Saudis Fearing Syrian Blowback Expand Rehab for Jihadis

The country’s Grand Mufti in October urged Saudi youth not to join the war, and several clerics have been removed from their posts for advocating jihad. Yet the Saudis also back the rebels, and have indicated that it’s not only the more secular groups favoured by the U.S. who will receive their support. There’s a “certain contradiction” between that policy and the attention paid to domestic blowback, said Eckart Woertz, a Persian Gulf specialist at CIDOB.