Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria's holy partnership in the Cartoon Jihad

While many pundits mention Syria and Iran regarding their profiting from the Danish cartoon controversy, Saudi Arabia has really been the main driver behind this whole charade. I wrote a piece detailing this for FrontPage Magazine. You can read it here. Here's an excerpt:

In fact, as a brave Algerian editorialist from Le Soir D’Algerie pointed out Saudi Arabia had two major opportunities to start this campaign in December: one was the Hajj (the Pilgrimage which millions of Muslim attend), and the other one was the meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference which took place in Riyadh. The Conference adopted a resolution to create an Observatory against Islamophobia citing the example of the Danish cartoons but that was it. One of Saudi King Abdullah’s goals is to unite the Muslims of the World and defend them. This controversy played well in the classical scheme of Muslims being oppressed by the West. That is why the Wahhabi regime took the lead by being the first country to recall its Ambassador in Denmark and starting the boycott of Danish products. Also hardliner Interior Minister Prince Nayef called on international religious institutions and especially the Vatican to step in to defend the Muslims (which by the way the Vatican agreed to do). He added defending the Muslim outcry, ”If freedom has reached this degree, I think it is unacceptable no matter what”.

The collusion with Iran can be assessed with a phone call between King Abdullah and Iranian President Ahmadinejad reported by the Saudi daily Al Riyadh on February 3. Indeed, Ahmadinejad told Abdullah “the offensive caricatures against the Prophet were done to test the will of Muslims and Islamic countries”. He also reminded Abdullah of the major influence that Saudi Arabia and Iran enjoy in the Muslim world regarding regional and international issues. He finally added, ”In light of the friendship between our two countries, we hope for more cooperation and coordination to strengthen the solidarity in the Muslim world.” Iran has been on a diplomatic offensive in the Arab world in the past few weeks, especially with diplomats visiting Tunisia, Algeria and Syria. Their goal was to gather support for Iran’s nuclear program and prepare a counter offensive against the international community. So, while things were heating up, Iran decided thanks to the cartoons to play the card of the Muslim world oppressed by the West. Also as Emanuele Ottolenghi noted in National Review Online on February 6, it might not be a coincidence that Iran is targeting Denmark now. Indeed, Denmark is going to chair the United Nations Security Council when the issue of nuclear Iran and sanctions is going to be addressed.