I continue to be amazed by the US State Department and their insistence that Saudi Arabia is a sincere ally in their war against terrorism. In their annual report released yesterday, the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom cited Saudi Arabia as the world's top violator of religious liberty. The commission's report stated that freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia except for those practicing an extreme form of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism (the very form of Islam that is behind the acts of al-Qaida and other violently militaristic Islamists groups in recent years). President Bush can declare all he likes (as he did yesterday) that the only faith that suicide bombers have, like those responsible for the recent attacks in Riyadh, is that of hate. But such declarations do not respect the declared Islamic convictions of those believed to be responsible. Put another way, if it barks like a Rotweiler, looks like a Rotweiler, acts like a Rotweiler, what gives us the right to say that it is a cat just because we like dogs?
I applaud the US government's desire to make the world a safe place. But as long as they ignore the fact that Saudi Arabia provides the religious environment that not only makes terrorism possible but inevitable, this is a war that they simply will not win.
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