Saudi Stories: The Extremists
Bill Law
Reporter, Saudi Stories
SAUDI STORIES
21 June: Extremists
28 June: Constitutional Three
5 July: Candidates
12 July: Writers
19 July: The Booklet
BBC Radio 4's Saudi Stories on Tuesdays at 09:30 BST
Saudi Arabia has come along way since 11 September, 2001.
For months and years after neither the government nor the vast majority of
its people were prepared to acknowledge the grip that extremists held in the
desert kingdom.
Then a series of bombings in the capital Riyadh in 2003 forced a
reassessment.
The crackdown that followed led to
shootouts with hardcore Islamic militants, known as jihadists. More than 120
have been killed and a handful captured alive.
The Saudis now say that the terrorist threat has receded. The country is
safe once again for westerners.
But, dig a little deeper and a chilling story emerges.
High-level extremists
Mansour al-Noqaidin is an ex-jihadist, jailed in the early 1990s for
terrorist acts.
Since his release from prison, he has spoken out against terrorism - and had
his life threatened.
You'll find extremists in different government departments - they don't
back terrorism in public, they do it secretly
Mansour al-Noqaidin
He has spoken against the government and it has tried to silence him.
But in his flat in Riyadh, he wanted nothing more than to talk to me.
"Yes, definitely there are extremists. And you'll find them in different
government departments, you'll find them in the mosques, you'll find them in
a lot of places in the society.
"A lot of them don't back terrorism in public, they do it secretly but they
are there," he says.
Mr Noqaidan confirms what I have learned from other sources.
Extremist teachers use weekend camps to recruit deeply religious and
impressionable young men to the cause of holy war.
Hopeful martyrs
The government says very few young Saudis are crossing the border to Iraq.
But Mr Noqaidan puts the number in the high hundreds.
"I'll tell you this story of this guy I knew 16 years ago and I met him
recently and I asked him about his kid and he showed me his kid's picture
and he told me he's now 16 and he's now in Iraq fighting for God.
"And I said to him, 'He's very young and you're going to be responsible for
his acts'.
"And he said, 'Don't worry. I'm not worried about my son, I know he will do
the right thing and believe me, I won't be upset if I hear that he became a
martyr'."
The man charged with rooting out militants is Saudi Interior Minister Prince
Naif.
He has a reputation as a ruthless tactician who has skilfully played
hardliners off against moderates.
Until recently, the interior ministry rarely if ever spoke to western
journalists. But that's changing.
Brig Gen Mansour al-Turki is Naif's spokesperson.
He is a small, intense man with an engaging smile. I spent almost two hours
with him and found him in an expansive mood.
He was proud of the numerous successes in the war against terror, citing a
recent raid that left 14 jihadists dead and only light casualties on the
government side.
'Teenage terrorists'
But Brig Gen Turki did not deny that extremist recruiters under cover of
weekend camps were a big worry.
He told me about some of the young jihadists his forces have captured alive.
"Most of them are actually under age. We're talking about boys 15, 16.
"And if a boy is religious enough, if he is really convinced of everything
but he is not convinced that he can do a terrorist act here, for example,
the older jihadists have their means of convincing him to do such a thing,"
he said.
Ask the ex-jihadist Mansour al-Noqaidin why young men are prepared to die
and he says: "It's basically because they are sincere and honestly believe
that the only way to heaven is through blood."
In Saudi Arabia extremism under cover of religion continues to flourish.
Young men continue to be recruited to the cause of holy war.
That will only change if the government is prepared to confront powerful
forces that continue to shelter and encourage extremists, a course of action
it appears unable or unwilling to undertake.
Bill Law will be writing here each Monday to accompany his series, Saudi
Stories beginning Tuesday 21 June at 0930 BST on Radio 4.
Each programme will also be available to hear online at Radio 4's Listen
again page or to download as part of the BBC Podcasting trial
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/4100930.stm
Published: 2005/06/20 11:25:54 GMT
© BBC MMV
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