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| Terror Networks |
| Alive, well and still poisoning young minds |
| 2002-10-03 |
| High in the misty mountains of Asir, no man could escape the rant of the "evil father" of Khamis Mushayt. White fluorescent strips illuminated the squat mosque as evening took hold. But powerful amplifiers made up for what the minaret lacked in stature as the imam's message was force-fed into the neon jumble at the centre of town. Good, strong intro paragraph. A bit florid... This is the conservative corner of Saudi Arabia from which five of the September 11 hijackers were recruited. And according to Ali Al Mosa, an academic reform campaigner, the mosque of Sheik Ahmed Al Hawashi was a vital link in the al-Qaeda recruitment drive. Claiming his information came from intelligence sources, Dr Al Mosa explained: "Sheik Al Hawashi was the evil father of the whole thing here. He was the one behind it all and he is still there - he knew five of the kids and he was praying with them." Somehow the holy men never seem to blow up with them. Didja ever notice that? Wonder why that is...? It seemed remarkable that a suspect sheik could still be in charge of a mosque more than a year after the attacks that claimed just over 3000 lives in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. However, Dr Al Mosa said: "He has been here for 25 years and he's very popular. I think that Saudi and US intelligence are still working up solid proof that he knew the kids." "Nope. Nope. Just can't seem to find nuttin'..." More remarkable still was the determination of officials of the Saudi Information Ministry to block the Herald's attempts to interview Sheik Al Hawashi or anyone else in the region who might have information or an opinion on why the sons of Asir volunteered in such numbers for Osama bin Laden's death missions. Just to get permission to travel to the region required an undertaking not to approach the hijackers' families. Once in the area, it became a ban on approaching local academics or sheiks. Photographs were forbidden. The interview with Dr Al Mosa was allowed only after a yelling match in which the Saudis were reminded that before the Herald had left the port city of Jeddah to fly south to Asir, they had undertaken to arrange such a meeting. Y'gotta watch those hollering matches with Soddy keepers. Only alk runners do that. Everybody else is polite as can be. Your car might explode without warning... As the fist of the information bureaucrats tightened on the Herald's movements, this reporter was informed by a ministry minder that he was a "prisoner" and permission even to take a taxi to the airport was denied. And when the Herald insisted on departing by taxi, three minders followed in a black Ford sedan for the 30-kilometre drive. They don't do subtle well in those parts, do they? Dr Al Mosa explained that two mosques at Khamis Mushayt, about 15 kilometres east of Abha, had been used to draw the young men to terrorism. "There are a lot of suspect sheiks working in this area. They are intense and they are a part of a radical movement. The universities are the same. We have become more wahabist," he said. "Our political system does not contradict the needs of modern society. But the religious system has dominated and it means we will be even more radicalised. It has corrupted the whole education system. Unless you are religious you will not get a place in university, and these people are so well entrenched that they are installing new layers of fellow thinkers beneath them. And we need to change the curriculum - primary, secondary and university - so that our students actually learn something." Ahem. Why does this sound like a familiar story? It seems I've heard it somewhere before... Thanks to Paul for this one... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |