KING FAISAL
OF SAUDI ARABIA
A MAN OF DESTINY
King Faisal of Saudi Arabia was without a doubt the most important Muslim leader since World War II. He changed the entire course of history by taking control of Saudi Arabia's enormous petroleum wealth and using it as a political weapon to defend the cause of Islam and to defend the cause of the Palestinians.
In 1973 he brought the United States and other Western countries to their knees as the architect of the 1973 oil embargo As the king of the Arab state with the largest oil reserves in the world, his oil embargo shook the world economy to its very foundations. His embargo was in protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the Western support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War.He was not intimidated by threats of retaliation from American imperialists. He said:
“The anger of the west does not concern us, nor does the disturbance of the east, because the east and the west agreed on usurping the rights of the Arabs and stealing their holy lands”“You are the ones who can’t live without oil. You know, we come from the desert, and our ancestors lived on dates and milk, and we can easily go back and live like that again.” In 1974, The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries exponentially increased oil prices, beginning a process of nationalization for many developing nations which ended colonial controls from Europe and America over their natural resources. American middle-class wages peaked before the oil embargo, and as of today, they still haven’t regained their peak. Faisal wasn’t merely a revolutionary with his foreign policy, he was a revolutionary in his own country as well. He successfully established the first girls’ public schools, using his deep knowledge and faith in Islam to argue that there was nothing in the Koran that prevented girls from getting an education. He banned slavery, and made some lazy royals actually work for their stipends. He eased tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims with his focus on building an international Islamic ummah.
In 1964, King Faisal welcomed the revolutionary Malcom X with open arms into Saudi Arabia, a great show of solidarity with the cause of racial justice movement in America. His enthusiastic support of Malcom X shows how Faisal’s pan-Islamism brought all Muslim people together, united as one ummah. Brother Malcom said that he had never been met with so much hospitality in his life.
Under the rule of Faisal Saudi Arabia became an economic super power. It used its huge wealth to support a global expansion of Islam around the world. Saudi Arabia remains one the few nations that was not occupied and colonized by western imperialists.
In 20 years Islam will again become the largest religion in the world, a position it held for over 1000 years from the time of the prophet.
King Faisal Speech He calls for Islamic solidarity.
Where is the world's conscience? Faisal's Final Speech
Video Biography on King Faisal
Middle East Monitor Article on Faisal
Malcom X Speech after
Returning from Saudi Arabia
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