Last week Saudi Arabia was shaken when a suicide bomber blew
up a police station in the capital city of Riyadh, murdering
five people, injuring many more and destroying the
building.
A hitherto unknown group called the Brigade of the Two Holy
Mosques claimed responsibility a day later, but authorities
could not confirm this claim. With rhetoric that resembled Al
Qaida's, the announcement said that the attack rained
devastation on the "criminal, apostate" Saudi government and
warned of further strikes.
The people of Saudi Arabia were not supportive. "May Allah
curse you, you vermin, you people of filth and not jihad,"
read one comment in response to the claim. The writer
helpfully attached a picture of coffins draped in American
flags with a comment, "This is jihad."
Most Saudis are horrified at the Islamic-based violence at
home, but strongly supportive when it is directed elsewhere.
The same day that the criminal bombers struck in Riyadh, the
el-Enzi family in Al Kharj, a town just south of Riyadh, was
basking in admiration and even envy as the news spread that
their son had been killed in a firefight in Iraq with
American marines.
Abdullah al-Enezi, a brother, told The New York Times
that his older brother had been training to be a computer
technician. "He went to Iraq seeking martyrdom because of the
recent events there," he explained. "America's unjust policy
toward the Muslims is the main reason. Everyone feels this
humiliation; he's not alone, there are so many young men who
wish they could cross over into Iraq to join the jihad, but
they can't. Thank Allah he was blessed with the ability to
go."
Mr. Enezi said he was unaware of any particular cleric
swaying his brother. He simply left one day about a month
ago, entering Iraq from Syria, "just like any other tourist
crossing to Iraq," said Mr. Enezi. He called periodically to
check in, and then his friends called to say he had died in a
firefight with American marines. He was buried there.
"People are calling all the time to congratulate us -- crying
from happiness and envy," Mr. Enezi said.
Neither the Saudis, nor the US reporter, nor the news
organization publishing the report seem to realize that
indiscriminate destruction of civilian targets is not a
result of religion, of politics or really of any sort of
principled or ideological behavior. Any appearances to the
contrary are the result of deliberate or, in many cases,
unwitting deception. It is simple moral decadence.
Morality is not something that can be turned on and off. It
is not something that can be ignored today and practiced
tomorrow. It is not possible to behave without any moral
restraint in one country and then to maintain resonable
standards somewhere else.
The moral depravity and absolute lack of any restraint that
allows one to send or be a suicide bomber who destroys the
lives of innocent civilians is only found among a relatively
small number of the hundreds of millions of Arabs. But the
the widespread tolerance that is reflected in opinion polls,
and official support in places like the Palestinian
Authority, are deadly and will eventually do as much damage
to innocent Arabs as to anyone else.
The lusts and urges to murder that are condoned and even
encouraged will not be limited by geography or ethnicity. If
the initial targets in the West become harder for those
crazed murderers to reach they will surely turn to easier
targets closer to home.
The spectacular coordinated attacks against the Spanish
railways several weeks ago were surely much less of a
priority than a megalomaniac attack in the USA or the UK. A
large bomb in Iraq recently murdered dozens of
schoolchildren. The bomb in Saudi Arabia murdered innocent
civilians.
As the West becomes more careful and more practiced at
frustrating these murderous attacks, these accomplished
murderers can be expected to try to find outlets that are
easier to reach for their skills and lust for blood.
Ultimately, these depraved lowlifes do not care if they
murder soldiers or civilians, Westerners or Arabs, adults or
children.
Our best defense -- and it is a very good one -- is to
strengthen our own relationship with Torah and mitzvos, and
to make sure that the barriers that keep out the rot of the
modern world have no leaks. After that we can have confidence
that with siyata deShmaya we will be protected.
