Source: The Citizen

The changing world order is taking its toll of Salafist preacher, Zakir Naik who was otherwise not touched for decades. The recipient of Saudi King Faisal International Prize for service to Islam in 2015, is fighting with his back to the wall in 2016. There is a simple explanation: the Saudi affiliation is showing negative results. Globally, the approval rating for Riyadh is low. Why? Because the US has gradually distanced itself from Saudi actions in the recent past. Interests, patronized by Saudi Arabia, were tolerated worldwide because it was assumed that America kept a protective eye on all Saudi assets. That is no longer the case. Just the other day most US advisers involved in the Yemen operation, were withdrawn from Riyadh – as clear a vote of no confidence as any in the mindless Saudi war in the Arab world’s poorest country.
Growing Saudi isolation has an ironical twist. Even arch enemy, Iran has changed its policy on Saudi Arabia. That Iran would change policy will be matter of surprise for many. It is assumed that Iran would have had just one policy from the very beginning: a policy of opposition to Riyadh. But it has never been so. Iran’s policy towards Saudi Arabia has been much more nuanced. The Islamic Revolution of 1979 introduced a bipolarity in the Muslim world. A Riyadh-Tehran rivalry was built into the situation. But Tehran never allowed one upmanship to degenerate into a conflict.
Its presumed leadership of the Muslim Ummah under assault, Riyadh frequently lashed out. There were many verbal skirmishes. But Iran’s “policy” towards Saudi Arabia remained unchanged. This “policy” was based on a very clear understanding of the Saudi establishment which consisted of two streams, one led by the king and the other by the Wahabi clergy.

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