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Saudi Arabia forced to rethink ideology in fight against IS

While Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State (IS) are both based on pan-Islamic ideology, the former feels threatened by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's efforts to create a multi-ethnic military force where local culture, language and ethnicity are submerged in one Islamic identity and polity.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz (L) attends a military parade which is held in preparation for the annual Haj pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca September 28, 2014. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: RELIGION MILITARY ROYALS POLITICS) - RTR482C5

Many skeptic observers may easily dismiss contemporary caliphates such as the one that sprung up in Iraq and Syria in June as temporary eruptions playing on Muslims’ emotional dispositions and longing for a glorious past. However, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia seems to have taken the challenge seriously. It quickly joined an international alliance against the Islamic State (IS) and declared the entity a terrorist threat. Given that Saudi Arabia had in the past sponsored and nourished groups very similar to IS that were later designated as terrorist organizations, for example al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, it is surprising that the IS caliphate is now considered a threat to national security. If pan-Islamism was Saudi Arabia’s antidote to the threat of Arab nationalism in a previous era, what is Saudi Arabia’s strategy today to fight IS? Leaving the promise of military might aside, the only solution is to lessen the similarities between the kingdom and the caliphate.

At the heart of the caliphate model of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is the promise of transnational connections that worry Saudi Arabia in a region where political borders had cut across tribal territories since after World War I. The population of northern Saudi Arabia consists of branches of tribes that live across the border in Jordan, Syria and Iraq. For instance, the Shammar of northern Saudi Arabia have “tribal” brothers and cousins as far as Hasakah in Syria and Jabal Sinjar in Iraq. This applies also to the Anaiza tribe and many others. All these transnational entities endorse "fictive" kinship ties that can be mobilized for the sake of forging solidarities and making claims on each others' resources, especially in times of hardship. Such fictive kinship and the trust that it invokes prove to be conducive not only for mutual support but also smuggling and other cross-border activities.

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