JEDDAH, 16 March 2003 — American and European expatriates who do not support the war policy of President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair feel their governments are ignoring them. Nothing is being done at the official level to reassure Saudis or the Muslim Ummah that not all Europeans or Americans toe their governments’ line.
“The anodyne official line that advises caution and offers advice on street tactics doesn’t address the problem,” said an industrial chemist from Jubail. “We’re clearly non-Arab; that makes us a potential target. We need to tell our hosts that not all Europeans and Americans agree with their governments’ policies. That’s what democracy is really about, tolerance of opposition.”
The British Embassy in Riyadh advised action along the lines set out in their e-mails and website. As representatives of the government, their advice was caution, removal of unnecessary personnel and a series of personal awareness measures to aid maintaining a low profile.
In a telephone survey of European and American workers in the Kingdom yesterday conducted under the promise of anonymity, the response ranged from one of frustrated resignation to a cautious “wait and see.”
“It’s a shame that the very people to whom the Kingdom should be turning to spread the message it has to offer are now becoming targets,” said a Riyadh-based manager, five years in the Kingdom and an Arabic speaker. “While I get the usual courtesies from people I am in direct contact with on a personal level, I hear a completely different view from people I meet in the street who aren’t aware I understand Arabic,” he continued.
“I have noticed a change in attitude in the people I have worked with for the last few years,” said one expatriate, already pulled out of the Kingdom by his company and trying to operate the Saudi branch of his employer’s company from a distance. “They question why they were trusted and safe to work with for years, and now they are not. It’s sending our Saudi colleagues entirely the wrong message. The embassy plows the same official furrow all the time. They are not seeing the damage it’s doing to long-standing local relationships.”
A teacher based in Jubail was cautious but very aware of the potential for trouble. “Recently a Canadian Muslim was killed in Kuwait,” he pointed out. “No one asked him his opinion or religion first.”
The main danger as he saw it was the threat from the “politically unaware” as he put it. “While there is considerable opposition to war in the West, that fact is not reaching the man with the grudge and the weapon,” he said.
“I am adopting a watching brief,” said a college instructor in an Eastern Province institution. “We were led to expect violent reaction when Sept. 11 happened — nothing did. The attacks on Afghanistan yielded much the same result. The situation may change this time, but based on experience, any violent reactions will come from individuals, not society in general.”
Some suggested that the public debate and protests are getting through to the “Arab street” and that a certain kudos is attached to people who oppose the Bush-Blair axis.
A senior executive in Riyadh countered this view. “The kind of people who would be most likely to attack without warning are not those who would not necessarily understand or care about the opposition to war,” he said.
“We cannot alter the geopolitics of this situation. This is our home and where we make our living and statistically it’s safer than New York or London. There is always risk. It’s down to the simple decision, stay or go,” he said.
