Letter from Saudi Arabia (a MUST read)

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A Disturbing Letter from a Saudi FrontPageMagazine.com | March 15, 2002

I RECEIVED the following email from someone describing himself as a "Saudi Citizen." I have no way of knowing whether it is authentic, but its particulars seem accurate to me and I invite readers of FrontPage to comment.

--David Horowitz

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Message from a Saudi Citizen

Do not forget that radical Islam is more pervasive in the Arab world than Christianity is in the West. There is no "dissent" or "constructive engagement". The goal of Islam is to destroy anything or anyone that is not Islam. The US is responding, but your intelligence services are still sclerotic and slow. Are you paying attention America? There are two fronts on this war: one military (9/11) and one political. Islam is colonizing the US, Europe and Asia. Bush is wrong to say that most American Muslims are anti-Terrorism. If they did not cheer in the streets on 9/11, they cheered in their homes. I was with Hussein Ibish and Hamid Faraoui that day, watching them cheering and singing, then denouncing the attacks on TV later that day. Khatami, Hussein and Assad reach out to US democrats, journalists, etc. Many Arabs loved the remarks of President Carter, joking "we may have to kill him last."

Ordinary Americans are rising to the occasion, showing patriotism, sacrificing husbands and fathers. Your coastal elites are assisting radical Islam. They want America to be tolerant of terrorism and to imagine themselves guilty of previous generations crimes. We watch your news. We know this is true. [Bill] Moyers goes as far as saying Judaism, Christianity and Islam are equally guilty of terrorism. These comments are played on Saudi TV amongst reports of Israelis eating Palestinian children. Susan Sontag and Bobby Fischer got front page billing in the Saudi press for comments supportive of the 9/11 attacks, flanked by a pair of stories detailing US racism against Muslims and the killing of Palestinian babies at Israeli hospitals. Lies, of course, but seem true next to actual comments by Americans.

It surprises us moderate Muslims to see half of American society help radical Islam kill America and the West. Your political left is justifying terrorism in the minds of the "Arab street" as you call it. They forget that Usama bin Laden has higher approval numbers in Saudi Arabia than Bush has in the US. Every bit of self doubt or anti-Americanism helps bin Laden. Every Saudi student that comes home after a US college education repeats the anti-Americanism he hears at university. "You see, they even hate themselves," is a refrain heard from many Saudi graduates of US universities.

I can't tell America what to do, but anyone can see what you are doing to yourselves.

Makkah Al-Mukarramah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2002

Answers

Sounds like the author is saying that our freedom of speech is doing us in.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2002

Posters on LCom commented on the use of the term "coastal elites." I checked Google and found that it's actually a term used by an Arab writer to describe Arabs on the African coast (Guardian book review). This leads me to believe the letter is pretty credible. It's an odd phrase, I think, not in general use in this country.

-- Anonymous, March 15, 2002

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