Khaleej Times
August 31, 2009
The audacious assassination bid on Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Naif, deputy interior minister and chief of security services, this week serves as a reminder of the grave challenges facing the Middle East’s largest and easily most important country.
Although Prince Mohammed has survived the attack with minor injuries, it has shaken the kingdom with King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz himself visiting the deputy minister.
But then Prince Mohammed is not just another member of the ruling family and the government. The son of second Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz and nephew of King Abdullah, he has been the kingdom’s face and driving force behind its long and difficult battle against extremism and militancy.
Which is, of course, why the official has long been in the sights of the extremists, especially Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Saudi arm of the international terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden.
Prince Mohammed is regarded well at home and abroad for his successful campaign and operations against terrorism and extremism in Saudi Arabia. If there has been no major attack in the country since 2006 and hundreds of militants have been arrested or ‘reformed,’ some credit should obviously go to the security czar.
But the fact that the bomber managed to come so close to taking the life of the man responsible for security services in the country shows all is not well on the security front. This says something about the clear and present danger the country respected as the home of Islam and two of its holiest mosques faces in extremism. Clearly, Saudi Arabia needs to do more to deal with the menace of militancy.
While no country today can claim to be immune to the threat of extremism, thanks to decades of lopsided Western policies and practices in the Middle East and beyond, Saudi Arabia continues to be a favourite target of Al-Qaeda because of two factors: First, its special status in the Arab and Muslim world; secondly, Osama bin Laden and other top Al Qaeda leaders happen to come from Saudi Arabia.
This makes the kingdom’s war on extremism all the more critical and crucial to the rest of the world. Saudi Arabia just cannot afford to lose this battle for survival.
It is therefore essential that the international community, especially the United States and its Western allies, support the kingdom in this battle that is not just for its own existence but is also for Islam’s soul.
The least the world can do to help Saudi Arabia is not attack it time and again for not doing ‘enough’ to fight extremism. For this country is as much a victim of terror as, say, the
United States.
© 2009 Khaleej Times
