VZCZCXRO6504
PP RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDIR
DE RUEHRH #0887/01 1870934
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 060934Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY RIYADH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1118
INFO RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH 0212
RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 000887 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA/PPD FOR PAGNEW, DBENZE, NEA/ARP FOR JHARRIS, ECA/A/E/NEA FOR 
DIVES, ECA/A/S/A FOR CDANZ 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO PGOV PINR OEXC SCUL SA
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S DINNER WITH "ENLIGHTENED CONSERVATIVE" 
RELIGIOUS FIGURES 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Over a June 24 dinner at his spacious, extended-family 
compound, a religious academic and several of his colleagues from 
Imam University - the most prestigious Islamic University in Saudi 
Arabia and once a breeding ground for extremist religious thought - 
engaged Ambassador and Embassy officers in a discussion of social 
and religious change in Saudi Arabia. The host and his guests, 
probably all of them vetted by the University in full knowledge of 
Saudi authorities, sought to portray a rising generation of 
religious thinkers as moving away from the extremist and rigid 
thinking of the recent past toward more moderate, open and 
progressive interpretations of Islam. Among the specific messages 
they sought to convey were that the new breed of Saudi religious 
thinkers: 1) want to accommodate change without naming it as such; 
2) favor interfaith dialogue despite continuing resistance in some 
quarters; 3) are seeking to develop a new narrative to package 
change and accommodate a new approach to the status of women; 4) 
must base their new approach on authentically Saudi concepts and 
tradition in order to avoid the taint of Western ideas and toxic 
Saudi "liberals;" and 5) welcome continued contact with the Embassy. 
End Summary. 
 
SOCIETY USED TO BE MORE OPEN AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN GREATER 
--------------------------- ------------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The Ambassador had a lively exchange on social and 
religious change in Saudi Arabia over the last forty years with Dr. 
Fahad al Homoudi, Vice Dean for Academic Research at Imam Mohammad 
University, his father and various guests. The latter included: Dr. 
Abdulla al-Rifa'i, Editor-in-Chief of 'Mer'at Aljameah' Newspaper 
and Professor of Media Studies, Imam University; Mr. Abdulmajeed 
al-Omari, Supervisor of Conferences and Training, Ministry of 
Islamic Affairs; and several of his adult brothers. All agreed that 
Saudi society had been more open and free during the 1960s and 
1970s. Women were more influential and active at that time. Families 
mixed and members of both genders ate at the same table. People went 
to the cinema and women went without abayas. Women controlled much 
of the open marketing in the cities. 
 
REFORM MUST BE BASED on SAUDI CONCEPTS AND HISTORY 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶3. (SBU) The consensus was that a dramatic change to a less open 
society occurred in 1979 and could be traced, among other things, to 
the Khomeini revolution in Iran, the takeover of Mecca by Islamic 
radicals, and the malign influence of the Muslim brotherhood. "It 
was our generation," agreed these forty to fifty year-old men, "that 
was responsible for these negative developments, which were not 
consistent with either Saudi religious or social tradition." In this 
regard, Dr. Fahad pointed out that instead of letting foreign 
governments dictate reform within the Kingdom, the Saudi government 
needed only to look to its own history for examples of women's 
rights and religious tolerance. 
 
NEGATIVE INFLUENCE OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Dr. Fahad and his Saudi guests emphasized the role played 
by members of the Muslim Brotherhood who fled Nasser's Egypt and 
found refuge in Saudi Arabia, especially as teachers. "The Muslim 
brotherhood members were educated and organized," Dr. Fahd said. 
Their placement in public schools throughout Saudi Arabia gave them 
a strategic platform to take advantage of the fears of instability 
and the general lack of education in the Kingdom. The result was the 
creation of the current generation of radical fundamentalists. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Our Saudi interlocutors suggested that if Islamic education 
could have retained a truer Saudi character, it might have been more 
benign, at least in the treatment of female separation. (Comment: 
This line of thinking is consistent with the generally increased 
willingness of conservative thinkers to assess the negative impact 
of the Brotherhood on Saudi history. This in turn suggests that 
Saudization, at least at the higher levels of the university system, 
and greater exposure to western universities, may have begun 
allowing religious conservatives to incorporate long-accepted 
theories about the negative role of the Brotherhood into their own 
assessments.) 
 
CHANGE NEEDED BUT MUST NOT BE IDENTIFIED WITH LIBERALISM 
---------------------------- --------------------------- 
 
¶6. (SBU) There was less agreement about how to return to a more open 
society. Dr. Fahad, who in a previous conversation with the PAO had 
stressed that scholars should continuously interpret the Quran in 
 
RIYADH 00000887  002 OF 002 
 
 
the light of changing circumstances, highlighted the King's role in 
promoting dialogue and a culture of tolerance. Fahad saw the King's 
efforts to separate the political and religious aspects of dialogue 
as critically important, while acknowledging that parts of the 
religious establishment saw it very negatively as a political step 
to facilitate Middle East peace at the expense of Islam or as a 
worrisome move to syncretize the Abrahamic religions. Dr. al Rifa'i 
noted that good ideas for change were important but were not enough, 
and real change, in order to be effective, would need good planning 
and management. He also noted that reform could not be successful if 
identified with "liberalism." "Liberals," he stressed, were 
considered by the public as clients of foreign embassies, and their 
ideas for change would be considered as unacceptable 
"Westernization." 
 
GOOD PROSPECTS FOR CONTINUED COOPERATION 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Dr. Fahad's dinner and his invitation to Ambassador and 
Embassy officers to attend a family wedding suggest that, unlike 
many academics here, Fahad is eager to work with us and has a "green 
light" to do so from Imam University leadership. While Imam 
University's faculty, especially the religious side, is no doubt 
predominantly extremely conservative, there definitely appears to be 
a core of younger religious scholars committed to gradual but real 
change, who wish to maintain serious but careful contact with the 
Embassy and with other foreign and Western institutions. 
 
BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION 
---------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Dr. Fahad al Homoudi, the youthful (about 37) Vice Dean 
for Academic Research at Imam Mohammad University, is an alumnus of 
the 2008 Fulbright Interfaith Community Action program. Dr. Fahad's 
family is both very traditional and forward looking. The father, in 
his eighties, has worked for Talal bin Abdulaziz, known as the "red 
prince" for his progressive ideas, for over sixty years (i.e., since 
Talal was 15). His seven sons and six daughters are all highly 
educated, and the sons all have their own houses in the family 
compound (there are over a hundred grandchildren). One son is Rector 
of Qassim University, one a doctor and professor of Medicine at King 
Saud University, another a high official in the Ministry of Finance, 
all the rest quite accomplished. 
 
¶9. (U) Dr. Fahad holds a 2006 PhD in Islamic Studies from McGill 
University, and Master's (2001) and Bachelor's (1994) degrees in 
Islamic and Religious Studies from Imam Mohammed bin Saud Islamic 
University. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) 
and a member of the Scholarly Saudi Society for Prophetic Tradition. 
From 1997-2001 he taught at the controversial Fairfax-based 
Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, a satellite 
campus of Imam University in Riyadh. 
 
A FULBRIGHT STAR 
---------------- 
 
10 (SBU) In June 2008, the Embassy, working with Imam University, 
nominated Dr. Fahad for the 2008 Fulbright Interfaith Community 
Action program. Although initially reluctant to go on the Fulbright, 
due to conflicted feelings about America's role in the Middle East, 
Dr. Fahad ended up being a star of this unique grant that took him 
on a three month program of workshops, lectures and seminars in 
Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver and Washington, DC. Upon his return 
from the U.S., he started a State Alumni web group to keep in touch 
with his fellow interfaith alumni. In April he organized, with two 
other Fulbright scholars, an interfaith training program in Jakarta 
funded by Imam University in cooperation with two Indonesian 
institutions. He is writing a book to explain religious diversity in 
America for Saudi audiences, and has written an article about Muslim 
responses to King Abdullah's initiatives for dialogue soon to be 
published on the Search for Common Ground website 
(http://www.commongroundnews.org/index.php). Dr. Fahad is also 
working with some of the American contacts he met during his 
Fulbright program to put together an interfaith dialogue program for 
other colleagues from Imam University to be funded by Imam. 
ERDMAN