The biggest news in the Middle East presently is the invitation by the Crown Prince of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (MBS), Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), to randy Hip Hop artiste, Nicki Minaj, into the Kingdom to perform in Jeddah, few kilometers away from Islam’s holiest city, Mecca, home to the Holy Kaabah. The Kingdom is also home to the second holiest city of Islam, Medina, home to the second holiest mosque and the tombs of Nabee Muhammad (SAW), and 3 of the 4 rightly guided Khalifs — Abu Bakr (RA), Umar (RA) and Usman (RA).
Minaj is part of a $64 billion 10-year plan of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) kickstarted in 2018. The plan was said to be aimed at reconnecting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the global community while destroying “extremist ideologies” and creating a more “moderate kingdom”; all part of a larger effort to “coexist with the world” and change global perceptions about the ultra-conservative and highly cultured Saudi Arabia.
Nicki Minaj is a bad girl, a really bad girl even by Las Vegas standards. That Las Vegas is the undisputed official “Sin City” of the world says more than is needed to say about this bizarre and embarrassing misadventure. Somehow, the no holds barred bisexual rapper made famous by her sexually explicit and provocative lyrics which, expectedly, are complimented by her very “adult” and repulsive onstage persona, is now a darling of the “custodians of the two holy mosques” beside being their preferred tool to reposition and realign the Kingdom with the rest of the world.
My purpose for the review of this reckless and unforgivable insensitivity is two-tongued. Firstly to examine MBS’s effort to marry Saudi Arabia’s ultra-conservatism with provocative and explicit lyrical contents of morally numb characters like Minaj to make sense (or nonsense) of the young ruler’s so called ambition to realign KSA and help it “coexist with the world”. Secondly to highlight the eerie and clearly hypocritical silence of Muslim leaders across the globe on King Salman’s desecration of all the values Islam holds dear and encourages its followers to observe and protect. This I will do with particular emphasis on the silence of Islamic leaders in Nigeria and of course, the seeming unconcern of followers that are well known for prompt reaction to such issues.
Ordinarily one will expect Friday sermons in our mosques to hammer a lot on this even if just to condemn the actions of Crown Prince Salman and not necessarily to have the decision reversed especially with no powers to do so. They were mute. Even more amazing was the silence of most Muslims among whom were those who went berserk in 2002 and unleashed deadly riots in Kaduna that consumed estimated 200 lives just to express their misgivings with a proposed beauty pageant that we all agreed was insensitive and as provocative as it was unnecessary. We all agreed the proposed pageant was a sacrilege wrapped in hypocritical western methods intended to corrupt the Muslim world and gain more mileage in a non-stop effort to check and subdue Islam.
This begets the question: Were fiery sermons and numerous riots witnessed by Nigeria as a result of similar although lesser insensitivities than the invitation of Nicki Minaj to Saudi Arabia truly provoked by a sincere commitment to protect Islam and its values or were they simply a fallout of other social ills as many analysts argued with each round of such riots. Truly it doesn’t make sense to me that people could unleash deadly riots to express dissatisfaction with a beauty pageant using the noble intention of protecting Islam from moral corruption as basis for such actions only to remain aloof to the sacrilegious and provocative invitation of Nicki Minaj into KSA for what’s clearly a promotion of a more explicit and advanced moral corruption.
So, Crown Prince Salman is ambitious of destroying “extremist ideologies” and a “more moderate” kingdom that could co-exist with the rest of the world. The world need to know the Crown Prince’s definition of “extremism” and “moderate ideologies” for the purpose of his agenda given that “extremism” and “moderate Islamic ideologies” are yet to be define properly much less, achieve a globally accepted definition for the purpose of experimenting its remedies or, if at all it’s a vice that could attract stepping down virtues and cherished traditions to resolve.
What are these ideologies that could be neutralized by nudity and vulgarity of language and manners as Minaj is (in)famously identified with? Even more confusing, how could immoral and unlawful display of sexuality in the centre of a chaste Islamic society promote domestic or universal peace? These and many more questions are what should worry MBS more than a phantom vision to expand an economy that, not by plan or effort, is already one of the best in the world but by Allah’s benevolence.
It’s very easy to puncture Crown Prince Salman’s claims of concern for global peace going by Saudi Arabia’s somewhat conspiratorial aloofness or disguised participation in the deadly events in the Middle East as organised and supervised by USA and Israel. From 2011 to date, more than 400,000 have died because of the Syrian conflict since 2011 with 5 million seeking refuge abroad and over 6 million displaced internally. Is Saudi Arabia not being accused of supplying Syrian rebels with weapons and logistical supports? How about that for a global peace effort!
The story is no less gruesome in Yemen with anything between 70,000 to 80,000 people being given as a more realistic figures of lives lost to the madness in Yemen. A long shot from the downplayed 10,000 being bandied by the sponsors and beneficiaries of the war including Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. By the way, what was Crown Prince Salman thinking when he was preaching peaceful co-existence while largely responsible for the massacre of innocent women and children in Yemen for no reason other than to save its stooge, President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi after he was ousted by the Houthi movement.
But for KSA’s insensitive ambition to plant stooges in the Middle East to serve its interests, all it might have taken the Crown Prince to keep peace in the region was to divorce KSA from the ambition of the USA and Israel to police the Middle East with their selfish interests serving as the template to do that. It doesn’t matter if these interests are in total conflict with those of the landlords of the region.
The notoriety of KSA in the Middle East is such that it could send domestic police across international borders into Bahrain to babysit the Bahrain ruling family as it did to not to long ago to quell protests against the ruling family who seemed to be holding Bahrain in trust for Saudi Arabia. It’s almost the same with Yemen. A military intervention was launched by Saudi Arabia in 2015, leading a coalition of nine countries from the Middle East and Africa, in response to calls from President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi for military support after he was ousted by the Houthi movement due to economic and political grievances that were largely provoked by leadership deficiencies and ineptitude.
If this is not enough to highlight the deceptive game being played by Crown Prince Salman perhaps, the senseless murder of Jamal Khashoggi. Jamal Khashoggi was Saudi journalist working with The Washington Post and former general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channels. He was murdered and butchered on 2 October 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey and was perpetrated by agents of the Saudi Arabian government.
With all these in the baggage of Crown Prince Salman, I wonder his source inspiration and energy for rebuilding peace whether in Saudi Arabia or in the Middle East. Going about by hiring expensive crooks into Saudi Arabia to desecrate its chastity. Forget the nonsensical caveats of “only non-alcoholic” and age restriction, Saudi Arabia is just not the place for Nicki Minaj’s kind of advocacy for peace and I expect the rest of the Muslim world to tell MBS this with a loud voice.
To conclude, the overwhelming silence of our Ulamas, with some of them boldly holding excuses or pretending not to notice the recklessness of MBS, is sickening and by every definition a support for the desecration of Islam and its values. It’s bad enough for our Ulamas to remain silent against such a flagrant assault on Islam. To hold excuses for the Saudi authorities is unbelievable! If it’s true that Sheikh Kabiru has exonerated the Saudi authorities from blame while putting blame on some private Saudi citizens, I will advise Sheikh Gombe to review the KSA’s $64 billion 10-year plan mentioned earlier and also juxtapose Minaj’s invitation by whoever with the beauty pageant in Nigeria mentioned earlier for which nobody gave any excuse for the Nigerian Government despite the event being a private affair.
I find solace in the fact that In all we do one day we would all be held accountable for deeds.
Allah (SWT) knows best!