Only yesterday, in an editorial on Islamophobia, we noted that Saudi Arabia has been in the forefront of the international war against militants claiming to act in the name of Islam. We also drew attention to the fact that the principal target of these deviants who have chosen to depart from mainstream Islam is not the West but rather Muslim states. It is the Muslim world that they want to conquer and take over. We could have added what most people in Saudi Arabia know only too well — that the Kingdom has been the militants’ prime target in recent years. Little could we have realized, though, that within hours, another nest of terrorists would be uncovered in Saudi Arabia, intent on bringing death and destruction to the country.
The elimination of another six terrorists, the capture of a seventh and the thwarting of another major suicide attack will be a matter of great satisfaction and relief to almost everyone in the country. Once again, the terrorists have been hit hard. There will, however, be some voices expressing concern that the terrorists are still at large, that they have not been destroyed.
No one said that the war against the militants was going to be easy or that it would be brief. Nonetheless, in the three years since the Riyadh compound bombings, over 80 terrorists have been killed, more than 100 captured or surrendered, car bombs have been found and defused and vast quantities of arms and explosives have been seized. Slowly but surely, the tide of violence has been pushed back as ever-improving intelligence has paid dividends.
That is not to say that there will not be other attacks. Only a fool predicts that kind of future. The whole country has to be vigilant. Nonetheless the determination of the authorities to root out the menace is total. Of that we are confident — and virtually all Saudis and expatriates support them in that goal.
It has to be borne in mind too that the battle against terrorism in Saudi Arabia is not a uniquely Saudi problem, much as some of the international press tries to portray it as such. It is a local struggle in a global war against a global enemy.
The terrorism that Saudi Arabia is fighting with total commitment is the same terrorism and the same terrorists that the US is fighting, that Europe is fighting, that the rest of the Middle East, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and Afghanistan are fighting. That can be seen in the fact that yesterday also saw the arrest in Miami of seven people, five of them US citizens, charged with conspiracy to work with Al-Qaeda and plotting to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and other targets. The timing of the Miami arrest was a coincidence but not the fact. Al-Qaeda sympathizers and wannabes are a global problem whether in Riyadh, Miami, London, Madrid, Bali or anywhere else.
Vigilance, faith in the authorities’ determination to win, good intelligence and a bit of luck are all still going to be needed for some time to come — so too must be a refusal to allow the terrorists to dictate how we should live our lives.
