Saudi Efforts Paying-Off

Saudi Arabia is making headway in the fight against Terrorism. The country has long been the fountainhead of jihadist radicalism. Saudi courts have begun procedures to try 991 prisoners held on terrorism charges, in the most sweeping legal action yet taken in the global campaign against the extremists. What is unique about the Saudi court prosecutions is the trials take place under strict Islamic law before a panel of judges who are, like all those in the arch-conservative kingdom, schooled in the strict Wahhabist interpretation that has helped to inspire the ideology of groups such as al-Qaeda itself. Sharia sentences carry greater legitimacy than those given by military tribunals the rest of the World is so keen to hold. The Saudi’s accused not only include active members of al-Qaeda, which carried out some 30 attacks in the kingdom between 2003 and 2006, killing more than 90 civilians and 74 policemen, but also of prominent sheikhs whose sermons justified the violence of the attacks.

The Saudi campaign is unique to the Middle East because unlike other countries that have relied strictly on security forces to counter the threat, the kingdom chose a multi-pronged approach involving public awareness campaigns, legal and educational reforms and religious counseling. Saudi Arabia has another program that seeks to combat jihadist ideas on the internet, where the Saudi government hires moderate religious scholars to engage in debate on extremist chat sites. New laws have made incitement to terrorism over the internet a crime punishable by up to ten years in prison.

Since the September 11th attacks three of the four best-known radical websites that carry publicity releases and chat forums for al-Qaeda have been inactive. Such sites, which are carefully monitored by intelligence agencies, have experienced interruptions before, but this is the first time that several have remained out of action for a long time. The lone surviving site, al-Hesbah, is thought by some experts to have been infiltrated by the Saudis, so as to keep tabs on campaigners elsewhere.