'..Saudi success can provide a model for the rest of the Sunni Arab and Islamic world on how to pursue reform and succeed. That could, in turn, help launch the reformation that is so badly needed.'<blockquote>'On my most recent trip to Saudi Arabia, I was greeted with a startling confession. In the past, when we raised the issue of funding Islamic extremists with the Saudis, all we got were denials. This time, in the course of meetings with King Salman, Crown Prince Nayef, Deputy Crown Mohammad Bin Salman and several ministers, one top Saudi official admitted to me, “We misled you.” He explained that Saudi support for Islamic extremism started in the early 1960s as a counter to Nasserism—the socialist political ideology that came out of the thinking of Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser—which threatened Saudi Arabia and led to war between the two countries along the Yemen border. This tactic allowed them to successfully contain Nasserism, and the Saudis concluded that Islamism could be a powerful tool with broader utility.
Under their new and unprecedented policy of honesty, the Saudi leadership also explained to me that their support for extremism was a way of resisting the Soviet Union, often in cooperation with the United States, in places like Afghanistan in the 1980s. In this application too, they argued, it proved successful. Later it was deployed against Iranian-supported Shiite movements in the geopolitical competition between the two countries.
But over time, the Saudis say, their support for extremism turned on them, metastasizing into a serious threat to the Kingdom and to the West. They had created a monster that had begun to devour them. “We did not own up to it after 9/11 because we feared you would abandon or treat us as the enemy,” the Saudi senior official conceded. “And we were in denial.”
..
..However, if the reform effort does work, Saudi Arabia is poised to become more powerful than before, enabling it to play a bigger role in regional dynamics including in balancing Iran and perhaps negotiating about ending the civil wars in the region. A true change in Saudi Arabia’s policy of supporting Islamist extremists would be a turning point in the effort to defeat them. Given the kingdom’s role, Saudi success can provide a model for the rest of the Sunni Arab and Islamic world on how to pursue reform and succeed. That could, in turn, help launch the reformation that is so badly needed. The region and the world have a stake in Saudi success, and should do what we can to encourage and support them on this new path.
- Zalmay Khalilzad,
‘We Misled You’: How the Saudis Are Coming Clean on Funding Terrorism, September 14, 2016</blockquote>
Context '..the battle of ideas taking place in the Muslim world..'<blockquote>
The Garden of Forgiveness'..to rethink and to rebuild a culture where there are open channels between feeling and understanding..''..a realistic concept of what is achievable and in what time frame.' (Global peace in the 24th century)(Towards Global Peace) - '..to help schools in Pakistan or other developing countries create their own peace curricula..''..a synchrotron particle collider .. Jordan .. the Middle East, including Iran, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority and Israel.'Launch of the 2016 Global Peace IndexCompact Fusion(Fusion Power) - '..LPP has so far has two out of the three necessary ingredients for successful breakeven..''..a higher criticism of the Koran .. Christians indulged in this higher criticism of the Bible at the end of the 19th century.'</blockquote>