Fahda bint Saud ibn Abdul Aziz

The holy month of Ramadan was rife with bloody events for Muslims. It began with the bleeding wounds of Palestine, which has been under occupation for 50 years, and Iraq, which has been newly occupied in the name of liberation and democracy.

Other Arab and Islamic countries also came under threat — Iran, Syria and Lebanon. Our own country is awash with the blood of the innocent from the Riyadh bombings.

Natural phenomena were like a warning from God. There was a lunar eclipse on Ramadan 13, followed by the solar eclipse on Ramadan 18; they prompted Muslims to congregate in the holy land in large numbers and throng mosques around the world to hold prayers, asking God for forgiveness and the strength to resist their enemies.

Rainfall during Eid usually portends good things — hope and God’s mercy. Muslims felt that their prayers and supplications had been answered when rain fell like an Eid gift to quench their thirst. But the Eid gifts from others were less benevolent.

First of all, during the last week of Ramadan, a member of the US Congress, Anthony Weiner, presented an official request to the Senate to enact a law to punish Saudi Arabia. Arlen Spectre, a prominent member of the judicial committee, also joined in a campaign to punish the Kingdom for funding Islamic institutes around the world and publishing books that, according to him, incite religious and doctrinal hatred.

In his report from Washington, Ahmad Abdul Hadi said “a group of writers, intellectuals and former politicians from the American-Jewish community has opened a new research center named Yamit or Truth, with the aim of attacking certain governments, particularly Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan.”

The suggestion to open this center came from two PR companies after they made a $95-million deal with Ariel Sharon to “explain Israel’s policy to US public opinion and clarify the stand of Arab nations that are openly hostile to Israel.”

But where are the equivalent Saudi plans to explain Saudi policy to US public opinion?

We don’t know anything about Qorvis Communications, the international public relations company that has been hired by Saudi Arabia at huge expense, except that it has published two reports and received a total of $46 million. We do not know what successes, if any, this company has achieved in terms of explaining our policy to US citizens. All we have are the reactions of a few dedicated individuals whose impressions so far have been negative.

We should be ready with all financial, human and intellectual capabilities and have the courage to choose the right PR companies and experts who are best suited to represent us and explain our policies in the US.

Another Eid gift was a Riyadh bombing plot that was only foiled at the last minute by Saudi security forces on the first day of Eid Al-Fitr.

At a time when the Kingdom needs Muslims in general and Saudis in particular to stand united in the face of challenges like those coming from US politicians sympathetic to Israel’s interests in the region and from influential commentators in the US media, the terrorists from our midst are in fact serving the interests of the enemies of Islam. Their extremism is doing more damage to the Islam they purport to be fighting for than the armies of the Kingdom’s detractors.