FOCUS
ISLAMIC TENETS & MURDER OF JAMAL KHASHOGGI
Nothing has been as ghastly, diabolic and cataclysmic as the killing of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Probably this is the only incident in the history of global diplomacy anywhere in the world that anybody could have been physically obliterated or liquidated inside the official premises of an embassy of a country in another friendly country.
World, except those following Saudi Arabian news, had hardly any knowledge of this Muslim Brotherhood activist turned journalist until he got into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2nd Oct 2018, never to return either alive or dead.
He was a practicing Muslim, born to Ahmed Khashoggi in Medina on 13th Oct 1958, was a nephew of controversial Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. His grandfather, of Turkish origin, was a personal physician to Saudi King Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the founder of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Dodi Fayed, a lover of Princess Diana was the first cousin to Jamal. Both Dodi & Diana were killed in a car crash in Paris years ago. He was graduated in business administration from Indiana State University in the US. Grew up like most Saudi youth with all its strict Islamic do’s and donts. His exposure to the western education introduced an element of liberalism into his life. He pursued journalism as a career. This brought him in close contact with the Saudi Royalty.
He worked in different capacities in many of the Saudi Arabian news papers and journals, including as Editor-in-Chief of Saudi Arabian daily Al WATAN. He indulged in reasonable freedom of thought in his writings, which was not liked by hardline Salafists within Saudi Arabia. He was a believer in Islamic politics. If Europeans can have Christian democracy why not Islamic democracy in Arab world? was his considered stand. He was not a liberal in the western sense of the term, but he was a moderate Muslim reformist. Thus he represented vocal hope for reforms within Islamic Arab world. However, he was the most critical of Crown Prince Salman. Even much before Prince Salman was anointed to replace King Salman, when he was the governor of Riyadh and Head of the Saudi Committee for support to the Afghan Mujahideen, Jamal Khashoggi was critical of “funding unwisely Salafist extremist groups that were undermining the war”.
While being the Editor-in-Chief of Al WATAN, in 2003, reportedly he was dismissed after only two months, by the Saudi Ministry of Information because he had allowed a columnist to criticize the Islamic Scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, who is known as the founding father of Wahhabism. But the love-hate relationship again brought Jalal Khashoggi back to Al WATAN as its Editor-in-Chief after four years in April 2007, only to be relieved in May 2010, after 3 years due to official displeasure at some very critical articles on the harsh Islamic rules of the Kingdom. For almost 7 years, he remained in Saudi Arabia, involved with most influential groups. However, nobody openly supported his democratic views, although in private he had his admirers. Thus, in June 2017, Jalal Khashoggi relocated himself to the US and began writing for the Washington Post.
However, life was not hunky dory. According to New York Times (NYT), Saudi Arabia used an online army of twitter trolls to harass Khashoggi for being critical of Saudi Arabia. He was a victim of cyber bullying campaign, informed NYT. According to another paper “With almost two million followers he was the most famous political pundit in the Arab world and a regular guest on major TV news networks in Britain & the US. Early this year he established a new political party called Democracy for the Arab World Now. This was taken as a threat to Crown Prince Mohammed Salman.
Early 2018, sometime in April he was reported to have written in Washington Post that “Saudi Arabia should return to its 1979 climate, when government restricted hardline Wahhabi traditions. Women today should have the same rights as men. And all citizens should have the right to speak their minds without fear of imprisonment. According to him “Saudi must find a way where we can accommodate secularism and Islam, something like what they have in Turkey”. He was critical of Saudi Arabian actions on Qatar so also dispute with Lebanon & Canada as well. While supporting Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s (MBS) reforms like allowing Saudi women to drive, he condemned the arrest of women activists and women rights advocates.
On war on Yemen he wrote “The longer this cruel war lasts in Yemen, the more permanent damage there will be. The people of Yemen will be busy fighting poverty, cholera, water scarcity and rebuilding their country. MBS must bring an end to this violence. MBS must restore dignity to his country by ending Yemen’s cruel war”.
In August 2018, Jamal wrote that “Saudi Arabia’s crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, known by his initials, MBS, is signaling that any open opposition to Saudi domestic policies is intolerable. While MBS is right to free Saudi Arabia from ultra conservative religious forces, he is wrong to advance a new radicalism that, while seemingly more liberal and appealing to the west, is just as intolerant of dissent. MBS’s rash actions are deepening tensions and undermining the security of the Gulf states and the region as a whole”.
Indeed for a powerful and wealthy country like Saudi Arabia, where the rulers decide the fate of millions of its people, the writings of Jamal Khashoggi was surely unpalatable for the ruling clique of both the King as well as the Crown Prince, more so the latter.
Saudi Arabia according to available information in public space, has a history of over 20000 years, however it was only in 1744 that a tribal family in Nejd, known as Emirate of Nejd, emerged as a ruling family with unification with the religious leadership of the time. Mohammed Bid Saud of the ruling family and Muhammad Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi movement under Sunni Islam joined forces to establish a ruling class. Following 150 years there has been no major development, inform the source. It was between 1902 & 1927 Abdulaziz of the then Saud ruling family expanded his area of influence and established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia around 1930. He ruled the Kingdom as an absolute monarch until 1957. Huge deposits of oil helped the Kingdom modernise the country and its life style within the royal restrictions. The 1973 oil crisis, catapulted Saudi Arabia as a powerful force in the international oil market. Since then it has seen several kings making way for their progeny.
Saudi Arabia, named after the ruling dynasty of Saud, occupies over 75 % of the Arabian Peninsula.
In the province of Hejaz are Medina and Mecca (the religious capital), the holy cities of Islam. Riyadh is the Royal capital and Jeddah is the administrative capital. The mosque of the prophet in Medina enshrines the tomb of Mohammed, who died in the city in the year 632. Saudi King, whose official title -KHAADIM- is the custodian of the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, rules as absolute monarch. His heir and deputy the Crown Prince, is selected from among the Saud family by its leading members in consultation with the Ulema or the Supreme religious council. The king governs the state according to Islamic laws, choosing a council of ministers, many of whom are Sauds.
Being the largest holder of petroleum resources in the world, it sits on a huge pile of Petro Dollars and has investments all over the world, including developed nations like the US, Canada, UK, and European Union countries. Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the world without a river. However below the arid landscape oil has made this desert Kingdom one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Extensive coastline, some 2640 kms, on the Persian Gulf and Red Sea provide great leverage on shipping (especially the crude oil) through Persian Gulf and Suez Canal. In 2013, King Abdullah took 30 women as members to the 150 members Shura council for the first time. Shura council is an advisory body. He also allowed girls to take part in sports in private schools for the first time besides, Olympic games participation by women’s contingent. In the ultra conservative Kingdom, these were some incremental changes.
Witnessing an evolving world, Saudi royalty too tried in some very limited way to bring changes in the lives of its citizens. This emerging piece-meal liberalism gave birth to likes of Jamal Khashoggi. There were others too, especially women, who dared to be different. And then Prince Mohammed Bin Salman emerged as Crown Prince, as heir apparent. He certainly liked the power and was upfront in exhibiting it. Seeing the young Crown Prince taking lead in leading the country, King Salman, took leave of day to day administration. Thus Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had a free run to decide the future course of action for the country and its people.
Under these circumstances, the emergence of Jalal Khashoggi, living in a kind of exile in the US, where he enjoyed all the freedom of action and thought continued his attack in writing against the leadership of his motherland. This was clearly not to the liking of the young and powerful Crown Prince. So plan could have been afoot to have him back to the country. According to leads available in Turkish media, indeed attempts were made to get him back to Saudi Arabia. For whatever reason it didn’t happen. As luck would have it, Jamal fell in love with a Turkish PhD student of an university in Istanbul. 36 years old Hatice Cengiz and Jamal decided to marry, for which Jamal had to divorce his Saudi Arabian wife and attend to other paper works needed to marry the Turkish lady. After some days of arriving in Istanbul he fixes an appointment to meet the concerned official in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. In the meanwhile, Jamal Khashoggi was reported to have spoken to Prince Khalid, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the US, if it is safe for him to go to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Reportedly Prince Khalid, who is also the brother of Crown Prince MBS, has replied in affirmative. So his programme to be at the consulate office on 2nd October 2018 was planned. So all those, who were interested in his movements knew that on 2nd October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi will come to Saudi consulate to complete his paper work. And as already fixed, Jamal Khashoggi arrived into the consulate office sometime before 1.30 pm local time. The rest as the cliché goes is history.
2nd October 2018, will be written in the annals of international diplomacy as the horrendously blackest day. It was on this day, a Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi living in the US in exile, entered the premises of Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul to collect some personal official documents, relating to the divorce of his Saudi wife and marriage to his new love, a Turki lady, but never exited dead or alive. It is not just bizarre, it is not just diabolic, at the end it turned out to be incredibly the most barbaric to have any precedent of this kind in the past.
Of course, as expected Saudi Arabia claimed that Jamal Khashoggi had left the consulate after his visit, while police in Istanbul said “No, he did not emerge from the building”, since, his future wife to be was waiting outside the consulate office. At this point itself government in Turky had claimed that Jamal was killed inside the consulate, but Riyadh had dismissed it as baseless. However they offered co-operation saying that joint search can be conducted, since authorities in Saudi Arabia were confident that they will not be fixed. On 15th October, after 13 days of Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance, Turkish police entered the consulate. Naturally they could not find Jamal Khashoggi dead or alive. If dead, his mortal remains too were not there.
Suddenly, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia found itself in knots. The disappearance and alleged murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a known critic of the virtual ruler of the Kingdom, had forced Saudi Arabia on back foot. Clearly Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince, who tried to put on emerging liberal face of the Kingdom did not bargain for the fall out. There was an international outcry at the disappearance of journalist turned foe of Saudi Leadership, from inside the consulate office. According to Turkish intelligence, they claimed that he was murdered inside the mission and his body chopped off into tiny parts.
According to emerging details in the public space, some 15 intelligence officials had travelled to Istanbul before Jamal Khashoggi arrived at the embassy and have left immediately after the killing. European Union Countries and even the US expressed deep concern at the development. While many US and European billionaires who were committed to attend a Davos type economic summit in Riyadh have pulled out, US under Trump appeared to disengage itself due to the US $ 100 billion defence agreement that Saudi Arabia had with US. European Union nations and UK publicly demanded that, Saudi Arabia come clean and reveal as to what happened to Khashoggi after he entered their mission in Istanbul. After 2 weeks of the incident, Saudi Arabia accepted to come on board and that it would thoroughly probe what happened to Jamal Khashoggi in their consulate office in Istanbul was indeed killed within its premises in Istanbul, it was the work of some rogues among the staff who in a fist fight killed the journalist. In its first formal acknowledgement, the Saudi TV carried a statement. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses deep regret at the painful development that has taken place in this case and affirms the commitment of the authorities in the Kingdom to bring facts to the attention of the public and to hold accountable all those involved”. However what happened to the dead body of Jamal Khashoggi? Saudi Arabia remained silent.
Of course, it is to the credit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who kept the pressure on Saudi to come clean. More details started emerging from sources in Istanbul, that Khashoggi was injected with some highly overdosed lethal chemical so that, he succumb to it almost instantly. Soon thereafter his body was cut into pieces and put in acid for the flesh and bones to disintegrate and then let out into the drain from within the consulate premises, so that there is no proof left of his having remained within its premises. Reportedly two men were sent to ‘clean-up’ the consulate premises to erase any visible tell-tales, after the physical liquidation of Khashoggi. One of them, a Chemist and another toxicologist were tasked to clean up the place of any possible visible evidence of the disposal of the slain journalist’s mortal remains.
In the event, Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince have been comprehensively exposed of this extremely barbaric episode in the contemporary history of the world in general and Middle East in particular, although the government in Riyadh resorted to some charades, of punishing some and exonerating the Crown Prince, of any wrong doing.
It is as clear as the day light, who ordered it! How can anybody in Saudi Arabia enter a Saudi Arabian consulate in a foreign country and annihilate a person, literally a VIP, a friend turned critic, and then liquefy his mortal remains and discharge it to the garden within the consulate compound without an order from the top, who is beyond question?
Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and the bizarre way of disposal of body leaves many questions begging for answer from many quarters. Jamal Ahmed Khashoggi was a practicing Muslim. He was an educated Saudi national who had the skill of writing therefore could think and articulate his thoughts. In an atmosphere that is prevailing in Saudi Arabia, he was apparently given a longer rope, since he was close to the royalty. But the rendezvous didn’t last long as expected. He left his motherland for a more liberated land of US. Of course, he had his mental blocks and predilictions, and lived as a practicing Muslim within the tenets of Islam. He did not physically harm anybody and did not preach hatred and therefore could have been a good Muslim. He only wrote against the what he perceived as negatives in the Saudi Royalty. He was not anti Royalty.
Saudi Arabia is the custodian of Islam and therefore has responsibility to protect Islamic tenets. Surah Al-Furqan 25:63 had ordained “The servants of the most merciful are those who walk upon the earth in humility, and when ignorant address them, they say words of peace.” “When they hear ill speeches they turn away from it and say: For us are our deeds and for you are your deeds. Peace be upon you, we seek not the way of ignorance”. “Peace be upon you. I will ask forgiveness for you of my Lord”. “Shall I not tell you about what is more virtuous in degree than fasting prayer and charity? It is reconciliation between people” are some of the beautiful verses from Holy Quran. Surely all those members of the Saudi Royalty including Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, have read all these and more from their holy scriptures. Yet for only saying something disagreeable to your logic how can you take his life, cut him to pieces and then dispose it in the most barbaric way? Shouldn’t the entire Muslim world ask in one voice, why this has happened? But strangely except the western world and some of our print media, there has been silence. Is it the money power that silenced the voice of conscience?
Speaking at a memorial in London, Hatice Cengiz, the Turkish fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi had reportedly expressed disappointment in the leadership of many countries, especially stressing that US President Mr. Trump should not pave the way for a cover-up of Khashoggi murder, “let’s not let money taint our conscience and compromise our values”, she had remarked.
Indeed it’s money and money only that would stymie any international action on Saudi leadership. There is Donald Trump talking about losing jobs if the Saudi investments are withdrawn. There are ‘n’ number of start-ups and already operating enterprises in Silicon Valley not reacting to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Some are even inventing the negatives of Khashoggi to justify his liquidation. CIA and newspapers of the US are making noises about the Crown Prince being the Kingpin in the whole sordid episode. But it was indeed an open and shut case from beginning with MBS being the sole signatory for the barbaric end of a fine Muslim gentleman who could have been the hope and voice of reforms among Muslims the world over.
Hence, it’s a call for the entire Muslim fraternity, to rise to the occasion and condemn in one voice the dastardly act of the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, so that someday another Jamal Khashoggi shall be born to ask questions. But would they?, is a million $ question. Or some months down the line, it’s life as usual, where powerless will continue to be crushed and the rest will say ‘Allah Kareem’ and go to sleep for the sun to rise the next day!
J. Shriyan
Nothing has been as ghastly, diabolic and cataclysmic as the killing of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Probably this is the only incident in the history of global diplomacy anywhere in the world that anybody could have been physically obliterated or liquidated inside the official premises of an embassy of a country in another friendly country.
World, except those following Saudi Arabian news, had hardly any knowledge of this Muslim Brotherhood activist turned journalist until he got into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2nd Oct 2018, never to return either alive or dead.
He was a practicing Muslim, born to Ahmed Khashoggi in Medina on 13th Oct 1958, was a nephew of controversial Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. His grandfather, of Turkish origin, was a personal physician to Saudi King Abdul Aziz Al Saud, the founder of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Dodi Fayed, a lover of Princess Diana was the first cousin to Jamal. Both Dodi & Diana were killed in a car crash in Paris years ago. He was graduated in business administration from Indiana State University in the US. Grew up like most Saudi youth with all its strict Islamic do’s and donts. His exposure to the western education introduced an element of liberalism into his life. He pursued journalism as a career. This brought him in close contact with the Saudi Royalty.
He worked in different capacities in many of the Saudi Arabian news papers and journals, including as Editor-in-Chief of Saudi Arabian daily Al WATAN. He indulged in reasonable freedom of thought in his writings, which was not liked by hardline Salafists within Saudi Arabia. He was a believer in Islamic politics. If Europeans can have Christian democracy why not Islamic democracy in Arab world? was his considered stand. He was not a liberal in the western sense of the term, but he was a moderate Muslim reformist. Thus he represented vocal hope for reforms within Islamic Arab world. However, he was the most critical of Crown Prince Salman. Even much before Prince Salman was anointed to replace King Salman, when he was the governor of Riyadh and Head of the Saudi Committee for support to the Afghan Mujahideen, Jamal Khashoggi was critical of “funding unwisely Salafist extremist groups that were undermining the war”.
While being the Editor-in-Chief of Al WATAN, in 2003, reportedly he was dismissed after only two months, by the Saudi Ministry of Information because he had allowed a columnist to criticize the Islamic Scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, who is known as the founding father of Wahhabism. But the love-hate relationship again brought Jalal Khashoggi back to Al WATAN as its Editor-in-Chief after four years in April 2007, only to be relieved in May 2010, after 3 years due to official displeasure at some very critical articles on the harsh Islamic rules of the Kingdom. For almost 7 years, he remained in Saudi Arabia, involved with most influential groups. However, nobody openly supported his democratic views, although in private he had his admirers. Thus, in June 2017, Jalal Khashoggi relocated himself to the US and began writing for the Washington Post.
However, life was not hunky dory. According to New York Times (NYT), Saudi Arabia used an online army of twitter trolls to harass Khashoggi for being critical of Saudi Arabia. He was a victim of cyber bullying campaign, informed NYT. According to another paper “With almost two million followers he was the most famous political pundit in the Arab world and a regular guest on major TV news networks in Britain & the US. Early this year he established a new political party called Democracy for the Arab World Now. This was taken as a threat to Crown Prince Mohammed Salman.
Early 2018, sometime in April he was reported to have written in Washington Post that “Saudi Arabia should return to its 1979 climate, when government restricted hardline Wahhabi traditions. Women today should have the same rights as men. And all citizens should have the right to speak their minds without fear of imprisonment. According to him “Saudi must find a way where we can accommodate secularism and Islam, something like what they have in Turkey”. He was critical of Saudi Arabian actions on Qatar so also dispute with Lebanon & Canada as well. While supporting Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s (MBS) reforms like allowing Saudi women to drive, he condemned the arrest of women activists and women rights advocates.
On war on Yemen he wrote “The longer this cruel war lasts in Yemen, the more permanent damage there will be. The people of Yemen will be busy fighting poverty, cholera, water scarcity and rebuilding their country. MBS must bring an end to this violence. MBS must restore dignity to his country by ending Yemen’s cruel war”.
In August 2018, Jamal wrote that “Saudi Arabia’s crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, known by his initials, MBS, is signaling that any open opposition to Saudi domestic policies is intolerable. While MBS is right to free Saudi Arabia from ultra conservative religious forces, he is wrong to advance a new radicalism that, while seemingly more liberal and appealing to the west, is just as intolerant of dissent. MBS’s rash actions are deepening tensions and undermining the security of the Gulf states and the region as a whole”.
Indeed for a powerful and wealthy country like Saudi Arabia, where the rulers decide the fate of millions of its people, the writings of Jamal Khashoggi was surely unpalatable for the ruling clique of both the King as well as the Crown Prince, more so the latter.
Saudi Arabia according to available information in public space, has a history of over 20000 years, however it was only in 1744 that a tribal family in Nejd, known as Emirate of Nejd, emerged as a ruling family with unification with the religious leadership of the time. Mohammed Bid Saud of the ruling family and Muhammad Ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, founder of the Wahhabi movement under Sunni Islam joined forces to establish a ruling class. Following 150 years there has been no major development, inform the source. It was between 1902 & 1927 Abdulaziz of the then Saud ruling family expanded his area of influence and established the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia around 1930. He ruled the Kingdom as an absolute monarch until 1957. Huge deposits of oil helped the Kingdom modernise the country and its life style within the royal restrictions. The 1973 oil crisis, catapulted Saudi Arabia as a powerful force in the international oil market. Since then it has seen several kings making way for their progeny.
Saudi Arabia, named after the ruling dynasty of Saud, occupies over 75 % of the Arabian Peninsula.
In the province of Hejaz are Medina and Mecca (the religious capital), the holy cities of Islam. Riyadh is the Royal capital and Jeddah is the administrative capital. The mosque of the prophet in Medina enshrines the tomb of Mohammed, who died in the city in the year 632. Saudi King, whose official title -KHAADIM- is the custodian of the two holy mosques in Mecca and Medina, rules as absolute monarch. His heir and deputy the Crown Prince, is selected from among the Saud family by its leading members in consultation with the Ulema or the Supreme religious council. The king governs the state according to Islamic laws, choosing a council of ministers, many of whom are Sauds.
Being the largest holder of petroleum resources in the world, it sits on a huge pile of Petro Dollars and has investments all over the world, including developed nations like the US, Canada, UK, and European Union countries. Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the world without a river. However below the arid landscape oil has made this desert Kingdom one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Extensive coastline, some 2640 kms, on the Persian Gulf and Red Sea provide great leverage on shipping (especially the crude oil) through Persian Gulf and Suez Canal. In 2013, King Abdullah took 30 women as members to the 150 members Shura council for the first time. Shura council is an advisory body. He also allowed girls to take part in sports in private schools for the first time besides, Olympic games participation by women’s contingent. In the ultra conservative Kingdom, these were some incremental changes.
Witnessing an evolving world, Saudi royalty too tried in some very limited way to bring changes in the lives of its citizens. This emerging piece-meal liberalism gave birth to likes of Jamal Khashoggi. There were others too, especially women, who dared to be different. And then Prince Mohammed Bin Salman emerged as Crown Prince, as heir apparent. He certainly liked the power and was upfront in exhibiting it. Seeing the young Crown Prince taking lead in leading the country, King Salman, took leave of day to day administration. Thus Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had a free run to decide the future course of action for the country and its people.
Under these circumstances, the emergence of Jalal Khashoggi, living in a kind of exile in the US, where he enjoyed all the freedom of action and thought continued his attack in writing against the leadership of his motherland. This was clearly not to the liking of the young and powerful Crown Prince. So plan could have been afoot to have him back to the country. According to leads available in Turkish media, indeed attempts were made to get him back to Saudi Arabia. For whatever reason it didn’t happen. As luck would have it, Jamal fell in love with a Turkish PhD student of an university in Istanbul. 36 years old Hatice Cengiz and Jamal decided to marry, for which Jamal had to divorce his Saudi Arabian wife and attend to other paper works needed to marry the Turkish lady. After some days of arriving in Istanbul he fixes an appointment to meet the concerned official in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. In the meanwhile, Jamal Khashoggi was reported to have spoken to Prince Khalid, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the US, if it is safe for him to go to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Reportedly Prince Khalid, who is also the brother of Crown Prince MBS, has replied in affirmative. So his programme to be at the consulate office on 2nd October 2018 was planned. So all those, who were interested in his movements knew that on 2nd October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi will come to Saudi consulate to complete his paper work. And as already fixed, Jamal Khashoggi arrived into the consulate office sometime before 1.30 pm local time. The rest as the cliché goes is history.
2nd October 2018, will be written in the annals of international diplomacy as the horrendously blackest day. It was on this day, a Saudi national Jamal Khashoggi living in the US in exile, entered the premises of Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul to collect some personal official documents, relating to the divorce of his Saudi wife and marriage to his new love, a Turki lady, but never exited dead or alive. It is not just bizarre, it is not just diabolic, at the end it turned out to be incredibly the most barbaric to have any precedent of this kind in the past.
Of course, as expected Saudi Arabia claimed that Jamal Khashoggi had left the consulate after his visit, while police in Istanbul said “No, he did not emerge from the building”, since, his future wife to be was waiting outside the consulate office. At this point itself government in Turky had claimed that Jamal was killed inside the consulate, but Riyadh had dismissed it as baseless. However they offered co-operation saying that joint search can be conducted, since authorities in Saudi Arabia were confident that they will not be fixed. On 15th October, after 13 days of Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance, Turkish police entered the consulate. Naturally they could not find Jamal Khashoggi dead or alive. If dead, his mortal remains too were not there.
Suddenly, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia found itself in knots. The disappearance and alleged murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a known critic of the virtual ruler of the Kingdom, had forced Saudi Arabia on back foot. Clearly Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince, who tried to put on emerging liberal face of the Kingdom did not bargain for the fall out. There was an international outcry at the disappearance of journalist turned foe of Saudi Leadership, from inside the consulate office. According to Turkish intelligence, they claimed that he was murdered inside the mission and his body chopped off into tiny parts.
According to emerging details in the public space, some 15 intelligence officials had travelled to Istanbul before Jamal Khashoggi arrived at the embassy and have left immediately after the killing. European Union Countries and even the US expressed deep concern at the development. While many US and European billionaires who were committed to attend a Davos type economic summit in Riyadh have pulled out, US under Trump appeared to disengage itself due to the US $ 100 billion defence agreement that Saudi Arabia had with US. European Union nations and UK publicly demanded that, Saudi Arabia come clean and reveal as to what happened to Khashoggi after he entered their mission in Istanbul. After 2 weeks of the incident, Saudi Arabia accepted to come on board and that it would thoroughly probe what happened to Jamal Khashoggi in their consulate office in Istanbul was indeed killed within its premises in Istanbul, it was the work of some rogues among the staff who in a fist fight killed the journalist. In its first formal acknowledgement, the Saudi TV carried a statement. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses deep regret at the painful development that has taken place in this case and affirms the commitment of the authorities in the Kingdom to bring facts to the attention of the public and to hold accountable all those involved”. However what happened to the dead body of Jamal Khashoggi? Saudi Arabia remained silent.
Of course, it is to the credit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who kept the pressure on Saudi to come clean. More details started emerging from sources in Istanbul, that Khashoggi was injected with some highly overdosed lethal chemical so that, he succumb to it almost instantly. Soon thereafter his body was cut into pieces and put in acid for the flesh and bones to disintegrate and then let out into the drain from within the consulate premises, so that there is no proof left of his having remained within its premises. Reportedly two men were sent to ‘clean-up’ the consulate premises to erase any visible tell-tales, after the physical liquidation of Khashoggi. One of them, a Chemist and another toxicologist were tasked to clean up the place of any possible visible evidence of the disposal of the slain journalist’s mortal remains.
In the event, Saudi Arabia and its Crown Prince have been comprehensively exposed of this extremely barbaric episode in the contemporary history of the world in general and Middle East in particular, although the government in Riyadh resorted to some charades, of punishing some and exonerating the Crown Prince, of any wrong doing.
It is as clear as the day light, who ordered it! How can anybody in Saudi Arabia enter a Saudi Arabian consulate in a foreign country and annihilate a person, literally a VIP, a friend turned critic, and then liquefy his mortal remains and discharge it to the garden within the consulate compound without an order from the top, who is beyond question?
Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi and the bizarre way of disposal of body leaves many questions begging for answer from many quarters. Jamal Ahmed Khashoggi was a practicing Muslim. He was an educated Saudi national who had the skill of writing therefore could think and articulate his thoughts. In an atmosphere that is prevailing in Saudi Arabia, he was apparently given a longer rope, since he was close to the royalty. But the rendezvous didn’t last long as expected. He left his motherland for a more liberated land of US. Of course, he had his mental blocks and predilictions, and lived as a practicing Muslim within the tenets of Islam. He did not physically harm anybody and did not preach hatred and therefore could have been a good Muslim. He only wrote against the what he perceived as negatives in the Saudi Royalty. He was not anti Royalty.
Saudi Arabia is the custodian of Islam and therefore has responsibility to protect Islamic tenets. Surah Al-Furqan 25:63 had ordained “The servants of the most merciful are those who walk upon the earth in humility, and when ignorant address them, they say words of peace.” “When they hear ill speeches they turn away from it and say: For us are our deeds and for you are your deeds. Peace be upon you, we seek not the way of ignorance”. “Peace be upon you. I will ask forgiveness for you of my Lord”. “Shall I not tell you about what is more virtuous in degree than fasting prayer and charity? It is reconciliation between people” are some of the beautiful verses from Holy Quran. Surely all those members of the Saudi Royalty including Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, have read all these and more from their holy scriptures. Yet for only saying something disagreeable to your logic how can you take his life, cut him to pieces and then dispose it in the most barbaric way? Shouldn’t the entire Muslim world ask in one voice, why this has happened? But strangely except the western world and some of our print media, there has been silence. Is it the money power that silenced the voice of conscience?
Speaking at a memorial in London, Hatice Cengiz, the Turkish fiancée of Jamal Khashoggi had reportedly expressed disappointment in the leadership of many countries, especially stressing that US President Mr. Trump should not pave the way for a cover-up of Khashoggi murder, “let’s not let money taint our conscience and compromise our values”, she had remarked.
Indeed it’s money and money only that would stymie any international action on Saudi leadership. There is Donald Trump talking about losing jobs if the Saudi investments are withdrawn. There are ‘n’ number of start-ups and already operating enterprises in Silicon Valley not reacting to the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Some are even inventing the negatives of Khashoggi to justify his liquidation. CIA and newspapers of the US are making noises about the Crown Prince being the Kingpin in the whole sordid episode. But it was indeed an open and shut case from beginning with MBS being the sole signatory for the barbaric end of a fine Muslim gentleman who could have been the hope and voice of reforms among Muslims the world over.
Hence, it’s a call for the entire Muslim fraternity, to rise to the occasion and condemn in one voice the dastardly act of the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, so that someday another Jamal Khashoggi shall be born to ask questions. But would they?, is a million $ question. Or some months down the line, it’s life as usual, where powerless will continue to be crushed and the rest will say ‘Allah Kareem’ and go to sleep for the sun to rise the next day!
J. Shriyan
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