All of a sudden, Saudi Arabia has found itself facing media and cultural campaigns from everywhere — America, Europe and even the Arab world itself. The Kingdom has found itself targeted on the political and social levels. We have been unable to explain this campaign in which religious, cultural and social concepts overlap. Objectivity is absent from these attacks on a society and a country with its own history and problems. We are a country similar to many others but of course with our own characteristics and peculiarities.
We must focus on this campaign that takes the events of Sept. 11 and the war on terrorism as a cover for subjecting the Kingdom to an inquisition. Some seem to believe that in every Saudi house there is a terrorist or at least a sleeping cell. Our society is certainly neither ideal nor perfect. Which one is? The matter of safeguarding our values is one which many researchers and writers believe that we have exaggerated and made it a cultural and social value in itself, a scapegoat perhaps, that explains all the wrongs in our society. We use it to explain problems in both government and institutions that struggle with meaningless bureaucracy and administrative hurdles. This must change so that all levels of society will be aware of pressures and changes that surround our social and national achievements.
How can we respond to these attacks that we see every day on TV and in newspapers? How should the Kingdom face and answer them? These campaigns concentrate a great deal on matters pertaining to development, poverty, unemployment, managerial errors and the role of women in society. I wonder if there is a plan or any idea of confronting our enemies and finding out why they attack us.
Arab News From the Local Press 20 August 2003
