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Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights
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Saudi dissident group established in 1993.
Founded in Riyadh by six Saudi scholars, the Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR) had an agenda of political protest that was couched in a Sunni Islamic idiom that used the Qurʾan and hadith (sayings of the prophet Muhammad) to buttress its claims. The group's founding letter called for an end to injustice and the establishment of individual rights based on the precepts of shariʿa, or Islamic jurisprudence. The Saudi government banned the organization, forcing its members to go underground or leave the country. In 1994 the CDLR established its headquarters in London under the leadership of Muhammad al-Mas'ari, a former physics professor who had been imprisoned briefly in Saudi Arabia for his role in the committee. From London the group established a web site and used other forms of modern technology to promote a more strident program of opposition to the Saudi regime. Al-Mas'ari criticized the profligacy and absolutism of the Al Saʿud ruling family and called for a government that was more open and a more equitable distribution of the country's vast wealth. He criticized religious authorities (ulama) who provided Islamic justifications for the Al Saʿud's policies, and he supported those who called for reform of the system.
Bibliography
Fandy, Mamoun. Saudi Arabia and the Politics of Dissent. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999.
Al-Rasheed, Madawi. A History of Saudi Arabia. New York; Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
— ANTHONY B. TOTH
| Wikipedia: Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights |
The Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR; Arabic: لجنة الدفاع عن الحقوق الشرعية) is a Saudi dissident group created in 1993 which opposes the Saudi government as un-Islamic.
Contents |
History
Founded in Riyadh on May 3, 1993 by six scholars, the Committee served to "pass on the views of the Islamist opposition that was rapidly developing in the universities and mosques" of Saudi Arabia. In its Arabic language pronouncements the CDLR maintained a strict "Islamist line," claiming to defend "the rules laid out in the sharia," while its English language statements denounced violations of human rights in Saudi.[1]
Following an interview by the BBC of Mohammad al-Masari, its official spokesman, the CDLR's "signatories and their sympathizers promptly lost their jobs and were thrown into jail."[1] The organization was banned, and its members either left Saudi Arabia or went underground.
Following a campaign by Amnesty International, al-Masari was released from prison, and along with Sa'ad Al-Faqih reestablished the CDLR in London, United Kingdom in April 1994. The group made "feverish use" of fax machines and later an Internet website to criticize the ruling family and deliver its message to Saudi Arabia. Their campaign was effective enough that the Saudi royal family threatened the British government with an end to "lucrative defence contracts and other commercial deals" if "Mr Masari was not silenced," and a court battle ensued over Whitehall's attempt to do just that. "In the end, Mr Masari won a legal battle ... but soon after that he faded from public prominence."[2]
In 1996, Faqih broke with al-Masari, "arguing that the Saudi opposition should operate only within the strict boundaries of UK law," and created the rival Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia (MIRA).[2]
Criticism
Scholar Gilles Kepel has described CDLR and Al-Masari as "failing to raise any groundswell of support" within Saudi Arabia and "sadly lacking" in Islamic "doctrinal ... ballast", as became evident after "he was confronted by a barrage of fatwas issued by the regime's ulema supporters."[1] Al-Masari is also criticised for being two-faced, presenting himself as a fighter of human rights abuses and corruption to English language audiences, while regailing Arabic speakers with attacks on Saudi for its lack of shari'a law enforcement and even pronouncing "takfir against all Muslims who obeyed the laws of Riyadh". In particular, his takfir "destroyed much of his support among [Saudi] dissidents." [3]
In recent years the CDLR has been denounced by the U.S. government for expressing its "understanding" of the "bombings of U.S. military facilities in 1995 and 1996 and sympathy for the perpetrators." Its splinter group, the Islamic Reform Movement, has also been denounced as having "implicitly condoned the two terrorist attacks as well, arguing that they were a natural outgrowth of a political system that does not tolerate peaceful dissent."[4]
In the US State Department's 2005 report[4], the CDLR is described as an extremist organization which seeks the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy by force.
Although blacklisted in the US and many EU countries, the CDLR does not appear on any US or UN list of terrorist groups.
References
- ^ a b c Kepel, Gille, Jihad : the trail of political Islam, Harvard University Press, (2002), p.215
- ^ a b Profile: Saudi political opposition by Gerald Butt Last Updated: Thursday, 10 February 2005
- ^ Kepel, Jihad, (2002), p.216
- ^ a b Saudi Arabia: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices -- 2004, US Department of State
Reading List
- Teitelbaum, Joshua (2000). Holier Than Thou: Saudi Arabia's Islamic Opposition (Man and Poet Series). Brookings Institution,U.S.. ISBN 0944029353.
External links
- Asia Times Online - The dangers of silencing Saudi dissent Jan 21st 2005
- SAUDI ARABIA Human Rights Developments 1997
- Human Rights Watch - Human Rights in Saudi Arabia: A Deafening Silence December 2001
- Meria - State, Islam and Opposition in Saudi Arabia - July 1997
- The Washington Institute: Holier Than Thou executive summary
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