SAUDI ARABIA: Stopping militant passions
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Why do young Saudi men keep popping up to do bad things in dangerous places?
Saudi militants are instigating terror and death from Yemen to Europe and from Iraq to Pakistan. The Saudi government has been attempting to calm jihadist passions by enrolling extremists in reform schools and silencing radical preachers. There has been progress, but the kingdom’s ultra-conservative brand of Wahhabi Islam keeps churning out those with masked faces and crisscrossed bandoliers.
Tariq Alhomayed, editor of the English-language daily Asharq Al-Awsat, explored the problem Saudi Arabia and the Arab world face in an opinion piece headlined: ‘Saudi Youth and Terrorism: When Will It End?’
“The ideological war in Saudi Arabia [against extremism] continues to be fought but below the expected level, even though the Saudi media is fiercely in opposition to extremism and the extremists, and there is a social aversion to Al Qaeda, the takfiris, and those who support them,” writes Alhomayed. “But despite this we continue to witness the destruction of our youth.”
He adds: “We should blame ourselves.”
Read the rest of the story here.
-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
