Saudi Arabia - Countering Terrorism - War of Ideas

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October 20, 2008

Saudi Strategies to Counter Terrorism: The War of Ideas
Abdullah Ansary

Terrorism in Saudi Arabia didn't start at 11 pm on May 12, 2003 but that was a key moment in the timeline of attacks against Americans and other Westerners in the Kingdom and against the House of Saud. Heavily armed terrorists, linked to Al Qaeda, traveling in four vehicles, three laden with explosives, launched deadly attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh that left 27 victims dead, as well as nine of the attackers, and over 160 people injured. The reaction was swift and has been relentless. King Abdullah, Crown Prince at the time, addressed his country and the world on Saudi television the next day.

"The tragic, bloody and painful events that took place in the heart of our dear capital, Riyadh, last night, in which innocent citizens and residents were killed or injured, prove once again that terrorists are criminals and murderers with total disregard for any Islamic and human values or decency. They are no different from vicious animals whose only concern is to shed blood and bring terror to those innocents under God’s protection..

"..If these murderers believe that their criminal and bloody act will shake our nation or its unity, they are mistaken. And if they believe they can disrupt the security and tranquility of our nation, they are dreaming. This is because the Saudi people, who have embraced the Holy Book as their guide and the Shari’a as their way of life, and who have rallied behind their leaders, who in turn embraced them, will not permit a deviant few to shed the blood of the innocent which God Almighty, in His infinite wisdom and justice, has sanctified. The entire Saudi nation, and not just its valiant security forces, will not hesitate to confront the murderous criminals..

"There can be no acceptance or justification for terrorism. Nor is there a place for any ideology which promotes it, or beliefs which condone it. We specifically warn anyone who tries to justify these crimes in the name of religion. And we say that anyone who tries to do so will be considered a full partner to the terrorists and will share their fate. As revealed in the Holy Qur'an: 'If a man kills a believer intentionally, his recompense is Hell, to abide therein (forever): and the wrath and the curse of God are upon him, and a dreadful penalty is prepared for him.'.."

The war on terror in the Kingdom that unfolded after the May 2003 attacks sought to protect people from the dangers of "extremism and terrorism" as outlined by King Abdullah's foreign policy advisor Adel al-Jubeir, now Ambassador to the United States, in a February 2005 press conference introducing the government's campaign against extremism:

“During the last several years the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in cooperation with our global partners, has been engaged in a program to eradicate the roots of terrorism. This effort is being conducted on three fronts simultaneously: We have gone after terrorists, those who support them, and those who condone their actions.

Suicide car bombing outside security forces' headquarters in Riyadh in April 2004. (Televised image) “First, we have gone after the terrorists. We have pursued them relentlessly, killing or capturing their leaders, seizing their weapons, uncovering their arms caches.. ..we still have a long way to go to eliminate this scourge from our midst. No one can doubt the tenacity of our hunt for the terrorists or our effectiveness in bringing them to justice..

“Second, we have gone after the financial support for terrorism. We have made great efforts to identify and shut down the financial sources that may support terrorism. We have enacted world class financial controls.. ..The controls and mechanisms Saudi Arabia has enacted are among the strictest in the world.

“Third, and perhaps most importantly, Saudi Arabia has taken steps to combat the mindset that instills and justifies acts of terror, hatred and violence. Islam is a religion of peace, benevolence and tolerance, and we will not allow deviants to corrupt our faith. We are revitalizing our educational system to instill the true values of our faith: compassion, moderation, love and peace, while improving critical thinking."

As SUSRIS readers have learned from the many articles and interviews here talking about terrorism in the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia -- while carrying out an aggressive "hard" counter attack on terrorism -- has devoted much attention to "soft" techniques as discussed in an essay on "Extremist Reeducation and Rehabilitation in Saudi Arabia" [Link below] by scholar Christopher Boucek: "The counseling program to reeducate and rehabilitate terrorist sympathizers is part of a self-described 'war of ideas' against extremism in the kingdom. This quiet struggle has been ongoing for some time, and the program represents a very unique Saudi solution to a Saudi problem. It incorporates many traditional Saudi methods of conflict resolution and conflict management. The fact that the program was started in secret, and not in response to outside pressures, is telling; its origins arose out of recognition in the kingdom that something had to be done to address extremist sympathies and is a tacit acknowledgment of the threat that the 'war of ideas' posed."

And what of the results? When we recently spoke with leading Saudi businessman Khaled al Seif he addressed the current security atmosphere in the Kingdom: "I would say to answer a question about the security situation in Saudi Arabia.. ..the war on terrorism is being won. Saudi Arabia is as safe as any other country in the world, if not safer. You can see, especially over the last year or more, how peaceful things are. I can report to you from the ground that we are very confident about safety and security in the Kingdom."

With that background in mind we were very interested in the remarks of Abdullah Ansary, Senior Fellow at George Washington University's Homeland Security Policy Institute at last month's Capitol Hill Conference on U.S. Middle East Policy, the 54th in the series organized by the Middle East Policy Council. Mr. Ansary provided a great deal of insight into the segment of Saudi Arabia's campaign against extremism and terrorism that comprises the "war on ideas" best summed up by his view that, "focusing on the elimination of terrorists, rather than their radical ideology in general, was misguided and counterproductive." Today we are pleased to provide for your consideration MEPC's transcript of Mr. Ansary's remarks for your consideration and illumination.

As is our custom we follow his remarks with a collection of links to SUSRIS articles, interviews and special reports that bear on this important subject as well as a link to our conversation with Ambassador Chas Freeman, President of the Middle East Policy Council about that organization's role in advancing knowledge and understanding through the Capitol Hill policy series and their other good works. [Link below]

The "Global War on Terror": What Has Been Learned?
Abdullah Ansary
Capitol Hill Conference on U.S. Middle East Policy
Washington, D.C.
September 12, 2008

Good morning. Thank you for having me today. I am truly honored.

The global war on terror - what have we learned?

Obviously we have learned that countering terrorism requires coordinated multilateral efforts that go well beyond operations to capture or kill terrorist leaders. Fighting terrorists has become a "war of ideas." Terrorists have crafted and disseminated a compelling narrative that resonates with audiences around the world, expanding and energizing their ranks. Their "center of gravity" - their source of strength - are these ideas and their ability to spread them.

Al-Qaeda propagates a message that combines dubious religious justifications with tales of an imaginary "Clash of Civilizations." Muslims around the world are told, by an impressive media infrastructure run by the terrorists that it is their individual religious duty to join the terrorists and take up arms in defense of Islam against the West. Military force alone will never beat this narrative and, in some cases, simply makes the problem worse. As long as this narrative can be effectively propagated, it will draw in new converts to the terrorists' radical ideology. Going on the offensive against terrorists requires attacking their center of gravity, their narrative.

Policies that make use of all instruments, not just military, are therefore in high demand; and best practices and lessons learned must be identified and adopted. Governments are searching for ways to fight extremism and radicalization in innovative ways. To generate a sense of context, Saudi Arabia is one of the few countries where the fight against terrorism and extremism has yielded real success. This success cannot be explained only by the effectiveness of its security measures, but also by its softer approach in tackling radical ideologies. After September 11, Saudi Arabia embarked on a very aggressive counter-terrorism campaign: arresting and questioning thousands of suspects, dismantling Al-Qaeda cells and killing or capturing their leaders, seizing large quantities of arms and money. However The Saudi Government realized that focusing on the elimination of terrorists, rather than their radical ideology in general, was misguided and counterproductive. The Saudi government re-crafted its strategy to take on the radical ideologies that foster violent extremism. The primary Saudi strategy is to confront thoughts with thoughts, and to confront the appeal of extremist Takfir ideology in the Kingdom by presenting the true interpretation of Shari'ah principles, and by promoting the true values of the Islamic faith and the importance of tolerance.

In order to combat radical ideology, the Kingdom adopted a series of "soft" counter-terrorism measures aimed at undermining extremists' views, and disrupting the activities of those who promote violent extremism. In addition to the "Security Strategy," an "Advocacy and Advisory Strategy," was implemented through advisory programs such as the Counseling Program and the Tranquility Campaign. The "Advisory Strategy" is defined by two approaches: a "Preventive Approach" designed to limit the spread of radical ideology by draining the sources of extremism, and a "Treatment Approach" designed to encourage those who sympathize with terrorists and their radical ideology to recant through frank dialogue, bridge-building, and confrontation.

The Saudi government has been implementing an intense religious reeducation and counseling program, called Al-Munasah'ah, for security prisoners who sympathize with or provide support to extremists. The goal of the program is to encourage security prisoners to renounce their radical ideology by providing them with psychological and sociological counseling, and by engaging them in comprehensive and intensive religious dialogue.

A Psychological and Social Subcommittee evaluate the prisoner's psychological, social, and financial status in order to determine what kind of support he and his family may need. After the assessments, counselors of the Religious Subcommittee engage the prisoners in conversations about their views on several concepts, such as the Takfir doctrine, Jihad in Iraq, suicide operations and martyrs, the excommunication of governments and societies (and its gravity), the right approach in dealing with contemporary Islamic issues, repentance and return to the truth, and the sanctity of human blood in Islam.

The most prominent and positive effects of the program for the security prisoners are helping them correct their flawed understanding of Shari'ah; responding to their dubious thoughts; reminding them of the advantage of repentance and recanting errors; helping them realizing the importance of unity among the community and the danger of dissent; helping them understand the importance of preserving the country's values; helping them realizing the necessity of consulting people of knowledge, helping them realize the role youth are expected to play in their nation and their homeland, and raising the level of dialogue and the acceptance of other's opinions.

Release is granted to those who responded effectively to the program, realized their previous errors, denounced their previous radical ideology, who are no longer considered security threats, and who are proven to have the religious, spiritual, ethical means to protect themselves from backsliding into deviant ideology.

In recent years, program experts and prisoners' families noted the positive influence of the program as evidenced by prisoners' changing behaviors - their recognition of their mistakes and violations of Islamic principles. Half of the 3,200 prisoners who have gone through the program have left prison. Those who have backslid into militancy are very few and less than 1 percent.

Another Program is the Tranquility Campaign.

Savvy use of the Internet has terrorist groups' networks to expand their reach beyond national borders by enabling wide distribution of a compelling message and social connectivity with new audiences. Cyberspace has become the combat zone and the war is one of ideas. Internet chat rooms and forums are now used as venues for radicalization and recruitment by terrorist groups like al-Qaeda.

For these reasons, The Saudi Government endorsed an independent project called Al-Sakin'ah (Tranquility) Campaign, composed of religious and academic scholars, psychiatrists, sociologists, and propagators equipped with Internet skills. The volunteers visit extremists' websites, chat rooms, and forums to engage in online dialogue with extremists focused on controversial questions about the Shari'ah position, in order to correct the participants' understanding of these main Shari'ah concepts, and cause them to question the extremist beliefs that they held so deeply in order to curb the spread of radicalization and recruitment over the Internet.

In January 2008, the Tranquility Campaign announced that the campaign was able to convince some 877, who reported their rejection of their radical ideology. These include a number of high-ranking Al-Qaeda members in Saudi Arabia. The Tranquility Campaign female volunteers conducted dialogues with more than 200 women who hold extremist ideology, and have already succeeded in persuading 150 of them to renounce their extremist convictions.

Al-Qaeda issued several statements over the Internet cautioning their followers not to engage in dialogues with members of the Tranquility Campaign, an indication that the Campaign is having a positive impact on the members of this group. In addition, the Tranquility Campaign established a global Arabic-English website aimed at fighting extremist and deviant ideology; explaining the Shari'ah position on controversial questions; and spreading the correct views regarding Islam. The Campaign is preparing for publication concise and accurate responses to controversial questions raised by extremists. These responses are based on a long series of dialogues with extremists.

These efforts are assisted by other initiatives. For example, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs established a confidential counseling hotline, which receives hundreds of calls from families who discuss suspected behaviors and share their concerns about their loved ones who are affected by religious extremism. Other hotlines are used to engage in a direct dialogue and consultation with those who carry deviant ideology throughout the day.

In addition, Saudi Arabia's religious establishment is a critical asset in the Kingdom's war against radical ideology. Senior religious and legal figures have issued public condemnations of terrorism in both moral and religious terms and prohibited Saudi youth from traveling abroad to engage in Jihad. The Council of Senior Ulama has launched an official website for Fatwas. The site will act as a guide to Muslims and against the Fatwas issued by terrorist groups. The move is also an attempt to ensure that Fatwas issued by authorized scholars are given prominence and to avoid confusion and Fatwa chaos by Muslim scholars or by unqualified scholars issuing Fatwas that clash with the true interpretation of Islamic Shari'ah.

Moreover, the Saudi Public TV broadcasted a five-part series titled "Jihad Experiences, the deceit" which featured terrorists' confessions; and repentant terrorists' testimonies of how Al-Qaeda organizes, trains, and recruits. The series also featured Muslim scholars rebutting Al-Qaeda's propaganda from Islamic perspective; and interviews with well-known Saudi scholars who recanted their earlier Fatwas that supported terrorist attacks and urged terrorists' suspects to surrender.

Furthermore in 2007, the Ministry of Islamic Affairs launched a campaign called "Al-Tahseen Campaign" or (The Shielding Campaign) against terrorism. While previous efforts focused on dealing with a problem after it occurred, the current campaign aims at shielding and safeguarding the youth against radical ideology and deviant thoughts by using and taking advantage of every source available. Also in an effort to educate Imams and monitor mosques, the Ministry is sponsoring a multi-year enlightenment program for Imams in Mosques to promote religious and cultural tolerance and to counter the spread of extremist ideology

From its part, the Ministry of Education is conducting an audit of school textbooks and curricula to ensure that textbooks and teachers do not espouse intolerance and extremist views. The Ministry is also providing special training programs to promote religious tolerance for male and female Islamic Studies teachers to increase awareness and religious tolerance among teachers.

In addition to the previous soft approaches, the Kingdom took several legal measures to tackle the spread of radical ideology, especially over the Internet. To tackle the use of the Internet as a base for radicalization, training, and recruiting, the Saudi government approved the Law to Fight Cyber-Crime in April 2007. Under the new law, it is a punishable offense -- up to ten years in prison and/or a fine of up to $1.3 million dollars -- to create a website for a terrorist organization, facilitate communication with the leaders of these organizations; promote the organization's radical views, or propagate information on how to make explosives. Last week the Saudi authorities arrested five people accused of encouraging youths to fight in conflict zones and spreading propaganda and radical ideology on the Internet.

In conclusion, we cannot defeat terrorism by force alone, it is important to realize the need for measures to maximize the effort to combat the ideology of radical extremism. A key task will be to identify those instruments already working successfully against radicalization, and coordinate their activities in a comprehensive strategy. The key to success on this war of ideas is to deliver the right message using authentic sources. Therefore, greater civic engagement of Muslim scholars and communities will further any state's effort in this regard. Finally, it is important to realize that we will have great difficulties curbing the ideological appeal of Al-Qaeda and other extremists without finding a just solution to major regional conflicts. (Applause.)

AMB CHAS FREEMAN [Moderator]: Wow! Contrast the sophistication, if you will, of the approach that Dr. Ansary has just described with the approach that we have, which basically consists of "send troops." I think all three speakers have in different ways made the point that this issue cannot be dealt with by the military alone. And indeed, perhaps, the military should not be in the lead at all.

The notion of a war in cyberspace nicely illustrates that. And the notion that the center of gravity of those we are concerned to defeat is their ideas is very instructive. What we heard was a strategy, which includes refutation of deviant notions. Yet that is not the element we tend to focus on when we speak of the success of Prince Mohammed bin Nayef bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, who heads the Saudi counterterrorism campaign in the Ministry of Interior.. ..So I think in some sense, the conclusion in this context, is therefore that Islam is the answer, and that the United States, to succeed, must ally with, not attack, Islam and its centrist adherents.

Source: MEPC.org

About Abdullah Ansary

Dr. Abdullah Ansary received his B.A. in Islamic legal studies with “Excellent” Distinction and Honors from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities - Department of Islamic Studies at King Abdul-Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Following graduation, he was appointed as a full-time teaching assistant in Islamic studies at King Abdul-Aziz University from 1990-1992. In 1997 he received his M.A. in Islamic Law with “Excellent” Distinction and Honors from the Faculty of Law and Shari’ah(Islamic Law) , Department of Comparative Law at Umm A-Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Ansary returned to King Abdul-Aziz University as a full-time lecturer in Islamic Studies, from 1997-1998. While there, he served as a member of the Admissions Committee, Courses Development Committee, and the Entering Students Exam Committee. In the spring of 2000, he received his LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School, and continued as a Visiting Researcher in the Graduate Program at Harvard Law School for the academic year 2000-2001. In March 2005, Dr. Ansary received his Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) degree with strong recommendation to publish the dissertation from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Dr. Ansary worked as a Contract Senior Foreign Law Specialist in the Eastern Law Division at the Law Library of Congress for the year 2005-2006. He authored and co-authored several congressional reports on the law and/or practice of foreign jurisdictions, in particular the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Gulf Cooperation Council and other Arabia Countries, Islamic Law, Constitutional and legal reforms in Turkey, and foreign legal responses to terrorism. He served as a subject matter expert for the US Department of Justice in the Criminal Justice System, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Dr. Ansary currently provides legal consultancy and expertise to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington DC. He also provides research and legal opinion to several U.S. governmental branches and scholarly communities, and has been a member of task forces charged with reviewing a key issues related to homeland security.

Dr. Ansary’s research interests focus primarily on Comparative Emergency Laws and Special Measures; Comparative Anti-Terrorism Legislations; Comparative National Security Law and Policy; Comparative National Security Courts; and Comparative Civil Liberties: National Security v. Civil Liberties (European Law on Human Rights, European Convention on Human Rights, and European Court on Human Rights), Middle East Security; Contemporary Islamic and Middle Eastern Political and Legal Philosophy; Islamic Law and Legal System; Islamic Legal Theory; Contemporary Islamic Legal Thought: Law, State, and World Order; Comparative Law: Application of Islamic Legal System by Muslim States (Theory and Practice); Islamic and Political Movements; Contemporary Islamic and Political Ideology.

Dr. Ansary has given several presentations and speeches, and he has authored several articles in various Arabic newspapers in these and related subjects. He currently serves as Senior Research Fellow of the Arabian Peninsula & Gulf Studies Program (APAG), University of Virginia. Dr. Ansary’s upcoming publications focus on the questions of securitization of national security threats: striking the balance between national security and civil liberties, the legal dimension of national security courts in the European countries, the use of special and emergency measures to protect national security, and national security limitation on the exercise of individual rights. His upcoming publications also focus on Saudi Arabia’s legal responses to terrorism, modern Islamic legal thoughts, research methods in Islamic sciences, and the application of Islamic law in the United States courts.

Source: George Washington University - Abdullah F. Ansary Bio

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