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Arabia
Debate in the Saudi Press on Dialogue with Saudi Al-Qa'ida Members
2003-11-22
Recently, Saudi Arabia's media strongly criticized three Saudi sheikhs, Muhsin Al-Awaji, Safar Al-Hawali, and Suleiman Al-Dawish, who called for dialogue between the Saudi regime and the armed groups responsible for the latest terror attacks in the country. The three sheikhs are affiliated with the extremist religious "reformists" who are demanding that Saudi Arabia cut ties with the U.S. and implement Shari'a law, which they claim is not fully applied in the country. In a statement issued by the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC on November 13, 2003, the Kingdom "categorically denies media reports" that Crown Prince Abdullah discussed holding any form of dialogue with terrorists. According to the statement, "there was no incident of a group of [religious scholars] approaching the Crown Prince with such a proposal [to hold dialogue]." The following are excerpts from articles published in the Saudi press regarding the sheikhs' call for dialogue:
Heh heh. We called that one... Oh. Wait. That's right. It never happened.
Three days before the bombing in Riyadh, Sheikh Al-Awaji, Sheikh Al-Hawali, and Sheikh Al-Dawish recommended dialogue between the regime and the Jihad Youth group. In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Sheikh Al-Awaji stated that it was the Saudi regime that had lowered airfares to Afghanistan and urged preachers to exhort young men to go fight Jihad there. However, according to Al-Awaji, when these same young men returned to Saudi Arabia, it persecuted them. Sheikh Al-Awaji said that this persecution was unwarranted because neither the commandment of Jihad nor the infidels had changed. He called on the government to pardon the imprisoned Jihad Youth members and sheikhs, and said that 90 percent of the men wanted by the regime would be willing to turn themselves in, provided their honor was preserved and they received a fair trial.

Sheikh Al-Hawali proposed that Jihad Youth members phone him or come to his house to turn themselves in: "If one of them comes and surrenders through me, he can expect me to defend him to the best of my ability
 Everyone knows my phone number, my address, and how to get to my house
 If one of them speaks to me, I will contact the authorities immediately and tell them that he has spoken with me and that he should be allowed to come to me
 Al-Hawali set out a series of conditions for the regime to meet: granting a general pardon to all prisoners and to anyone turning himself in; putting on trial investigators who dishonored, tortured, and insulted prisoners; rehiring all imams who were fired by the regime; and abolishing all laws made by man and placing the regime under Shari'a law; changing the judicial system; abolishing agreements and contracts not in accordance with Shari'a; abolishing vice that constitutes provocation for the imams; preventing authors of books that include heresy and mockery of the religion from writing, and doing the same regarding the media. He also demanded that the country resist external pressure "since many young men see this pressure as support [for infidels] and as hypocrisy. I know of no government in the world that would agree to a stronger government imposing its will on it
 These pressures, which are designed to change our faith and our religion, and to create divisiveness among us, must be resisted. Sheikh Al-Hawali also demanded that the government rescind "recent wrong decisions, such as integrating the [girls' and the general] educational [systems], changing curricula, omitting matters concerning faith [from the curricula], and imposing compulsory education."

Sheikh Suleiman Al-Dawish, also speaking with Al-Jazeera, demanded "a reexamination of the country's handling of violence. In my estimation, accepting the military's view on how to treat young [religious] men does more harm than good, since the military usually prefers the language of force to the language of dialogue. Violence that arises from ideology requires dialogue, not repression."

Following the recent terror attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Interior Minister Prince Saud Nayef bin Abd Al-Aziz announced that there would be no dialogue with terrorists, saying: "We will talk with them only by rifle and sword." But then, the three sheikhs reemerged in the media, calling again for dialogue. Sheikh Al-Hawali said that 40 clerics were due to meet with Crown Prince Abdallah to discuss an initiative aimed at "sparing bloodshed by creating a dialogue between the government and the armed wanted men, persuading these wanted mento turn themselves in to the relevant authorities, and prevent violence." Sheikh Al-Hawali's partners in the initiative, Al-Dawish and Al-Awaji, said they had met with a "Saudi official" the day after the bombings and he had given them a "green light" to "meet with the young [wanted] men and report their views to the Saudi government, with the assurance that their demands would be viewed positively out of a desire to prevent bloodshed." Sheikh Al-Awaji even expressed his satisfaction over "the Saudi regime's positive attitude toward the initiative."

However, a Saudi government source hastened to deny that Crown Prince Abdallah had met with a group of clerics. He told the Saudi Information Agency that "this story is unfounded, and there is no intention to launch a dialogue of any kind with the terrorists." He said, "The clear and constant position of the country, as stated many times by the Crown Prince, is that terror must be fought in order to abolish and conclusively uproot it." The source added that "the wanted men can feel remorse over their abominable crimes and turn themselves in to the authorities unconditionally."

There follows the press excerpts from al-Watan, Okaz, al-Riyadh, etc. They make very interesting reading, though a bit long to post here. But it looks like we were right to take Dosari's remarks as an indication there was behind the scenes activity to heal the rift between the money men and Qaeda. Those discussions were probably going on even as the Riyadh attacks occurred, to Hawali's chagrin. The holy men then tried to pick them up again — and it looks like they were rebuffed, probably by King Fahd in a lucid moment — he was the one who supposedly made the "iron fist" remark — or, more likely, by the princes in concert. Now the Bad Guys will have to wait for the Arabian attention span to kick in. They should be ready for more talks in about three months, judging by the wake of the bombings in May. Since Hawali's bin Laden's "spiritual advisor," the "Jihad Youth" is a side issue; the princes would be negotiating directly with Binny (or his survivors). I'd also guess this is a tug of war we're going to see going on for years. Wahhabism is so tightly tied to al-Qaeda by now that giving up on Binny means giving up on their plans for world domination, at least until they come up with another tool that might not turn around and bite them.
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#1  The negotiation amid violence scenario has a hypnotic quality. They must be on some type of roadmap.
Posted by: Super Hose   2003-11-22 11:58:31 AM  

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