Often overlooked are the efforts of Saudi Arabia to defeat al Qaeda at home. Guess what? They’re winning, too:
Still, it took three years for al Qaeda to be shut down in the kingdom, and the police are still arresting hundreds of al Qaeda fans each year. The Saudi counter-terror effort has also benefitted from the thousands of young Saudis who went off to Iraq to join the fight, and get killed, or come back disillusioned. Very few came back as “hardened terrorists.” Despite all this, Islamic terrorism remains popular among many young Saudis. They have to operate covertly, otherwise they will get arrested and sent off to a rehabilitation facility (endless hours of lectures from anti-terrorism clerics and interminable discussions with counselors until there is convincing evidence of a change in attitude.) The rehabilitation often works, but it fails frequently enough to maintain the population of potential terrorists.
It’s a never-ending battle, but one where the government holds the upper hand. Now if we could get them to close down all those madrassas…
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