"What is most striking, though, is how much Al-Mesbar sees ISIS not as just a religious problem that has to be combated with a more inclusive Islamic narrative but as the product of all the problems ailing this region at once: underdevelopment, sectarianism, lagging education, sexual repression, lack of respect for women and lack of pluralism in all intellectual thought." Striking? This is the stuff of Saudi media (in English and Arabic) because it deflects attention from the responsibility of Gulf regime. But it is clear that Friedman has been promoting the Saudi propaganda site, Al-Mesbar, for a while now.