Scholars, diplomats, politicians and Muslim advocates around Washington reacted to King Fahd's death Monday with sadness at the passing of a leader who they said did so much to modernize and strengthen the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, while forging a strong relationship with the United States.
Jean AbiNader, a board member of the Arab American Institute led by James Zogby, said in a statement that King Fahd had a "remarkable career."
Among his accomplishments, AbiNader pointed to Fahd's membership in the Saudi delegation to the United Nations in 1945, his tenure as the Kingdom's first education minister that significantly improved the literacy levels in the country, as well as Fahd's key role in the Kingdom's first five-year development plan.
"It is because of these efforts and so many others that King Fahd became the central player in Saudi-U.S. relations," said AbiNader.
On his part, Edward Walker, President of the Middle East Institute and former Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and former deputy Chief of Mission to Saudi Arabia, told the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) that King Fahd deserves recognition as one of the greatest allies the United States has had.
"King Fahd was a man who was extremely close to the United States for many years," Walker said. "He really was responsible for forging the close relationship that [the two countries] enjoy," he said.
Amr Hamzawy, a social scientist and scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace, told SPA: "King Fahd will be remembered as the king of modernization for Saudi Arabia. His reign coincided with a period of unprecedented economic and social modernization that brought Saudi Arabia to the forefront of regional and, indeed, international politics."
"King Fahd will also be remembered for his leadership in keeping the kingdom out of traditional regional conflicts and rivalries, thereby positioning his country as the power center of the Middle East," he said.
Dr. John Duke Anthony, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, told SPA that the career and legacy of King Fahd were "extraordinary."
"King Fahd was much more multifaceted than many have recognized," he said. "An objective assessment would indicate that few if any other Middle Eastern heads of state had as rich and diverse a preparation for becoming king."
Anthony said King Fahd's was widely regarded as the father of Saudi Arabia's education system, and that his tenure as the country's first Minister of Education gave him a unique ownership over the values, ideals, and scholarship that are associated with the progress and achievement of the kingdom.
"On a personal note, I feel saddened by his passing," Chas Freeman, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told SPA. "I worked with him closely during the Gulf War, and I got to admire him not only as a leader, but as a man."
Freeman said King Fahd deserved enormous credit for his leadership in channeling Saudi Arabia's oil wealth toward a national education system, improved national health care, and the stabilization of the country.
"The shape of the modern kingdom is a product of his personal decisions. Very few people get to shape an entire country," he said.
