News from Democracy Egypt: The many who feel they suffer for thefew (fwd)

["Clement M. Henry" <chenry@mail.la.utexas.edu>]

Here is some useful background about public opinion in Egypt and much of
the rest of the Arab world concerning the USA these post 911 days.  The
main underlying grievance is our siding with Israel in the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

*****************************
Clement M. Henry
Professor of Government
University of Texas at Austin
Austin TX 78712
tel 471-5121, fax 471-1061

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2002 22:11:01 -0000
From: democracy_egypt <democracy_egypt@yahoo.com>
To: free_saadeddin_ibrahim@yahoogroups.com
Subject: News from Democracy Egypt:   The many who feel they suffer for the
    few

Financial Times (London)
September 4, 2002

The many who feel they suffer for the few: There is a growing feeling
in Arab and Muslim societies that America's war on terrorism is being
unjustifiably waged against them, writes Roula Khalaf

By ROULA KHALAF

Shunning such soft American symbols as Marlboro cigarettes and Coca-
Cola is the politically correct way to act in today's Middle East.

Frustrated by restrictions on public demonstrations and a lack of
political organisation, ordinary Arabs have resorted to boycotting
American products to express the general anti-American sentiment that
has dominated the region's politics since since the US declared
its "global war on terror".

It seems to matter little that the boycott hurts the local economy
far more than that of the US.

Fast food, also a favourite target of disgruntled Arabs, is sold by
franchises that create jobs and soft drinks are produced by companies
that bring in much-needed foreign investment. But as one public
relations executive put it, "it's an act of desperation". That anger
at the US should be reflected in such non-violent ways a year after
September 11 might, on the surface, seem like a relief.

In reality, however, it is a signal of a deepening alienation with
America that now extends to the Arab world's elite and the middle
class, a section of society that has long acted as a bridge with the
west.

A feeling of humiliation has settled in the Arab world in the
aftermath of September 11. It is in some ways a product of a lack of
understanding of the impact of the attacks on America itself. It also
comes out of a conviction that Arab and Muslim societies have been
made to pay for the crimes of a few.

Partly driven by Arab outrage at Washington's unflinching backing for
Israel, the anti-US sentiment has been compounded by other aspects of
the war against terrorism.

That many of Washington's designated targets in the war against
terror are in the Middle East - from charities to businesses to
religious establishments - has fuelled the suspicion that the war is
being waged against Arab and Muslim societies.

Writing in Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper earlier this summer,
commentator Joseph Samaha warned that the Arabs must be prepared for
a long confrontation with the US, since the region is now perceived
by the US as the fount of all terror.

"We Arabs have not sufficiently realised the significance of the
concentration of the US's new enemies in our region. Terrorist
organisations are here. The states that sponsor terrorism are here.
The states that possess weapons of mass destruction are here .... We
are living an undeclared war on all fronts with the US."

The rise in anti-American sentiment has undermined the hope for
change that emerged after September 11. In the aftermath of the
atrocities, Arabs were confronted with the deep flaws in their own
societies, forcing even some governments to raise the same questions
asked in the west, namely to what extent the lack of democracy and
economic and social development has contributed to extremism.

In countries such as Kuwait, liberal intellectuals, their voices long
silenced by the virulence of the country's Islamist opposition, felt
encouraged to speak out. They warned that attempts to co-opt radical
Islamists by adopting their rhetoric and, in many cases, even their
policies, had tragically backfired.

In Saudi Arabia, critics of the strict Wahabi Islam practised in the
kingdom and of the religion-filled education system also found a rare
opportunity to express their frustrations. Meanwhile moderate clerics
there and elsewhere struggled to spread, to the west and to their own
constituencies, the more peaceful message of their religion.

But this evolution, evident in the first months after September 11,
has been overshadowed by a more alarming trend. The US campaign
against terrorism provided the authoritarian governments in the
region with an opportunity more forcefully to repress dissent in the
name of fighting terror.

Citing the need to destroy local cells of al-Qaeda and Washington's
own restrictions on civil liberties after September 11, governments
stepped up measures, including arrests, trials and new anti-terrorist
laws, which restricted the space for expression.

"These developments," noted Frontline, a Dublin-based human rights
organisation, "raise concerns that, in a region where human rights
violations have been widespread, many such measures will undo some of
the progress made in recent years."

That was not the only setback. Many Arabs believed that September 11
would reinforce the need to address the root causes of terrorism, in
particular the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In the aftermath of the terror attacks on the US, however, the Arabs'
sense of injustice has deepened. The US appeared to merge the anti-
terror campaign with Middle East policy, leading to more resolute
backing for Israel and its use of military force to crush Palestinian
violence.

But night after night viewers of Arab satellite stations saw
Palestinians killed by Israeli troops and heard the repeated calls
from Washington officials only on Palestinians to end their attacks.

The suicide bombings were portrayed as martyrdom operations and
justified morally on the ground that Palestinians have only human
bombs to counter Israel's sophisticated weaponry.

The argument that Palestinian terrorism had its own, more complex and
political context and required a different treatment from al-Qaeda
was not one that Washington has been willing to listen to.

Sadly the growing divide between the US and Arab attitudes has
trapped the region's pro-western secular liberal voices.

There was little applause for Washington last month when it withheld
new aid to Egypt to protest against the jailing of prominent
intellectual Saad el-Din Ibrahim. Egypt's opposition, from left to
right, backed the government's claim that the move was part of an
Egypt-bashing campaign.

As the US war on terrorism expands, and possibly leads to war against
Iraq, the danger is that the cumulative frustrations will give a
boost to al-Qaeda, strengthening its ability to win new recruits and
to wage new attacks against American targets.

Arab intelligence services say al-Qaeda's capabilities to launch
massive attacks has been strongly undermined but they remain on alert
for smaller terrorist actions against Americans, particularly in the
region.

"The Americans have not learned anything from September 11, they are
on the opposite side of the coin of the (extremists) in the Arab
world and they are mobilising people against them," said Mustafa
Hamarne, head of the Center for Strategic Studies at Jordan
University. "The whole US policy is retarding the process of
liberalisation in the region and pushing all the liberals and
progressive elements to the sidelines."



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