It is a sorry state indeed when Arabs constitute the overwhelming majority of prisoners in Guantanamo and even more regretful that a quarter of them are Saudi. This is an indication of the scale of a problem. The number itself is enough to ring a warning bell, especially in a society known for over 40 years as a peace-loving one — until, that is, certain ideas and bloodthirsty people began to infiltrate the country, preaching hatred.
Some other phenomena, seemingly innocent yet alien to Saudi society, are even scarier. Take for example the encampments set up on Jeddah’s Corniche that targets youths and claim to be preaching, as though Jeddah was located in an atheist country. While I understand the preachers’ enthusiasm to spread their message, I believe they have overstepped the bounds of their mission. These camps are part of the political activities of a popular organization, even though they come dressed up as religion. Saudi Arabia is in a high state of alert and cannot handle these kinds of activities. The gatherings are troubling because in the past years we have seen how Saudi charities have been infiltrated, politicized and their activities taken advantage of. The presence of 160 Saudis in Guantanamo, picked up in Afghanistan, speaks for itself. Because of these groups, members of this society have turned from peaceful creatures into rapacious monsters. Jeddah has always seen various intellectual activities, but it has never been targeted by such groups to the extent it is now. Nor is it alone. Some provinces in the south of the Kingdom have become hotbeds for such enthusiasm. The numbers quoted by an official in one of these preachers’ camps are astounding: 128 converted to Islam, a quarter of a million cassette tapes and 100,000 leaflets distributed among citizens.
To flood any place with 250,000 tapes, whatever their content may be — and more especially in a region crammed with mosques, preachers, copies of the Holy Book and schools is quite bizarre. The size, form and purpose reveal clearly why the villages and countryside have turned into targets for these so-called charitable activities. Furthermore, why is the money of charitable contributors being spent on tents, tapes and websites instead of food, clothing for the poor and care of orphans, which is what these benefactors were promised?
Even if it turns out that these camps are entirely innocent, a country living in a high state of alert — looking for sleeping and active terrorist cells, mobilizing the media to capture Muslim extremists, searching cars and installing security systems to protect the capital and other private locations — cannot abandon its society to their kind. We have no right to get upset if we see Al-Jazeera promoting the young men from Al-Qaeda and hailing them as heroes — there are plenty of people organizing banquets, camps, stations, leaflets, booklets, tapes and websites capable of producing soldiers and weapons here.
It is the duty of the representatives of religious organizations to protect their organization and their society from the politicized religious groups that have invaded us. These groups have already ruined their own countries and are out to ruin your country, at your hands, as well.
