Osama bin Laden has broad support in his native Saudi Arabia that will enable his al-Qaida network to survive any crackdown, according to a leading Saudi dissident.
In Saudi Arabia, al-Qaida has a “supportive, sheltering environment where hostility to the United States is immense,” said Saad al-Fagih, head of the London-based Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, in an interview with Reuters.
 Osama bin Laden |
Al-Qaida is the chief suspect in Monday’s suicide bomb attacks against U.S. targets in Riyadh that killed 34 people.
Fagih, a 44-year-old British-trained surgeon, said he sees signs bin Laden is prepared to attack the royal family and other Saudis regarded as protectors of U.S. interests.
“Previously he had banned attacks on the Saudi establishment because perceptions in society are against targeting any Muslim even if he is corrupt, immoral or a member of the royal family,” he told Reuters.
Fagih rejected as naive the idea that the Saudi royal family was “soft” on Islamist militants, but he asserted the aging monarchy is out of touch with its people.
The royals’ obsession with secrecy makes them inclined to conceal problems from the outside world, he said.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S., al-Qaida has suffered losses in personnel and logistics, Fatigh noted, but bin Laden’s followers have made compensatory gains in Saudi Arabia, where they are welcomed.
According to Fagih, resentment against the U.S. rose in Saudi Arabia with the capture of Baghdad by coalition troops, regarded as the greatest humiliation Muslims had suffered since Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 war.
Dealing with terrorists
In the wake of Monday’s bombings, the Saudi royals are faced with U.S. criticism of the kingdom’s security lapses. Just days before, Saudi officials described bin Laden and al-Qaida as “weak and nonexistent.”
The White House insists Saudi Arabia must “deal with the fact that it has terrorists inside its own country.”
Fagih contended such demands are not likely to produce results because the country’s pervasive police have failed to prevent radical Islamist groups from proliferating and extending their popular support, Reuters reported.
He also dismissed U.S. demands for a weakening of the strict Wahhabi religious influence in Saudi Arabia, arguing it was stronger in earlier decades when there was little anti-American feeling in the country.
Fagih asserted the problem is the “decadent, oppressive, secretive regime, which is driving the country to chaos by its corruption and absolute dictatorship.”
“The Americans should push for accountability and transparency, not interfere in Islamic affairs,” he said, insisting openness could help defuse social and economic discontent among frustrated youth.
However, Sulaiman Al-Hattlan, a columnist for the Saudi pro-government daily Al Watan, puts the blame squarely on Wahhabi dominance.
In a New York Times op-ed yesterday, he wrote:
Because of the dominance of Wahhabism, Saudi society has been exposed to only one school of thought, one that teaches hatred of Jews, Christians and certain Muslims, like Shiites and liberal and moderate Sunnis. But we Saudis must acknowledge that our real enemy is religious fanaticism. We have to stop talking about the need for reform and actually start it, particularly in education. Otherwise, what happened here on Monday night could be the beginning of a war that leads to the Talibanization of our society.
On the streets of Riyadh yesterday, I saw thousands of angry Saudis. I am angry, too. What our extremists exported is coming back to hit us, dreadfully, at home. This Saudi anger could be a sign that our society soon might be able to start looking at itself.
Fagih’s reform group, launched in 1994, is using various means of communication, including a new TV channel, to get around official censorship of information in Saudi Arabia.
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