Who Is Most Surprised?

Arab News ^ | May 20, 2003 | Dr. Saiful Islam ibn Saud

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Did last week’s bombings in Riyadh come as a surprise? Those who know what our children are being taught about Islam, their teachers and the kind of ideas they are constantly fed were not surprised. Those who listen to cassette recordings — which in reality have no basis in Islam — and believe what is said in the recordings were not surprised. Those who listen to what is often said at Friday sermons were not surprised. Those who know how people who follow different schools of thought are ridiculed and treated with contempt were not surprised.

Any person who digs into the root causes of last week’s explosions and the resulting death and destruction will not be shocked at what actually happened. The implications of those tragic events, which involved the smuggling of weapons into our country, will be far-reaching and spread to all levels.

There are many in our society who have been both certain and confident that terrorism was alien to us and would only come from abroad. They were perhaps surprised. Those who feel antipathy to, and hatred of, whomever is different, whether a fellow citizen or a foreigner, will not be surprised. Those who were really surprised by what happened on that bloody night are the ones who can’t see the terrorists’ long-term political objectives and attribute such attacks to the alleged foreign presence in our land.

These are the ones who will continue to show surprise and disbelief whenever terror strikes. The guilty ones who verbally sympathize with terrorists or provide them with support of whatever kind must be laughing at those who insist on blaming this aberrant behavior on foreign elements while absolving local perpetrators of any responsibility.

The genuinely dumbfounded are those who don’t believe in the presence of sleeping terrorist cells among us, and who live under the illusion that our youth are so nice and such good Muslims that they would never stoop to such violence.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Another interesting Op-Ed from today's Arab News.

[Tunehead54]

Bump

[secretagent]

Interesting site. Has a lot of short, concrete news articles. Seems fairly secular and objective for Arab media - as much as I'd hope for these days.

[fourdeuce82d]

Have had a couple of similar articles forwarded to me by Sudi friends. They seem to feel this has shekn things up- it's one thing for the terrorists to kill westerners "outside"- it's another when they kill civilians who are under the hospitality/protection of the country. Seems to have made an impact.