Some countries that have had, and continue to have, an essential role in assuring world peace and stability are, in all justice, praised and lauded unanimously. Others that pretend to be of paramount importance but are not really that relevant manage to fool public opinion and get their share of the praise pie. Others that have been, are and will hopefully remain to be, one of the most crucial allies in the wars and battles of today’s world, especially against terrorism, not only not get any credit, but are also criticised and whipped constantly as if they were the cause of the problem they are so involved in fighting. That is what has been happening to Saudi Arabia, especially after the death sentences recently carried out in the kingdom. The death penalty has been abolished in Europe and some other regions of the world, but it is still a major issue even in some of the most advanced and vibrant democracies.
One of the problems is that many analysts, even those who claim to be experts, choose to ignore that the majority of Muslims are conservative, and some very conservative. No matter how much you may disagree with the fact, you can’t just ignore a stubborn reality, which wishful thinking will never be able to change. There is a huge abyss between conservative Islam and jihadism. As stated earlier, jihadism is Islam’s worst enemy. Conservative Islam is not an exception—in fact the more conservative the country, the more difficult it is for jihadism to convince that the government needs to be overthrown because it is “an apostate regime”.
Saudi Arabia has not only been an active and reliable ally on many fronts, it has also been one of the hardest-hit countries by terrorism. Too often have we heard baseless accusations of them being the source of the problem of jihadism. In fact, without Saudi Arabia’s constant fight against Daesh, the so-called Islamic State would have had effective control over more than one country, and not just bits of some of them.
Without Saudi Arabia’s relentless support to some essential regional actors, the world would be engulfed in several intensive regional wars and serious terrorist ramifications in neighbouring countries, in Europe, Asia, Africa and perhaps even in the US. Some countries would have succumbed to the terrorist pressure and to the rise of the most radical elements among their midst. Is it so difficult to understand that all of this is not just a coincidence, and it’s not just that Saudi Arabia is keeping terrorism at bay at home and in its neighbourhood? The kingdom has designed very meticulously a strategy in the fight against terrorism that has already borne important fruits.
For decades, the international community has been demanding the Arab Islamic world to get seriously involved in the fight against radicalism and jihadism. Now this is beginning to happen in a significant way. So shouldn’t we be thanking them for doing what we have been asking them to? Shouldn’t we boost our involvement in this terrifying new phase of the terrorist offensive? We should join hands with those that are, as all of us are, victims or potential victims of terror.
The future is bleak, and the brutality of the new terror monsters is beginning to generate profound disgust and rejection, even among some that not so long ago justified their atrocities. We can agree that Daesh and other jihadist groups do not pose, for the time being, an immediate existential threat to some of the greatest powers on earth (President Obama dixit), but if by any chance they succeed in destabilising—or in defeating—some of the most important countries in the region, the rest of the world would be in flames, and the beginning of the terrorist apocalypse would be a reality, hence becoming an obvious, real and perhaps undefeatable existential threat to all of us. Saudi Arabia is not only the planet’s largest oil producer, it also has an enormous religious authority in the Islamic Sunni world and is, without doubt and in spite of wrong impressions, a fundamental factor of counter-radicalism in that context. Next time someone mistakes who the real enemy is, they will be seriously and very irresponsibly fuelling our most horrendous nightmares.
Aristegu is former Spanish ambassador to India