October 19, 2007:
Saudi
Arabian police have solved the murder of four French Moslems last February. The
victims were gunned down by AK-47s, on an isolated road northwest of Medina, an
ancient city full of Islamic shrines. No one took credit for the killings. But
since then, police have arrested three suspects, and killed another. The dead
man was on the list of wanted Islamic terrorists. The attacks appears to have
been opportunistic. The nine French Moslems had taken a wrong turn, were lost,
and simply appeared to be foreigners to the passing Islamic militants. Two of
the militants opened fire with AK-47s, and then sped away.
While Saudi Arabia does not
attract a lot of tourists, it would like to change that. What the kingdom does
attract are over five million religious pilgrims each year, and the attack on
the French Moslems was seen as a threat to all those foreign Moslems,
especially the ones who stick around to visit other parts of the kingdom. Al
Qaeda was founded by very conservative Saudi Moslems. So conservative that
any foreigners in Saudi Arabia are seen
as an insult to Islam. Al Qaeda is based on some pretty twisted thinking, even
by Islamic standards.
Al Qaeda began carrying out
terror attacks in Saudi Arabia after the U.S. Invaded Iraq in 2003. Saudis are
conflicted about what is going on in Iraq. On one hand, they disapprove of
Americans invading, but Saddam Hussein was seen as an embarrassment. Saddam was
tolerated because he was a Sunni Arab strongman maintaining control over a
largely Shia country. Saudi Arabia is the champion of Sunni Islam, which is
practiced by about 85 percent of all Moslems. Iran is the champion of Shia
Islam. To Sunni conservatives, who are a powerful force in the kingdom, Shia
are heretics. That is not official policy, but it is a popular opinion in the
kingdom.
Several al Qaeda bombing
attacks quickly turned public opinion against the Islamic terrorists. Thus,
having gained the cooperation of most Saudis, the police managed to kill, arrest or drive into hiding
all al Qaeda members, and other Islamic terrorists as well. But not all the
known terrorists have been captured. Some are believed to have fled the
country, others have found kin willing to hide them inside the kingdom.
There is a lot of hate in the
Arab world, and the Moslem world in general. This hate is all about who is to
blame for the sorry state of Arab society. Arabs are well aware that they
belong to a culture that has benefited the least from the post World War II
economic boom. That fact was denied for decades, but now is obvious to all.
Osama bin Laden and his followers blamed Islamic tyrants, and their infidel
(non-Moslem) allies for this. Unable to overthrow the Islamic tyrants, bin
Laden decided to go after the infidels. The Islamic tyrants were fine with
this, and many of them, including Saddam Hussein, provided sanctuary and
support for Islamic terrorists. And here we are.