The Arab world mourned the death of Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz, who held the post of Saudi Minister of Interior for more than 36 years. During this tenure he addressed many major issues, including the issue of terrorism that had spread dramatically around the world, and particularly in Islamic countries.

Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz – may God rest his soul – dealt with numerous terrorist attempts, including Juhayman al-Otaybi’s seizure of the Holy Mosque in 1979. Prince Naif faced this incident after having only taken the reins of the Ministry of Interior for five years. His stance at the time was firm, and he was able to prove to the world that the Kingdom was standing strong in the face of terrorism, and that this stance represented a new strategic light in the security and ideological confrontations to come.

Among his efforts in the fight against terrorism, Prince Naif undertook a program to rehabilitate those arrested for terrorism charges. Detainees under investigation were offered advice before their trial and during the issuance of the verdict. They then received subsequent care, psychological and physical rehabilitation, and reintegration into their community. This program received global praise and recognition, especially from the UN Security Council which valued these efforts in rehabilitating and advising detainees, calling for the worldwide utilization of these tactics. Furthermore, many countries and organizations requested to take advantage of this experience, because this intellectual treatment had proven highly successful.

Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz chaired a number of conferences on how to combat terrorism, most recently the 2010 seminar on “Terrorism: Between Intellectual Extremism and Extremist Ideology”, held at the Islamic University in Medina. During this conference Prince Naif confirmed his fight against all forms of extremism and terrorism that threaten human life, violate the sanctity of religion, and jeopardize the interests of the individual and the Ummah. He considered Saudi Arabia’s approach to be its religious and moral duty, claiming that it “has been in the lead in exposing the dangers of terrorism and intellectual extremism and in confronting them with the force and approach of deterrence”.

In his speech, Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz pointed out that “deterring terrorism needs force to stop and eliminate it, to prevent its ideology, to distance young people from it, and to keep society away from its evil. Terrorism begins with intellectual extremism, then evolves into actual extremism, and at this stage it leans upon earlier radical thoughts. Thus the equation begins with intellectual extremism that then grows into an extremist ideology, with one process supporting the other. So if we want to fight extremism we must fight its ideology and if we want to fight its ideology we must fight its intellectual and human sources. How many terrorist operations have begun with simple ideas of feeling jealous or seeking a reward, which then evolve over time until an ideology develops sanctioning the most heinous of sins!”

Prince Naif urged that the sources of terrorism must be eradicated, and pointed out that if everyone did not work towards this, terrorism would continue and remain in place. He said “we need dedicated people who are able to look for these sources firstly, and secondly to make recommendations on how to dry them up”. He cited the examples of some satellite channels that fuel those confused with extremism, directly or indirectly, through misleading programs that incite people against their reality and towards their society. This is in addition to the internet, which today is the Arab country’s first source of terrorism. Prince Naif stressed the need to open centers to research and monitor the internet, because it was necessary to employ all technological mechanisms for the purpose of tolerance and moderation.

Ultimately, Prince Naif sought to accomplish an Arab consensus on counter terrorism, signed by all Arab Ministers of Interior and Justice. He constantly exerted efforts to make his Ministry of Interior closer to the citizens, working to solve their problems. He strove to eradicate crime and protect society from anything that threatened the security and safety of the Saudi Kingdom, so that it could become a model for the Arab countries and the wider world in terms of security and safety.