded the Saudi state.

It is a clear sign that his legacyremains central to the Saudi souldespite his strict doctrine and accusa-tions it is fuelling deadly Sunniextremism around the world, includingthe murderous drive of Islamic State(IS) group militants.

Featuring cafes and palm trees dec-orated with tiny lights, the project isset in Addiriyah, birthplace of the rul-ing Saud dynasty, and includes theUNESCO World Heritage Atturaif dis-trict.

“It has very high historical value forthe government and for us,” saidAbdullah Arrakban, the urban develop-ment manager for the High Commissionfor the Development of Addiriyah.

Here, King Salman, monarch of theworld’s biggest oil exporter, has a tur-reted palace overlooking the crumbledmud brick homes of his ancestors nowundergoing preservation.

And it was here that AbdulWahhab’s partnership with a contem-porary local chief, Imam Mohammedbin Saud, laid the foundations fortoday’s kingdom and its reliance onthe sheikh’s 270-year-old teachings.

Conceived in 2000, the project is

targeted for completion by the end ofnext year.

It has begun to refurbish the district,restore its ancient Atturaif oasis com-munity and create crucial green spacein this heart of the Arabian peninsula.

Five mini-museums will depict lifein the first Saudi state, which lastedfrom 1744 to 1818 when it fell toTurkish-Egyptian invaders.

“We are trying to keep the atmos-phere of Addiriyah — the nature, thecolour, the original architecture,”Arrakban said, fingering blue prayerbeads while being interviewed in hisbook-filled office.

Although the heart of the 750-mil-lion-riyal ($200-million/179-million-euro) project will be Atturaif, the adja-cent Abdul Wahhab Foundation isdesigned to honour the sheikh’s role asco-founder of the state and tell “thetruth” about his intellectual heritage,Arrakban said.

It will feature a library of books anddocuments about his teachings, avail-able for research, as well as a multi-media “Memorial Hall” illustrating thereligious movement he inspired.

At the centre of the foundation com-plex is a modern incarnation of thesheikh’s original house of worship.

“The media, they try to say ‘No, hetried to kill, to make war’... I think thisis not right,” Arrakban said.

Abdul Wahhab preached “tawhid”— the oneness of God — which meantopposition to the worship of saints andto Shiism, a prohibition on images ofliving beings and the implementationof sharia law.

He saw his doctrine as a return toIslam as practised by the first genera-tion of Muslims.

His pact with Saud in the 1740s

gave legitimacy to the first head of theroyal house, who in return implement-ed Abdul Wahhab’s strict version ofthe Islamic faith.

The partnership continues to this day,with the ruling family maintaining itstight grip on political life and puritani-cal clerics preaching strict codes of con-duct that make Saudi Arabia among theworld’s most conservative countries.

Women are forbidden from driving,there is no intermingling of the sexes,and cinemas and alcohol are banned,while the militant preaching associatedwith Wahhabi thought is accused ofinspiring extremists from Osama binLaden to IS.

Irfan al-Alawi, co-founder of theMakkah-based Islamic HeritageResearch Foundation, said honouringAbdul Wahhab and preservingAddiriyah is “hypocrisy” at a timewhen “Islamic heritage is being wipedaway” elsewhere in the kingdom.

Yet “Saudi Arabia is not DAESH,”said Stephane Lacroix of Sciences Pouniversity in Paris, stating that AbdulWahhab left politics to the politicians.

“The political authority puts a num-ber of constraints on the religiousauthority which in a sense limits thekind of radicalism that can come out,”he said.

Lacroix added that some of thecountry’s youth “don’t really feelWahhabi at all”, as Saudi societychanges under modern influences.

In April Salman opened part of thedevelopment, parks and restaurants inAl-Bujeiri quarter which overlooks theAtturaif ruins.

On a recent evening, women clothedin black according to local custom saton concrete benches as familiespushed strollers across a central plaza.

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Turkey on Sunday, theGreek coastguard said.

The service said a sailboat early on Sundayreported it had recoveredthe body of a baby andhad rescued 11 migrantsoff the Kastellorizoisland. The coast guard,which then rushed to thespot, recovered thecorpses of another twowomen and a boy, while itwas looking for a missingman, it said. (RTRS)

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ZURICH: The anti-immi-gration Swiss People’sParty (SVP) won thebiggest share of the votein Sunday’s national par-liamentary election, initialprojections showed, keep-ing pressure on Bern tointroduce quotas on peo-ple moving from theEuropean Union.

The result, based oninitial projections bySwiss TV, gives the SVP65 seats in the 200-mem-ber lower house of parlia-ment, the largest numberfor any Swiss party in atleast a century.

Immigration was thecentral topic for votersamid a rush of asylumseekers from the MiddleEast and North Africa toEurope. (RTRS)

taken by some developing countries as areason to restrict freedom of expression.

He also called on the international fed-eration to push towards accelerating thedemocratic development process andadopting appropriate international legis-lation and decisions to lay the founda-tions of international peace and security.

said in a statement.Al-Nasr worked for al-Qaeda’s Iran-

based network before taking charge ofthe militant group’s finances in 2012 andmoving to Syria in 2013, the Pentagonsaid.

He was the fifth senior KhorasanGroup leader killed in the last fourmonths, it said.

“This operation deals a significantblow to the Khorasan Group’s plans toattack the United States and our allies,

and once again proves that those whoseek to do us harm are not beyond ourreach,” Secretary of Defense Ash Cartersaid in a statement.

Ghitani’s books, including widelypraised novel Zayni Barakat, have beentranslated into several languages such asEnglish, German and French.

An opponent of Islamists, Ghitani,who worked as a carpet designer beforetaking to writing, reported extensivelyfrom the frontline during the 1973 Arab-Israeli conflict.

Acclaimed locally and internationally,Ghitani won many awards, the latestbeing the Nile Award for Literature in2015, the highest literary honour grantedby the Egyptian government.

In 1987 he was made Chevalier del’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, a presti-

gious position awarded by the Frenchgovernment recognising significantachievement in the arts.

In 1993, Ghitani founded and headedAkhbar Al-Adab (Literature News), oneof Egypt’s literary newspapers, remain-ing its chief editor until 2011.

Mohammad died, to the borders with(Syrian provinces) Hama, Idlib, Latakia,and Aleppo.”

His group’s presence in Syria “is larg-er than ever before — qualitatively, quan-titatively, and in equipment, because weare in a critical and definitive battle”,Nasrallah said.

Activists say Russian and Syrian war-planes are pounding targets in central andnorthern Syria amid reports of civiliancasualties.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatoryfor Human Rights and Syrian Revolutionin central Homs town of Tabliseh, anactivist-operated media platform, saidwarplanes believed to be Russian target-ed mourners in al-Ghanto village whowere burying people killed a day earlier,killing four civilians. The activists saidseveral villages in the rural areas north ofHoms were pounded with airstrikes,including government helicopters drop-ping barrel bombs.

The state-news agency SANA reportedarmy troops began a ground offensive inthe area. Meanwhile, the Observatory andthe monitoring group the LocalCoordination Committees said intenseclashes were reported in Wadihi, a villagethe government took control of in anoffensive in southern Aleppo.

A senior official in Havana onSaturday “categorically” denied reportsthat Cuban troops were in Syria support-ing the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Talk of up to 300 Cuban soldiers sentto Syria originated in the Fox News net-work on Wednesday, citing an unnamedUS official as source.

The Fox story also mentioned that theUniversity of Miami’s Institute for Cubanand Cuban-American Studies learned thatthe head of the Cuban armed forces visit-ed Syria with a military team to supportthe Assad regime.

The story has appeared in media out-lets across the Middle East, althoughState Department spokesman John Kirbysaid Thursday that the report could not beverified.

Italy said Saturday that UNESCO hasapproved its suggestion to have theUnited Nation’s famous Blue Helmetsprotect heritage sites around the worldfrom attacks by Islamist militants.

“UNESCO has said yes to the CulturalBlue Helmets,” Culture Minister DarioFranceschini said in a statement, addingthat 53 countries voted in favour after thedestruction of sites including Palmyra inSyria by the Islamic State group.

“Faced with IS terrorist attacks and theterrible images of Palmyra, the interna-tional community cannot stand back andwatch,” he said, adding that the perma-nent members of the security council hadsupported the idea.

United Nations peacekeepers, knownby their distinctive blue helmets, wouldbe able to profit from the expertise ofItaly’s cultural and heritage police, “whocarry out training missions around theworld”, he said.

The idea is aimed at “important sites atrisk from terrorist attacks, or in warzones, or zones hit by natural disasters,where the international community willbe able to send Cultural Blue Helmets toprotect them or defend them before theycan be destroyed”.

extends 400 square meters. The source named the property owners

as Elyas Naqoula Al-Hani from Lebanon,Zaher Fouad Al-Khateb from Jordan, andAl-Saedi brothers from Yemen-Talal andSakinah, Egyptian Ibrahim Al-SeyyidIsmail, and Abdul-Amir Shehab fromYemen.

He revealed that the Minister ofJustice, Awqaf and Islamic AffairsYacoub Al-Sane’ signed the propertyownership about 10 days ago, and LawNumber 74/1979 stipulates that onlyArab expatriates can own a maximum ofone property in a residential area inKuwait if a decree is issued in their favor.

He also said the property ownershipshould conform to stipulated conditions;the applicant must be a permanent resi-dent in Kuwait with income enough topurchase the property. The applicant mustnot have breached trust throughout theperiod of stay or an ex-convict.

He should dedicate the entire propertyfor private residential purposes where hewill reside with his family. He should notown any other property in Kuwait, andthe property must not cover more than1,000 square meters area. He should bethe citizen of a country that deals withKuwait based on the policy of reciproci-ty, and a Kuwaiti should not have anyshare in the property.

Atomic Energy Agency that it wouldapply a protocol granting inspectorsgreater access to its nuclear sites, a fur-ther step in the implementation of a his-toric deal struck with world powers, theUN nuclear watchdog said.

“On October 18, the director general ofthe International Atomic Energy Agencywas informed by the Islamic Republic ofIran that... Iran will provisionally applythe Additional Protocol to its SafeguardsAgreement, pending its ratification by the(parliament),” the IAEA said in a state-ment.

The additional protocol is a voluntaryagreement enabling the IAEA to gaingreater access to Iran’s nuclear facilitiesand research, to ensure that no atomicmaterial is diverted to any covertweapons programme — an aim deniedstrenuously by Tehran.

Iran had been a signatory to the proto-col from 2003 until 2006 before pullingout of the agreement.

In related news, the European Unionon Sunday published legal acts that openthe way for the bloc to lift sanctions ifTehran meets the conditions tied to alandmark nuclear agreement betweenIran and world powers.

The legal acts have no immediateeffect but cement a process agreedbetween six world powers and Iran inJuly to lift sanctions in return for Iranaccepting curbs on a nuclear programme

that the West suspected was aimed at cre-ating a nuclear bomb.

Tehran has always denied seekingnuclear arms.

“The EU today adopted the legislativeframework for lifting all of its nuclear-related economic and financial sanc-tions,” EU High Representative forForeign Affairs Federica Mogherini andIranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif saidin a joint statement.

“It will take effect on ImplementationDay, simultaneously with the IAEA-veri-fied implementation of agreed nuclearmeasures by Iran,” the statement said.

Germany’s foreign minister said onSunday sanctions against Iran would like-ly remain in place until at least January asworld powers wait to see whether Tehransticks to its commitments under a plan tocurb its nuclear programme.

In July, Iran struck a deal with sixworld powers under which it must restrictsensitive aspects of its nuclear pro-gramme to help ensure they can never beput to bomb-making, in exchange for theremoval of sanctions.

But Germany’s Frank-WalterSteinmeier said Iran must show evidenceit is complying with the deal before thesanctions can be lifted.

“That definitely won’t be the casebefore the end of January,” he toldreporters in Tehran on the first day of theimplementation of the nuclear deal.“Now the question is whether Iran showsthat it can fulfil its commitments.”

Tehran must show it is dismantlingcentrifuges used to enrich uranium,destroy existing enriched material andrebuild a heavy water reactor in the cityof Arak, Steinmeier said.

Iran is counting on an end to sanctionsto boost its battered economy, particular-ly its oil and gas sector that has shrivelledunder Western sanctions.

But recently the Obama administrationprivately reminded other governmentsand US bankers that sanctions againstIran remain in effect until Iran fully com-plies with the July nuclear agreement,diplomatic and government sources toldReuters.

Iran has long denied that its enrichmentof uranium for nuclear fuel has any mili-tary ends, saying it is for civilian energyonly. But its restrictions on UN inspectionsand intelligence suggesting it hasresearched nuclear bombs in the past raisedconcern and led to international sanctions.

The “huge task” of disabling parts ofIran’s nuclear infrastructure will probablystart this week, a top official said Sundayas US President Barack Obama tooksteps to end sanctions.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’snuclear agency, told state television hewas awaiting President Hassan Rouhani’sorder to remove thousands of centrifugesfrom atomic sites at Natanz and Fordo.

The rendering of the centrifuges —fast-spinning machines that enrich urani-um — was part of a July 14 deal, knownas the Joint Comprehensive Plan ofAction, between Iran and six world pow-ers to end a 13-year dispute over Tehran’satomic activities.

On Sunday, Obama ordered the USgovernment to “take all appropriate addi-tional measures to ensure the prompt andeffective implementation of the US com-mitments set forth in the JCPOA”.

The US measures will take effect uponconfirmation by Secretary of State JohnKerry that Iran has met its commitmentsunder the accord, Obama said, likely atthe end of 2015 or early 2016.

As well as slashing its number of cen-trifuges to around 6,000, Iran will have tosatisfy the International Atomic EnergyAgency that it has taken steps to ensureits Arak reactor and other installationscannot be used for military purposes.

The IAEA’s final report on Iran is dueby December 15.

“We will start our actions when thepresident gives the order,” Salehi said ofRouhani, estimating that the work tocomply with the JCPOA would takearound two months.

“What we need to accomplish is a hugetask. We hope to start this week or nextweek.”

The July agreement won final approvalin Iran on Wednesday.

In Tehran, some hardline lawmakerssay Rouhani’s government made toomany concessions to the West. The dealalso came despite fierce opposition fromUS and Israeli critics who say safeguardson Iran are not sufficiently robust.

Iran has always denied seeking anuclear weapon. The accord is meant toensure it never can through an inspectionregime over 15 years.

plans and job opportunities to provide forthe Kuwaiti youth.

For his part, His Highness the Amirwelcomed such companies that helpachieve state goals and bring in technolo-gy investments, creativity and innova-tion, to vary sources of income and pro-vide new jobs for Kuwaiti people.

and address it with the least damage tothe public money, pointing out the com-mittee would consider all ways andmeans available to overcome the deficitexpected in the current fiscal and futurescenarios that will work by the govern-ment in the event of continued deficit.

Meanwhile, in his capacity as theDeputy Chairman of KuwaitiParliamentary Group, Al-Shaye con-firmed Kuwait’s belief in the importanceof the principle of strengthening the free-doms and the protection of individual pri-vacy guaranteed by and protected by theConstitution.

He pointed out Kuwait is fully com-mitted to all international treaties in thisregard to implement UN GeneralAssembly Resolution No. 167/68 issuedon Dec 18, 2013.

Al-Shaye said this after participating inthe Third Standing Committee(Democracy and Human Rights) underthe title ‘democracy in the digital age andthe threat to privacy and freedoms ofindividuals’.

He focused on the keenness of Kuwaitto consolidate democratic values throughdecisions and legislation which con-tributes in shaping the electronic over-sight that coincides with holding educa-tive dialogue forums in support of civi-lized dialogue.

He stressed the digital democracy hasprovided an opportunity to exercise polit-ical rights directly with political decision-makers through social networking asgovernments become more interactivewith their people through what is knownas e-governments.

He said stemming from the principle ofthe protection of national sovereignty andthe promotion of fundamental freedomsof individuals “we, as parliamentarians,have to push our governments towardsinternational resolutions and laws enact-ed to control the mechanism of the flowof information and freedom of opinionand political participation through elec-tronic means and social networks to be ameans of oversight and not monitoringand today we are in dire need to regulateand not violating freedoms to preservethe political and social stability.”

He called on the Inter-ParliamentaryUnion to work to strengthen internationalcooperation in consolidating the demo-cratic values without undermining thefundamental tenets of nations or infring-ing on individual freedoms and rights aswell as addressing the pretext of security

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