Mohammed Alkhereiji, Arab News Staff

JEDDAH, 10 November 2003 — The terrorist attack in Riyadh on Saturday night came in the middle of a heated debate on the Arabic language media in the Kingdom and throughout the Gulf about whether there is a link between terrorism and the reform movement in Saudi Arabia.

Mushary Al-Zaidi, a journalist and an expert on radical Islam, said the two issues are being incorrectly aligned in some quarters.

“There’s absolutely no relation between the senseless terrorist act that occurred in Riyadh and what might be described as a slow reform process here in the Kingdom,” he told Arab News.

“The individuals who committed this atrocity have a fixed agenda, and reform is not an issue for them. These cells have one vision: To remove US troops and all Westerners from the whole of Arabia. They also want to establish a fanatical state like the Taleban. If all reform initiatives had been completed a year ago, these suicide attacks would still have taken place.”

Jamal Khashoggi, media adviser to the Kingdom’s ambassador to the UK, agrees.

“The reformers and the terrorists have two completely different goals,” he told Arab News from London.

“These terrorists are not intent on reform, and their actions should not under any circumstances be considered a means of bringing about change. Basically, they do not want Saudi Arabia to be a part of the civilized world.”

“The actions of this suicide cell contribute nothing positive to anything,” said Nawaf Obaid, a security analyst in the Kingdom.