AMBASSADOR'S DINNER WITH "ENLIGHTENED CONSERVATIVE"

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 000887

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED

SIPDIS

NEA/PPD FOR PAGNEW, DBENZE, NEA/ARP FOR JHARRIS, ECA/A/E/NEA FOR
DIVES, ECA/A/S/A FOR CDANZ

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO PGOV PINR OEXC SCUL SA
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S DINNER WITH "ENLIGHTENED CONSERVATIVE"
RELIGIOUS FIGURES

SUMMARY
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1. (SBU) Over a June 24 dinner at his spacious, extended-family
compound, a religious academic and several of his colleagues from
Imam University - the most prestigious Islamic University in Saudi
Arabia and once a breeding ground for extremist religious thought -
engaged Ambassador and Embassy officers in a discussion of social
and religious change in Saudi Arabia. The host and his guests,
probably all of them vetted by the University in full knowledge of
Saudi authorities, sought to portray a rising generation of
religious thinkers as moving away from the extremist and rigid
thinking of the recent past toward more moderate, open and
progressive interpretations of Islam. Among the specific messages
they sought to convey were that the new breed of Saudi religious
thinkers: 1) want to accommodate change without naming it as such;
2) favor interfaith dialogue despite continuing resistance in some
quarters; 3) are seeking to develop a new narrative to package
change and accommodate a new approach to the status of women; 4)
must base their new approach on authentically Saudi concepts and
tradition in order to avoid the taint of Western ideas and toxic
Saudi "liberals;" and 5) welcome continued contact with the Embassy.
End Summary.

SOCIETY USED TO BE MORE OPEN AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN GREATER
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2. (SBU) The Ambassador had a lively exchange on social and
religious change in Saudi Arabia over the last forty years with Dr.
Fahad al Homoudi, Vice Dean for Academic Research at Imam Mohammad
University, his father and various guests. The latter included: Dr.
Abdulla al-Rifa'i, Editor-in-Chief of 'Mer'at Aljameah' Newspaper
and Professor of Media Studies, Imam University; Mr. Abdulmajeed
al-Omari, Supervisor of Conferences and Training, Ministry of
Islamic Affairs; and several of his adult brothers. All agreed that
Saudi society had been more open and free during the 1960s and
1970s. Women were more influential and active at that time. Families
mixed and members of both genders ate at the same table. People went
to the cinema and women went without abayas. Women controlled much
of the open marketing in the cities.

REFORM MUST BE BASED on SAUDI CONCEPTS AND HISTORY
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3. (SBU) The consensus was that a dramatic change to a less open
society occurred in 1979 and could be traced, among other things, to
the Khomeini revolution in Iran, the takeover of Mecca by Islamic
radicals, and the malign influence of the Muslim brotherhood. "It
was our generation," agreed these forty to fifty year-old men, "that
was responsible for these negative developments, which were not
consistent with either Saudi religious or social tradition." In this
regard, Dr. Fahad pointed out that instead of letting foreign
governments dictate reform within the Kingdom, the Saudi government
needed only to look to its own history for examples of women's
rights and religious tolerance.

NEGATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD
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4. (SBU) Dr. Fahad and his Saudi guests emphasized the role played
by members of the Muslim Brotherhood who fled Nasser's Egypt and
found refuge in Saudi Arabia, especially as teachers. "The Muslim
brotherhood members were educated and organized," Dr. Fahd said.
Their placement in public schools throughout Saudi Arabia gave them
a strategic platform to take advantage of the fears of instability
and the general lack of education in the Kingdom. The result was the
creation of the current generation of radical fundamentalists.


5. (SBU) Our Saudi interlocutors suggested that if Islamic education
could have retained a truer Saudi character, it might have been more
benign, at least in the treatment of female separation. (Comment:
This line of thinking is consistent with the generally increased
willingness of conservative thinkers to assess the negative impact
of the Brotherhood on Saudi history. This in turn suggests that
Saudization, at least at the higher levels of the university system,
and greater exposure to western universities, may have begun
allowing religious conservatives to incorporate long-accepted
theories about the negative role of the Brotherhood into their own
assessments.)

CHANGE NEEDED BUT MUST NOT BE IDENTIFIED WITH LIBERALISM
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6. (SBU) There was less agreement about how to return to a more open
society. Dr. Fahad, who in a previous conversation with the PAO had
stressed that scholars should continuously interpret the Quran in

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the light of changing circumstances, highlighted the King's role in
promoting dialogue and a culture of tolerance. Fahad saw the King's
efforts to separate the political and religious aspects of dialogue
as critically important, while acknowledging that parts of the
religious establishment saw it very negatively as a political step
to facilitate Middle East peace at the expense of Islam or as a
worrisome move to syncretize the Abrahamic religions. Dr. al Rifa'i
noted that good ideas for change were important but were not enough,
and real change, in order to be effective, would need good planning
and management. He also noted that reform could not be successful if
identified with "liberalism." "Liberals," he stressed, were
considered by the public as clients of foreign embassies, and their
ideas for change would be considered as unacceptable
"Westernization."

GOOD PROSPECTS FOR CONTINUED COOPERATION
--------------


7. (SBU) Dr. Fahad's dinner and his invitation to Ambassador and
Embassy officers to attend a family wedding suggest that, unlike
many academics here, Fahad is eager to work with us and has a "green
light" to do so from Imam University leadership. While Imam
University's faculty, especially the religious side, is no doubt
predominantly extremely conservative, there definitely appears to be
a core of younger religious scholars committed to gradual but real
change, who wish to maintain serious but careful contact with the
Embassy and with other foreign and Western institutions.

BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION
--------------


8. (SBU) Dr. Fahad al Homoudi, the youthful (about 37) Vice Dean
for Academic Research at Imam Mohammad University, is an alumnus of
the 2008 Fulbright Interfaith Community Action program. Dr. Fahad's
family is both very traditional and forward looking. The father, in
his eighties, has worked for Talal bin Abdulaziz, known as the "red
prince" for his progressive ideas, for over sixty years (i.e., since
Talal was 15). His seven sons and six daughters are all highly
educated, and the sons all have their own houses in the family
compound (there are over a hundred grandchildren). One son is Rector
of Qassim University, one a doctor and professor of Medicine at King
Saud University, another a high official in the Ministry of Finance,
all the rest quite accomplished.


9. (U) Dr. Fahad holds a 2006 PhD in Islamic Studies from McGill
University, and Master's (2001) and Bachelor's (1994) degrees in
Islamic and Religious Studies from Imam Mohammed bin Saud Islamic
University. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR)
and a member of the Scholarly Saudi Society for Prophetic Tradition.
From 1997-2001 he taught at the controversial Fairfax-based
Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, a satellite
campus of Imam University in Riyadh.

A FULBRIGHT STAR
--------------

10 (SBU) In June 2008, the Embassy, working with Imam University,
nominated Dr. Fahad for the 2008 Fulbright Interfaith Community
Action program. Although initially reluctant to go on the Fulbright,
due to conflicted feelings about America's role in the Middle East,
Dr. Fahad ended up being a star of this unique grant that took him
on a three month program of workshops, lectures and seminars in
Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver and Washington, DC. Upon his return
from the U.S., he started a State Alumni web group to keep in touch
with his fellow interfaith alumni. In April he organized, with two
other Fulbright scholars, an interfaith training program in Jakarta
funded by Imam University in cooperation with two Indonesian
institutions. He is writing a book to explain religious diversity in
America for Saudi audiences, and has written an article about Muslim
responses to King Abdullah's initiatives for dialogue soon to be
published on the Search for Common Ground website
(http://www.commongroundnews.org/index.php). Dr. Fahad is also
working with some of the American contacts he met during his
Fulbright program to put together an interfaith dialogue program for
other colleagues from Imam University to be funded by Imam.
ERDMAN