I've seen a couple bloggers questioning whether Al-Jezeera and the other Arab news outlets were as graphic in their coverage of the Riyadh bombing as they are with American casualties. Frankly I'd have been very surprised if they were not. Violence, Blood and broken bodies seems too much a part of their culture to have it censored for domestic victims.
The reaction of most Saudis to this attack has angry and emotional - especially as the bombing killed Arabs and Muslims.
And during Ramadan.
This mood is reflected in the newspaper coverage.
The front page of the main broadsheet el-Watan has pictures of dead and injured children. Graphic colour shots of the casualties dot the rest of the paper. There is a story about a pregnant woman impaled on an iron bar by the force of the blast.
The broadsheet al-Jazeera has a whole double page spread just filled with condemnations from ordinary citizens. "We ask God to destroy those criminals who do not respect Ramadan," says one typical remark.
"We will confront terrorists with an iron hand," the country's ruler, King Fahd, told the weekly cabinet meeting.
Someone else inside Saudi Arabia is talking sense too.
Of course we have to understand which flavor of islam is the moderate one, but this is encouraging:
What, perhaps, makes the Saudi establishment most nervous of all is the attempt by al-Qaeda to exploit the piety of most Saudis and portray themselves and the true guardians of Islam.
So the country's top Islamic cleric here, Sheikh Saleh al-Sheikh, also the minister of Islamic affairs, has issued guidance in the wake of the bombing.
"The devil shouldn't drag us to sympathise with those who speak in the name of Islam but whose actions are against Islam," he said.
And for a surprisingly reasonable point of view:
The billionaire investor, Prince al-Waleed ibn Talal, told Saudis on Monday to abandon "stupid conspiracy theories" which blamed foreign hands for every bad event in the kingdom.
This was not the work of the Mossad or the CIA, he said.
Prince Waleed also said that the kingdom had yet to ask itself honestly why 15 or the 19 hijackers on 11 September 2001, were Saudis.
He called for political reform to root out extremism.
Above all, he said, there should be full democratic elections.
"Reform is not a requirement of businessmen only or members of the ruling family but a requirement of every Saudi citizen," he said.
Even more reason to keep our resolve to realize democratic reform in Iraq.
« unless she's gagged