America Abroad

By Strobe Talbott

A few days before the gulf war began in January, I was driving outside Jidda with a Saudi official who was telling me about what he called "the limits to political modernization" in the kingdom. I caught sight of a road sign to Mecca, only 31 miles away. Knowing that non-Muslims were forbidden to visit the holy city, I asked my companion whether he thought someday, when Saudi Arabia is more open to the outside world, the ban might be lifted.

"Never," he replied.

"Why?" I asked, somewhat taken aback.

"Because God says so."

He wasn't being rude or even expressing an opinion. He was simply stating the way things are and will always be. The subject was not ethics or what I think of as theology but the law of the land. I understood for the first time something I had often heard about Muslim culture: there is no division between mosque and state.

The conversation came back to me after the war. From George Bush on down, many in the West celebrated a victory not just of military strength but of political values. Democracy is the word most often used to summarize those values. But the institutions associated with democracy have never thrived in the Arab world, and the welcome outcome of the gulf war is not likely to change that.

In Iraq, even if Saddam Hussein is removed from office, his successors are likely to form a military dictatorship or a theocratic regime. Meanwhile, there were hints from Kuwait that the Emir, having been so slow to return home, is now in no hurry to re-establish a national assembly.

As for Saudi Arabia, the only country named after a family, its leaders show little inclination to share power. On my trip in January, I met with His Highness Prince Fahd bin Salman, a thirtysomething, U.S.-educated grandson of the founding King, Abdul Aziz, known as Ibn Saud. Fahd is vice governor of the Eastern province. I asked him whether he thought there would still be an absolute monarchy in the 21st century.

"Why not?" he shot back, with a distinct note of because-God-says-so finality. Then, remembering his audience, he added, "Of course, if we find a better system, I assure you we'll adopt it."

The Prophet Muhammad taught that all men are equal. Over the centuries Islam has nourished scientists, philosophers, architects and writers. But the last phrase of the Koran's injunction to "obey Allah, the messenger and those of you who are in authority" is a boon to autocrats. Saddam pretends devotion when it suits his purposes. He has gone from murdering clerics to proclaiming a jihad and televising his prayers during the war.

"Constitutional and representative government has been a miserable failure in the Arab world," says Elie Kedourie, a renowned scholar of Islam. "Elections and parliaments have no roots in classic Muslim thought. Only one figure holds ultimate legitimate authority in both the secular and religious realms, and that's the Caliph. The title may change, but the theory does not."

In any land where things are the way they are because God says so, the all important question is, Who says he says so? In Iraq the answer is still Saddam. In Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, it's still the royal family. That much some of the war's winners and its loser have in common.