Standing Alone Read Online Free PDF Page A

ordinary times anymore. On the ground as journalists, we were trying to avoid the dangerous nexus between political power and world events and not get entrapped by nefarious personalities or hidden agendas. Another Prince Turki—Prince Turki bin Faisal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud, the son of King Faisal, ruler of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975—had been making the news under less than stellar circumstances. From 1977 through August 2001, he had been head of Saudi Arabia’s Department of General Intelligence. Prince Turki was considered a potential heir to King Fahd, the ruler of Saudi Arabia since 1982. He abruptly resigned late in August 2001 and was replaced by an uncle. Journalists had raised questions about his being affiliated with the puritanical and anti-American wing of the royal family sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. The U.S. independent commission reviewing the September 11, 2001, attacks on America later reported that the Clinton administration had turned to Prince Turki bin Faisal for help in getting bin Laden expelled from Afghanistan after the Saudi government successfully thwarted a bin Laden–backed effort in the spring of 1989 to launch attacks on the U.S. military stationed in Saudi Arabia. The report said that, as Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal, using “a mixture of possible bribes and threats,” received a commitment from Taliban leader Mullah Omar to hand over bin Laden. But Omar broke that pledge during a September 1998 meeting with Prince Turki and Pakistan’s intelligence chief. “When Turki angrily confronted him, Omar lost his temper and denounced the Saudi government. The Saudis and Pakistanis walked out,” the report would say.
    From Danny’s warning alone, I decided to proceed as an ordinary Muslim pilgrim. I soon learned that that wasn’t going to get me anywhere fast.
    Outside editor Stephanie Pearson connected me to a Saudi guide she found through a documentary producer and convert to Islam, Michael Wolfe, also the author of a book about the hajj. I had never met Michael, but I would one day feel blessed that I got to know him on this journey. The guide was a Saudi architect, Dr. Sami Angawi, who traced his lineage to the prophet of Islam. With a PhD in Islamic architecture from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, he lived in a city called Jeddah, the main arrival point for pilgrims. He founded an organization called the Amar Center for Architectural Heritage to preserve the traditional history of Saudi Arabia, and he was a former adviser to thegovernment on the hajj. Stephanie envisioned me doing my hajj in the path of the prophet Muhammad, camping out and trekking through the hajj, just as a caravan might have done at the time of the prophet. Sami seemed to be the perfect person to guide me in re-creating the prophet’s steps. But I realized we weren’t planning a jaunt through Yellowstone Park when I started asking Sami questions that would help us realize the vision.
    â€œCan we camp out?” I asked him.
    Sami answered with a question: “How old are you?”
    That seemed like an odd response, but I answered anyway. “Thirty-six.”
    â€œAnd your father?”
    â€œHe’s sixty-eight.”
    â€œI don’t know. It might be suspicious. They might wonder what a man is doing with a woman in the desert.”
    Okay . I was speechless. My father was not only old enough to be my father; he was my father. Such considerations were beyond my cultural sensibilities.
    I envisioned following the path of the prophet Muhammad’s pilgrimage on camelback. “That will be difficult,” Sami warned me.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œThe Saudis have destroyed so much in the name of Wahhabism.”
    â€œ Wahhabism ?”
    Before Wahhabism became a household term, I didn’t know what this word meant. I hadn’t grown up with a sense of the differences between Muslims.