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The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) warned against dynastic rule and those who align with oppressors. Yet today, the self-appointed custodians of the Holy Cities and the Gulf dynasties kneel before the very empire that arms Israel.
By PROFESSOR ZIYAD MOTALA
As Gaza is besieged, starved, and bombed with American-supplied weapons, the rulers of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates rolled out the red carpet for the very man whose administration presided over the current catastrophe: Donald J Trump.
Trump, now in his second term, has just concluded a lavish tour of the Gulf, greeted not with resistance but with unseemly fawning. These regimes signed hundreds of billions of dollars in new military and economic deals with his administration, fortifying the U.S. military-industrial complex that arms Israel and sustains American empire. Qatar, in an act of sycophancy, has reportedly gifted Trump a $400 million version of Air Force One, an imperial tribute cloaked in Gulf grandeur.
These are not ordinary transactions. They are declarations of allegiance to Trump, to Washington, to empire. Even as Gaza’s children perish beneath rubble and hunger, the Gulf monarchs double down on their transactional alliances, feeding the very machinery that enables Israel’s war crimes.
What makes this betrayal all the more grotesque is the silence of the religious scholars that refused to call out these Gulf rulers. At Jumu’ah this week, the imam spoke eloquently about the obligation of Hajj and the duty to aid the oppressed. He urged boycotting companies that support Israel. He encouraged political engagement to isolate Israel. Yet not once did he acknowledge that the Holy Cities are ruled by regimes that ally with the enemies of Islam. Not once did he warn worshippers that every riyal spent in Saudi Arabia or dirham spent in Dubai fortifies regimes that bankroll the slaughter in Gaza. Not once did he challenge the monarchs who on occasion sermonise about Palestine while signing arms deals with the US.
This is not omission. It is cowardice institutionalised. The evasion among Islamic scholars when it comes to the Gulf dynasties is pathological. They will thunder against Israel and the West but cower before the despots who rule over Muslim lands, issuing fatwas against foreign corporations while ignoring the palaces that fund the factories building Israel’s bombs.
These rulers are not defenders of Islam. They are its most dangerous saboteurs, funding the empire, shielding its architects, and fawning over its most venal avatars. Trump’s latest tour was no exercise in diplomacy; it was a coronation. His family businesses flourish across the Gulf, with new real estate deals concluded a few days prior to his visit, luxury towers, and golf courses, all courtesy of firms entwined with royal families. This is not modernisation. It is imperial patronage underwriting personal gain.
The allegiance of these Arab rulers is not to the ummah but to wealth and their dynastic survival. And both have been chained to the brand. And the brand is Trump.
The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) warned against dynastic rule and those who align with oppressors. Yet today, the self-appointed custodians of the Holy Cities and the Gulf dynasties kneel before the very empire that arms Israel. These regimes, heirs to British colonial patronage, now serve as custodians of American imperial interests and the attendant Zionist project.
Jared Kushner was gifted $2 billion by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Trump receives Air Force One from Qatar. Eric Trump hawks crypto in Dubai while his father’s towers rise above Doha and Riyadh, gilded in the blood money of these autocracies.
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This is not modernisation. It is moral nihilism masquerading as pragmatism. The Gulf monarchs did not merely look away while Gaza burned, they subsidised the killings and slaughter of Palestinians.
Ziyad Motala is a Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law, Washington DC, and former Director of the Comparative and International Law Programme at the University of Western Cape.
