May 18, 2003	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1424

RIYADH: They used to call it the gilded cage. The 2,000 people at al-Hamra compound in Riyadh had everything they needed for a comfortable life: swimming pools, tennis, squash and basketball courts, a gym, a sauna, a bowling alley, a restaurant, a school — and lots of Asian workers to trim the lawns and water the gardens. There was scarcely any reason to go outside.

By Friday the place was almost abandoned, apart from the removal vans and people clearing up. Two British women, looking more than a little shell-shocked, were gathering books and videos in the wrecked library and packing them into boxes. “A lot of people have just taken their passports and gone. They’re confused, not thinking,” one said.

The blast that left a crater 15 feet wide and three feet deep in a road has also sent shockwaves through the Saudi government and blown the cover off issues that once were thought best kept out of sight.

“If not the Saudi September 11, it was certainly the Saudis’ Pearl Harbour,” the US ambassador, Robert Jordan, said on Friday.

For the rulers in Riyadh, it is undoubtedly a crisis but this time it’s a very public crisis — an unprecedented development in the secretive kingdom that some believe may actually be a healthy sign.

Denial is an old tradition among Arab governments: when an untoward event occurs, they would rather pretend it didn’t happen or say its seriousness has been exaggerated. If that fails, they blame foreigners.

When the September 11 attacks came, the kingdom disputed the FBI’s assertions that 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis. But finally, in the wake of this week’s bombings, it has abandoned denial. Officials now acknowledge that there is a real problem, even if they are unsure what to do about it.

Among non-royal Saudis, there is also less reticence about the causes and remedies, though people who readily give their views in private often still balk at being identified in print.

Abdullah [not his real name] is a businessman and a member of the 120-man consultative council. “The bombers were a group of Muslim fanatics who hate the government and the royal family,” he said. “In their terms, hitting the Prince Sultan air base would make some sort of sense — at least there’s an idea behind it. But the idea in Riyadh was to kill and maim as much as possible, and I don’t see a political idea there at all.”

“I’m furious,” he continued, attacking a pile of mail on his desk with a large brass paper knife. “But I’m even more furious at the security services.”

So does this mean the interior minister will have to resign? The paper knife halted in mid-air and Abdullah answered: “Welcome to Saudi Arabia. The minister and his deputy will stay.”

Khaled al-Maeena, editor-in-chief of the Jeddah-based daily, Arab News, regards Afghanistan as a watershed but he worries too about a growth of intolerance in the kingdom over the last 15 years or so.

“We have to focus on teaching children to be more international,” he said. “A high school education where students are not exposed to international teaching is not a proper education.”

Much of the religious teaching, he added, is based on a narrow interpretation of Islam which encourages hostility towards non- Muslims and other Muslims who have different interpretations.

The Saudi media, too, are wary of treading on the toes of the religious establishment, though the Arabic daily, al-Watan, has recently become more outspoken. Journalists say it is easier to write articles criticising the government than to question offensive practices that are carried out in the name of Islam.

Individual writers risk being targeted and the religious mafia, as one called them, are powerful. A woman journalist was banned from her profession for life after urging Saudis to be kind to their maids (mostly Christians from the Philippines).

More open debate is the key to progress, according to Khalid Dakhil, who teaches political sociology at King Saud university in Riyadh.

“The students I’m teaching don’t belong [to the militant groups],” he said, “but it’s easy to find people who understand their behaviour and way of thinking because that’s the only thing they are exposed to.”

Despite the calls for openness, there is one question that nobody in Riyadh seems able, or perhaps willing, to answer: why is it that so many of the September 11 hijackers, as well as at least one suspect in Monday night’s attacks, came from the far south-west of the country, close to the Yemeni border?

Mr al-Maeena, the editor, declined to comment. “I’m not applying the principle of collective guilt on the people of the south,” he said.

Dr Dakhil, the academic, thought the question deserved further study. But as a working hypothesis, he suggested “conditions there are not what they should be. The economic and social conditions, marginalisation, feelings of being deprived — maybe that’s the hidden reason.”

Until this week, al-Hamra was thought relatively safe because it wasn’t full of Americans. Many of its residents were Arabs and even some of the better-paid Indian expatriates lived there. A few westernised young Saudis had moved in too, to savour the laid-back lifestyle.

In the compound on Friday, a row of shops stood abandoned and windowless. The only exception was the supermarket where Akbar, the Asian owner, had restacked his shelves and opened for business by 11am on the day after the blast. But he has lost 80 per cent of his customers.

“Some have moved to other compounds but some have gone for good,” he said. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.