Through a $2.15 Million Contract, A Soft Religious Force Improves Bin Salman’s Image in Washington

Ahead of the upcoming visit of the US President to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia next July, a recent report revealed that Saudi Arabia tasked the Muslim World League (MWL) to whitewash the Crown Prince’s image in the United States by contracting with consulting firms and global lobbies.

The MWL, a Mecca-based non-governmental organization founded in 1962 and heavily funded by the Saudi government, claims to promote a moderate form of Islam, religious tolerance, and peaceful coexistence.

However, in recent years, the MWL has taken a back seat on matters related to the kingdom's soft religious power since bin Salman, the country's de facto ruler, came to power.

Recently, the MWL has returned to strength in Washington and has been striving to restore Mohammed bin Salman's global image by offering a moderate vision of Islam promoted by Riyadh.

 

Soft Power

French Intelligence Online revealed that the MWL had persuaded Berkeley Research Group Government Affairs, a media advocacy firm, to expand its effort to ease tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States.

It stated in a report on June 16, 2022, that the heir to the Saudi throne, bin Salman, commissioned the MWL to whitewash his image with the American public prior to US President Joe Biden's visit to his country scheduled for July 15-16.

The MWL registered the global government consulting firm BGR in the US Department of Justice's Foreign Agents Registry, in a move indicating its intention to ease tensions between Mohammed bin Salman and Joe Biden by polishing the image of the crown prince.

The intelligence website said that the contract between BGR Government Affairs—which belongs to the BGR group founded by former adviser to George Bush, Sr. Ed Roger—and the MWL, estimated at $2.15 million, is one of a long list of agreements that Riyadh reached with companies Lobbying to promote its image in the United States.

Between 2016 and 2018, the Saudi Embassy in Washington and the Center for Studies and Media Affairs at the Saudi Royal Court (the Kingdom’s external communications arm) used the services of the public relations firm BGR Government Affairs.

This time, however, BGR Government Affairs will work with the Secretary-General of the MWL, Mohammed bin Abdul Karim al-Issa, who has held the position since 2016 and is currently the director of Mohammed bin Salman's soft power after serving as Saudi Minister of Justice between 2009 and 2015.

The new contract cements BGR Government Affairs as an experienced lobbying group in Washington.

BGR group has previously worked for Azerbaijan, Bahrain, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and the Somali Ministry of Finance, and is likely to face a difficult challenge in trying to modify the image of American public opinion towards bin Salman, whose reputation was severely damaged by the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to Intelligence Online.

 

Controversial Visit

A few days ago, CNN reported that senior US officials told Saudi Arabia that the United States is ready to move forward in resetting the relationship between the two countries, and bypassing the case of the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018; to repair relations with the main ally in the Middle East after the pressure on the Biden administration, and to take tough measures against Russia to reduce gas prices.

This comes after the Biden administration issued an intelligence report last year, directly accusing the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, of masterminding Khashoggi's killing.

In addition to shaping the narrative around Mohammed bin Salman in the United States, Riyadh and Washington are busy working behind the scenes preparing for the return of bilateral talks scheduled for mid-July, with President Biden's visit to Jeddah.

The first step was taken on April 17, when CIA Director William Burns traveled to Jeddah.

On their part, National Security Council Coordinator Brett McGurk and the State Department's envoy for international energy affairs, Amos Hochstein, intensified contacts with their counterparts, the Saudi National Security Adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban, and Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman.

Last month, Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman visited the United States, where he met with officials at the Pentagon and US Central Command to discuss the acquisition of Patriot anti-missile missiles and more THAAD defense system equipment, among other things.

Meanwhile, US lawmakers are concerned about Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia, and Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: “This visit is a very bad idea.”

As for Senator John Thune, he said, “There are problems and fears about Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia, and I hope that Biden will focus on American energy only, and not have to deal with bin Salman.”

On the other hand, human rights defenders stated that Biden's visit is an encouragement for new violations and consolidation of the policy of impunity in the kingdom, where bin Salman suppressed dissent during his rapid rise to power.

Sarah Leah Whitson, the Executive Director of Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a human rights organization founded by Khashoggi, denounced President Biden's position as a shameful capitulation.

Thirteen rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the London-based Saudi group ALQST, also issued a joint letter last week urging Biden to secure the release of detained dissidents and lift travel bans on others, including US citizens, before he visits Saudi Arabia.

 

Suspicious League

Observers believe that the official and public normalization of Saudi-Israeli relations may be a prize to appease critical American voices that pressured Biden to boycott the Saudi crown prince as punishment for his reckless policies and human rights violations, including the war on Yemen and permission to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

According to media reports, “Israel” has begun to help whitewash bin Salman's image, as think tanks and far-right lobbies in Washington have increased their propaganda with the aim of improving the image of the heir to the Saudi throne, what is surprising about how “Israel” has become the biggest propaganda for Saudi Arabia in Washington today.

The clerics in Saudi Arabia had been involved in the campaign of normalization with “Israel,” which had previously been launched after officials from Tel Aviv visited some Arab countries, especially the UAE, in the past years.

In turn, Stephane Lacroix, a French researcher and expert on Saudi affairs, explained that “the official Saudi religious establishment and its scholars cannot expect any criticism of the ruling regime from them. But most of them are completely silent if they do not like something, and that is the most they can do, because their faith and what they owe allow them nothing more than silence.”

He added, “One of the biggest challenges facing Mohammed bin Salman is not to keep them silent, but to convince as many of them as possible to support him publicly. This can be seen in some scholars such as Mohammed al-Issa, the Secretary-General of the MWL, or in older people such as Abdullah al-Mutlaq, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars.”

In January 2020, the first Jewish delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia, at the invitation of the Secretary-General of the League, Mohammed al-Issa, according to what the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed.

Mohammed al-Issa has many precedents in normalizing relations with the Zionist entity and communicating with the Jews. He called on more than one occasion to overcome differences and was hosted on many Jewish occasions.

Al-Issa had participated in a conference of the American Jewish Committee in June 2020, which is a lobby largely supportive of the Israeli occupation, which focused on the most important issues facing the Jewish people.

Al-Issa’s closeness to the circle of power in the Saudi regime, the crown prince personally, and his willingness to normalize with the Zionist entity, have made him a strong qualification to head the MWL.

Since assuming the presidency of the League, al-Issa has subjected it to a Saudi political agenda, as during his reign it has become the religious interface of the policy of normalization and openness, and the viewpoint of bin Salman.

According to activists, the association that calls for living in peace with Israel has been absent from the issues of the Islamic world for years and has not recorded an explicit position that embodies the goals of the countries that agreed to establish it.

In fact, al-Issa came to consider the Palestinian resistance against the Israelis as illegitimate violence, according to his statement on November 21, 2017.

Last April, Fox News reported on what the MWL represents as a facade for the Saudi regime to whitewash its image under the allegations of reforming religion and using it to serve international politics.

“Saudi Arabia has long been a haven for human rights violations, including violent punishment of religious minorities and activists,” it noted.

On August 08, 2021, the MWL affiliated with the Saudi regime recorded a new resounding fall to perpetuate the fact that it is the Kingdom’s tool for normalization and the latest alliance with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.

Tony Blair returned to the spotlight in 2018, saying that “Britain and Western governments should learn from Saudi Arabia, and bless the reform policies of its young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.”

But this was not free publicity. In July 2018, the Telegraph reported that “Blair's Institute for Global Change had received $12 million for advising the authorities in Riyadh over the next three years.”