Saudis claim that al Qaeda deliberately fills its ranks with the kingdom's alienated young. Bin Laden's goal, they believe, is to topple the Saudi royal family, partly by convincing the West that its principal source of oil is fatally infected with extremism.
"We are not a nation of terrorists and fanatics. You cannot blame an entire people for a crime perpetrated by a small number of marginal individuals," contended Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, the governor of Riyadh.
"The crazies around my age, the people who say, 'We should go out and kill Americans,' are maybe one or two percent of us," said "Mustafa," a 22-year-old I met during my tour of Jeddah's Ramadan nightlife.