The King's Arabic

Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman and the accompanying official delegation paid a visit to the United Kingdom last week, between October 19 and 22. This routine visit, which under normal circumstances would not have attracted much attention from the press or social media, received far wider attention than it deserved because of the Arabic phrases King Charles read during the banquet given at Windsor Castle.

Greeting Sultan Haitham at the start of his speech in Arabic with "O indefatigable guest, welcome!", the King read, in their original language, two separate Arabic couplets as well as a famous hadith in which the Prophet praised the people of Oman. Or rather, it would be more accurate to say he tried to read them. According to the narration in Sahih Muslim: when the Prophet learned that an envoy he had sent to the Bedouin tribes had been treated badly, he said to him, "If you had gone to the people of Oman, they would neither have cursed you nor beaten you." Hearing the Arabic text of a hadith from the King's mouth appeared to surprise the Omani delegation at the table considerably.

The same astonishment had been experienced on the evening of December 3, 2024, during the banquet given at Buckingham Palace in honor of the Qatari delegation headed by Emir Tamim bin Hamad. Greeting the Emir of Qatar in Arabic with "as-salamu alaykum," King Charles had again said in Arabic, "Welcome to the United Kingdom, your second homeland." Emir Tamim had shown his satisfaction with what he heard through a nod and body language.

Behind these so-called gestures of King Charles lies, of course, the confident and self-assured relationship the British Empire has built with its own Muslim subjects over the centuries. If Britain today is not remembered with open rancor and hatred in any of the Islamic lands it once colonized, and can even find loyal Muslim masses despite all the suffering endured, it is entirely because of this "imperial style." I touch on this from time to time: the Kashmir, Jerusalem, and Cyprus issues, which remain among the hottest problems of the Islamic world today, are crises entirely brewed, founded, and drawn out over time by Britain. What happened is plain, history is plain, the balance sheet is plain. Despite this—not only in Kashmir but across the entire Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh), in Palestine, and in Cyprus—it is impossible to encounter any active and destructive anger directed at the British. On the contrary, "London" is followed with admiration and interest in every respect. The strange part is that in the field, the families, children, and generations of many political and even religious actors who—at least ostensibly—waged independence struggles have left everyone behind in their Anglophilia. A small number of exceptions, unfortunately, are not enough to break the rule.

British imperialism differs seriously from the French type, which left behind only blood and massacre and is therefore remembered only with hatred; from Chinese imperialism, focused on invasion and economic exploitation; and from the crude American type, which resembles a clumsy elephant that has blundered into a china shop. The British mind exploits in such a sophisticated and well-worked manner that even the fact that the London museums displaying what was stolen from Islamic geographies can be visited free of charge is written on its own account as a reason for admiration.

Again as a striking political choice: Britain sees no harm in leaving certain posts to Muslim actors who are loyal to its system and whom it can also use as advertising faces. For example, the mayor of London has been a Muslim for 10 years. You cannot even imagine the same thing for Paris. The Jacobin French system would not permit it. At least under the present conditions. There is, of course, no need to say that Britain follows a far more far-sighted and, within the framework of its own interests, more efficient policy.

Looked at against this background, being charmed by a few hadiths and couplets corresponds, for Muslims, not to a pleasant surprise and gesture to be met with a smile, but to a superior-subordinate relationship that ought to cause embarrassment. Despite this, beyond the smiles and satisfaction, claims that King Charles is a secret Muslim, that he performs his prayers in a dark corner of his palace, that he spreads out his prayer rug and prays, and that he hides all of this from everyone can even branch out and grow among Muslims. If he hid it from everyone, how do we know? Don't muddy the waters.