On December 9, the Washington Times reported that the new Saudi ambassador to the United States , the western-educated Prince Turki al-Faisal, had announced that improving Saudi Arabia’s image in the United States was a main goal for him. “The United States has an image problem in the Arab world. We Saudis have an image problem in the United States,” he said. This conference seems to have arisen to meet that challenge. Whether the conference was oriented to the challenge of actually addressing Saudi Arabia?s extremist problem more than it was its image problem remains to be seen.

Commitments made to fight extremist ideologies so far in the Kingdom seem superficial. There is neither tolerance of religious diversity nor encouragement of respect for those with other beliefs, laying the essential foundation for support of violence against non-Muslims. After all, Saudi Arabia began aggressively addressing its terrorist problem only after its own citizens and leaders became targets.