That's because the Saudis think that they are the masters of all the muslims.

Pakistan surprised by its inclusion in 34-nation military alliance

BAQIR SAJJAD SYED — UPDATED 3 DAYS AGO

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan found itself in the crosshairs of Middle Eastern politics on Tuesday as Saudi Arabia named it as part of its newly formed 34-nation military alliance of Muslim countries meant to combat terrorism, without first getting its consent.

Talking to journalists, Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry said he was surprised to read the news that Saudi Arabia had named Pakistan as part of the alliance.

He said he had asked the country’s ambassador in Riyadh to get a clarification from Saudi Arabia on the matter.

Know more: Pakistan part of 34-state Islamic military alliance against terrorism, says KSA

Another senior official also confirmed that Pakistan was not consulted before inclusion in the alliance.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Saudi government surprised many countries by announcing that it had forged a coalition for coordinating and supporting military operations against terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan. The headquarters of the new Saudi-led coalition would be based in Riyadh.

This is not the first time that Saudi Arabia has named Pakistan as part of its military alliances without Islamabad’s knowledge and consent. The Saudis earlier named Pakistan as part of the coalition that carried out operations in Yemen and a Pakistani flag was displayed at the alliance’s media centre.

Pakistan later declined to join the Yemen war.

It is Pakistani government’s policy that it will not deploy its troops outside the country’s borders except for UN peacekeeping missions.

In the past Pakistan has twice rejected US calls for joining alliances against the militant Islamic State (IS) group on the same pretext.

“We are not looking for any involvement outside our region,” army spokesman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa had said last month while replying to a question about the possibility of Pakistan becoming part of a US-led coalition against IS.

It is unclear how Riyadh went ahead with announcing Pakistan’s participation in the new alliance. It is also difficult to speculate if Islamabad will change its policy because of its close ties with the kingdom.

Pakistan, however, has counter-terrorism cooperation with Saudi Arabia.

The IS operations and activities across the Middle East have led to military responses executed by alliances that most of the time rival each other. Syria has been battling IS and other militants with the help of Iran and Russia.

The US, which is supporting groups trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is meanwhile leading another alliance against IS.

Iran has led military efforts along with the Iraqi army and volunteers in the fight against IS in Iraq. The US-led alliance has been supporting the ground operations against IS with their air strikes.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2015

Saudi Arabia has tried hard recently to convince the West that it is taking the lead on tackling the problems of extremism and terrorism. But it's no exaggeration to say there are some perplexing aspects to this new alliance.

First, some of the countries apparently in the alliance claim to have never heard of it

A total of 34 nations have been declared as members of the alliance, but already some countries have come out to say that they never agreed to anything.

“We came to know about it (the alliance) through news reports," a senior official of Pakistan’s Foreign Office told the Express Tribune after the announcement. "We have asked our ambassador in Saudi Arabia to get details on it." Another unnamed individual told the newspaper that they were unsure whether they were part of any military alliance and noted that the country would not get involved in an alliance without United Nations backing.

Pakistan isn't the only country that got a surprise with the list. The governments ofMalaysia and Lebanon have also suggested they knew little about the alliance that they were listed as a part of.

Other countries listed as being part of the alliance do not have Muslim majorities

Confusingly, while the Saudi government suggested its members came from "all over the Islamic world," a number of the countries listed as members do not have Muslim majorities. For example, over 80 percent of Uganda is Christian, while as much as 75 percent of Gabon is Christian. In Benin, the largest religion is Catholicism, and in Togo, the majority of the population holds indigenous beliefs.

These countries do have large Muslim minorities and ties to the Muslim world, including membership of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (another alliance created at the behest of the Saudis). However, their involvement in the alliance is still surprising – especially when you consider the countries not in the alliance.

Some of the most important Muslim countries in the world, including Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia, are not part of the alliance. Why not exactly?

Well, in the first two cases, the reasoning seems depressingly obvious – both are Shiite majority nations.

The exclusion of Shiite nations in an alliance designed to represent the Islamic world seems to reinforce the belief that Saudi Arabia's alliance is motivated by a sectarian rivalry with Iran and not terrorism. Saudi officials deny this. “This is not a Sunni coalition or a Shia coalition,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said at a news conference in Paris. Many people do not buy this (in Lebanon, government officials have had to assure the Shiite militant group and political party Hezbollah that it would not be targeted by the alliance).

Meanwhile, Afghanistan has been asked to join the alliance but has not made a decision at the time of writing, while it is not clear whether Indonesia has been asked to join yet.

It's unclear what exactly the alliance is aiming to do

Perhaps the most damning criticism of the alliance is just how vague it is. Jubeir has said that "nothing is off the table" when it comes to the alliance, which will not only have a military component but also tackle terrorist funding and ideology. What that means in practice is anyone's guess.

Saudi Arabia has also gone to lengths to suggest that the alliance would not be limited to attempts to fight the Islamic State, but would focus on terrorism in general. Some, such as Brian Whitaker of the al-Bab website, have argued that Saudi Arabia's definition of terrorism is worryingly broad. "Under a law introduced last year, virtually any criticism of the kingdom's political system or its interpretation of Islam counts as terrorism," Whitaker writes. Does this now apply to other countries in the alliance, too?

Many critics of Saudi Arabia say that for all its big talk in the fight against the Islamic State, the kingdom has proved unwilling to go after one of the key factors in the group's rise: the Saudi clerics who spread a radical Wahhabism that influences extremism around the world. There's a kernel of truth here – Saudi Arabia has certainly taken steps to stop the more extreme preachers, but it often seems just as interested in pushing a regional sectarian rivalry with Iran.

The problem is that that sectarianism often feeds further into extremism. And while this new alliance may appear to target terrorism, it's not hard to see it as an extension of the Saudi-led coalition currently fighting in Yemen – a war that sums up the sectarian quagmire currently engulfing the Middle East.

Pakistan is a terrorist nation.  However, Muslims in nations like Malaysia, Thailand, etc don't share the Wahabi viewpoint!

Criticizing the royal family of Saudi Arabia is considered under the Saudi law as an act of terrorism, so just imagine that many people around the world will be labeled terrorists under the Saudi law.

Lucas posted:

Criticizing the royal family of Saudi Arabia is considered under the Saudi law as an act of terrorism, so just imagine that many people around the world will be labeled terrorists under the Saudi law.

Screw them!