From CDHR
July 19, 2007
Teaching Terrorism in Saudi Schools
By Ali Alyami
The Saudi ruling dynasty and their protégé enemy, Osama Bin Laden, have identical objectives in Iraq: no democracy, no majority rule, no protection of rights for women or minorities, and above all limited or no oil production from Iraq’s rich fields. Restoring Iraq’s oil facilities and producing large quantities of oil could bring oil prices down, undermining OPEC and thus Saudi oil revenues and influence in the region and global economy. Wining the war against religious ideologues and terrorism will require a total transformation of Saudi institutions, which conceive, hatch, and nurture potential suicide bombers. Furthermore, because of the nature of the Saudi government, it was suggested that the government is complicit in sending fighters and extremists abroad “so they won’t create havoc at home.”
Saudi Arabia is at the epicenter of these global problems; therefore it needs and deserves a nonsectarian participatory political structure (a constitutional monarchy and/or a parliamentarian system). Empowering Saudi citizens to participate in all decisions that affect their lives and country is essential to peace and the eradication of the root causes of extremism and religious intolerance. Moreover, in order to wrest the government’s massive control of the economy, actual measures should proceed to privatize all the government’s industries. If winning the War on Terror is a top priority for the US and its democratic allies, structural transformation of all Saudi institutions should be a priority as well.