In recent years Saudi Arabia has come under fire in the wake of major terror attacks for facilitating the teaching of a radicalized, fundamentalist teaching of Islam that has spurred a generation of terrorists that look to disrupt the stability of the world.
International terrorism has in fact always had a pronounced Saudi fingerprint starting with the seminal atrocity on September 11, 2001, an act that many believe Riyadh played an instrumental role in planning and coordinating leading to a diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and the United States in recent months as the American people demanded the truth.
In fact, Riyadh went to such lengths as to dispatch their Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir to extort the Obama administration in acquiescence with the Kingdom’s desire that the truth remain shielded from the eyes of the public or else Saudi Arabia would immediately divest their holding of over $750 billion in US Treasury bonds which would trigger an immediate financial collapse.
At the time, there was a push for the final 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission Report to be declassified so that the public could know the full extent of the Saudi Royal Family’s involvement in the worst attack ever on US soil and to allow the victim’s family members to sue Saudi Arabia if they could provide sufficient evidence in a court of law to procure a judgment.
But then terror struck home for Saudi Arabia last week with the horrific attacks at the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina, the second most holy site in Islam, in the waning hours of the holy month of Ramadan – a perversion so obtuse that Riyadh must face the reality that out of al-Qaeda came Daesh, but while both take life with impunity, the latter hardly even pretends to adhere to religion and is instead a cancerous metastasization rather than a proxy army.
While residents were deep in prayer on Ramadan, suicide bombers struck the US Consulate in Jeddah, three terrorists triggered blasts near a mosque in Qatif, and an apprehended terrorist in front of the Prophet’s Mosque blew himself up with an explosive vest resulting in civilian and security guard deaths.
"Such conduct contradicts the upright innate character, the principles of our Islamic religion and the pillars and values of our Islamic societies," said King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz following the attacks. "The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is determined, God willing, to strike with an iron fist whoever targets the minds, ideas, thoughts and trends of our youth. Society should be aware that it is a partner of the state in its efforts and policies to counter this deviant thought, as we, all of us, following the teachings and instructions of our Islamic religion, which clearly forbids bloodshed."
The inherent inconsistency, however, is laid out in reports by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and even the United States Congress that Riyadh has continued to play a direct role in funding terrorist organizations and fundamentalist madrassas throughout the world with a regular practice of engaging even Daesh terrorists with a view of using the militants as proxy forces to terrorize and topple regional adversaries.
Terrorism that has broadly benefitted from Saudi patronage has finally come home to Saudi Arabia leaving the country to decide whether to continue playing with fire by using terrorists as mercenaries or whether to realize that 21st century terror holds no allegiance.
