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NEWS ANALYSIS: The Despair Beneath the Arab World's Growing Rage
The New York Times ^ | October 14, 2001 | SUSAN SACHS

Posted on 10/13/2001 4:19:47 PM PDT by sarcasm


Norbert Schiller for The New York Times
The spire of a mosque towers above a McDonald's in Cairo.

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CAIRO, Oct. 13 — The Bush administration's war on terror, in effect, is a war on the Islamic extremism that was born and bred in the crowded slums of Egypt and the sterile desert cities of Saudi Arabia. To uproot hatred's seeds — that abject sense of powerlessness that drives some people to loathe anyone who represents power — would require colossal change in both nations, where the rulers have traditionally been America's strongest Arab allies.

"This war on terrorism may eliminate a few terrorists," said Mohamed Zarea, a human rights activist in Cairo who believes political and social improvements are the ultimate answer. "But without basic reforms, it will be like killing a few mosquitoes and leaving the swamp."

American strategy in the Middle East has long relied on Egypt as a moderating force, particularly in the conflict with Israel, and Saudi Arabia as a stabilizing influence on the weak tribal regimes of the oil-rich Persian Gulf.

Despite the risk to their standing in the Arab world, the leaders of each country have generally accepted their roles and the rewards that came with them. The Bush administration's appeal now would seem to be tailor-made for the Egyptian and Saudi rulers.

The Egyptians have known terrorism first hand — President Hosni Mubarak was the target of an assassination attempt by Islamic militants in 1995. His predecessor, Anwar Sadat, was killed by them in 1981. The Saudi royal family, whose power rests on its claim to religious piety, has endured Osama bin Laden's charge of being unfit to oversee the Muslim holy places of Mecca and Medina.

Yet both the Egyptian and Saudi rulers are also entrenched elites dealing with increasing social frustration — rooted in stagnant economies and a paucity of jobs — and the difficulty of managing generational change at the top.

In the last year, the rulers have tried to weather a storm of anti-American sentiment arising from the perception that the United States is Israel's backer against the Palestinian uprising.

And now, the list of America's most- wanted terrorists, replete with the names of Egyptians and Saudis, has made it abundantly clear to everyone that hatred for the United States and its friends was nurtured on their own soil.

Egypt, with 69 million people, is the Arab world's most populous state. In a region made up of nations carved by European powers from the carcass of the Ottoman empire, it has the distinction of being the only Middle Eastern country living within its historic borders.

The Arab world's defining political ideologies have emanated from Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood, the grandfather of the modern movements that seek to replace secular governments with Islamic states, was born here. Pan-Arab nationalism, the secular movement that sought to erase the European-made borders and create a single Arab nation, took concrete form here.

Egypt was also the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, a decision that ushered in Egyptian-American cooperation but cost President Sadat his life.

In the view of many Egyptians, the peace treaty has not brought the rewards they were led to expect in compensation for their isolation in the Arab world. The bulk of the more than $2 billion annual American aid goes to the military. Huge public housing projects, built far from the city centers in the desert, sit empty. Unemployment, especially among college graduates, has been rising.

Reform of the centrally planned economy has never really gotten off the ground. One third of the work force still holds government jobs that pay so little — about 300 Egyptian pounds a month, or the equivalent of $71 — that most people have to supplement their incomes with another job or two.

Yet Egyptian universities continue to grind out graduates. Each year, 20,000 new lawyers hit the streets, swelling the ranks of what economists here call the "educated poor."

Mr. Zarea, like many young men from working-class families, went to law school, carrying all his family's dreams of a better life.

Mr. Zarea ended up in human rights work. Most of his classmates — those lacking political or family connections to get a high-paying job — ended up scraping by in private practice on the equivalent of $30 a month.

"You can't afford to take a taxi to court," said Mr. Zarea, who is 36. "You go by bus. You can barely afford the suit you need to appear before a judge. So you work a second job as a waiter or a taxi driver or a manual worker. And after all this physical and mental effort you can't even start a life and get married because you can't afford it. And you end up blaming society and the government."

He recalled a friend with an engineering degree, the first in his family to reach such heights.

While studying, the young man worked part-time as a waiter in a neighborhood coffee shop, where the patrons respectfully addressed him as "Mister." Once he graduated, they showed even greater respect by calling him "Engineer."

He could only find a government job that paid less than $50, but considered himself lucky. Still, he kept his night job in the cafe. And at the office, his government coworkers teasingly called him "waiter."

"He couldn't leave his job because it gave him the prestige he needed," said Mr. Zarea. "He couldn't leave the cafe because it gave him the money he needed. It pushed him into a serious depression and eventually he just quit the government." Now, he works full-time at the cafe.

Frustration is likely to intensify. Like most Arab countries, Egypt is awash in young people. More than 55 percent of the population is under the age of 25 and has known no other president than Mr. Mubarak.

In Saudi Arabia, 59.4 percent of the population is under the age of 25. Unemployment is high. The oil wealth that seemed unlimited in the 1980's has proved insufficient to subsidize today's young people to the extent that it did their parents. Criticism of the Saudi royal family that has ruled the country since its creation in 1932 is dealt with severely.

Predictably, the disappointed and disenfranchised youth of both Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where Islam is a way of life, turn to religion for comfort. They blame the government but are fearful of expressing their anger openly. They blame outsiders — in the Middle East, that is the seemingly all-powerful United States — who seem to have everything.

"It's easy for the average Egyptian to say, we tried modernity but it didn't take us anywhere and we didn't become Europe," said Tarek Heggy, a wealthy Cairo businessman and political analyst. "It's easy for him to say, we tried pan-Arabism and it didn't work and it didn't take us anywhere. And, if he's a simple- minded person, he might say they didn't work because God wasn't with us."

The Palestinian uprising, and the continued American and British bombing of Iraq, have also stoked the discontent about America.

When Mr. bin Laden was blamed for the attacks in the United States, many here reacted with anger and disbelief.

"Every time it has to be Muslims to blame, every time!" shouted Amaal abdel Rabboh, a housewife of 42, outside a mosque in Cairo on Friday. "Our blood is cheap, eh? No, our blood is precious and the American blood is water. Bin Laden is just an excuse to occupy Afghanistan."

When Mr. bin Laden, a son of one of the richest men in Saudi Arabia and a one-time hero for taking up arms against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980's, portrayed himself as a champion of Palestinians, he struck a responsive chord.

"You cannot expect people to join him tomorrow," said Fahmi Howeidi, an Egyptian commentator on Islamic political movements. "But in the long run this increases sympathy for him."


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1 posted on 10/13/2001 4:19:47 PM PDT by sarcasm
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To: sarcasm
They will have plenty to despair about over the next ten years.
2 posted on 10/13/2001 4:21:38 PM PDT by ScholarWarrior
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To: sarcasm
Well, it's nice to know their reasoning, but in the end it has no direct relevance. You try to kill us, we will kill you. End of story.
3 posted on 10/13/2001 4:21:50 PM PDT by Timesink
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To: sarcasm
They'd better start worrying about OUR rage, which the world has not seen for more than 50 years.
4 posted on 10/13/2001 4:22:57 PM PDT by Maceman
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To: sarcasm
That said, The Times is not getting from me the reaction that they want. All this article says to me is that we have a legitimate reason to invade every one of these Middle Eastern countries, depose their rulers, and institute US military rule until we can set them up with rational governments like we did in Japan after WWII.
5 posted on 10/13/2001 4:24:08 PM PDT by Timesink
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To: sarcasm
They haven't seen dispair yet. Wait until they have to deal with the aftermath of the mass murder or 9/11. Arabs will never be trusted again. The Saudi prince didn't help matters none when he, supposedly our friend, blamed us. They are in for a world of pain, suffering, and dispair. All deserved.
6 posted on 10/13/2001 4:25:24 PM PDT by go star go
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To: Maceman
DAMN STRAIGHT!
7 posted on 10/13/2001 4:26:03 PM PDT by go star go
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To: sarcasm
Susan Sachs - Whitewashing Hezbullah
8 posted on 10/13/2001 4:27:14 PM PDT by veronica
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To: sarcasm
One question for all the chest-beaters on this thread:

What is the proof - where is the evidence - of bin Laden's involvement in 9-11?

Better read up on Unocal, freepers - just so you know for what your freedoms were lost.

9 posted on 10/13/2001 4:28:15 PM PDT by Anochka
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To: sarcasm
Arabs showing "Despair" as Americans die by the Thousands

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10 posted on 10/13/2001 4:28:31 PM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: Maceman
All I hear is "we have to understand why they hate us." I think they had better start asking themselves "why do Americans hate us?" And start asking it pretty damn quick, because the answer is about to fall on them!
11 posted on 10/13/2001 4:28:45 PM PDT by In mourning for six years
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To: sarcasm
There seems to be a problem with education in a lot of countries. Where "degrees" are sought for the status they provide, countries stay poor. When education and skills are sought for the purpose of being able to produce stuff and make money, the country prospers
12 posted on 10/13/2001 4:30:02 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor
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To: sarcasm
"Bin Laden is just an excuse to occupy Afghanistan...."

Where do they get such ideas? Has the American President ever indicated that he wishes to add Afghanistan as the 51st state? When will these people get it through their thick heads that we are there to take out as many murderers as possible, so that murders as in 9/11 don't happen again. Why would any government in their right mind want to occupy Afghanistan.....sheez......

13 posted on 10/13/2001 4:36:39 PM PDT by anniegetyourgun
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To: sarcasm
When Mr. bin Laden was blamed for the attacks in the United States, many here reacted with anger and disbelief. "Every time it has to be Muslims to blame, every time!"

Uh-huh. Sure seems that way.

14 posted on 10/13/2001 4:38:07 PM PDT by Hugin
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To: sarcasm
The current battle is about one thing: killed or be killed. If millions of Arabs want us dead, we will have to respond in kind.
15 posted on 10/13/2001 4:39:22 PM PDT by NoControllingLegalAuthority
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To: Diogenesis
I wonder if she was singing when we started bombing last week?
16 posted on 10/13/2001 4:40:57 PM PDT by marajade
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To: Timesink
Obviously, these people bought the lie of our former President - "it's the economy, stupid" and are distressed over their inability to grab ahold of material wealth. Therefore, they commit wholesale murder. Don't you remember, it's the same argument we get about blacks in America jails. The only reason they riot, loot, rape, deal drugs, kill, and mame is because of poverty. Ergo, if they, and our Muslim pals in these Middle Eastern countries all had millions, they would never have done what they did on 9/11. Oh wait, Binny is a millionaire......oh, never mind......
17 posted on 10/13/2001 4:41:30 PM PDT by anniegetyourgun
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To: Timesink
Would it work? Could you imagine taking over all those countries? How is that possible with all the spoiled brats in USA and Europe? The reality is we cannot bomb the hell out of them because after USSR did that in Afgan we got the worst out of there. The reality is for all the testosterone around free republic and understandable need to avenge by showing our might we are just destabilizing an entire region. I am a conservative and have wanted the US to be isolationist until 9/11/01. I realize now that Americans are totally unprepared for this. We are talking about over 1 billion people, and most are not Arabs. This article is exactly right, it's all about poverty. Note that the animals of 9/11 were all middle class brats! Nice paradox. Everyone face it we cannot kill all of them and we cannot deport all of them. We must fix the problem or we will never see the world we grew up in. We must advance the people of this region or we will sew the seeds of our own destruction. As for Israel, it put itself in this position. They went back to this region. They're in it with the Arabs whether they like it or not. So all of those pro-Israeli's should be screaming for reform there if they want that country to be successful. But most cannot see farther than the nearest Arab. Sad but true. As for free republicans, I'm sad to say that many are truly ignorant, probably have never been outside the US (except for Canada) and really have no idea that our country's success is dependent on peace and world stability. I know most will hit me with eloquent replies that will expand the discussion (yeah right) but I challenge you all to think carefully to accept another's opinion. Thank God for George Bush. God bless America.
18 posted on 10/13/2001 4:44:31 PM PDT by Find_Truth
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To: sarcasm
ARAB world's growing rage?!? I just called in a potential biohazard I saw on a stretch of I-270--a major DC area artery--and I'm PISSED because they will probably have to shut the lanes down while investigating the substance, thus hampering the commutes of hundreds! THEY'RE p!$$ed. They'd better hope their Arab anger does not come within striking distance of ME, the B*ST*RDS!!!
19 posted on 10/13/2001 4:46:59 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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