Editorial: Saudis stand united against terror outfits

A year before the 9/11 outrage, terror came to the Kingdom. It started in central Riyadh when two British nationals were murdered with a car bomb. From then on, the terrorist campaign grew with truck bombings and suicide attacks. It reached a peak in 2004. Thereafter, there was a steady decline as the Kingdom learned how to counter the men of violence in its midst.
In the end, a tough security clampdown broke the back of terrorism. The fight-back was helped significantly by the offer of pardons and rehabilitation to terrorists with no blood yet on their hands. Throughout the hunt for terror cells, ordinary citizens played a crucial role. They were encouraged to report suspicious behavior, to watch for something, anything in their neighborhoods which did not seem quite right. And they responded in their thousands.
The Kingdom then, as now, was revolted by the barbarity of the killers. The second terror campaign which began in Eastern Province this year has rekindled that revulsion. The bombings of Shiite mosques while people were at prayer were heinous crimes. All Saudis were appalled. Many hurried across the country to attend the funerals of the victims.
The message went out loud and clear. Saudis stand together. They will not let outside evil divide them. And even more quickly than the upsurge of violence 15 years ago, the police and security forces have made significant arrests. But no one is allowing themselves to be lulled into complacency. From bitter experience, everyone in the Kingdom knows that terrorists are not easily defeated. Once again, the Saudi public is on the alert for tell-tale evidence of terror cells.
It must therefore be galling to learn from international media that, around the world, many think Saudi Arabia itself to be a major source of terrorism. For those living and working here in the country, it is extremely hard to credit such nonsense. They understand the conservative and peaceful values that keep the Kingdom strong. Yet people in the US and Europe are blind to Saudi realities. They see the unbending moral values that underpin Saudi society as a sign that something is amiss. The two words for this are “cultural imperialism”. Time and again, the West imposes its values on countries, without considering the standards that already exist in them. The arrogant assumption is that any state that is not a so-called Liberal Democracy is automatically suspect. In some ill-defined way such places are backward. Their views do not need to be taken seriously.
Well now there’s one view that the outside world does need to take seriously. It is the revealed view of the Saudis themselves.
A respected Washington think tank has just finished polling a representative cross-section of Saudi society. Half the respondents to the questions put by the Washington Institute’s Fikra Forum were under the age of 35.
No less than 92 percent of them said they reject the terrorists of Daesh and their evil ideology. These are not some figures plucked from the air. The think tank conducted another survey in September 2014 with of course an entirely different set of respondents. The result was an equally large proportion of people who despised Daesh and it horrific deeds.
Perhaps what is so surprising is that these results should surprise anyone outside the Kingdom. But of course it should never be forgotten that there are political forces and their tame media that are implacably opposed to Saudi Arabia. They resent its position and influence in the Arab world and beyond.
Yet rarely do these people mount a frontal attack. Their method instead is insidious. They chip away, denigrating the Kingdom and its people, over single issues such as women drivers. This constant sniping is a substitute for any rational argument. Because it is driven by blind prejudice, it is inherently incoherent. The critics dare not come out into the open and try to make their case, because they know they will be exposed as racist fanatics.
Besides which they well understand that their anti-Saudi sentiments are better advanced by drip-feed propaganda which focuses on particular issues. They thus deliberately ignore the context and the nature of the society in which the issues exist.
The plan is to stereotype the average Saudi as an avid supporter of terrorism. Politicians of countries with which the Kingdom has long been allied, of course know better. They have praised and learned much from our fightback against terror here. The pity is that they do not seek to counter more strongly the disinformation campaign now targeting Saudis.