From MEMRI, on the subject of Saudi Media Trends: In the Wake of the Riyadh Bombings. Several interesting articles, but this one's the best — whoever imagined an Arab with a senzayuma?
The editor of the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Abd Al-Rahman Al-Rashed, responded to the issue with sarcasm. Al-Rashed, known as one of the leading liberals in the Saudi press, wrote, in an article titled "Upon Your Request," that when he finished writing his commentary on the bombings, the phone rang and one of his friends asked him to please refrain from blaming Saudi religious institutions for the attacks. "To please him, I tried, and though the task was arduous, I succeeded. With long and focused thought, I exposed the roots, the weapons, and the true perpetrators of Monday's tragedy." "My most important discovery is that they have no connection whatsoever with fundamentalists. I can swear that they are agriculture students or Ministry of Agriculture personnel. The Ministry of Agriculture is to blame for what happened, because it is the one who dug wells for them, supplied water for them, and planted seeds for them. As it is said, 'He who sows, reaps'..."
"I also discovered that the Saudis who went to Kashmir, Afghanistan, and Chechnya arrived there by chance; they were tourists who had lost their way... Likewise, it isn't true that these Saudi tourists returned determined to carry out acts of evil... For the sake of the public interest, they decided to convey the technology and knowledge they had acquired in the mountains of Tora and the caves of Bora to apartment buildings [in Saudi Arabia]."
"It isn't true that the Saudi media and institutions prepared the ground and the mentality for them. What is said about our young people is not almost entirely lies, it is all lies. The charity organizations sent the money only for their tourism and entertainment and that of their Arab and Muslim friends, and not for funding terrorism abroad."
"Regarding their lives in Saudi Arabia, it is not true that they are worry-free. Life is very difficult. The situation has gotten so bad that their communiqués no longer need to be approved by the Information Ministry, unlike others, who want to publish communiqués on science, medicine, or even poetry, and who wait weeks, even months for approval..."
"Don't believe those who say that they show school pupils, including elementary [school pupils], pictures of Palestinian and Iraqi casualties, and incite them against the infidel Westerners. Similarly, it is not true that the schools for girls have become centers of guidance in political matters. The aim of the reenactment of the funerals by Islamist women educators is not to frighten the girls; they are drama lessons included in the curricula."
"Similarly, it is not true that the hospitals are full of communiqués prohibiting shaking hands with the infidels. Another lie is that Saudi television is full of religious programming. Our young people are busy with more important things. Hundreds of thousands of them are busy calling Muslims to join Islam in the land of Islam..."
"In conclusion, you must not connect what I said with any bombings heard in your city; it is only fireworks and American propaganda." |