RIYADH, 5 November — Those who carried out the terror attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11 wanted not only to undermine the United States and Saudi Arabia’s relations with the West, but also the interests of Muslims worldwide.
This was stated by Prince Turki Al-Faisal, former director of intelligence in Saudi Arabia, in the second part of a wide-ranging interview with Arab News and the MBC television.
"We have seen hatred against Islam and Muslims as a result of what happened. Islam has been linked to terrorism. Muslims have received harsh treatment. There have been attacks against them and their mosques. Newspaper reports and television coverage added to this anger and enmity toward Islam."
He said Muslims themselves should take the initiative to solve the problems created by the attacks, through their behavior and in assessing the event.
"We should project Islam as a religion of peace, love and harmony. It is not a religion that encourages the killing of innocent people."
Prince Turki has shown great interest in the dialogue between Islam and the West and has personally attended a number of seminars held by Western organizations on the topic.
"We should not consider other communities to be our enemies and merely say there are old enmities and so we should kill. We are living in a world where there are several other religions. Instead of thinking about a bloody confrontation, we should prepare ourselves for coexistence and the exchange of ideas."
On Saudi-US relations, Prince Turki said: "They are very old and deep-rooted. The first American mission came about 60 years ago at the invitation of King Abdul Aziz to discover water sites." Riyadh developed its relations with Washington as "it believed that the US was not a colonial country — unlike Britain, France and others, which were considered just that."
Saudi-US relations quickly developed at both the political and economic level. The Kingdom wanted to make use of US expertise in its various projects. Saudi Arabia was also interested in sending its students to the US for higher studies as early as 1940s. The number of Saudi students in the US reached 20,000 in one particular year.
He said the Palestinian issue and the US support for Israel were the only thing that had negatively affected these relations, which he described as "strong and based on mutual interests."
Prince Turki pointed out that the Kingdom’s opposition to the US stand on Israel did not start only today or last year.
"It started at the first meeting of King Abdul Aziz with US President Roosevelt. The king explained to the president that the Palestinian issue was just and that the demands of the Palestinian people could not be ignored to please the Jews. And since then, we have criticized the US stand on the issue."
He cited the long-standing position of the Kingdom, which clearly states that the "Palestinian problem must be resolved in a just manner."
Prince Turki said the Kingdom and the US have been working on a new American initiative that would recognize the rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to establish an independent state.
"We have agreed that United Nations Resolutions 242 and 338 would the basis for a just political solution," he added.
"The heinous crime of Sept. 11 has influenced the American stand, but despite this the US president did not hesitate in declaring the initiative. This shows that relations between the two countries can survive any crisis."
In reply to a question on the difficulties facing the Kingdom in its attempt to strike a balanced position on the US-led military action in Afghanistan, he admitted that the situation was difficult.
"But there are principles in the Kingdom’s policy that are not affected by the position of any another country. The most important is the justness and legitimacy of the Palestinian cause. When the terrorist attacks happened, a lot of talk followed and there were those who inevitably wanted to fish in troubled waters. American officials did not say the Kingdom is not cooperating in the fight against terrorism. On the contrary, they are very satisfied with the assistance and the support the Kingdom has offered to identify those who committed the crime."
As for the indiscriminate bombing (of Afghanistan), we must ask where is this situation heading. Is the objective the American occupation of Afghanistan or the destruction of the Afghan people by the Americans? I do not see it this way. I am not defending the United States but the Taleban should bear the responsibility before the world. They have been served with resolutions by the United Nations asking them to hand over (Osama Bin Laden) or bear the consequences. This is an international demand, not a demand by just one country."
Prince Turki added: "This does not mean we accept the bombing of homes and innocent people. No, we sympathize with the Afghan people and we have told the United States that its efforts to achieve its objective and catch the perpetrators should not be at the expense of the Afghan people."
Speaking on the Taleban’s excesses in the last civil war, prince said: "How many Afghans were killed by the Taleban in its battles after the capture of Kabul, Mazar-e-Sherif, Bamian and other regions? They did not even spare the trees and plants."
The northern opposition had charged the Taleban with massacring their opponents,, particularly those from ethnic or religious minorities.
Discussing why several American politicians were surprised at the intensity of Arab and Muslim hatred toward the United States, Prince Turki said: "Americans should re-examine their own actions which bred the feeling of hatred as a logical consequence to their actions."
The prince added that the US was hated not by Muslims alone. There are Europeans, Latin Americans, Asians and Russians who share the same feelings of animosity. The prince said: "When we feel that some people hate us and are become increasingly hostile, we must find out the reasons."
The prince dismissed the charges from some quarters that Wahhabism fostered extremism. He said: "It is an unacceptable proposition invented by the smear-campaigners who seek to serve the Zionist cause. The Zionists would like to see, as would the perpetrators of the terror attacks in New York and Washington, the relationship between the United States and Arabs and Muslims severed. Each of them — the Zionists and the terrorist attackers — serves the interests of the other."
"The very name of Wahhabism has been fabricated since Sheikh Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab launched a reformist movement, which expanded during the time of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud. It was even charged that Ibn Abdul Wahhab and Ibn Saud invented a new school of thought in the religion."
With regard to the Chechen issue and the possibility of the region becoming another breeding ground for terrorism, the prince said: "Wherever Muslims are oppressed and ill-treated, we stand by them. The Chechens are an oppressed people."
However, he pointed out that certain people who are affiliated to the Al-Qaeda organization of Bin Laden launched terrorist acts in Russia and "gave the Russian forces a pretext to launch a ferocious war on an innocent people, estimated at 2.5 million. The Russians employed weapons of massive destruction and killed 100,000 people and made a larger number of people refugees."
Prince Turki said he was worried about Saudi volunteers in Chechnya, because they might get killed or captured by Russian forces.
On Saudi businessman, Yassin Qadi, whose name appeared in the US list of those funded the Al-Qaeda, and Wael Jelaidan, secretary-general of the Rabita Fund for the Repatriation of Bihari Muslims, the prince said: "They have defended their case on their own by saying that all their activities have been transparent. They said that if there was any evidence against them let it be brought out as they are ready to challenge it."
Prince Turki also said the government would not initiate action against them as there was no evidence to implicate them. "This is what Shariah stipulates."
Prince Turki expected that Qadi would be able to revoke the decision to freeze his wealth in Britain, France and other countries through legal channels.
He stressed the importance of resolving economic issues as part of the strategy to stamp out extremism. "The issue should be addressed in a comprehensive manner" as economic problems lead to unemployment which will in turn lead to delinquency and extremism, he said.