Well before last month’s Riyadh suicide bombings, the police and the intelligence services had been on round-the-clock duty in order to smash militancy in the Kingdom. Since the bombings, action has been intensified; there have been several arrests and raids. But they did not stop voices abroad, in the media and from government, continuing to question the Saudi commitment to crushing the militants. Nor did the arrests and raids make the human ostriches here pull their heads out of the the sand and, instead of blaming Mossad and the CIA for every terrorist bomb that is reported, face up to the reality that some of the world’s terrorists are in fact Saudis who have deviated from the true path of Islam.
Neither of those views are possible any longer. The police raids on Saturday night against suspected Islamic militants living in the holy city of Makkah and the subsequent shootout leave no one, here or abroad, in any doubt that the Kingdom is now actively at war with Islamic groups involved in terrorism. Here is proof positive that the Kingdom will not allow such warped minds to corrupt Islam and Saudi society. As for those in denial about whether terrorism exists here, the message is just as challenging. It says that they are here — and will be eliminated.
By taking such decisive action in the holy city itself, we see clearly that the Saudi authorities are out to destroy Al-Qaeda — not just the organization but its sympathizers and anyone who shares its deviant and corrupting beliefs. But the war against Al-Qaeda cannot be won solely by police raids against militants planning bomb attacks, vital though such action is. The authorities need to be radical as well, going to the roots of the problem. There has to be action against those who promote terrorism, actively or subconsciously.
The rise in Islamic militancy needs to be studied — not just in the West, but here at home. That requires a change of mindset at every level of society here. As King Faid said in his address to the Cabinet last month, Saudi Arabia cannot stand still in a world that is constantly changing. Denial and the assertion that everything bad that happens is one big anti-Arab, anti-Muslim plot by foreign Islamphobes will not stop terrorists. Islamophobia is a noxious bloom, fed largely on ignorance. Ignorance of the non-Muslim world? Or that of those short-sighted Muslims who refuse to admit that the rot is as much within as without?
Saturday’s raids were an unambiguous statement that the government is deadly serious about crushing terrorism, as serious as George W. Bush or Tony Blair. What is vital is that everyone else in Saudi Arabia joins the fight. That way, denied their hiding places, the terrorists can be hounded out of existence.
