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Posted on 09/22/2001 8:59:04 PM PDT by dd-chuk

September 21, 2001

TERRORISTS TARGET AMERICA:
PERSPECTIVES FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD
Compiled by Srdja Trifkovic

Media consumers in the United States may be forgiven if they entertain the illusion that the condemnation of terrorist attacks was worldwide and universal. In fact the Islamic world is at best ambiguous about the whole affair, and at worst both gleeful and inclined to look for American-Israeli conspiracies. This applies in almost equal measure to countries considered unfriendly to Washington and to America’s “allies.” For instance, the leading Arabic-language daily newspaper, Al Ahram of Egypt, published an op-ed on September 13 that was full of inaccuracies but set the tone for much of the Arab world:

The perpetrators are Americans, we say, not Arabs or Palestinians, for the following reasons: 1. Not a single alert from airports where the planes were hijacked indicated the presence of an Arab passenger. 2. An American journalist called her husband from the hijacked plane to Pentagon, and, if she suspected an Arab, she would surely have mentioned it. 3. In the communications s between the hijacked plane and the tower, there wasn't a change in the voice tone of the pilots, which demonstrates that the perpetrators are not strangers and maybe the pilots themselves. 4. Palestinians, they are capable only of limited sabotage operations. 5. Planning these attacks required months and months and hi-tech methods that exceed the capabilities of any Palestinian or Arab inside the U.S. In addition, they are all under surveillance in the U.S. 6. The pilots knew exactly their way and targets and have been spotting them for a long time, they flew the planes through high buildings which none but an American could do. 8. These acts happened on September 11; and on June 11 McVeigh was executed.

On Sept. 17 another Ahram columnist, Abdel Moneim Said, opined that “With great contempt, Israel exploited the blood of the innocent victims of New York and Washington, to achieve its own purposes first by blaming Palestinians and then by directing brutal and barbaric attacks on Palestinian cities.”

This from the leading daily newspaper that supports--and is supported by--the government of Egypt, a key American “ally” in the Middle East. The second in importance is Al Akhbar, which also reflects government positions. On September 13 it called the attack “vague and complicated”:

Truly, the U.S., in Bush’s era, raised unprecedented anger among humankind. He revealed his foolish, failed policy, which shows the arrogance of military and economic power. This great America, with the strongest intelligence organization in the world, is the one that suffered such act. The gravest mistake is that he U.S. and other countries direct accusations without proof. We Arabs, who stand accused, could not have done it.

information points a finger toward other groups, especially the Jews. The news reported that 4,000 Israelis did not go to work last Tuesday at the World Trade Center in New York because of a warning from their government. What is obvious is that the investigations are clearly insufficient and that there is an intent to focus the accusations on Arabs and Muslims rather than those that all of the leads point to.

In Oman Al-Watan declared on 9/12: “The Mossad might be involved to link Palestinians and Arabs to the events and create pressure from the public opinion against Arabs or Islam.” Even in the enlightened, pro-Western Malaysia, the government-influenced daily Utusan Malaysia agreed (9/18) without naming the suspect:

The evidence that the U.S. investigators have about the terrorists is too simple to be believed. Such a plot would have required much skill and planning, it is doubtful that the culprits would leave so much evidence to be discovered by authorities.

In the key U.S. ally in the region, Pakistan, the same tone was present in, among others, the second largest Urdu daily Nawa-e-Waqt (9/14):

Terrorism in America is a despicable conspiracy against the Muslims of the world. No one except Israel and the Jews have the resources and network to give that kind of a jolt to the world. The American administration should get rid of the Jews’ dominance and reach the roots of the conspiracy. The administration should fulfill its legal and moral responsibility by protecting all Muslims in America including Pakistanis.

An editorial in the Karachi daily Pakistan held (9/14):

America and the western countries should be aware of the dirty propaganda unleashed by Zionists and fanatic Hindus, who want to take advantage of a clash between the Christian and Muslim worlds. Who is unaware of the fact that Jews dominate the world media and they have found a rare opportunity to malign Muslim world . . . Without proving the accusation any military action and bloodshed against a nation or group would be a tragedy bigger then the tragedy.

Back in Cairo the voice of the Egyptian opposition, Al-Wafd, wondered on September 13:

Is there a party that is instigating American thinking to rush after a certain reaction? In 1954, only coincidence revealed an Israeli plot to strike at American interests in Egypt to harm American-Egyptian relations. This operation is beyond the capability of any Palestinian or Afghani organization, or even Bin Laden. The fear is that the Middle East becomes a victim because unfortunately, the United States sees that violence is imbedded in this region. Israel will certainly propagate serious ideas that may push the United States to the reaction Israel wants.

In Saudi Arabia, Jeddah-based Al-Bilad remarked on September 13 that “the key beneficiary of yesterday’s horrible catastrophe against the American people is Israel”:

The leadership of Israel missed no opportunity to take advantage of the world’s shock… The Arab media must now, after smoke and ash began to fade away from the United States’ sky, monitor more closely what is going on in the Palestinian occupied territories. The Arab media must pay more attention to incidents of killing, demolition of houses, and torture which the Palestinians suffer under the oppression of occupation.

In another “allied” country, Jordan, Al-Dustour warned on September 12 that “some parties are already pointing the finger at Arabs and Muslims, with no evidence whatsoever”:

The ugliest form of manipulation of these attacks that horrified the Americans and all the human race came at the hands of Sharon as he maliciously said that America and Israel are facing the same terror, in a clear attempt at describing the liberation efforts of the Palestinian people as terrorism. We strongly denounce the attacks against civilians and innocent people . . . We also warn against any attempt to take advantage of this tragic situation to put the blame on the Arabs and the Muslims.

Al Akhbar’s columnist Wagih Abu Zikry on Sept. 14 regretted the loss of civilian lives, but:

Undoubtedly, this suicidal terrorist group believed in what it did, and had tasted great U.S. violence, thus wanted to make the Bush administration taste from the same cup. The United States emerged from World War II with victory, raising the banner of democracy, freedom, and human rights. However, soon after world public opinion supported the American principles, policies were implemented against these principles. The United States, because the sole superpower, and instead of being devoted to serve humanity and achieve the noble principles it declared, it employed its power against nations worldwide. Washington posed itself as the judge and persecutor. How many countries in the world hate the United States? We hope the attacks become an opportunity for Americans to pursue a new policy of self-restraint. No need for the United States to attack, blockade or usurp the wealth of nations.

Pakistan is the key player in the aftermath of September 11. Its deep unease about the services it is expected to render to the United States is reflected in the tone of the Pakistani press. Most papers scrupulously avoid dwelling on the unpopularity of Islamabad’s policy of cooperation with the US and overwhelming support for Osama Bin Laden in the country, but they cannot conceal the mood of tension. The best-known English-language daily in Pakistan, the Karachi-based Dawn, reported on Sept. 15 that some 50 US agents were already operating in the country:

The majority of the agents arrived overnight Thursday and early Friday when Islamabad airport was closed mysteriously for five hours, the sources said. The Americans are involved in advance liaison work and the selection of Pakistani officers to work with them in preparation for possible military operations in or against neighbouring Afghanistan. They are also carrying out research, notably on the feasibility of getting troops into Afghanistan.

Second-largest Urdu daily Nawa-e-Waqt wondered on September 17 what was the purpose of such cooperativeness:

The Government of Pakistan has not yet told the nation as to what advantages America has offered to Pakistan for its participation in the American war, nor has it come out with a justification for cooperation in the international action. Taliban have categorically threatened an action against any country that would give bases (to America) for attack on their country. Has anyone thought as to what would happen if the elements that made America mad by hitting the World Trade Center and Pentagon directed their wrath towards Pakistan due to our imprudence, and if America would come to our rescue? God forbid, in such a situation where would the country’s Jihadi organization and Madaris be standing? The common man would not be supportive of the government’s action due to anti-U.S. feelings. Why create a chaos that would not be controllable by anyone? America would try to target the Jihadi camps and Madaris by declaring them training camps for terrorism. These questions should be reflected upon.

On Sept. 18 the same paper even more sharply criticized the policy of cooperation with the United States that was apparently pursued in Islamabad:

After Japan and Iraq, the U.S. is bent upon destroying Afghanistan, and instead of informing the world about the U.S. designs Pakistan has decided to cooperate with it. We would know the ramifications of the cooperation only when we would be badly trapped in the quicksand. May God have mercy on Pakistan.

Mushahid Hussain observed in the Nation (9/18) that

the new coalition cannot be functional without major Muslim representation. The U.S. badly needs Muslim nations now just as it did during the Gulf War in 1991. Muslim leaders, generally lacking in political spine, need to muster up the courage and the will and vision to look beyond their own political survival so that the much talked about "clash of civilizations" does not become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In any case, the Muslim partners in the coalition should first insist on a diplomatic solution before the military option is deemed necessary. More than the Americans, it is the Muslim nations who will feel the initial fallout of any military action against any Muslim country.

The pro-Muslim League daily Pakistan asserted that the American designs for a military action against Afghanistan threaten the region:

If America thought patiently it would not be difficult to understand that Muslim Ummah [believers] would consider an attack on Afghanistan as the beginning of the attack and occupation of the Muslim world. This is not just a presumption but a real apprehension, on the basis of which close allies of America, France and Britain, have said that they support America but are not willing to go into a fight that would position them against the Islamic world.

The paper’s editor Mujibur Rehman Shami reluctantly supported compliance with the U.S. in a front page editorial on 9/17:

Pakistan will also be targeted if it desists from supporting the U.S. India wants international anger to be diverted towards Pakistan as a state sponsoring terrorism. In this situation, Pakistan’s sensitive installations can face terrible damage; the Kashmir issue will be finished forever and Pakistan’s dream of becoming an economic power will never materialize. If Pakistan were made a target, Afghanistan would still not be spared. Pakistan has defeated Indian plans by announcing support for the U.S. Pakistan has come out of its isolation and now is in a position to play a global role. If the leadership plays its cards right, Pakistan’s economic troubles will decrease and Indian efforts to declare Kashmir a terrorist endeavor will fail.

High-circulation Din declared (9/17) that “the situation arising out of the terrorism in America has created for Pakistan the gravest crisis that it has faced since independence” and that “any hasty decision made while succumbing to the terror spread by western media and chaos would be without any support from millions of Pakistanis.”

Tariq Ahmad declared in the same paper on Sept. 14:

America should stop and consider how long it will continue supporting Israel, how long it will continue intervening in Afghanistan, how long it will continue supporting India on the Kashmir issue? If you want to live, you must let others live too. If Americans have civil rights, so do people of other nations. You cannot draw a line between the worlds. It is being said that the world’s liberal and democratic countries will be on one side of the divide and terrorists and those who harbor them will be on the other. Draw a line if you must, but this line should be between the aggressors and the victims.

The Nation concluded (9/17) that Pakistan should strike a bargain with Washington:

Damned if it helps the U.S., not only by the Taliban but also by the large number of Taliban supporters in the country, and damned if it does not, because the U.S., already suspicious of Pakistan’s disclaimers of its support of the Taliban, would lump Pakistan and Afghanistan together and act accordingly. The threat from the Taliban to take vengeance from Pakistan, combined with the threat of some religious parties within Pakistan, should not be under-estimated. There is, therefore, a price tag attached to the support for a military action by the U.S. All concerned, including the U.S., should read that tag well.

Back in Cairo Abdel Aziz Rantisi of Hamas commented in Al-Quds (9/14):

The United States enforces backwardness and subordination upon these nations in favor of American interests and accumulation of wealth. This, in turn, has earned the United States the hatred and animosity of many nations, including Latin America, Europe, especially in the Balkans, Africa, South East Asia and what is known as the Middle East… Security in the West will not be achieved at the expense of helpless nations. Western support to Israel will not help, either. Justice and respect of humanity are the only way to bring about security to the world.

Al Ahram’s editor-in-chief Ibrahim Nafie warned on Sept. 14 that the United States’ reputation “is currently at a low level for different reasons in different places”:

In the Middle East, the United States’ moral credibility has been in a major test where Sharon’s bloody role and American absolute support for Israel contributed largely to the feeling of hatred. Certainly this requires a total review not only because of this barbaric attack, but also in general. The ground that reached this [hatred] was the double standard and absence of justice.

Al Ahram’s columnist Mohamed Salmawy wrote on Sept. 17 that this was not the greatest terrorist attack in history, as Americans said: it was Hiroshima and Nagasaki:

It is certainly the biggest sabotage operation against a country, though, especially that country of massive power, which has been unjust to so many countries in the world. In our Arab world, Iraq, Libya and Sudan suffered from foolish American military acts. The United States is also responsible for what is happening to Palestinians by American-made weapons and planes. We condemn the loss of innocent Americans, as we condemned the brutal acts against Palestinians.

In the West Bank Hafiz Barghouti opined in semi-official Al-Hayat Al-Jadida (9/17):

Afghanistan was a field for experiments between the Soviet and Capitalist camps. It was, in fact, one of the first causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union… Unfortunately, the West has left Afghanistan as a prey for warlords after having used it to wear out the communist giant. Then, instead of rewarding the people of Afghanistan, the West left them exposed to the remains of the different weapons. Today the developed and civilized world is committing the same horrific and grave mistakes in Afghanistan, which has become a clear example of the harshness and cruelty of a world that only cares about its own interests. So, will the Western countries globalize justice or will they globalize terrorism? This depends only on the wisdom of the American leadership.

In Bahrain, another “pro-Western” friendly Arab state, the daily Akhbar Al-Khalij on Sept. 15 published the opinion of Abdulrahman Al-Nuaimi:

If the world really wants to preserve security and stability and confront terrorist movements and countries, it should treat the reasons which led to this phenomenon instead of treating its current results… When millions of people in the world get pushed to the brink of death because of the catastrophic economic polices of the West and intrusive regimes, many movements that are opposing the barbaric globalization will be produced… So long as the American administration stands behind the number one terrorist state [Israel], establishment of an international coalition that includes Sharon and Peres will be simply a coalition to terrorize the world. The Arabs must not join such a satanic coalition. Arab countries should not host the WTO meeting.

Al Wafd’s editor-in-chief Magdy Mehanna also mentioned WTO (9/15):

To rid the world of terrorism one must first get rid of the (underlying) causes which led to terrorism. Real terrorism is what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. Is the United States willing to do anything to stop this terrorism? How does the United States describe what happened in Durban? The world should write down its definition of terrorism so that the United States would not dictate its own definition. The way the superpowers exercise their veto is a form of terrorism. I do not exclude WTO from committing terrorism by imposing its programs on the smaller countries. Globalization may drive certain people to form organizations which strongly oppose these unfair policies. What kind of terrorism is the U.S. talking about and massing the world to combat?

London-based Al-Hayat ran a commentary by former editor Jihad Al-Khazen (9/16):

Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not terrorist organizations; they are liberation movements.... The resistance of these Islamic organizations to all forms of Israeli occupation is absolutely legitimate and must enjoy continuous support until Israel withdraws from all occupied territories. If the United States had stopped the terrorism of Israel, counter-terrorism would have ended automatically. It is a reaction to the terrorism the United States supports by weapons, money and veto power at the UNSC… We assert that terrorism is what Israel is doing, and that Ariel Sharon is another Osama bin Laden.

In Damascus Bashar Saati commented in government-owned Syria Times (9/17):

Israel has started its campaign of lies and accusations against Arabs and Moslems even before the U.S. investigations have been concluded. Sharon was the first to fabricate and spread these lies and accusations in an evil attempt to mislead others and incite them against Arabs and Moslems alike. Sharon even told Americans that both the U.S. and Israel suffer from the same source of terrorism . . . When it comes to terrorism, Israel is at the top of the list of terrorism. Israel is the only source of danger in the region.

Ahmad Dhawa, commentator in the Syrian government-owned daily Al-Thawra, called on the world community “not to ignore the state terrorism practiced by the Israeli government” (9/18):

Usually it makes use of the atmosphere created by crises such as those that happened in Washington and New York to cover up its terrorism against Palestinians and Arabs by blaming innocents. Arabs were the first to condemn the terrorist operations against the U.S. They hope to hear condemnation from the U.S. and the West of the Israeli terrorism. Arabs and Moslems, who are the victim of Zionist terrorism, greatly appreciated the French Ambassador to Israel who refused to compare the terrorist attacks against the U.S. with the Palestinian resistance operations against Israel which are a natural response to occupation.

In Amman, the capital of Jordan, Al-Dustour opined (9/18):

Israel has been trying to invest American reactions against Arabs and Muslims and settle its score with the Palestinian people… The experience of the Arab alliance with America during the Gulf War explicitly shows that the United States usually has objectives not seen by anyone, that the United States usually overcomes what it says and promises to its allies. This is what happened ten years ago when it became clear that America had objectives beyond the issue of liberating Kuwait. It wanted to target Iraq, being a regional power that can threaten Israel.

Fahd Fanek wrote in Al-Ra’i (9/18) that it is time for America to wake up and realize that there are those in this world who hate America to the point that they are willing to sacrifice their own lives to inflict harm upon it:

The upshot of such a tragedy is that it will open blind eyes and clogged minds towards a reconsideration of everything. The "everything" includes institutions, laws and procedures and all that needs to and does not need to be reconsidered. It might even include U.S. policies that brought upon it hatred and hostility. Is it in America’s interest and security to continue the siege against the people of Iraq for the eleventh year? Is it in America’s interest to indefinitely keep its armed forces in the heart of the Arab Peninsula? Is it fair for the America to impose sanctions on countries, most of which are Arab and Muslim countries, like Libya, Sudan, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan? Is it wise that Arab and Muslim countries are placed on the State Department’s list of countries harboring terrorism, and then reaches out to these same countries asking for help in its war against terrorism? If the result of what happened in New York and Washington is a reconsideration of all these policies, then it is very likely that terrorism will lose its foothold and American interests in the world will be in a better shape.

Yahia Aridi, Director of Channel 2, Syrian TV, commented (9/18):

Israel has been fishing in murky waters in the past few days at the expense of the U.S. tragedy… Even U.S. officials asked Israeli officials, probably indirectly, not to exploit the American tragedy by carrying out revengeful policies while world attention is focused on the American events and away from what Israel might be doing in the dark. During these past few days Israel has done two things: It has inflamed feelings against Arabs and Islam; and it has perpetrated crimes against Palestinians while the world eyes are firmly focused elsewhere.

In Tunisia, French-language-political weekly Le Journal Hebdomadaire wrote on 9/18 of “the U.S. foreign policy’s cynicism that has had a boomerang effect”:

We don’t mean that the U.S. has received what they deserve because what happened is a human tragedy, not just a U.S. tragedy. Those who carried out those atrocities are barbarians and have put themselves outside the human community… However, all security measures and punitive actions of the U.S. army won't annihilate the risk that those attacks would be repeated one day. The best protection lies in a more just approach towards the Middle East.

Government-influenced Berita Harian stated (9/17):

It is unfortunate that America does not want to see the link between its 'diplomatic' actions and the violence towards Washington. America does not want to admit its mistake, but would rather choose a way out that does not detract it from its biased foreign policies. It seems to prefer blaming others so that it does not have to admit that it may be the cause of its own problems.

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