ARRAR, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 18, 2006 (CBS) Two American civilians were killed today in Iraq by a roadside bomb like those often used against American soldiers.
U.S. intelligence believes many bomb builders are foreigners who enter Iraq from neighboring countries, including Saudi Arabia. The Saudis insist they are making the border more secure.
CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar went to see for herself.
Rolling toward the Saudi border with Iraq, the desert looks wide open. Up close, it’s a different story.
Many Americans have doubts about what’s going on at the Saudi-Iraqi border. News reports talk about numerous Saudis involved in terrorist acts in Iraq and, obviously, they’re getting into the country somehow. The border between Saudi Arabia and Iraq–about 800 miles or so–seems an obvious place for infiltration. After all, it’s a vast expanse of wastelands.
This CBS News report suggests otherwise. Sheila MacVicar finds that the Saudis are doing a creditable job in closing the border. It seems that the Saudis have better control there than they have on the Yemeni border.
Saudi reports indicate that Yemen is the preferred route into Iraq. Saudis don’t need visas to enter Yemen, but the border is so porous that its easy to get past even the minimal border checkpoints. And once in Yemen, it’s only a matter of money (little money) to get a flight to Syria, where again no visa is required.
In any event, this story is encouraging and worth a glance.
When the economic good times roll, as they have for much of the last decade, there are always market pundits who convince themselves that the cycle of growth and recession has finally been disrupted and that growth will now be constant. They have yet to be proven right and it might be that yet again, they are about to be proven dramatically wrong.
An excellent editorial in the Arab News shows how tightly the world’s economies are now interwoven. Looking at the prospect of $100/barrel oil, the paper is not happy. While that price might be nice to pull in–at least in the short term–it’s a disaster in the long term. The piece notes how seemingly unrelated events–a Japanese trade scandal, Iran’s nuclear aspirations, bad news from American high tech stocks–are, in fact, related as they put pressure on the price of oil. The Saudi economy, as it diversifies, becomes ever more subject to actions and reactions around the world and high oil prices affect the global economy, eventually the economies of the oil producing states.
Five Al-Qaeda Militants Arrested in Riyadh Raid
JEDDAH, 18 January 2006 — Security forces have arrested five suspected Al-Qaeda militants, including one foreigner, following a raid in Riyadh. The security forces also learned that the group was planning terrorist attacks in the Kingdom.
The statement from the Interior Ministry carried by the Saudi Press Agency said: “Four nationals and one (foreign) resident were arrested during a raid on a hide-out in Riyadh.â€
This Arab News article gives not only information about the current arrests–which also grabbed a million Saudi Riyals–but a summary of anti-terror actions on the part of the Saudi government. Interesting piece.
Another piece, Editorial: Global Approach, talks about the recent “Transnational Terrorism: A Global Approach†conference in London, jointly sponsored by the Saudis and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). The editorial rehearses some of the too-frequently heard complaints about American vis-a-vis European attitudes, and a bit of po’ mouthing about how misunderstood Islam is, but the pieces it worth a glance.
Next week, I’m heading off for a visit to Saudi Arabia–at my own expense–to keep in touch with the country and my Saudi friends. It’s just over two years since I’ve been there and I need to see and hear for myself just how things are changing. Call it “ground-truthing” as I check that my perspectives are still accurate.
I’ll travel via London and spend a few days there, meeting with Saudi journalists and others, too. I plan to be in the UK from the 20th-25th, then the Kingdom from the 25th-31st. If Saudi or other bloggers would like to get together, please contact me at the address given on the “Contact” page of this blog and I’ll see what I can fit into the schedule.
UPDATE 01/13/06 Eye witness reports appear in this Arab News story, It Was Like a Huge Wave… Another story notes that the death toll is now over 360. It also includes information that the Saudi gov’t had encouraged pilgrims to perform this particular step of the ritual over a greater time period. Also that people are starting to think that lower limits on the number of pilgrims given visas may be necessary. Worth reading both pieces.
UPDATE 01/12/06 23:01The Arab News has a story and an editorial on the incident at Mena. The story makes a good point in noting that crowd control is further complicated by the fact that the pilgrims are a polyglot mix. Every guard, every guid would need to speak in 50 languages were he to be able to offer warnings to all.
UPDATE 01/12/06 14:02 According to the Associated Press, this tragedy has grown considerably:
Stampede During Hajj Ritual Kills 345
By SALAH NASRAWI
Associated Press WriterMINA, Saudi Arabia — Thousands of Muslim pilgrims rushing to complete a symbolic stoning ritual during the hajj tripped over luggage Thursday, causing a crush in which at least 345 people were killed despite Saudi attempts to prevent stampedes that have plagued the annual event…
Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki said 345 people were killed. More than 1,000 people were injured, said Dr. Abbasi with the Saudi Red Crescent.
This article gives more details about how the incident may have happened and what is being done for the surviving vitims.
UPDATE:The AKI news agency reports, SAUDI ARABIA: DEATH TOLL IN MECCA STAMPEDE RISES, saying “At least 100 people have died during a stampede at the Haj pilgrimage in the Islamic holy city of Mecca.” It also notes:
A Saudi government spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, cited by the Associated Press, said the stampede happened after some pieces of luggage dropped from moving buses. The pilgrims apparently tripped over them as they were rushing to the pillars, he said.
Haj crush kills at least 57 pilgrims-witnesses
MENA, Saudi Arabia, (Reuters) – At least 57 Muslim pilgrims died in crowding during a stoning ritual on the last day of the haj, witnesses said on Thursday.
Reuters journalists counted at least 50 bodies lined up on the ground and covered in white shrouds — some being placed on lorries by medics. Another seven bodies were counted separately in another area of the road.
A Saudi Interior Ministry source told Reuters an unknown number of people had been killed in the crush at the eastern entrance of the Jamarat Bridge in Mena, a narrow valley outside the holy city of Mecca.
As this Asharq Alawsat report makes clear, deaths during the Haj are not uncommon. Steps had been taken to expand the area in which this part of the ritual takes place, but that was obviously insufficient. The piece notes:
Saudi Arabia has revamped the Jamarat area, expanding the stoning targets and provided an unprecedented security blanket including 60,000 security men to control the huge crowd and avert possible attacks by Islamist militants.
After this year’s haj, the Jamarat bridge will be replaced with a more elaborate bridge involving a four-level system of entrances and exits to the three walls, including a subway, and costing 4.2 billion riyals ($1.12 billion).
Controling the infrastructure necessary to support the Haj is a major problem in crowd control. As Haj follows closely prescribed steps, when all 2 million-plus participants are expected to be doing the same things in the same places, at the same times over several days, it presents unique problems. The solutions haven’t been found yet.
While Islam acknowledges that all who die while taking part in the pilgrimage are assured a place in heaven, this is still sad for their families.
Saudi Doctorate Encourages the Murder of Arab Intellectuals
A three-volume treatise by Sa’id ibn Nasser Al-Ghamdi, titled Deviation from the Faith as Reflected in [Arab] Thought and Literature on Modernity, has recently gained publicity in the Arab world. The book, published in December 2003 inSaudi Arabia, is based on Al-Ghamdi’s 2000 doctoral dissertation, submitted to the Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, for which he received his degree summa cum laude. In his treatise, Al-Ghamdi names more than 200 modern Arab intellectuals and authors whom he accuses of heresy – thus making it permissible to kill them.
Jordanian-American reformist intellectual and researcher Dr. Shaker Al-Nabulsi wrote an open letter to Saudi King ‘Abdallah Ibn ‘Abd Al-’Aziz, demanding to “establish an investigation committee into this dangerous matter, so as to clear the name of the governmental Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud University of [the disgrace of] these terrorist fatwas that serve only [the interests of] the terrorists within Saudi Arabia and outside it.”
This piece, caught by MEMRI, points to the outrageous publication of a book by a Saudi intellectual arguing for the deaths of those who have damaged Islam through their more temperate writings. Oddly, the list includes authors–like the Egyptian Taha Hussein–who are already dead.
Valid questions are raised in asking why this book received governmental imprimatur.
I do note, however, that the book was published five years ago. That was a long time ago when it comes to Saudi official reaction to extremism. Why is it now only coming to light?
But the Saudi government needs to become more transparent about what it is doing to recall or replace earlier publications which are now totally unacceptable.
MWL Condemns Norwegian Magazine for Publishing Offending Cartoons
MINA, 12 January 2006 — The Muslim World League yesterday expressed its resentment over the cartoons published by a Norwegian magazine offensive to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
I’m choosing “thin skin” as the fault here, rather than rank hypocrisy at the root of this annoying article.
The West enjoys–to greater, though lessening extent, thanks to “hate laws”–freedom of speech. That includes hateful and odious speech on all matters, including religion. As offensive as it may be to hear it, there is a general sense that there is largely unlimited freedom to say it. That means that all religions, Islam included, are open to criticism, mockery, and disdain by those who choose to do so.
That’s difficult to accept, no matter what one’s religion. It’s not a good thing, but it’s far better than the alternative in which we must never speak ill of matters protected by laws based on the religious beliefs of one single religion. One needn’t think long or hard to see how well a law that singled out Islam would go over.
It can also be pointed out to the MWL that they are rather slow off the mark to protest the condemnation, the slander and libel aimed at religions other than Islam. In fact, I don’t recall a single quote from a member of the group that rose to protest the calumnies aimed at Christians and Jews in mosques around the Muslim world, starting in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps the MWL could lead by example?
Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden
by Osama bin Laden, Bruce Lawrence (Editor), and James Howarth (Translator)
This book is the first (only) compilation of the major statements, interviews, and letters of Usama bin Laden. Translated excellently by James Howarth, they are edited by Bruce Lawrence, of Duke University. A full review of the book can be found on my Books page; this is just a lead-in.
I think it important for anyone who wishes to know what UBL is about to read this book. It clearly shows that he is intent on an eschatological conflict, one that can’t really be one on earth, but must wait until the Last Judgment, the Final Days for a victor to be decided. He very much fights a cultural war, a religious war. His political goals are inseparable from his religious goals. And in a world in which Muslims represent less than 20% of the population, it is a forever war.
This book is valuable in that it provides footnotes that point the reader to the origin of the many Quranic quotes that UBL uses throughout his discourse. It also helpfully points to the different hadith he cites. The book could be stronger, though, by providing the reader with more information about the hadith, which are considered “authentic” and which are not. While Lawrence does point out where UBL is engaged in selective quotation–using part of a quotation while ignoring the rest, or its context–even here more information could be provided.
Lawrence also provides historical information that helps put things in context, both in footnotes and in the chapter introductions. Again, more historical context, particularly for readers unfamiliar with Islamic history, would be useful.
But less information–particularly Lawrence’s editorial comments–would have been preferable, too.
Lawrence seems ready to accept bin Laden’s assertions about the perfidy of the West, particularly America. He notes, for instance, that UBL blames the CIA for AIDS, but seems unaware that this trope was part of Soviet “Active Measures” during the Cold War, in which the KGB spread conspiracy theories about America and the West throughout South Asia. These theories were adopted as truth in the South Asian–and Middle Eastern and African–media. No doubt, UBL picked it up in Afghanistan or Pakistan in the 1980s and now uses it as a club to bash America.
Do read the book, though. If you want to understand both the source and the scourge of neo-Salafist terror, there’s no better source than UBL himself.
Ex-Embassy Driver Admits Smuggling Aliens
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A former driver for the Saudi Embassy in Washington pleaded guilty Tuesday to smuggling aliens into the United States.
Mohamed Abdel Wahab Yakoub, 61, admitted he used Saudi Embassy letterhead to obtain diplomatic visas from U.S. embassies for several Egyptians and Filipinos.
Yakoub, an Egyptian, faces up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced in April on a single count of smuggling aliens. He will be subject to deportation after the sentencing…
The Joint Terrorism Task Force, which helped investigate, said it had no indication the scheme had any connection to terrorism.
It appears to have been a matter of extraordinarily bad timing, but this employee of the Saudi Embassy in Washington got caught in the hightened scrutiny of visas following 9/11. His crime seems to have been motivated by money, not terror. But the Embassy fired him and now he’s looking at up to 10 years in jail… before he’s deported back to Egypt.
[AP Article appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post]
Hajj and Politics
Abdul Rahman Al-RashedI do not believe much has changed, over the last 14 centuries, concerning the Hajj (pilgrimage), as determined by Islam. The overwhelming majority of believers seek to perform the fifth pillar of Islam. This is what Hajj is all about. However, in the past, some individuals sought to use this event for other purposes than to glorify God. Politicians have succeeding in defeating this tendency after two decades of conflicts. Fortunately, the pilgrimage is not overseen by another government; otherwise the two holy mosques would have been filled with leaders’ pictures and their slogans. Nowadays, you visit the mountain of Mina without passing by any advertisement billboard or pictures of Kings or being handing any political literature.
This is a good piece by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed, appearing in Asharq Alawsat. He notes the different steps both Saudi Arabia and the Islamic world in general have taken to make the annual Haj–a once-in-a-life time requirement for all Muslims, if possible–something that can be achieved. And without political issues coming into play.
The immediate reason for this op-ed is the recent claim by an Iraqi official that not enough Iraqis were getting visas for the Haj. With over two million taking part, it simply cannot be a first-come, first-served, open-to-all affair. The host (Saudi Arabia) needs to restrain the number of people coming, if only for safety reasons. But it needs to do so in a way that is transparent and acceptable. A means of doing this has been found, but will be subject to change as Muslim populations grow worldwide.
Perhaps something like this could be used to address the problem of Jerusalem?
The decision by Iran to resume research at one of its nuclear sites is cause for concern, not because Iran should or should not be allowed to develop its own nuclear industry — both sides have valid arguments — but it because it ratchets up the stakes in the nuclear stand-off. Another full-scale international crisis is the last thing the Middle East needs at the moment.
This Arab News editorial spells out the issues–as seen from Saudi Arabia–well. Iran needs to find a way to save political face, but its demands are simply not acceptable. The paper isn’t buying the line that this is an act of US aggression, noting that the EU, UN, and IAEA are all against what Iran is proposing.
The suggestion that Iran have Pakistan or India enrich the uranium it needs for its nuclear power program isn’t a bad one. Taking the matter out of the first and second world might provide the shield against shame Iran needs. That plan offers its own problems, of course, but they are less immediately critical.
UPDATE:The Arab News gives a somewhat fuller account of this story. Quoting Al-Sudais:
“Islam is the religion of moderates and yet a vicious campaign has been unleashed to tarnish its image. For the misdeeds of a few, the entire community is being held to ransom,†he said. “We all must realize that they are always on the lookout for the mistakes of a few Muslims so that Islam gets a bad name and people all over start hating it.â€Calling for more moderation among Muslims, he said deviation of thoughts and concepts had assumed “dangerous†levels.
“We now see fights and challenges taking place in the form of intellectual invasion globally for more freedom,†he said.
“Fight terrorism and extremism,†he told Muslims and urged them to spread the message that Islam does not preach terrorism, and moderates should not be held responsible for the crimes and killings being committed by a few in the Muslim world. He appealed to the few disgruntled elements that have strayed from the path of peace to return to their senses.
“Let’s start with ourselves. However, reforms should not be imposed on us. They should come from within us and in keeping with the tenets of Islam,†the imam said.
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Saudi Cleric Says Terrorism Used to Discredit Islam
MECCA, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – A top Saudi cleric told Muslim pilgrims marking the climax of haj on Tuesday that the West was using the global phenomenon of terrorism to scare people away from Islam and discredit legitimate Muslim causes.
Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Sudeis, the state-appointed preacher at the Grand Mosque in Mecca, also called for stability in Iraq and said Islam was innocent of the charge of “terrorism.”
“The campaign against Islam has become fierce and Muslims are being described in insulting terms to distort the image of Islam and scare people away from it,” he told the 2.5 million pilgrims in a sermon to mark the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha.
He accused Western countries of hypocrisy in promoting freedom and democracy, citing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This article–a Reuters news report widely published in the US–quotes the Mufti of the Grand Mosque in Mecca as arguing that the West seeks to demonize Islam, equating it with terror.
That’s patently false if it refers to Western governments. But it’s not false if it refers to the myriad media–and blogs–which seek exactly to do that.
There is a strain of thought in the West that is virulently anti-Muslim and anti-Islam. Those following it like simple answers to complicated questions. But simple answers are rarely right answers.
There are problems within Islam, particularly in the ways some interpret their religion and act upon their interpretations. That fact is well-known, even to Muslims. It’s why there is grave dialogue happening within Islam–including within Saudi Arabia–about just what the religion teaches and how it deals with differences, tolerance, “the other”.
Al-Sudais is conflating the views of the anti-Muslim extremists with the entirety of the West, also a too simplistic answer to a complex issue. I suspect that this sermon, given at one of the peaks of the religious year, was intended as a “hellfire and damnation” sermon to stir the faithful. It’s really a pity that he went way over the top with it.