Against the backdrop of the Canada-Saudi Arabia tension following the arrest in Saudi Arabia of human rights activists,[1] on August 8, 2018, Muhammad Al-Sa'ed, who writes in the Saudi daily 'Okaz, published an article harshly critical of Canada. He wrote that, following Hillary Clinton's loss to Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, leftist circles across the world have found in Canada a substitute for the U.S., and that Canada has thus become part of an "alliance of evil" that includes the left, Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). He added that Canada is acting to destroy the Middle East and especially the Saudi kingdom as part of a colonialist offensive that, instead of using troops, tanks and warplanes, disseminates the "insane" values of the left in the guide of defending human rights. But Saudi Arabia, he said, is standing fast in the face of this new "crusader war," preventing any infringement on its sovereignty.
The following are translated excerpts from his article:[2]
Muhammad Al-Sa'ed (image: skynewsarabia.com)
"Canada's crude stance on social issues in the [Saudi] kingdom is not new – rather, it has been ongoing for years, despite Saudi Arabia's diplomatic attempts to act flexibly towards [this stance]. Canada's actions are nothing but systematic and planned aggression that goes far beyond support for human rights or freedoms and constitutes an attempt to take over and to impose the values of the Canadian left.
"As the racist Canadian government sheds leftist crocodile tears over freedoms, it disregards the true suppression that it [itself] implements against Canada's original inhabitants. [Furthermore,] Turkey, for example, has arrested thousands of its residents in the wake of an ideological dispute with [oppositionist Fethullah] Gülen's men. The restriction [there] of freedoms, and media attacks, are an everyday occurrence that harms thousands. [Additionally,] Iran is the greatest source of violence, terrorism, and murder of its own people and of the peoples of the region; nor do human rights exist in Qatar, which does not recognize them and has never experienced them. Yet the Canadians don't bat an eyelid [at all this].
"What Canada is doing is bigger than what it is trying to describe and market to the world. It's not about [the recently arrested Saudi activist] Samar Badawi, nor the activists, men and women, who have been brought before a Saudi court and whose number does not exceed 10 – as compared to the 80,000 [who have suffered a similar fate] in Turkey. What Canada has been plotting for years is in fact part of imperialism, and constitutes a new attempt at cultural colonialism, [waged] in the guise of affection for human rights activists instead of by means of tanks, planes and troops. [Canada is waging] a war against religious values, social customs, and deeply rooted Arab traditions – [a war] that the [Saudi] kingdom opposes, as do many Arab and Muslim countries.
"What does recognizing homosexuals have to do with human rights? What does allowing clubs for homosexuals and actualization of their lusts and desires have to do with social justice? What does giving [homosexuals the right] to wed, adopt, and inherit have to do with legal principles?
"All these things are bizarre rights [invented by] leftist circles and extreme liberals, which they have forced on the West and are now trying to force on the [Saudi] kingdom [as well]. Why? For the good reason that Saudi Arabia was and remains a wall, standing against the dissemination of these insane values that they have been marketing since the launch of the New Middle East Project. The fall of Riyadh means the completion of the spreading of these values in the Muslim and Arab world.
"Our problem is not only with Canada, but also with the alliance of the left, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Iranians in the world. [This] triumvirate of evil [maintains] hundreds of false human rights organizations and hundreds of media outlets that monopolize the issues [that interest] them. [This triumvirate] has been opposed to the kingdom since the 1960s, replaced the Communists with Iran after the fall of the Soviet bloc, and believes that its control in the Middle East will be absolute only after it controls the [Saudi] kingdom.
"The alliance of evil fully believes that it neglected its battle on Saudi Arabia during the term of the previous [U.S.] president, Barack Obama, and is now flagellating itself over the fact that it did not leverage that extreme leftist administration to eliminate Riyadh. The 'leftist' axis repositioned itself and found refuge in the Canadian government, as a substitute for Washington following Hillary Clinton's loss [to Donald Trump].
"Saudi Arabia has simply dealt a blow to Canada, the head of this alliance, and broke its back – not only diplomatically but also with a resounding economic and cultural boycott... For many years, the Canadians have thought themselves the prophets of human rights in the world; now they believe that they have received a mandate from Jesus to disseminate the values of Christianity in their new leftist sense.
"This is a new crusade in a different form and a new guise. It is a war bearing aloft the values of democracy but hiding the cross beneath its gleaming clothes and voicing slogans about rights while holding the slaughtering knife behind [its] back.
"Sovereignty, as Riyadh understands it, does not mean slogans directed outwardly with concessions in secret. It means a determined stance on the borders of respectful relations and non-interference. Therefore, when sovereignty is damaged, various Saudi reactions follow. This is not because Riyadh wakes up one morning and looks into its country files and says, 'Let's boycott this country, and let's recall our ambassador from that country'...
"Do you remember the [Arab] oil boycott on the West? The expulsion of the ambassadors of the U.S., of Iran and of Sweden]? [Or] the recall of [the Saudi] ambassadors from some countries – for example, from Germany several months ago, and from Canada recently? This is the policy of the patient man when he is finally angered."
[1] On this affair see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 7613, Against Backdrop Of Saudi-Canadian Tension, Saudi Twitter Account Tweets Hint Of Possible 9/11-Style Attack In Canada; Saudi Authorities Order Account Shut Down, August 7, 2018.
[2] 'Okaz (Saudi Arabia), August 8, 2018.
