Talking to the Devil: The Saudi Problem

Our terrorist enemies of freedom, this time aiming at oil interests and destabilizing Saudi Arabia, continued their barbaric ways in Khobar this weekend killing more than 22 and taking more than 40 hostage. Soon thereafter, we witnessed the Saudi Royal family’s rush to the media declaring their oneness with America in the war on terror and that they are vowing now to root out the al-Qaida “deviants.” This is certainly an epiphany for the Saudi royals and a single step in the right direction in the war on terror. However, this is a journey of many, many miles. Sadly, they are being nudged not by calls to freedom for their people but by reaping the seeds they sowed in Islamist fundamentalism. When the terrorists in Khobar discharged the Muslims and then began to slit the throats of the remaining non-Muslims, their actions came from the same fabric as Nazi Germany. They are pure and simple an attempt to create religious division in the free world that is dependent upon mass media coverage of their crimes. I am waiting for an explanation of the supposed wisdom of letting crazed animals escape and of bargaining with terrorists. Whoever let them escape forgot the first rule in dealing with terrorists: “You never to deal with terrorists”. So even as the Saudi family was declaring their oneness with our war on terror – they were still dealing with terrorists by letting them escape. This certainly seemed eerily reminiscent of the behavior which led to the ousting of Osama Bin Laden and company after shipping them off to Afghanistan in the 90’s as they would end up planning 9-11 from their new base in Afghanistan. Let terrorists loose and they will bring only further havoc to society and to the world. When will the Saudis begin to understand that they are not only victims, which is cheap talk in war, but they are long-time co-dependent facilitators of al-Qaida who must finally come clean? Their deep-seated religious intolerance and theocratic society, devoid of pluralism, liberty, freedom and equality for all faiths and genders, serves as an incubator for the Islamo-fascist terrorists. The Islamo-fascists, while certainly more militant and nihilistic than the Saudi family, only hate the Saudi family because they are in control of the country and its assets, which they so badly want to wreak more havoc on the rest of the world. Also, this is not to mention their clash on expression of orthodoxy. At this time, the Saudi family certainly remains the lesser of two evils in maintaining necessary stability in the region. One can only hope that behind the scenes we are working toward maintaining stability in the Saudi peninsula as they possibly teeter on civil war. One can only hope that the U.S. protects them, not only on the precondition of a stable global economy, but on the more important strict precondition of laying the ground work for a transition within Saudi Arabia to a parliamentary democratic government. The Saudis need to agree to work toward a free society with true Islamic principles of freedom, free markets and free minds, leaving only a figure head monarchy. They need to agree to begin spending money on distributing books and “Islamic” education on the synergy of democracy and liberty with Islam to Muslims around the world rather than on their version of a one-dimensional intolerant Islam. They can talk about tolerance and freedom all they want but until they walk the walk, the talk is vacuous. This will finally serve to militarily and intellectually suffocate the source of the Islamo-fascism that has been exported around the world. In the long run, this will decrease their own and America’s threat of terrorism. This column first appeared in the Arizona Republic at this link.