Every day we read in local newspapers reports about Saudi citizens arrested for involvement in acts of terrorism or getting killed in Iraq, Afghanistan or Lebanon. It is as though we’re a nation driven by the love of war or adventure.
Is it true we’re a nation of vicious thinking? If not, then what could we possibly be?
Why do hundreds of our children compete to die in unjustified wars?
Many have discussed and written about this, blaming it on the deficiencies of our educational system — a system that fills the minds of young men with dangerous ideas and encourages them to sacrifice their lives. It’s perplexing to see how easily such ideologies influence the minds of our younger generation and drive them into the arms of extremists.
Shorn of all exaggeration, the matter is way too big to be underestimated. It’s not confined to a certain group of people. Nor does it move in a certain direction. It mirrors the community’s culture and the nation’s education system and the inherited concepts that live in our minds leading us to a particular way of thinking.
People may be receptive to these ideas in varying degrees, but there is always someone driven by the urge or passion to die for the sake of jihad and Allah. There are people who sympathize with the murderers and those accused of terrorism and idolize them as heroes and there are also those who might think of covering for them or helping them to escape the long arm of law or justice.
The most dangerous are those who feed into the brains of young children the ideas of expiation and induce them to run after illusions.
There are also those who provide rationale to naïve individuals for their decision to leave the country and enroll themselves in criminal or terrorist groups abroad.
In spite of all this, some people grumble at any suggestion of revising our educational curriculum and reject strongly any thought of reviewing and correcting fatwas that have led to so many tragedies.
The truth is that the problem is connected to the entire educational system and not merely the curriculum. It is also related to the social system and the chaotic disturbances and disunity and contradictions it suffers from.
The media have also contributed — unfortunately — to the spread of dangerous ideas with all the destructive consequences we have been witnessing. People were persuaded to join the anti-Soviet resistance in Afghanistan. This was an irrational policy and we’re still paying the price.
Any plans, studies or solutions that don’t deal with all these factors seriously and without reservations won’t eliminate the terrorist threats our country is confronting.
Partial or superficial or temporary solutions can’t achieve the larger goals the country is after and provide the security citizens long for. And no matter how complicated and sensitive the situation, and how deep-rooted the malaise afflicting us, there is still some hope.
We hope people with open minds and wisdom and discipline would act to correct the errors and misunderstandings so the nation could be saved from the scourge of extremism and its disastrous consequences.
We are living in an era when nations of the world are connected by interests that impose on them certain rules and regulations. These laws believe in intellectual diversity and public freedom and accepting the other’s points of view. These rules and regulations are not in conflict with Islam and Shariah rules. Our religion is not what some try to portray — a religion against development or humanitarian impulses.
These are the ones who are offending Islam and not its traditional or historical enemies. They are trying to impose on Islam an identity that is the very opposite of all it stands for in terms of higher values and goodness.
All the deficiencies our social system suffers from provide a fertile soil for the growth of terrorism.
Our legal and moral systems also leave a lot to be desired. A society must protect its children, guide them to the right path and stop them from a mad rush to death and destruction.
The most important instrument to treat this problem is the media that need to redefine its policies and methodologies and develop appropriate tools and design a new interaction and speech system by reviewing the educational and social systems. The current media situation will only complicate things instead of straightening them up.
We need effective media outlets during this most dangerous stage in our nation’s life and to have effective media outlets we need a healthy and free environment.
