Saudi Arabia Fights Al-Qaeda with Social Reasonability

If there was one country that could be expected to be described as socially responsible, at least by Western standards, let alone as actively discouraging radical Islamic Fundamentalism, Saudi Arabia would certainly not be it. Because of its funding of Madrasahs and Mosques that hold to the Wahhabi ideology of Islam, which then act as centers for indoctrinating future members of Al-Qaeda and other radical groups, Saudi Arabia is thought to be a major contributor to Islamic terrorism throughout the world. While this may very well be an accurate perception of reality, the Saudi Arabian government, according to an article in the June 2007 publication of The Atlantic titled “Get out of Jihad Free,” has begun to at least fight terrorism and Al-Qaeda within the confines of its own boarders.

Rather than filling up their prisons the Saudis have instead started a social program which aims at deprogramming would be terrorists who, after being arrested, are given the choice of either going to prison or enrolling in the program. Once enrolled the prisoner is released to the care of his family and put through a process that is described as “an intensive religious, psychological, and familial counseling regime….”

There are several encouraging things about this program. One is that for a theocratic monarchy that has been known to use violence and oppression to solve many of its internal problems this is a remarkably rational response to a situation that more than being a threat to the security of the West, threatens to further destabilize the Middle East. The Saudis seem to recognize that part of the problem of solving terrorism is that those who tend to sympathize with ideologies that espouse the use of such tactics are themselves not well educated in the religion, and therefore need to be challenged by more learned members of the Muslim community.

Another positive aspect of the program is that it helps to discredit ignorant claims in our own country that Islam is by its very nature violent and therefore evil. Most people are not for example aware that tactics such as suicide bombing came into popular practice only in the 1980’s. Previously when one thought of a suicide bomber the most likely image to come to mind was that of a Japanese pilot flying purposely into a US navel vessel. Indeed prior to the 1980’s suicide for any reason, even within the context of Jihad, was seen as categorically unacceptable in Islam. Commenting on traditional attitudes toward suicide as they apply in particular to Jihad the historian and scholar of classical Islam, Bernard Lewis, claims that “The classical jurists distinguish clearly between facing death at the hands of the enemy and killing oneself by one’s own hand. The one leads to heaven, the other to hell. Some recent fundamentalist jurists and others have blurred or even dismissed this distinction, but their view is by no means unanimously accepted. The suicide bomber is thus taking a considerable risk on theological nicety.” (The Crisis of Islam, page 39)

While the Atlantic article admits that by no means are those who complete the program, “ready to make peace with Israel,” it is good to see the government of a Muslim country looking at itself inwardly and actively addressing hard problems. For to long have the countries of the Middle East avoided such steps by pointing to outside forces as the soul cause of all their ailments. Additionally success in Saudi Arabia could have greater implications for the War on Terror in general. Other such programs exported to Muslim countries throughout the world may be able to substantially hinder the ability of Al-Qaeda to recruit and conduct it’s operations.

Right now there is no doubt a large pool of potential fighters for Al-Qaeda to recruit for their world wide Jihad. Although at present there seems to be a focus on conducting operations primarily within the Middle East, many of the Jihadists fighting are from other parts of the globe. A current example of this is the recent fighting taking place in Nahr el-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in Northern Lebanon. Although the militant group Fatah Islam, the group currently fighting with the Lebanese army, is comprised of many Palestinian’s, as well as fighters from other Arab states including Saudi Arabia, other members have been reported to be from as far away as Bangladesh.

Thus the necessity to see violent ideologies defeated in countries outside of Saudi Arabia and the greater Middle East is perfectly clear. As president Bush has said many times he is taking the fight to the enemy so that they don’t bring it home to us. However much one may agree or disagree with that sentiment it may be one that the Saudis have a need to embrace. As an increasing number of foreign fighters are enlisted to fight in Jihad it simply will not be enough to try and fight terrorism within the confines of their own boarders because eventually terrorists will come to them from outside. Fortunately for Saudi Arabia it is equipped more than any other country, (although Iran is probably a close and seemingly unwilling second), to conduct such a fight so long as it remains an ideological one.