…. (if you kill one of ours, we will kill four of yours) – or something very close to that – were the immortal lines spoken in the film Sholay.
The scene is stark – Ahmed (Sachin) on his way to town for a job has been murdered by Gabbar Singh and gang in cold blood. Gabbar (Amjad Khan) has demanded the heads of Jay (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra). 4 villains ride in to the appointed spot where Jai and Veeru are playing possum. They shoot the 4 dead and send their bodies back to Gabbar with a note – tum hamara ek marega, to hum tumhara char marega..
Today’s Saudi Raid on the Al Qaeda terrorists reminded me of that scene. Except for one difference – the village in Sholay did not throw up Gabbar and his gang. Saudi Arabia has created, nurtured and unleashed both Wahabi Fundamentalism and the Al Qaeda on the rest of the world.
It is also ironic that a day after an unarmed, civillian – Paul Johnson – is murdered – the Saudi Military miraculously figures out where to go to get the bad guys. Even Bollywood can come up with better scripts than that.
With news coming in that large chunks of the Saudi military being subverted by the Al Qaeda, and abetting the murder by decapitation of American Paul Johnson, it seems that the Saudi terror chickens are coming home to roost.
For long the Saudi funded groups have been fostering hate through out Asia and much of the Muslim world. Recent unrest in countries like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan have been fostered by Wahabi madarassas that provide cannon fodder for the Al Qaeda. The saddest part is that before they turned their sights on westerners, they have been spreading the same kind of terror amongst ordinary Muslims. Indian soldiers have come home in body bags because of the Saudi Policy.
The Saudi’s have to take a long hard look at what they have become – and possibly start some measures of allowing basic freedom in that part of the world. This does not necessarily mean Democracy. It could simply be the freedom to express your views without being sent to the concentration camp.