The future of Saudi society will not be secure as long as it refuses to confront its own extremist elements, writes Jamal Khashoggi* We Saudis have not even begun to look realistically and objectively at the attacks of 11 September. We have not yet realised the full implications of this event for our society. If we had, we would have authorised study after study to analyse and understand the causes, so as to protect ourselves and future generations from a repetition of this horror. Osama Bin Laden's hijacked planes seem to have destroyed more than the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. They have inflicted a devastating blow to Islam as a religion of tolerance and co-existence. These acts have irreparably damaged the interests of entire Muslim countries, particularly Saudi Arabia. Some of us here in the Kingdom still deny and doubt the identities of those who carried out the attacks. We tend to believe every wild conspiracy theory, particularly if it comes from foreign sources. We are not willing to view the 19 Muslims (mostly Saudis) as the real culprits, though it has been established that their families had lost track of them, and their friends say that they had gone on jihad. Yet some of us are still obsessed with questioning the evidence. "Are you sure that these youths are the real hijackers?" we ask. "Isn't it quite possible that their passports were stolen as part of a deliberate attempt to distort the image of Arabs and Muslims? They could have been innocent ordinary passengers who were deliberately implicated by the US authorities." Or again: "Isn't it rather far-fetched to believe that Osama could have had access to the sophisticated technology needed to carry out airborne precision attacks?" Or "Haven't you heard about the French expert who says that the Pentagon was attacked, but not by a plane?" We should stop such incoherent and pointless twaddle and acknowledge that 15 of the hijackers were misguided Saudis. Hundreds of our young men lost their lives between Kunduz and Mazar Sharif in northern Afghanistan in the most tragic circumstances. Is it not a huge deception to believe that these youths are martyrs and heroes who were attempting to defend Islam? Did not the Prophet, peace be upon him, say that when two Muslims fight each other both of them -- both the killer and the slain -- will end in hellfire? Did not our youths go to Afghanistan to kill other Muslims? We have no choice but to examine in detail why, during the years preceding 11 September, Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where Muslims were killing Muslims, became a seductive destination for so many young men from our secondary schools and universities. Any one with a rudimentary knowledge of Islam knows that the only role a Muslim can play when two Muslims fight one another is to bring them to peace, without encouraging either one to kill the other. Did some among us declare the Taliban "real Muslims" and brand their Muslim adversaries "heretics"? If they did so, they were wrong. It was also wrong to allow our youths to enter into an Islamic tragedy. And it is a serious matter if such people are still present among us. Such people, who have no qualms in declaring the inhabitants of a distant land kafirs (unbelievers), will have no qualms either about applying the same word to people at home. In the mid 1980s, it was right to join the ranks of the Muslims who were fighting against the Soviet forces who had invaded Afghanistan. Both the government and the public here supported the campaigns for money and men to fight alongside the Afghans. And most of those volunteers returned home once the communists had been defeated. Were those young men possessed of better judgment than the youth of today? Did they lack our contemporaries' shallowness and superficiality? What changed in our society, so as to allow those who preach extremism to introduce their ideas to our young people? Since 11 September we have been giving advice and pointing out the defects in America's system, but we have not paused to look within ourselves and identify our own shortcomings. We have no convincing answer to the Americans' question as to why 15 of the hijackers are Saudis, and why most of the detainees at Guantanamo are also Saudis. We must find the right answers -- not to satisfy the curiosity of others, but as a key to a secure future for ourselves and for our children. There are other important questions we need to answer too. Why did the "unknown propagandists" succeed in persuading young Saudi men to go to Afghanistan? Why did one young Saudi say in his will that both his government and the rulers of his country were heretics? We cannot comfort ourselves by arguing that this is just the work of a handful of misguided youths. In our bid to downplay the enormity of the attacks and to show the West that extremism is not the exclusive property of the Muslim world, we have written exhaustively about the Oklahoma bomber and other American extremists. Yet still the question cries out to be asked is: While the Americans are making a thorough study of their own extremism as a precautionary measure, what have we been doing to protect our society from our own extremists? For yes, we do have extremists and fanatics, just like the rest of the world. Our first step should be to stop denying this fact. And our second step should be to confront these extremists. We must tell them that they are part of a system, and that they have to respect the voice of the majority. And who constitutes that majority? We, the moderate people of Saudi Arabia. * The writer is deputy editor-in-chief of Arab News, Jeddah. Related articles: 9/11 Supplement -- 12 - 18 September 2002 9-11 - WAR COVERAGE -- Archives
