The horrific attacks on expatriate compounds in Saudi Arabia have killed and injured hundreds of people. They recall the warning by President Mubarak of Egypt before the Iraq war that it could lead to "100 bin Ladens" in the Middle East.
Only a minority of the victims are US citizens, since foreign expertise is drawn from many different nationalities. But coming after the recent announcement that US forces are to withdraw from Saudi Arabia, on the eve of Mr Colin Powell's arrival in Riyadh, the attacks underline the hatreds exposed by the US occupation of Iraq and could mark the beginning of a violent campaign against its presence in the region.
This is predominantly a story about Saudi Arabia; but it cannot be understood outside the regional context. There are an estimated 60,000 privileged western expatriates working in a country of 22 million people, who include some six million Arab and Asian guest workers. Many of the expatriates are extraordinarily well paid, compared to most Saudis. They work in the oil, security and medical sectors and represent multinational companies with investments there.
These compounds are islands of privilege, largely exempt from the strict controls on lifestyle applying outside them. But lately they have become more like prisons, as their residents feared to venture out before, during and after the Iraq war. The al-Qaeda organisation, most of whose roots and leading personnel are Saudi, was yesterday universally blamed for the lethal attacks.
Popular resentments against the extended Saudi royal family have built up over the years fuelled by its failure to reform and and the hosting of US troops on Saudi soil after the Gulf war in 1991. In addition a prolonged economic downturn has seen unemployment increase for many Saudis, to which the regime proved unable to respond. All this has provided a fertile ground for al-Qaeda, even before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq following its attacks on New York and Washington two years ago.
The US announcement two weeks ago that its troops are to be withdrawn from Saudi soil may in due course undermine al-Qaeda's appeal, since this meets one of the organisation's core demands. But it has been seen not as a concession to Saudi pressure but a response to the regime's growing instability. If oil prices come down there will be even fewer resources available to meet demands for democratic change, an end to corruption and more jobs. Such modernising demands coincide and conflict with al-Qaeda's traditional nationalist appeal.
The renewed threat of other incidents of barbaric violence by Islamic militants feeds off the popular anti-Americanism on which al-Qaeda thrives. Moderate Muslims, particularly those who enjoy the freedom to practice their faith in the Western world, must accept that they can not explain away this hatred by the perceived injustices done to the Arab people. Otherwise, Islam will be perceived as the religion of hate and Arabic its language.