JEDDAH/RIYADH/ALKHOBAR: Shock, disgust and dismay are the responses from people across the Kingdom to the Thursday-night assassination attempt on Prince Muhammad bin Naif, assistant interior minister for security affairs.
Compounding people’s disdain for the attack was the fact that it occurred less than 100 km from Makkah during the holy month of Ramadan.
Minister of Justice Muhammad Al-Eissa thanked Allah for keeping Prince Muhammad safe from the terror attack, while Muslim World League (MWL) Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki congratulated Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan and Second Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Prince Naif on Prince Muhammad’s narrow escape. The MWL secretariat condemned the terror attack as a deceptive act.
Members of the public, however, were more vociferous in their reactions. “This is against everything that Islam teaches us. Our religion teaches us to be benevolent; it teaches us not to resort to violence. This is forbidden and absolutely unjustified,” said Lama Al-Sharif, a Jeddah-based student of international relations. “Yes, there is frustration among a section of people regarding our foreign policy, but what happened on Thursday night is deplorable and utterly un-Islamic.”
Prominent Eastern Province businessman Abdulrazzak Al-Turki said he was happy that Prince Muhammad survived the assassination attempt but unhappy that it was such a close call.
“There needs to be a thorough investigation as to how a bomber could go undetected up to the minister,” Al-Turki said. “This is a serious breach of security. This is against Islam, and I would tell the youth of our country to focus on their bright future — to concentrate on their studies and education. Let us chart a bright future by ignoring those who advocate the ideology of hate and violence. Our country’s leadership needs the best and the brightest to lead us into the future with pride.”
The government has been generous in its attempts to encourage those who have fallen victim to deviant teachings to return to reason, allowing many to return to society after intense religious instruction. Some people are contending it is time for a tougher approach.
Turki Al-Atyan, psychology professor at the King Fahd College of Security and a member of the rehabilitation committee, said: “What happened is the deed of a frustrated man. The act will not retard government’s efforts to combat takfiri (the act of considering people out of the fold of Islam) ideology in all its shades. It should not also be a cause for the government to be disinclined to welcome repentant terrorists.”
Al-Atyan added: “The operation does not indicate any security lapses. Everybody knows that the doors of the rulers in the country are open to all. Everybody knows that the prince is the most delighted man when any of the sons of the country returns from the deviant path and it was evident in his reception of a wanted man returning from Yemen lately (Al-Oufi) despite the man’s antecedents.”
Muhammad Al-Nujaimi, another member of the Rehabilitation Committee, said the aborted assassination bid should not affect the government’s efforts to combat terror and stem deviance.
“The method of attack indicates a new tactic is being resorted to by the deviants after they lost the ability to face the government openly. It is not only in terms of strength but they have also lost their theorists and sheikhs. That is why they are using deceptive operations with the help of modern technology,” he said.
“All of the government’s efforts to bring those people who had gone astray have been nullified,” said Waleed Al-Humaidi, director of human resources at a Riyadh-based company. “The government had gone the extra mile in talking to these people and integrating them back into society. These rehabilitation efforts were sometimes criticized by foreign governments, but our government persisted and met with a lot of success. But this man and those behind him have betrayed the trust of our leaders. He has caused immense harm to the process of rehabilitation and reconciliation.” He said such acts prove the deviants have no association with Islam. “They now have no religion. They have no idea about the sanctity of the holy month,” said Al-Humaidi. “They are completely brainwashed, and the strings of their lives are being pulled by somebody far removed from society.”
Others noted that there are very few people across the Kingdom with such extremist philosophies. “They do not represent the majority of us. Since 9/11, we have turned over a new leaf, said Dammam newspaper columnist Tarek Al-Shehi. “King Abdullah with his vision and sagacity has taken this nation forward to the path of progress and reconciliation. The leadership has responded favorably to suggestions from our academics and the ulema. Dialogue has been given preference to suppression. All this has helped us to come out of the dark shadows that 9/11 had cast on our country.”
Al-Shehi said the incident might prove to be the last straw for the deviant groups. “Obviously, nobody expected this to go down well for this tiny minority of extremists, which is driven by hate. This will prove to be the proverbial last nail in their coffin. People are revolted by what they did on Thursday night.” Dammam journalist Muhammad Al-Harbi said: “This indicates that the government’s policy of isolating the extremists and terrorists is succeeding and that there is panic in the terror camp.”
Faisal Muhammad, a university student from Jeddah, said: “These cowards showed their real face and their horrible intentions with an attempt like this in Ramadan. Terrorism has no religion and these people have no religion.”
Mokhtar Abdul Rahman, an engineer from Yanbu, concurred, saying: “The terrorist and the ill-minded people are frustrated with the government’s continued success of hitting them hard. This is proof of their desperate attempts.”
Musad Mohammed, a Saudi journalist from a leading Arabic daily thanked Allah that the targeted prince was saved. “We do not want to lose our precious people to the evil hands of terror,” he said.
— Muhammad Humaidan, Siraj Wahab and Mohammed Rasooldeen contributed to this report
