ABHA (Saudi Arabia): The US-led bombardments underway in Afghanistan were met with ambivalence in the Arab world, which wrestled on Sunday night over whether the military action was a proper response to an attack on American soil or muscle-flexing by a superpower against Islam.
The region was spellbound both by the US response and by Osama bin Laden’s call to Muslims to rise against the US for reasons ranging from its support for Israel to its military presence in Saudi Arabia.
Appealing directly to the religious sentiments of Arabs and Muslims, Osama clearly struck a chord among some. “Osama bin Laden was right on the money,” said Hamza Mohammed, 25, a New York State law student, as he puffed on a water pipe in Cairo.
But there was no sign that the cry for expanded jihad was about to take immediate root. Although the prospect of anger over new US military action against a Muslim country has kept governments in the region on edge since the Sept 11 attacks against New York and Washington, there was calm on the streets of Cairo, Beirut and Amman on Sunday evening.
Palestinian officials clamped down on any potential demonstrations to avoid the embarrassment suffered after the Sept 11 attacks, when groups gathered to cheer in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinian journalists received telephone calls from the semi-official Palestinian Journalists Syndicate in Gaza City, warning them not to report on any demonstrations that might erupt, and police patrols plied the streets of Palestinian cities. Yasser Abed Rabbo, minister of information and culture of the Palestinian Authority, dismissed Osama’s declaration.
“Any crazy person can claim he is for the rights of the Palestinian people,” he said. “Let him say whatever he wants, but this is not the way to solve our problems.”
As US planes attacked targets throughout Afghanistan, apparently destroying power plants, airstrips and air defence facilities as they did in initial strikes against Iraq 10 years ago, moderate Arab states that have joined the US anti-terrorism coalition withheld formal response.
As opposed to outright anger against the attacks or support of US retaliation for the thousands of lives lost in the Sept 11 attacks, ambivalence seemed the dominant mood. The Taliban is not widely popular, although attacks against any Muslim government are a sensitive matter in the Arab world. At the same time, the feeling is widespread that the United States has not done enough to prove the connection between Osama and the Sept 11 attack to warrant military action.
“They want to blow out their anger,” Marwan Asmer said in the Jordanian neighbourhood of Swefieh. “But it is not going to stop the violence.” Lebanon said that the US strikes showed that Washington was forcing its definition of terrorism on the world.
The strongest initial reactions came from two longtime enemies of the United States - Iraq and Iran, both labouring under trade embargoes, and one, Iraq, under regular US military air patrols.
In Tehran, at odds with the Taliban for drug smuggling and deep differences in their interpretation of Islam, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi said the “vast US attacks” were “unacceptable,” and had been “launched regardless of world public opinion,” according to IRNA, the official new agency.
In Iraq, state television called the raids a “treacherous aggression” against Afghanistan.
A measure of the success of the Bush administration’s diplomacy among Muslim states will be taken later this week, when foreign ministers from the member nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference meet in Doha, Qatar, to discuss their position on, and their definition of, terrorism. Coming in the midst of military action, it is a session that will be watched closely, particularly given Osama’s effort to stoke a popular response on religious grounds.
Turbaned and somewhat glassy-eyed, Taliban deputy minister Mullah Noor Ali said that the bombardment was “the act of pagans, and as a result we reconfirm our stands. Let me reassure you. We are ready to face everything.” —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service (c) The Washington Post.
