Sixteen months after his death, Saudi authorities still grapple with the legacy of a blind cleric who preached that the US was the enemy of Muslims and that those allied with the West were nonbelievers.
This past week, the interior minister said three prominent followers of Sheik Hammoud bin Oqla al-Shuaibi were arrested during the investigation into the May 12 Riyadh terror attacks that killed 34 people, including eight Americans. The trio apparently is not suspected of making bombs or firing weapons, but of wielding words.
"It's like al-Shuaibi has risen from the dead," said Abdullah al-Heedan, a political science professor at Riyadh's King Saud University.
Terror suspects Ali al-Khudair, in his 50s; Nasser al-Fahd, in his 40s; and Ahmad al-Khalidi, in his 30s, were drawn together by their belief in the ideas of al-Shuaibi, who made his base in Buraydah, a town famous for its strict piety.
Throughout most of Saudi Arabia, women can appear in public only in enveloping robes and head scarves. Buraydah is one of the conservative places where they also must cover their faces.
Al-Shuaibi, from Saudi Arabia's austere Wahhabi school of Islam, began his Islamic education at age 6. He lost his sight at 7 because of smallpox, but went on to memorize the Muslim holy book, the Koran, by the time he was 13.
The octogenarian died Jan. 18, last year.
Al-Shuaibi was one of the first to issue fatwas, or religious rulings, calling on Muslims to support the foreign mujahidin, or holy warriors, helping Afghans fight the Soviets.
In 1995, al-Shuaibi was among several clerics arrested for criticizing the Saudi royal family's pro-Western policies around the 1990 Gulf War, said Saad al-Fagih, a London-based Saudi dissident who tracks Islamic fundamentalism in the kingdom.
Al-Shuaibi spent two weeks in a Riyadh prison and then the next two years under what amounted to house arrest in Buraydah, al-Fagih said. He lost none of his fire.
Just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US, al-Shuaibi issued fatwas declaring that those supporting the "nonbelievers" against Muslims were themselves nonbelievers. Al-Shuaibi reportedly was called in for questioning then, as well.
Al-Khudair, al-Fahd and al-Khalidi, who traveled the kingdom and used the Internet to spread al-Shuaibi's ideas, were among many who congregated in Buraydah after the Sept. 11 attacks fearing they would become targets of the West. The three began working closely together, often signing joint statements outlining their religious reasoning and attitude toward current affairs.
Al-Khudair, the eldest of the trio, originally was from Buraydah, had been a student of al-Shuaibi and was considered closest to him. Al-Khudair was known for standing up after prayers and trying to grab the microphone to preach in mosques.
"Many mosque imams [prayer leaders] refused to let him preach his radical views, but there were some sympathizers," al-Heedan said.
The three went into hiding in the weeks before the war in Iraq, fearing the government planned to round up anti-war clergy at America's request, al-Fagih said.
The trio then released a statement on the Internet praising 19 men Saudi authorities identified as militants wanted in connection with a weapons cache found in Riyadh on May 6. Saudi authorities said then the 19 were believed to be receiving orders directly from Osama bin Laden and may have been planning to use the arms to attack Saudi royal family members and US and British interests.
Six days after the weapons cache was discovered, suicide assailants detonated vehicle bombs in housing compounds for foreigners in the Saudi capital, killing 34 people, including nine attackers. Four of the bombers were among the 19 wanted in the weapons cache case, Saudi officials said.
On Tuesday, Saudi authorities arrested 11 terror suspects -- including the three clerics -- in Medina, the holy city where al-Khalidi had been a student. It is unclear what charges the suspects may face.
The government has vowed to crack down on anyone spreading extremist thought.
"Those who claim to be clerics and issue religious edicts are far from that," the interior minister, Prince Nayef, said when announcing the trio's arrest. "In reality, they are worthless."
Meanwhile in Riyadh, two Saudi policemen were killed when a "terror" suspect they had been chasing threw a hand grenade at them, a newspaper reported on yesterday.
Al-Watan daily said the suspect, and an unidentified man travelling with him, also seriously wounded three policemen in the clash in northern Saudi Arabia on Saturday. One of the suspects was killed while the other fled.
It was not clear if the two were linked to the May 12 suicide bombings in the capital Riyadh, blamed on Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Saudi authorities have arrested a number of people since the bombings which killed 34 people, including eight Americans, and stepped up security measures throughout the Gulf Arab state.
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