Breaking the Silence - Saudi Arabia

First broadcast June 2005

Saudi Arabia is crucial to world stability. But after a series of terrorist attacks last year, the Kingdom is experiencing seismic shifts in its established structures.

To get under the skin of this vast country, presenter Bill Law meets people who are determined to break the silence and speak openly for the first time about their hopes and fears.

Part 1: Two Sides of a Coin

The story of an ex-jihadist, Mansour al Nukaidan, who has turned his back on violence and Mansour al Turki, a brigadier general at the Saudi Interior Ministry whose job is to hunt down extremists.

Also the story about a booklet (condemned by the Saudi government) whose stated purpose is to "call non-Muslims to Islam", but which incites followers to take violent action against 'unbelievers'.

Finally, Bill Law talks with Hussein Shobokshi, a campaigning Saudi journalist and Abdul Aziz al Cassem, a former judge and a critique of the Saudi regime, who was given the task of examining the school's curriculum and the use of extremist texts.

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