Confront hostile campaigns against KSA

JEDDAH — Makkah Emir Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has warned against ferocious campaigns being orchestrated by a number of media, cultural and political organizations abroad against Saudi Arabia to undermine its people and achievements. "These organizations use every possible means to distort the image of the Saudi national. The hostile campaigns were further worsened by the emergence of terrorists in many Muslim societies," he said. The prince was talking at an open dialogue organized with him by Okaz newspaper its headquarters in Jeddah on Tuesday. Many important personalities from Makkah and Jeddah attended the gathering. Prince Khaled said the written history has failed to do justice to Kingdom, its leadership and people and asked historians to do justice to their country by correcting the deliberate distortion targeting it and Islam together. [caption id="attachment_102639" align="alignright"] Prince Khaled Al-Faisal takes a look at Tuesday's first edition of Okaz with Editor-in-Chief Jameel Al-Diyabi. — Okaz photos[/caption]"I do not blame people from outside for not being fair to the Kingdom but I ask the Saudi historians to correct this distorted image," he said. Prince Khaled described the achievements made by King Abdul Aziz, founder, after the unification of the Kingdom as unprecedented in history. "In two decades after the unification, the Kingdom became one of the founders of two important world organizations — the United Nations and the Arab League," he said. He said about 20 years after the unification, exactly in 1952, the year in which King Abdul Aziz died, the Kingdom had a government, ministries and institutions, which were able to make great accomplishments. "The achievements made by the Kingdom in a record short time was nothing less than a miracle," he said. Prince Khaled rejected claims that the Kingdom was unified by the power of the sword. "This claim has no justification. If the people were not convinced and fully supported their leader, nothing would have happened," he said. Asked about the solution to the perennial traffic problem in Jeddah, the prince admitted that there is an issue but said traffic congestion is an international problem. "Traffic in London, Paris, Cairo and Beirut for instance is really annoying. We should not expect a big city with a huge population to be without traffic problems," he said. Prince Khaled, however, believes that part of the solution to the problem lies in the effective implementation of a public transport system. "The introduction of the public transport in Jeddah, Riyadh and later in Taif will help ease traffic in these cities," he said. To a question about the flood and rainwater drainage system in Jeddah, the emir said the project, sponsored by the governorate and executed by Saudi Aramco, was a successful one. He said thanks to the comprehensive drainage system, rainwater was drained immediately from Jeddah streets in the past few years so that no one experienced any real problem due to floods. "The quantities of rain fell in Jeddah last year were four times the quantity of rain that caused the disaster in 2009 yet no body felt anything because the water was immediately drained to the sea," he said. Prince Khaled reiterated that there would be no Haj without permits in coming years. "This system has been better organized and we will not give up on it," he added. Speaking about the Burmese in the Kingdom, the prince said the situation of more than 250,000 of Burmese residents were corrected. "We granted them regular residence permits and provided them with jobs. We also provided them with free healthcare and education," he said. He said the UN sent a special team to study this successful experiment. The emir turned down requests to construct an airport in Makkah. "There is no need for this. Jeddah, which is an air and sea gate, is only about 75 km from Makkah," he said. He did not favor the idea of turning Makkah into a tourist hub. "Makkah is a place for worship, not tourism," he said.