Although the title is an oxymoron since the Kingdom is itself based on the most extreme form of Islam ever established at state doctrine, it is true that the Kingdom has been taking the fight to Al’Qaeda.

Saudi Arabia was late to sign onto America’s “War on Terror”, but after a series of bombs rocked the capital Riyadh in May 2003, the Kingdom got serious about confronting the domestic enemy. Al-Qaeda has successfully carried out some 30 attacks in the country between May 2003 to 2006. 90 civilians, 74 police officers and, ironically, several radical preachers who sermons routinely justified the violence were also victims of the non-discriminating expulsions.

The Saudi approach to eradicating terrorism is multi-faced:

1) Extensive on-air testimonials from “repentant” jihadists and clerics challenging the justification of violence that Islamic extremists claim exists in the Qur’an.

2) A prison campaign targeting the more than 3,000 jihadists in Saudi custody. The jihadists are brought slowly back into pacifist society with housing loans, family financial support and religious re-education. The program has had impressive success. So far the authorities have deemed about 1,500 ready to be freed and followed through on that. Of those only a small fraction returned to violence.

3) Implanting clerics on jihadist chat forms to challenge radical thought. And making incitement to terrorism over the Internet a crime with up to 10 years in jail.

4) Finally, the Kingdom is flexing muscle by prosecuting over 900 jihadists.

All these steps are well-and-good, but the Kingdom’s state ideology is still the ideology of most radical Muslims. It is worth noting the Bin Ladin does not practice any off-shoot of Saudi state religious education, rather he is trying to hold the Kingdom responsible to what it itself preaches in state textbooks. Saudi Arab must reform its practice Islam, which greatly deviates from the Islam that 98% of Muslims practice. When Saudi Arabia is ready to ditch the puritanical ideology that is the basis of modern Islamic fundamentalists (mostly) than it will truly demonstrate its serious in eradicating extremism. Efforts here and there are good, but it is the idea of extremism that has to be fought as well.