RIYADH, 2 July 2003 — Interior Minister Prince Naif has said that in confronting terrorism the Kingdom must address its root causes, which were to be found in the beliefs of the terrorists. He was speaking during a discussion with members of the Shoura Council yesterday.
In his opening speech to the Shoura Consultative Council, Prince Naif said that the questions arising from the arrests of suspects in Madinah and Makkah should be: “Why are these things happenings? What are the motives behind them?”
He said the Kingdom must look at the roots of extremist ideas that deviate from the mainstream of the moderate religion that was the foundation of Saudi Arabia.
“We have witnessed the criminal acts of some of our youth, who are citizens of this country; they have killed people, and have destroyed property, and have terrified families,” the prince said.
“We need to ask: Did the source of this ideology come from this land or was it imported from outside? Was it the result of fanatical ideas from people who have been brainwashed? Or is it a combination of factors, inside and out?”
“But above all, how powerful is this ideology and how widespread is it?” the prince asked.
Prince Naif said the Kingdom had to look for solutions to bring aberrant youngsters back to the straight path of the Muslim nation.
The problem, the prince told the Shoura Council, was not in the criminal acts in themselves, or in the criminal instincts of the terrorists, but in their convictions.
“If a person does something wrong and is convinced it is right, then we have to look at the root causes,” the minister said. He said the roots, which created these beliefs and formed these ideologies, were the real concern.
He said there was a serious problem in the Kingdom, albeit not as serious as the media made out. “Fire starts from small sparks,” the prince said.
He said the problem must be urgently confronted, and all must join to find solutions to it.
He said all nations had good and bad people, and the good mostly outnumbered the bad. But, he added, a few bad people could affect the whole organism of the country. “This great country... is founded in all things on the Shariah and the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him),” he told the Shoura. “It has taken it upon itself to combat injustice, ignorance, and poverty.”
He stressed that the progress of development, prosperity, and stability in the country was unstoppable.
He said the people of Saudi Arabia would continue to fight anyone found jeopardizing that stability.
The unprecedented openness of the world in the wake of the communications revolution made it necessary to adopt strategies to save the country’s youth from going astray and embracing radical ideas, Prince Naif said.
Self-restraint, however, was the most important requirement in this struggle, the prince said.
Prince Naif said since the May 12 terrorist attacks 124 people had been arrested and were being interrogated by officials.
Of these, 32 were arrested in Riyadh, 40 in Madinah, and 27 men and five women in Makkah, the minister said. Those arrested came from several countries, he added.
He concluded by saying that the struggle to combat terrorists and their supporters was an ongoing process that required the cooperation of all citizens.
In the following question-and-answer session with the press the prince touched on, among other things, the role of both the Shoura Council and ordinary citizens.
He said that the role played by the Shoura was well-known, and the meeting had focused on briefing them fully on developments in the country.
In response to a question, the prince said the issue of whether the Shoura Council would be elected rather than appointed in future had not been discussed yet.
Prince Naif also stressed that every citizen was a security officer and had the responsibility to report any suspicious activities from anyone.
He denied Sheikh Safar Al-Hawali’s remarks to a newspaper that 70 religious scholars from all over the country gathered to create a mediating force between the Ministry of Interior and the youth who were arrested. He said that there was no mediation between the government and any person or any team. “If these people contacted sheikhs, that is a personal matter,” he said.
The prince also denied a report in Al-Hayat newspaper that the most wanted suspect in the terrorist attacks, Ali Abdul Rahman Al-Faqaasi Al-Ghamdi, gave himself up under certain conditions.
He said Al-Ghamdi gave himself up of his own accord without any conditions.
The prince also urged the press not to publish any information without clarifying the facts and said the press should be accountable for what it published given the sensitivity of these arrests.
Prince Naif said he did not wish to elaborate on a question whether Saudi authorities were pressured by the US to quickly release Ali Albaheri, who was arrested in Malawi after he was involved in philanthropic activities there, but only said the arrest took place outside Saudi Arabia.
In response to a question, the prince reiterated there was no doubt that the young people arrested — many of them under 25 — were brainwashed, and added the role played by the school, the mosque and the home was vitally important in correcting any false conceptions.
The prince said he was unaware that an Emirates airliner had been stopped from taking off at King Khaled International Airport in Riyadh for security reasons. Clarification should be sought from airport authorities, he said.
Responding to a question about the National Forum for Dialogue called by Crown Prince Abdullah, Prince Naif said the recommendations released by the forum were more than enough and added that these matters were in the highest interest of the government.
Arab News asked the prince about reports that many Saudi women complained that the new photo ID card is being rejected in government departments, private institutions and even courts, and whether the government would issue a letter to all government and non-government departments to accept this card as legal identification. The prince said there was no need for such a letter because the card already had the status of a legal form of identification.
He said the ID card for women was the same as that for men, and this was the first time he had heard that any department refused such cards. He added that if anyone wanted to complain about such rejection, they should come to the Ministry of the Interior.
