: Bombings Complicate Life In The House Of Saud

Skeptics of US military action against Iraq counted as one of their main concerns an increase in radicalism and terrorism, especially by the now-underground al-Qaida. But when the US military made a quick “strategic withdrawal” of troops from Saudi Arabia in the wake of the Iraq war – eliminating one of bin Laden’s main grievances agains the US – it seemed to be timed to take some wind out of al-Qaida’s sails. But another set of synchronized suicide bombings show that al-Qaida (the likely culprit) is fighting their irrelevance by replacing the “indignity” of US troops on holy Muslim soil with murder and carnage. The fact, however, that terrorism is slowly withdrawing from targets in the West to “easy targets” in the Muslim world – and what target could be easier for al-Qaida than Saudi Arabia, home of much of its support? – probably means that anti-terrorism efforts are succeeding. However, this is little consolation for the Saudis, who might finally be forced to confront the white elephant in the room – that the official Islamic ideology of the state (Wahabbi Islam) is the core ideology of the groups that seek to destroy them. “Whatever success they (al-Qaeda) think they have achieved they will be sorry for,” said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, “because this country is now united against them in every way.” Perhaps, but the combination of economic troubles, groups seeking (non-violent) political reform, and the new reality of Iraq don’t bode well for the desert kingdom. Many agree that only far-reaching political, economic and social reforms (the kind that the royals are so far reluctant to enact) are the only way that Saudi Arabia can emerge unscathed from both the proxy war between al-Qaida and the US as well as the irrelevancy of being a family-ruled country in the 21st century.

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.