Nearly all international terrorism is basically religious violence by Islamic
radicals. The cause of the terrorism is not poverty or politics, but the
paranoia of Islamic clerics unable to deal with increasing social change. It is
the Islamic clerics who are preaching and supporting the terrorism. There are
far more poor Hindus, Buddhists and Christians in the world, yet the terrorism
is mainly by Islamic radicals. This pattern is no accidents.  Many of the
terrorist attacks are encouraged, supported and financed by Islamic charities
and wealthy donors in the Persian Gulf. Another major source of funding, Arab
migrants in Europe and North America, has been greatly reduced by police action,
and repugnance at the attacks made by the terrorists. Moreover, the
solicitations in Europe and North American increasingly played down the
possibility of the money supporting violence. But the charities have not been
able to cover their tracks. Last weekend, German police carried
out  raids on 34 sites believed to be part of the Al-Aqsa organization. Al Aqsa
has long collected money for Palestinians, but police investigations revealed
that much of the money went to terrorist activities by the Hamas organization in
Israel.

Cracking
down on donations from individuals in the Persian Gulf is more difficult.
Terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia have made it unpopular to give money to
terrorists inside the kingdom. Yesterday's attack on an American consulate in
the port city Jeddah was the first major terrorist operation in Saudi Arabia in
seven months. It was a spectacular failure. No Americans were killed, and most
of the dead were Saudis. Moreover, two of the five attackers were captured. This
puts those who helped prepare the attacks at risk. Since al Qaeda attacks began
in Saudi Arabia last year, the government has shown that it is capable of
dealing with terrorism. Soon after the first attacks, the government released a
list of the "26 most wanted." Since then, 17 of the people on that list have
been killed, captured or surrendered. Parents of some of these terrorists have
gone on television and publicly denounced their children. But the key to the
government success in anti-terrorism is the network of tribal friendship and
obligation that the royal family uses to control the country. This network,
nourished by frequent meetings with tribal leaders, and members, is replicated
by the police, who can always invoke a tribal chief, or Saudi prince, to get
information. The Saudi police will often bumble around like Keystone Kops, but
they are rarely ill-informed about what is happening on the street. Terrorists
in Saudi Arabia must spend a lot of their time staying away from the cops, and
police informers. Many al Qaeda attacks have been aborted because the police
were on to it. A police visit to parents and tribal leaders would often be
enough to discourage the terrorists. Although Saudi Arabia is the main source of
Islamic conservatism, most Saudis are not willing to overthrow the monarchy
(which Islamic radicals consider not Islamic enough), or support terrorism in
their own country. Killing foreigners overseas is still considered OK.

Terrorists
are also learning that mass murder is bad PR. The Basque ETA group in Spain has
resumed attacks, but in two instances of multiple bombings this month, they used
low power bombs, and called in warnings. As a result, no one was killed, fewer
than twenty were injured, and the terrorists made their point without being
tagged as monsters. In Saudi Arabia, al Qaeda is trying to emulate this tactic
by just attacking foreigners. But this does not work because so many Saudis work
with foreigners. And the foreigners tend to have better security, meaning that
attacks are more likely to kill Saudis. What really makes the Islamic terrorists
fearsome is that they are willing to kill themselves while making their attacks,
and their goal is world conquest. To attain their goal, they are willing to kill
millions. The Islamic terrorists are not very efficient, or numerous. But they
are real and they are trying. And they might just get lucky again like they did
in September, 2001.