Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR; Arabic: لجنة الدفاع عن الحقوق الشرعية) is a Saudi dissident group created in 1993 which opposes the Saudi government as un-Islamic.

1 History
- 1.1 Criticism
2 References
3 Reading List
4 External links

[edit] History

Founded in Riyadh on May 3, 1993 by six scholars, the Committee served to "pass on the views of the Islamist opposition that was rapidly developing in the universities and mosques" of Saudi Arabia. In its Arabic language pronouncements the CDLR maintained a strict "Islamist line," claiming to defend "the rules laid out in the sharia," while its English language statements it denounced violations of human rights in Saudi.^[1]

Following an interview by the BBC of Mohammed al-Masari, its official spokesman, the CDLR's "signatories and their sympathizers promptly lost their jobs and were thrown into jail."^[2] The organization was banned, and its members either left Saudi Arabia or went underground.

Following a campaign by Amnesty International, al-Masari was released from prison, and along with Saad al-Faqih reestablished the CDLR in London, United Kingdom in April 1994. The group made "feverish use" of fax machines and later an internet website to criticize the ruling family and deliver its message to Saudi. Their campaign was effective enough to cause the Saudi royal family to threaten the British government with an end to "lucrative defence contracts and other commercial deals" if "Mr Masari was not silenced," and a court battle ensued over Whitehall's attempt to do just that. "In the end, Mr Masari won a legal battle ... but soon after that he faded from public prominence."^[3]

In 1996, Faqih broke with al-Masari, "arguing that the Saudi opposition should operate only within the strict boundaries of UK law," and created the rival Islamic Reform Movement (IRM). ^[4]

[edit] Criticism

Scholar Gilles Kepel has described CDLR and Al-Masari as "failing to raise any groundswell of support" within Saudi Arabia and "sadly lacking" in Islamic "doctrinal ... ballast" as became evident after "he was confronted by a barrage of fatwas issued by the regime's ulema supporters."^[5] Al-Masari is also criticised for being two-faced, presenting himself as a fighter of human rights abuses and corruption to English language audiences, while regailing Arabic speakers with attacks on Saudi for its lack of shari'a law enforcement and even pronouncing "takfir against all Muslims who obeyed the laws of Riyadh". In particular, his takfir "destroyed much of his support among [Saudi] dissidents." ^[6]

In recent years the CDLR has been denounced by the U.S. government for expressing its "understanding" of the "bombings of U.S. military facilities in 1995 and 1996 and sympathy for the perpetrators." Its splinter group, the IRM, has also been denounced as "implicitly condoned the two terrorist attacks as well, arguing that they were a natural outgrowth of a political system that does not tolerate peaceful dissent."^[7]

In the US State Department's 2005 report^[7], CDLR is described as an extremist organization which seeks the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy by force.

Although blacklisted in the US and many EU countries, the CDLR does not appear on any US or UN list of terrorist groups.

[edit] References

^ Kepel, Gille, Jihad : the trail of political Islam , Harvard University Press, (2002), p.215
^ Kepel, Jihad, (2002), p.215
^ Profile: Saudi political opposition by Gerald Butt Last Updated: Thursday, 10 February, 2005
^ Profile: Saudi political opposition by By Gerald Butt Last Updated: Thursday, 10 February, 2005
^ Kepel, Jihad, (2002), p.215
^ Kepel, Jihad, (2002), p.216
^ ^a ^b Saudi Arabia: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices -- 2004, US Department of State