'Saudi anti-extremist campaign ineffective'

A young girls attends a prayer vigil for US national Paul Johnson, who was abducted and butchered in Saudi Arabia at his house in Khon Kaen northeastern of Thailand Friday. Distraught relatives of the slain US hostage held a candlelight vigil in their Thai rural village late Friday praying for him. An Islamist website on Friday showed Paul Johnson, beheaded and his head then placed on his back. PHOTO: AFP

In the hours before American engineer Paul M. Johnson Jr. was beheaded by an al-Qaeda cell, some Saudis in the fundamentalist neighborhoods of the capital suggested the kidnappers enjoyed popular support. They noted many Muslims share the extremists' anger over US policy in Iraq and Washington's support for Israel.

"These (kidnappers) are holy warriors, heroes, who never waver, even if they will fail," said Mizahen al-Etbi, a bearded, bespectacled man who was shopping with his family in the Sweidi district of Riyadh. "All Saudis hate Americans, not only these heroes."

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In the eastern oil hub of Khobar, where militants killed 22 people, most foreigners, in a shooting spree and hostage-taking last month, 38-year-old Faiz also showed little remorse for victims of the violence.

"Honestly, I don't like bloodshed. But the Americans deserve what they're getting for shedding Arab and Muslim blood all over the world. Plain and simple, they are our enemies," said Faiz, who took a break from his shopping downtown to speak to The Associated Press. He asked to be identified by just one name.

Although most Saudis don't share his views indeed analysts say support for extremists has dwindled since attacks that killed Muslims there are enough who do to worry officials.

The shock of terrorism at home has led to an unprecedented public discussion in Saudi Arabia about whether the austere version of Islam expounded in the kingdom might be partly to blame for extremist violence.

The government's anti-extremism campaign, accompanied by a high-profile crackdown on terrorists, began soon after the car bomb attacks that killed 35 people, including nine suicide bombers, at three Riyadh compounds housing foreigners last year.

Since then there has been a string of terror attacks in the kingdom, especially over the last two months, leading the government to step up its campaign.