The brutal murder in Riyadh on Thursday afternoon of a 37-year-old Briton working for BAE Systems has profoundly shocked people in the Kingdom, expatriates and Saudis alike. Robert Dent’s death has evoked an immense sense of sadness, as if we ourselves were somehow connected.
The Council of Senior Islamic Scholars has issued an edict forbidding attacks anywhere in the world on non-Muslims, stating that the shedding of innocent blood, be it through bombing or any other similar act, is against Islam, and that those who carry out such acts have deviated from their beliefs and must be held responsible for such crimes.
If the man arrested is found guilty, he will be executed. He has brought misery not only to the family and friends of his victim but to his own family and friends too. Such is the sheer evil of hate: Nothing good ever comes of it. It is a poison. It destroys the person who hates; it destroys those he hates.
No one is so naive as to imagine that Saudi Arabia is untainted by crime or bloodshed. Murder happens here as it happens elsewhere. And other Westerners have died — notably in car bomb blasts. But these were explained as turf wars between illegal alcohol suppliers; in other attacks people took comfort from the fact that no one was killed. Now it is different. There seem to be no two ways of looking at this crime. Here the victim was apparently selected at random, his murder a symbolic statement of sheer, vicious hate. That is why the gun attack on a bus carrying nurses and doctors in Hail the same day, shocking though it was, evoked a much less emotive response. It was not blind hate.
We have not seen this sort of thing here before, and that is what is so shocking — even though we have seen it elsewhere and have been repulsed by it. It happened in the US when, in an outburst of anti-Muslim hysteria in the wake of Sept. 11, innocent people were attacked and murdered. We were angry and are angry still when we hear of people being targeted in the US simply because they are thought to be Muslim or Arabs. But we cannot be repulsed by Islamophobic attacks there and not be angered by the equivalent here: anti-Western venom. That would be hypocrisy.
Both demonstrate the same contempt for human life. Both kill the innocent. That is why there was such sadness at the news of this killing. Saudi Arabia, so long held up as a place of great safety for all, now has to face up to the brutal reality of so much of the rest of the world. An age of innocence has gone.
There is bound to be apprehension among Western expatriates here. Some may opt to leave, as much because of this hate crime as because of the war clouds gathering over the region. But most will not. Nor should they. Saudi Arabia is extremely grateful to all the foreigners working here. They play an important part in building up and developing this country. It would be as much a tragedy for Saudi Arabia as for them if they were to give in to their fears and leave. That is what some people want. But the expatriate community is, we believe, made of sterner stuff. Of course, we need to keep things in perspective; such killings are still far more common in London or Washington than in Riyadh. We should not overreact. But we must all stand against such evil and condemn it, much as we condemn hate crimes when we see them elsewhere. Otherwise evil will triumph.
