Scramble to save Arab monarchies or prescription for an indefinite WOT? Saudi King gifts $100 mil to the Counter-Terrorism Center in NY
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER - WSJ
August 8, 2013, 2:20 p.m. ET
RIYADH—Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah announced a $100 million gift for a U.N. counterterrorism center, declaring that religious extremism in the wake of the Arab Spring posed a greater danger to the Arab community at large "than the weapons of our visible enemies."
The urgent tone of the king's warning, in a statement Wednesday night marking the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, emphasized the continuing concerns by the world's leading oil producer over security in the aftermath of revolutions that started in late 2010 elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.
Saudi Arabia has arguably emerged from the popular uprisings as the region's most influential political power, and as the most active opponent of Islamically oriented political movements and Islamically driven armed groups. Critics charge that the kingdom also often cracks down on rights activists at home, efforts the government has said are in the name of fighting terror.
"We are seriously required, more than any time before, to stand strong before terror thought," the king said, in the latest of a series of messages this spring and summer focused almost entirely on security.
"This deviant thought is designed to stage a deep injury in the body of the Islamic community more dangerous for our people than the weapons of our visible enemies," King Abdullah said.
While the Saudi monarch mentioned no country by name, his message appeared aimed in part at Syria and other Arab countries where internal conflicts are drawing out increasing numbers of Islamist fighters, and spurring increasingly militant discourse among some. The fighters are opposed both to the West and to Western allies including Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials likely fear that the rest of the world has grown too complacent after several years without a successful major attack on Western targets, said Saud al Tamamy, assistant professor of political science at King Saud University in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. That is despite the current U.S. alert over reported security threats from al Qaeda branch in Yemen, which neighbors Saudi Arabia, Mr. Tamamy said.
"There is an assumption that al Qaeda is defeated," Mr. Tamamy said, adding that from the Saudi point of view, groups "like al Qaeda are very decentralized and very easy to regroup and reorganize."
The Saudi king's gift and warning were "quite significant," said Theodore Karasik, research director at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai.
"The speeches remind me of the heyday of al Qaeda, when it was active in the kingdom" in the mid-2000s, Mr. Karasik said. Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry oversaw an offensive that crushed the campaign, and is now expanding a national network of rehabilitation centers for some militants and accused religious extremists.
The $100 million gift is meant to spur what the king called "slacking" work on a U.N. counterterror center in New York. Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with the U.N. to create the center in 2011 and gave $10 million as a founding donation, Saudi authorities said.
The United Arab Emirates launched its own center for counterterrorism research and training earlier this year. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are two of the most active opponents of political Islam, and alongside Kuwait pledged $12 billion to Egypt last month after that country unseated an elected government allied to the Muslim Brotherhood.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323838204579000742183139728.html
By ELLEN KNICKMEYER - WSJ
August 8, 2013, 2:20 p.m. ET
RIYADH—Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah announced a $100 million gift for a U.N. counterterrorism center, declaring that religious extremism in the wake of the Arab Spring posed a greater danger to the Arab community at large "than the weapons of our visible enemies."
The urgent tone of the king's warning, in a statement Wednesday night marking the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, emphasized the continuing concerns by the world's leading oil producer over security in the aftermath of revolutions that started in late 2010 elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa.
Saudi Arabia has arguably emerged from the popular uprisings as the region's most influential political power, and as the most active opponent of Islamically oriented political movements and Islamically driven armed groups. Critics charge that the kingdom also often cracks down on rights activists at home, efforts the government has said are in the name of fighting terror.
"We are seriously required, more than any time before, to stand strong before terror thought," the king said, in the latest of a series of messages this spring and summer focused almost entirely on security.
"This deviant thought is designed to stage a deep injury in the body of the Islamic community more dangerous for our people than the weapons of our visible enemies," King Abdullah said.
While the Saudi monarch mentioned no country by name, his message appeared aimed in part at Syria and other Arab countries where internal conflicts are drawing out increasing numbers of Islamist fighters, and spurring increasingly militant discourse among some. The fighters are opposed both to the West and to Western allies including Saudi Arabia.
Saudi officials likely fear that the rest of the world has grown too complacent after several years without a successful major attack on Western targets, said Saud al Tamamy, assistant professor of political science at King Saud University in Riyadh, the Saudi capital. That is despite the current U.S. alert over reported security threats from al Qaeda branch in Yemen, which neighbors Saudi Arabia, Mr. Tamamy said.
"There is an assumption that al Qaeda is defeated," Mr. Tamamy said, adding that from the Saudi point of view, groups "like al Qaeda are very decentralized and very easy to regroup and reorganize."
The Saudi king's gift and warning were "quite significant," said Theodore Karasik, research director at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai.
"The speeches remind me of the heyday of al Qaeda, when it was active in the kingdom" in the mid-2000s, Mr. Karasik said. Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry oversaw an offensive that crushed the campaign, and is now expanding a national network of rehabilitation centers for some militants and accused religious extremists.
The $100 million gift is meant to spur what the king called "slacking" work on a U.N. counterterror center in New York. Saudi Arabia signed an agreement with the U.N. to create the center in 2011 and gave $10 million as a founding donation, Saudi authorities said.
The United Arab Emirates launched its own center for counterterrorism research and training earlier this year. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are two of the most active opponents of political Islam, and alongside Kuwait pledged $12 billion to Egypt last month after that country unseated an elected government allied to the Muslim Brotherhood.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323838204579000742183139728.html
