Agence France Presse

RIYADH, 12 September 2003 — Two years on, Saudi Arabia, blamed in the West for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, feels more of a victim than a defendant in the dock for the case against global terrorism.

“The Kingdom not only denounced the Sept. 11 attacks but displayed willingness to fight against terrorism and continues to cooperate with international efforts in this respect, particularly US efforts,” a senior Saudi official told AFP.

The official who asked not to be named, avoided whipping up the fierce storm that followed the hijackings, when the US media led allegations that the Kingdom bore core responsibility.

“Saudi Arabia is itself a target of terrorist acts,” said the official, recalling the attacks on expatriate housing compounds attributed to Al-Qaeda network.

The bloodshed in Riyadh shocked and galvanized the authorities to hunt down the killers. Several Al-Qaeda leaders were shot dead, captured or surrendered. Scores more suspects have been detained.

The shootouts offered physical proof of the Saudi authorities’ determination to crack down on the terrorists who roamed the Kingdom, finding succor among a handful of supporters and sympathizers.

Stricter controls of the sometimes shadowy agencies suspected of channeling charity money to extremists have also been put in place. The Interior Ministry this week went as far as to urge all parents to report their missing sons to the security services for fear that they may have joined terror groups.

The Interior Ministry published the appeal in the press along with a free 990 telephone service, breaking another subject once considered taboo.

Around the Sept. 11 anniversary, Saudi intellectuals have stressed the need to acquit Islam of any extremist tendencies and to make a clear distinction between the religion and the radical groups that have attempted to hijack it.

Author Hani Wafa pondered the woes Sept. 11 had caused the Saudis in general and Muslims in particular.

“These events had a negative side ... and became a catastrophe for us,” he told AFP. “We have lost the consideration of the world and our confidence in ourselves, in our intellectual approach and our social customs.

“Worse still, these events gave an opportunity for those who were waiting for the slightest opportunity to attack us and undermine our beliefs. As Arabs and as Muslims, we are the greatest losers from what happened on Sept. 11,” Wafa noted.

Ali Saad Mussa, another intellectual, writing in Al-Watan newspaper this week, offered a similar theme: Islam “has been the greatest loser.”

“Our enemies have never been so pleased. The 19 individuals (who carried out the hijackings) were guided by their own convictions but the political and media circles in the West insist on saying they were guided by their faith.”

That view is shared by the Kingdom’s Islamic institutions, such as the Muslim World League, which published a statement for Sept. 11 condemning “terrorist acts that cost the lives of innocents in the United States, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Indonesia and other countries.”

“The authors of the Sept. 11 attacks committed criminal acts forbidden by Islam,” stressed the league’s head, Abdullah Turki.