Break through the censorship: US should amplify public diplomacy toward Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia’s censorship of an Arabic-language newspaper containing a letter from American scholars defending the war on terrorism is another reminder of why the United States should conduct spirited and fearless public diplomacy in the Arab world.

The letter called on moderate Saudis to condemn “militant jihadism” as un-Islamic, and suggested that, instead of blaming the United States for being the root cause of the September 11 attacks, “We ask you sincerely to reconsider the tendency . . . to blame everyone but your own leaders and your own society for the problems that your society faces.”

That was too much for Saudi censors, who banned the October 23 edition of the London-based al Hayat.

The Saudis spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year on Wahhabi agitprop in the United States. It’s time for the US to establish a strategic public diplomacy campaign for Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab world where no free press exists, and to challenge Wahhabi propaganda from outside and from within.