Saudi Bomb Highlights How Arabs Remain Split on Curbing Islamic Foes

The Islamic movement that has roiled the Mideast for over a decade struck at Americans last week with the bomb in Saudi Arabia that left 19 Americans dead. But for those in the Arab world, radical Islamic fundamentalism has become an everyday concern - with little consensus yet on how to counter it.

From Riyadh to Rabat, Arab leaders are still searching for ways to save their regimes from subversive and violent Islamists. Only one nation in the region, Tunisia, has shown strong success. But it has come at a great price: The government holds about 1,000 political prisoners, according to human rights group Amnesty International.

Saudi Arabia's troubles with radical Islamists have been minor compared with Egypt and Algeria, which have endured the most violence in the highest-profile struggles against those who combine religious fundamentalism with a quest for political power.

For these nations, Tunisia's example provides little solace. Its tiny land mass and small population give its government easy access to all citizens, including the extremists - a luxury the others don't have.

Consequently Egypt and Algeria have vacillated between two schools of thought with only limited success. One school is the hard-line approach of Tunisia. The other is political - seeking to work with moderate Islamists where possible.

Halting between these two, "Egypt has barely managed to have the government's hand above the extremist hand," says Taatahsem Basheer, a senior fellow at the United States Institute for Peace in Washington.

In Egypt, a critical country from the West's perspective because of its longtime role as anchor in the Mideast peace process, up to 1,500 suspects are thought to have been detained by police since gunmen of the radical Gama'a Al-Islamiya (Islamic Group) in April massacred 17 Greek tourists outside a Cairo hotel, mistaking them for Israelis.

"Since 1993, the approach that views all the Islamic groups as the same and advocates that they should be kept on the run has been dominant," says Saad Eddin Ibrahim, former adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and now a professor of sociology at the American University in Cairo.

But Mr. Ibrahim argues that this is the wrong approach and says Egypt should take a divide-and-conquer strategy. "You have to isolate the militants by bringing in the moderates," Ibrahim says. "The government hasn't consolidated a consensus against the Islamic groups."

Many in Egypt believe the hard-line tactics of harassing and torturing political prisoners has only marginalized moderates, strengthening the resolve of groups like the Gama'a Al-Islamiya, and forcing the government to respond forcefully.

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