Professor Henry Srebrnik

Professor Henry Srebrnik

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Canada's Spat with Saudi Arabia


By Henry Srebrnik, [Fredericton, NB] Daily Gleaner
 
When Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, earlier this month tweeted that she was “gravely concerned” about the arrests of civil society and women’s activists in Saudi Arabia, she and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into.
Her tweet addressed the case of siblings: Samar Badawi, a women’s-rights activist, and her brother, Raif, a blogger who has been imprisoned since 2012.
“We are going to lead with our values,” Canada’s finance minister, Bill Morneau, added for good measure. “It’s important that we bring Canadian values around the world.”
But “dissing” a very touchy nation like Saudi Arabia, which sees itself as the religious guardian of Islam, is a no-no – certainly, if you don’t want to suffer the repercussions.
The kingdom’s new power behind the throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, doesn’t appreciate being lectured by western liberals scolding him about “Canadian values.” Such hectoring is perceived as an insult.
He especially doesn’t want to appear as his efforts at modernizing the country’s political culture is a result of caving in to non-Muslim countries meddling in Riyadh’s domestic affairs.
Ali Shihabi, founder of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank focused on the geopolitics and socioeconomics of the Middle East with a particular focus on the states of the Arabian Peninsula, explained Mohammed’s dilemma in the New York Times:
 “Any Arab leader, particularly a young one who has recently assumed power in a traditional and mostly tribal society, has to carefully maintain his and his country’s stature and prestige, what classical Muslim scholars called hayba.
“This refers to the awe and respect that a ruler and his state must command in order to maintain order and stability without having to resort to excessive coercion, and without which there is no basis for legitimate rule.”
So Prince Mohammed cannot allow himself or his country to be publicly lectured by Western leaders — especially in his own language.
This was particularly the case since the Canadian embassy in Riyadh posted the tweet in Arabic, ensuring a wide circulation on local social media.
Such perceived blatant interference in Saudi Arabia’s domestic affairs could not go unanswered without damaging the prestige of the state in the eyes of its people.
Canadian human rights missionaries forget that the prince must tread carefully. While he attempts to modernize the country’s economy and politics, religious conservatives are trying to undermine him by claiming that his reforms are the product of an “American agenda” that aims to Westernize Saudi society and distance it from its Islamic roots.
Therefore he had to meet this insult head on. As a result, it prompted Saudi Arabia to freeze new trade and investment deals with Canada, expel Ottawa’s ambassador and recall its own envoy.
The country also cancelled scholarships for more than 15,000 Saudi students attending Canadian universities, which will mean the end of the economic benefits Canada reaps from their international tuition fees.
The national airline Saudia suspended flights to and from Toronto as well.
And of course Canadian jobs were the line, too. In London, Ont. there were worries about the potential economic fallout from the conflict.
The city’s General Dynamics Land Systems plant has been supplying light armoured vehicles to Saudi security forces, thanks to a huge, $15-billion contract signed by the federal government in 2014.
True enough, bilateral trade between the two countries is small, valued at roughly $4 billion, but was there really a need to ruffle these feathers?

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