Fatwa #29 An Appeal to Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz al Saud

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

To Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz al Saud,

Some believe that there is a special hell reserved for hypocrites and liars. If so, most of humanity will no doubt deserve to end up there. It will be of no small comfort to the rest of us that you will be there with us.

This week you told the government of Syria to "stop the killing machine and the bloodshed before it is too late." I wonder if that is what you told your friend Sheikh Dickwad ibn Cowpatty of Bahrain when you sent in your own troops to help in the killing in Manama? Did you think I didn't notice? Did you think I didn't remember? No doubt the people of Hama and Homs and Deraa don't care who gets killed anywhere else and no doubt the people in Washington and Paris and London don't remember (or don't care to remember) what you and your friend were up to a few months ago. But did you think I wouldn't remember? Even if I was the last person on the earth to remember or care I would be comforted by the fact there is a judge eternal who forgets nothing.

Or when you said "stop the killing machine" did you really mean to say "conclude your killing" the way you and your little friend "concluded" the killing in Bahrain once you had done enough to put a lid on the mess? Is that what you meant, Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz? You can be honest with me because I can handle honesty. Ruling a country is a dirty business. I understand you have to spend much of your time lying and spreading half-truths and diplomatic doubletalk.
But did you think you had any moral authority left to tell anyone to stop killing people?
DID YOU REALLY THINK I WAS DUMB ENOUGH TO NOT NOTICE YOUR HYPOCRISY OR CRAVEN ENOUGH TO KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT WHILE YOU SPOUTED SUCH NONSENSE?

Nations are inconsistent. People are hypocrites and inconsistent in their application of ideals. I do not expect much from kings and princes and emirs and presidents and ministers and bureacrats and technocrats. "Statesmen" spend much of their time lying and doubledealing. "Statesmen" can order killing with one side of their mouth while accusing others of being butchers with the other. States are dirty messy things and "statesmen" have to make dirty messy decisions full of contradictions and lies. Maybe if I was in your place I'd make some of the same choices. Maybe I wouldn't. Like I said, I don't expect much of kings. It's a dirty business, even for the best of them.

But from a Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, I expect more. You shouldn't call yourself that if you can't be the person that title entails. You can't help your friend murder someone and judge someone else for murder and call yourself a Custodian. The world could do without custodians like that.

I have said all this to you, Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz, because you need to hear it. And because others are silent or ignorant. You are playing a dangerous game, Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz, not because it is not prudent diplomatically, but because you have put your very soul in peril.
I am not the judge you need to worry about, nor will you find your judge in the foreign press or in the UN or Washington, London, Paris, Moscow, or even Cairo. Your judge is the one who will judge us all. And it doesn't take much more than a scratch beneath the surface to see that the killing machine you point at is only a mirror of your own machine. You should be careful with these little lies and hypocrisies, Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz. I may be the only person left on this earth to notice them or to care about them. But the Lord of Creation sees everything and remembers everything. Tread lightly, Abdullah ibn Abdul Aziz, because one day you may have to eat all your lies written in fire on burning coals, because statesmen are judged in this world in one way, and in the next world according, perhaps to a different standard.

Repent now and beg for mercy like the rest of us. Give up your pride and your power today, because they will mean nothing to you when your time here is done and you stand before God like the rest of us. I know what I have to answer for when that time comes. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE TO ANSWER FOR?

I have tried to counsel you "before it is too late." I hope for your sake you will take this to heart.

Sincerely,
Seyed Mohammad ibn Abolhassan ibn Mohammad Mahdi ibn Seyed Ismail