A Tale of Oil and Fire – Part 2: Revolutions & Revelations

This piece is Part 2 of a 4 Part series – A Tale of Oil and Fire [Click here for Part 1]

A Righteous Cause

While the Saudis ironed out a deal with the US, Iran would take a different approach and set the tone for revolution.

Tensions over economic anxieties, a rising Saudi Arabia, and foreign interference would light the Molotov cocktail of Iranian politics. The US installed Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, would prove to become an unpopular leader as time went on. His focus on secularism and closeness with the West created an odd alliance of Islamist and Marxist resistance against him. These latter forces would prevail and overthrow the Shah.

During this movement, a cult of personality would develop around a Shia cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini. In Shia Islam, holy saints would become known as Imams who would become essential to Shia theology (Ayatollah translates to “Sign of God”). As the Iranian revolution unfolded, Khomeini became an almost divine figure of resistance against the gargantuan foe of America. David and Goliath unfolded in the eyes of the faithful. Khomeini became an Imam of a new era and the most influential in centuries.

The Marxists would soon be cannibalized and irrelevant as the more popular Shia sentiments triumphed in victory. And the world would witness an aberrant revolution; one where religious (quasi-) democratic forces would overcome a secular autocratic one. Khomeini’s leadership proved to be a call of resistance across an ever secularizing Middle East. Many Arab nationalist movements coupled their policies with the socialism of the USSR, but now a combination of Khomeini’s victory and a rising Wahhabi Saudi Arabia provided a bulwark against Soviet and secular influence.

Khomeini would go further and claim that monarchy itself would be against Islam. Now the bells really started ringing across the Islamic world, especially with the emirs of the peninsula. Khomeini’s message would cross sectarian lines and inspire Shia and Sunni alike as he claimed his revolution was a testament to all Muslims, not just the Shias that would go on to shape Iran by their own ideology.

Saudi Arabia, guardians of Mecca and Medina, who saw themselves as the leaders of the Muslim world were rattled by this rising Imam who challenged their twin pillars of monarchic and Sunni dominance. A 1979 terrorist attack by their own Wahhabi Sunnis on the holy sites in Mecca terrified the Saudi royals who later learned that these Wahhabis conducted this attack on not just ideological lines, but also as an affront to the monarchy. In parallel, Shia uprisings occurred in the oil rich eastern provinces of Arabia in solidarity with Iran. Across the gulf, Iranians would storm the US embassy (and in the process killing a number of Americans) as a show of continued resistance against America.

Here’s the essential pieces at this stage:

1. Iran had successfully provided a template for resistance to the West, Islamization of politics, and a powerful ideological/religious leader
2. While on the other hand, Saudi Arabia was seen as bending the knee to America, secularizing the country too much (one of the reasons why the Wahhabi fringe attacked Mecca), and an inept monarchy that was increasingly un-Islamic.

The Saudis would cave and bend to the will of the extremists. Women’s rights were curbed, movie theaters and music shops shut down, and a general return to conservatism returned. The shadow of the antique pact between Wahhab and Saud loomed large as Saudi Arabia embraced a stricter Sunni Islam just as Iran had embraced a stricter version of Shia Islam. With this calcification of sectarian lines, the Sunni-Shia conflict would explode.

The Word of the Faithful

Iran and Saudi Arabia would now compete in the export of their ideologies.

The Saudis would have billions poured into promoting Wahhabism across the Sunni world – with a special case occurring in Pakistan.

Madrasas mushroomed in number across Pakistan as a dictator named Zia-ul-Haq (fresh off a humiliating defeat to an “infidel” India and losing a third of their territory to the new nation of Bangladesh) embraced the relationship, as he thought the Islamization of Pakistan would solve all their problems.

Saudi Arabia would find an opportunity in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. They urged Pakistan with money and influence to train rebels (mujahideen) to fight the godless communists invading their fellow Muslim nation. The Saudis would go further with the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia declaring this war a holy Jihad and encourage the faithful across the Muslim world to join in. One of these mujahideen was named Osama bin Laden. Maybe you’ve heard of him.

The US supported this resistance and saw this religious revolution as the ultimate shield against the spread of communism; while Pakistan saw these proxy groups as potential vassals to control Afghanistan and later direct them towards India.

The mujahideen would defeat the Soviets. As the satisfied Americans withdrew from this conflict, they put the onus of rebuilding Afghanistan on Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. These countries would support the most extreme Islamist elements in leadership and birth a new nexus of terror. These hardened jihadists would form the leadership of later Wahhabi terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and provide significant example to ISIS.

While Saudi Arabia meddled in Subcontinent, Iran would muddy the waters a bit closer to home and in a conflict that touched more of a nerve for Arabs – the Arab-Israeli conflict, this time involving Lebanon.

The Israelis wanted to root out Palestinian supporters who were shelling northern Israel. Israel advanced on Lebanon’s capital while the Arab world watched silently. But Khomeini wanted a word.

Khomeini would send the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to train and fund a Shia resistance group, Hezbollah. Hezbollah would push back the Israelis, and Iran would once again provide an illustration of successful resistance against an antagonistic power, this time against the eternal enemy of Israel. One of the tactics of (offensive) defense that Hezbollah embraced was suicide bombing. Their fanaticism would further fuel the Islamic world’s descent into extremism as Hezbollah swore fealty to Ayatollah Khomeini and Twelver Shia Islam.

This victory would inspire Arab Shias across the Middle East, a minority (only 13% of total Muslim population) who were frequently economically and politically disenfranchised. Shia resistances would announce themselves in Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and indeed even Saudi Arabia. Iran’s Shia zealotry would supercede Arab nationalism as its influence spread through victory and struggle.

In both of our cases, we see:

• Successful resistance against perceived anti-Islamic forces (Israelis, Soviets).
• Encouragement of extremism as the vanguard of rebellion and later leadership.
• Placing Islam as the foundation of their national identity.

A Conflict of Shadows

While Saudi Arabia sought to expand the Wahhabi creed amongst its fellow Sunnis, the fruits of their efforts varied. One of these bad apples was Iraq.

Iraq was under the control of Saddam Hussein and his Baathist Party (remember this name for later), which espoused Arab nationalism rather than a religious ideology. Nonetheless, most of Saddam’s party had strong support from the large Sunni minority of Iraq (around 42%) as Shias and others were marginalized in Saddam’s tyranny. And like other Shias, they heard the call of Khomeini.

Khomeini urged Iraqi Shias to remember the name of Imam Hussein as they would rise up against his pretender Sunni namesake, Saddam Hussein. Diplomacy would break down as the iron-fisted Saddam did not tolerate dissension.

In 1980, Iraq would launch a blitzkrieg campaign into Iran. A confident Iraq would soon find that the Iranians were willing to fight till Judgement Day (Yawm al-Qiyamah in Islam). Iranian boys as young as 12 would be sent to the frontlines draping the hills with blood as their mothers’ faces were draped with tears. The Iranian resistance would push back the Iraqi forces in 1982 with Saddam realizing his folly and subsequently suing for peace. An incensed Khomeini, however, would elect war as the Iranians attempted a vengeful advance. Their aim – to capture the holy Shia city of Karbala in Iraq, the martyrdom site of their revered saint, Imam Hussein.

The shadow of history would be as relevant as ever as Khomeini channeled Hussein’s sacrifice to an advancing Iranian army. Sunni Gulf Arab countries (including Saudi Arabia) would now intervene with aid and equipment to the mostly Sunni Saddam government in order to halt the flipping of Iraq to Shia dominion (as they were the majority). Saudi Arabia would cash in the petrodollar pact with the US and its European allies who in turn also supported Saddam. Even a large number of Shia Iraqis gave their hand to Saddam as Iraqi nationalist sentiments erupted, and Iranian gunfire sizzled past Shia Iraqi homes and heads.

Saddam would soon find his eyes on the periodic table, as his chemical weapon attacks would rattle Iranian troops. The war would drag on in a back and forth until Khomeini reluctantly agreed to a ceasefire request from Saddam in 1988, as both sides suffered from war weariness. Khomeini was savagely bitter at the end especially towards the Saudis who he saw as reviving a flailing Iraqi side just when the tide of war had turned in Iranian favor. Khomeini would never speak publicly after the ceasefire speech and pass away a year later. Iran would be forever changed as although the war ended in a stalemate, the Iranian public gained confidence and audacity as they had faced down Iraq, America, Saudi Arabia, and chemical weapons amongst many other adversaries; all while coming out with their ideals and revolution intact. Iran had now deified defiance.

Across the border, Saddam strengthened his vice grip on the populace, particularly directing malice towards Iraq’s Shia population. With arrogance and directness, Saddam would extend his campaign of power externally in 1991 through a blatant land grab of the oil rich nation of Kuwait. This proved a problem for Saudi Arabia, whose dominance and preeminence in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was hung in the balance as its ally folded. Once again swiping its black card of the petrodollar, the Saudis convinced the US to repel Iraqi forces as oil prices skyrocketed with the US dollar potentially threatened by Saddam’s belligerence. This proved the beginning of the end for Saddam’s brutal regime.

Click here for Part 3: A Furious Crescendo