America's Deadly Ignorance: Iran And Assad's Adherents In The West Are More Active
01 January 2014
By Mshari Al-Zaydi
During a recent talk with an American journalist in
Riyadh, I could sense his keenness to speak about
Saudi jihadists in Syria.
He had an obsession with Al-Qaeda-linked organizations
and with the involvement of some Saudi youth in them,
and he alluded to the Saudi state's "support" for
those Syrian jihadists. In that journalist's view
there was a fundamental contradiction in the Saudi
position. On the one hand, the Saudi state is fighting
Al-Qaeda, but on the other, it is backing Al-Qaeda's
affiliates in Syria.
This is the core understanding of an American
journalist, who represents the public mood across a
wide spectrum of US and Western countries regarding
this particular issue. Such understanding mimics the
trend of even media and cultural elites, such as that
of Fareed Zakaria, who brandished his sword and wrote
an outspoken—and ignorant—article in Time magazine
last month in which he railed against Saudi Arabia.
I told the American journalist that for him and the
Western media, the issue was one of pure
contradiction.
Saudi Arabia is very clearly against President Bashar
Al-Assad's regime, and it is also against Al-Qaeda
groups in Syria. As for the question as to why the
Kingdom is against Assad, the answer is because he
declared himself an enemy of Saudi Arabia, as well as
of the entire Arab people, when he became involved
with Iran.
As to why Saudi Arabia is against the Al-Nusra Front
and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and
other Al-Qaeda groups, well, only those who are
completely unaware of the war Saudi Arabia fought
against Al-Qaeda more than a decade ago would ask this
question, as Saudi Arabia is still the prime objective
of Al-Qaeda's operations.
To illustrate this point, let us take as an example
the story of the young Saudi man, Ahmed Abdullah Al-Shaya,
who sneaked to Iraq in August 2003 and bombed the
Jordanian embassy in Baghdad, killing 12 people and
injuring up to 50 others.
Ahmed survived, miraculously, when he was thrown from
the cab of the bomb-laden truck he was driving. Saudi
Arabia received him back and offered him medication
and care in response to an appeal from his family.
Nevertheless, he once again sneaked into Syria to join
Al-Qaeda there, and these days he writes about Saudi
Arabia in a manner that shows his bitter hatred of the
Kingdom. This case alone is enough to prompt Saudi
Arabia to feel hostile towards Al-Qaeda and the Assad
regime, and equally so towards Iraqi and Lebanese
gangs.
There seems to be an odd rush in the Western press to
brand Saudi Arabia as a devil. What is even more hard
to take is the remarkably ignorant yet outspoken
chatter about Saudi Arabia—purely superficial and
lacking the most basic facts—which would take only a
five-minute Google search to find.
The Saudis are also to blame—we fail to explain and
defend our point in Western circles. Iran and Assad's
adherents in the West are more active. Yet this does
not justify this ignorance of our affairs, which is
not only neither harmful nor beneficial, but flat-out
deadly. The current horror in Syria has been partially
caused by the Obama administration's ignorance.And
that ignorance is the most serious of all.
A Saudi journalist and expert on Islamic movements
and Islamic fundamentalism as well as Saudi affairs.
Mshari is Asharq Al-Awsat's opinion page Editor, where
he also contributes a weekly column. Has worked for
the local Saudi press occupying several posts at Al -Madina
newspaper amongst others. He has been a guest on
numerous news and current affairs programs as an
expert on Islamic.
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