As-Suwaidi (Riyadh)

Coordinates: 24°35′N 46°40′E / 24.59°N 46.67°E / 24.59; 46.67 Al-Suwaidi (السويدي) is a district of the Al-Urayja branch municipality, in southwestern Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on the western side of the Wadi Hanifa. It became notorious as a "no go"-area and stronghold of Islamic terrorism in the 2000s.

It is one of Riyadh's "older residential districts", and compared with the standards of Riyadh is overpopulated with outdated infrastructure dating back to the oil boom of the 1970s.[1]

Demographics

As of 2005 more than 500,000 people lived in the area.[2] As of that year, many middle-income Saudis lived in Al-Suwaidi.[1] Many people migrating from the rural areas went to Al-Suwaidi during the "oil boom" in the 1970s and early 1980s.[1] Shaker Abu Taleb and Asharq Al-Awsat of the Arab News said in 2005 that the community "was originally beyond the capital's congestion; that is, however, no longer the case."[1] Bradley said that Al-Suwaidi has a reputation "for being a bastion of strict Wahhabism" within the people living in Saudi Arabia. Bradley added that the men "hardly need incitement" to contrast their own lives with wealthy Saudi princes and foreigners.[2]

Association with terrorism

The district gained notoriety in 2003 when a 26-man list of "most wanted terrorists" published by the Saudi government contained 15 men who were said to have links with the neighborhood.[1][3] Shaker Abu Taleb and Asharq Al-Awsat of the Arab News said that many Saudis compared Al-Suwaidi to Fallujah, Iraq, a site of fighting during the Iraq War.[1]

An Indian quoted in the Arab News in 2005, who had lived in Al-Suwaidi for a 15-year period before 2005, said that Al-Suwaidi was a bastion of mutawwas ("Sharia-police"). He explained that many activities occurred at area mosques. In 2005 many signs asking visitors to think of God (Allah) were visible.[1]

Ibrahim al-Rayyes, a terrorist suspect killed in a shootout with police, lived in Al-Suwaidi. In a 2003 list of most wanted Islamic fundamentalist militants, al-Rayyes and about 14 of the 26 other suspects had either come from or lived in Al-Suwaidi. More than half of those suspects were graduates of Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Al-Suwaidi: In the News for All the Wrong Reasons", by Shaker Abu Taleb and Asharq Al-Awsat, January 9, 2005, Arab News
  2. 1 2 Bradley, John R. Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan 2005. 146.
  3. ↑ "Profile: Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin", June 19, 2004, BBC News
  4. ↑ Bradley, John R. Saudi Arabia Exposed: Inside a Kingdom in Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan 2005. 147.
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