The Saudi Arabia Cultural Mission on Hilltop Road near Merifield is officially associated with the Saudi Arabian Embassy to the United States. It replaced the non-official but Saudi supported Institute of Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, until that institution was raided in 2004 by FBI and ICE agents conducting a terrorism probe.
To avoid this happening again, the Saudis razed the old building and placed the new Cultural Mission under Saudi diplomatic protection so the feds couldn't conduct a search warrant there again without creating a huge international stink.
The purpose of both "cultural missions" is to support the spread of Wahhabbism, which is a fundamentalist version of Islam to which many Sunni terrorists subscribe.
Today, I drove by and there was a Middle Eastern appearing bearded male standing near the car entry port. He was dressed like a security guard and was holding what appeared to be some type of an AR15 rifle at the low ready.
A bit up the street was a Fairfax PD SUV. No visible light package, but the vehicle had all of the other official markings.
I'm all for Americans having the right to self defense and protecting our visiting foreign government officials, but I think it's somewhat suspect when you have employees of an alleged "cultural mission" that essentially is teaching a philosophy of living that is antithetical to the American way of life as described in our Constitution walking around with AR15s on American soil...
Here's an old article describing what happened when the feds raided the old "cultural mission":
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/07/01/feds-search-virginia-islamic-center.html