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Talk in Saudi Arabia turns to 'Iranian threat'
This is one of those stories where I get all conflicted. Sorta like a big Saudi "Doh!" Do I want 'em to figure things out, protect themselves? Or would I cheer if they wuz incinerated, kinda like they did all over the Muzzy Werld on 9/11... Tough call.
RIYADH: At a late-night reading earlier this week, a self-styled poet held up his hand for silence and began a riff on the events in neighboring Iraq, in the old style of Bedouin storytellers.

"Saddam Hussein was a real leader who deserved our support," he began, making up the lines as he went. "He kept Iraq stable and peaceful," he added, "And most of all he fought back the Iranians."

Across the kingdom, in both official and casual conversation, once quiet concern over the chaos in Iraq and Iran's growing regional influence has burst into the open. Saudi newspapers now openly decry Iran's growing power. Religious leaders have begun talking about a "Persian onslaught" that threatens the existence of Islam itself. In the salons of Riyadh, the "Iranian threat" is raised almost as openly and as frequently as the stock market.
They've noticed, how quaint.
"Iran has become more dangerous than Israel itself," said Sheik Musa bin Abdulaziz, editor of Al Salafi magazine, a self-described moderate in the Salafi fundamentalist Muslim movement that seeks to return Islam to its roots. "The Iranian revolution has come to renew the Persian presence in the region. This is the real clash of civilizations."
Posted by: .com 2006-12-22
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=175814