As one of their slaughtered victims lay bleeding on the ground, the Muslim terrorists at Khobar lectured another near-victim about the wonders of Islam: After the Saudi Rampage, Questions and Few Answers.

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia, May 31 - The Iraqi-born American engineer stood listening to two of the four terrorists who had attacked his luxurious residential compound in this Persian Gulf oil center wrangling over his fate.

“He’s an American, we should shoot him,” he recalled the younger of the two as arguing. He looked about 18 and was wearing desert camouflage.

“We don’t shoot Muslims,” responded the older man, perhaps 25, with wispy facial hair.

The argument seesawed for several minutes, both men displaying a certain calm determination. The engineer had a stark example of just how determined they were because a few yards away lay the body of a Swede he knew, oozing blood. Two other militants cradled guns as they paced nearby.

The engineer stood there silently, hoping, praying the older man would prevail. “I was on the borderline,” he said, “but finally the older one said, ‘We are not going to shoot you.’ ”

Instead, they gave him a brief lecture about the merits of Islam and their cause, then tried to make him point out the houses of infidel neighbors. …

“They told me: ‘We are here because we want to promote Islam. We don’t want non-Muslims to come to our country. We are promoting a Muslim cause,’ ” Mike recalled.