Saudi hits back at Western "hate"
campaign and vows to defend Islam
RIYADH, Oct 25 (AFP) -
Saudi Arabia's top leaders have hit back hard against Western
criticism, accusing the media of running a smear campaign against
Riyadh's stance on terrorism, and vowing never to compromise on
Islam.
In a rare, tough intervention, Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul
Aziz, the effective ruler of the conservative kingdom, said
Western media had "a hidden hatred against Islam".
"The fierce campaign against Saudi Arabia by the Western media
is a result of a hidden hatred against Islamic doctrine and the
kingdom's commitment to it," he said in comments published
Thursday.
"Preserving religion and the nation is an issue on which there can
be no bargaining," he told a group of ministers and newspaper
editors in a briefing Tuesday.
Riyadh has repeatedly complained that the media in the West,
especially the United States, has launched a hostile campaign to
discredit the kingdom's true position against terrorism.
The Saudi government, as well as most leading Islamic clerics in
the kingdom, has strongly criticised the September 11 terror
attacks in the United States and expressed readiness to contribute
to the anti-terror campaign but not a war on Muslim Afghanistan.
However several US senators and leading publications have
complained that Saudi Arabia was not doing enough in the war
against terror, a charge Riyadh has categorically denied.
A scathing editorial last week by the New York Times also
condemned Saudi leaders as being soft on terrorism.
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz on Tuesday
said the criticism was a result of "misunderstanding and wrong
assessment" of Riyadh's position, and denounced the media
campaign.
But there was no crisis in US-Saudi relations, said Nayef, who
has announced a crackdown on sympathisers or supporters of
Saudi-born Islamist Osama bin Laden and admitted several people
have been arrested.
Bin Laden, the prime suspect for the suicide hijackings, which
Washington believes were carried out by Muslim extremists, was
stripped of his Saudi nationality in 1994.
Several of the 19 presumed hijackers of four commercial aircraft
to make suicide attacks in the United States on September 11,
killing more than 5,000 people, carried Egyptian or Saudi
passports.
"Saudi Arabia, which is honoured to host the Grand Mosque (in
Mecca) and the Prophet's mosque (in Medina), will not take any
action unless it is for the service of Islam and Muslims," said
Prince Abdullah, who rules over day-to-day affairs due to King
Fahd's illness.
"Islam is a religion of true affection and brotherhood, devotion,
mercy and peace," he said, adding that accusations levelled
against Islam are baseless.
Saudi newspapers in the meantime stepped up their criticism of
the "double standard" in US policy in the region, and warned
Washington this could not go on forever.
"For those who are dealing with this issue, particularly America,
we say: Kabul and Jerusalem are unseparable twins in the political
conscience of Arabs and Muslims," Al-Watan daily said in an
editorial.
"In the same way that Washington has Arab and Islamic backing
in its war against terrorism in Afghanistan, it is required to stop
the Zionist terrorism in Palestine, because the public opinion in the
region no longer accepts the double standard policy of the United
States," it added.
"The US must realize that it will never win the war against
terrorism in Afghanistan ... as long as the territory of Palestine is
occupied," the paper said. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20011025/b6b76b41/attachment.htm>