In a column in the Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh in response to the Boston Marathon bombing, liberal Saudi columnist 'Abdallah bin Bakhit noted that an anti-American campaign is being waged in the Arab world, and in Saudi Arabia in particular, based on the notion that the U.S. is "lying in wait" to entrap Saudi nationals in that country. This, even though "no intelligent, honest, moral individual [would] find even a hint of an American ambush or plot against the Saudi people or government in [all of] the history of Saudi-U.S. relations."
The following are excerpts from his column:[1]
'Abdallah bin Bakhit (image: alriyadh.com)
The Notion that America Seeks to Entrap Saudis Is "Bizarre, Ludicrous, and Irrational"
"We have [finally] stopped worrying and have removed our hands from our [palpitating] hearts, and are thanking Allah that no Saudi national was among the perpetrators of the [Boston] bombing. I don't think the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Indonesians, or even the Chechens were as concerned as we were.
"Why did we expect the perpetrator to be Saudi, or expect America to accuse a Saudi? What made us set ourselves in the front line of suspects?
"The first reason is [the claim] that America is lying in wait [to entrap] us [i.e. Saudi nationals]; the second is our history, including the 9/11 [attacks] and the numerous Saudis who have participated in terror operations around the world. And the third is the anti-American views that are deeply ingrained in the [Saudi] kingdom.
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"We must conduct a reasoned examination of this issue of America lying in wait for Saudis. How many Saudis are studying in the U.S.? How many Saudi tourists visit there?... In the last five or six years, at least 150,000 Saudis were in the U.S. at any given moment. For how many of them was America 'lying in wait?' So how many Saudis are detained in the U.S. on religious, ideological, or political [grounds]?
"As far as we know, in the last decade there have been two such individuals... The more well-known of these was accused of a crime unrelated to belief or ideology, and the lawsuit against the second never progressed to the point of allegations against any organization, state, or religion.
"Nevertheless, some have inflated these cases into examples of an East-West culture clash, and equated America's treatment of these two students to Britain's crime vis-à-vis Palestine – and have even denied the justice and integrity of the American court system. Don't be surprised if you hear that some of us [Saudis] now expect the U.S. government to concoct false incidents in order entrap Saudis...
"[Is it logical that] the U.S. would permit Saudis to study at its universities and institutes, encourage them, and make every effort to facilitate their entry into the country – only to ambush them and throw them in prison after phony trials, in its [desire] to harm Islam and the Muslims? [Yet] this notion [that America is seeking to entrap Saudis] is practically a given in the thinking of many Saudis. It is a bizarre, ludicrous, and irrational thought – unless we take into account two other factors: our history with terrorism, and the ongoing anti-U.S. and anti-West ideological campaign in this kingdom."
"We Will Never Approach The Root Of The Problem If We Allow Those Who Peddle The Notion Of An Ambush To Steer Public Opinion"
"It might be argued that this notion of an American ambush... is actually a pretext for the hostile media campaign being waged against the U.S., especially in Saudi Arabia. Those in the Kingdom who are hostile to America have a need for a direct Saudi-U.S. conflict. [For them,] it is not enough to cultivate a powerful and lethal Saudi hatred for the U.S. using the issues of Palestine or Afghanistan. Sowing in Saudi souls a phobia about an American ambush [of Saudis] is the best [way] of creating Saudi-U.S. hostility.
"No intelligent, honest, moral individual will find even a hint of an American ambush or plot against the Saudi people or government in [all of] the history of Saudi-U.S. relations. What is really crazy is that the number of Saudis engaging in terrorism against the U.S. is greater than [the number of] Afghans and Palestinians who are doing so – and their lands are occupied and they are under direct torture.
"We all know that we have sons studying in the U.S. who are filled with resentment for [it], and who are willing to undertake aggressive operations [against it] if they think this would serve [their purpose]. It is [these sons of ours] who are the source of our concern – not the false [notion of some American] ambush.
"We will never even approach the root of the problem if we allow those who peddle the notion of such an ambush to steer public opinion and play with [people's] minds."
[1] Al-Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), April 22, 2013.
