Saudi expats bite nails following Boston attack

The terrorist attack on the Boston marathon continues to lead the headlines in Arabic-language media on Wednesday for a second consecutive day, as Arab columnists begin to weigh in on the matter.

“Obama: The Boston attack is terrorism, the perpetrators are unknown, and we’ve declared alert,” reads the headline of London-based daily Al-Hayat. The daily reports that preliminary evidence indicates that the perpetrators of the attack were “domestic.”

“Most preliminary indications rule out the possibility that the perpetrators were foreign, although that possibility remains open,” reads the article.

Saudi-owned daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat dedicates a front-page article to the letter of condolence sent by Saudi King Abdullah to President Obama.

“Whoever committed this heinous represents no one but themselves,” Abdullah was quoted as writing to Obama. The king also called his ambassador in Washington to inquire whether there were any injured Saudis, and was told there were none.

“The honest truth is that Saudi Arabia has suffered the horrors of terrorism more than any other country,” writes A-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Youssef Al-Dayni. “A large part of its official and social discourse has become conscious of the scourge of terrorism. There is grave concern for the [Saudi] scholarship students as well as the new procedures pertaining to the ‘trusted traveler’ program. These all indicate the awareness of a large segment of society of the dangers of terrorists’ exploiting the resurgence of Islamophobia.”

Saudi news site Elaph reports that Saudi students in the US are apprehensive about the prospect that the Boston attack was perpetrated by a Saudi national.

“The explosion clearly exposed the fact that there are some who continue to tie terrorist attacks to Saudis without having any evidence to prove that. The American and Western view of Arabs and Muslims has not changed much since the events of 9/11,” reads the article.

Meanwhile, Dubai-based news channel Al-Arabiya focuses on the explosive devise itself, which was hidden in a pressure cooker placed in a black bag, according to the FBI.

“Using an explosive pressure cooker is the weapon of a weak terrorist, because it is the easiest to do. Putting an explosive device in it is like exactly like placing food in a pot for cooking,” reads the report, which found that Moroccan terrorist Adel Othmani used a similar method in bombing the Arkana cafe in Marrakesh in April 2011.

The lead editorial in London-based daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi links the terrorist attack in Boston to the growing animosity in the Arab world toward the United States for its excessive use of drones, without claiming Arab responsibility for the attack.

“It is too soon to speculate or name the elements involved … but the official American excessiveness in using drones in more than one Arab and Islamic country has caused many to hate the United States. The use of these drones has increased exponentially and is considered one of the achievements of the Obama administration. They have so far killed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen approximately 500 people, mostly women and children.”

A-Sharq Al-Awsat columnist Abdul Rahman Rashed points to two parallel changes in the Arab world since the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. People have become much less tolerant of Islamist violence and terrorism, and much less tolerant of Iran’s nuclear aspirations.

“As for Iran and its nuclear program, Arabs used to regard them with appreciation and marvel. This was in the past. However today Iran has become their most hated country after its true nature was revealed. It is a country that aspires to dominate the Arab world, using Islam and the Palestinian issue as two means of penetration and control. Its nuclear program has become a source of anger, especially with its Arab and Gulf neighbors.”

Gulf Arabs now believe that Iran’s nuclear weapons will be aimed at them, not at Israel, Rashed continues.

“What a peculiar coincidence! The Boston explosion and the Iranian earthquake, both exposing true [Arab] sentiments and a new political outlook.”