20 - 26 September 2001
Issue No.552
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 20 - 26 September 2001 Issue No.552 |
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Striking at phantoms
Only mutual comprehension will allow us to confront our common enemies, writes Mohamed Hakki*
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were shocking and saddening. All Arab Americans condemn them. They share the universal anger and rage against the perpetrators. Yet almost every single Arab American is worried: about his family's safety, his job security, and what will happen to his homeland -- not to mention future relations between the US and the Arab and Muslim countries.
None of the accused are Arab American, however -- a fact the media has not mentioned so far. US officials, from President George Bush and New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani down, have requested that Arab Americans and Muslims not be the victims of violence. Still, there have been attacks on people and mosques; but these are perpetrated by uneducated individuals who have absorbed fear, prejudice, and hatred of Arabs from the ignorant media and Hollywood movies. The attack pushed them over the brink, and gave them reason to vent their anger.
This attack was not perpetrated by suicide bombers like those of the West Bank and Gaza. The suicide bombers in Palestine are usually teenagers or young men. They are all desperate souls who have seen their homes and unarmed, innocent relatives blown out of existence by a superior military occupying power. Even their olive trees, symbols of peace since Noah's time, have been uprooted viciously and senselessly. The only way they can prevent themselves being bulldozed out of existence is to blow themselves up, along with as many of their enemies as they can.
The men who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were all over 30. All had good jobs and families. None of them appeared to be "fanatical Muslims," since some spent their time in bars and strip joints drinking vodka. Their rage is different. It was directed against the symbols of wealth and power. They meant to humiliate America, and prove to the Americans that they are not invincible; maybe to humble America a little. The result of this foolish act was exactly the opposite.
Now, America is at war. The comparison most readily available in recent US history is the attack against Pearl Harbor. But at Pearl Harbor, the attacker was another empire: Japan. It had formidable naval and airborne military forces. This time, America lost more victims. Pearl Harbor was far from the mainland, on the island of Hawaii. This time, the attack struck at the US's first cities. Nearly 99 per cent of the population is ready to go to war. The whole country is solidly behind the president. Everyone is saying we must win the war -- but against whom?
GLOBAL INTERESTS: top, the USS Carl Vinson, shown in the Pacific Ocean in July, currently deployed in the Gulf; above, a CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter hovers above Vinson and the USS Enterprise (in the background)
The only enemy identified so far is Osama Bin Laden, a ragged fugitive living in the poorest country in the world. Everyone here refers to him as the Saudi billionaire. At least when the British and European media mention him, they call him the Saudi defector or fugitive. No one is asking the question, but just where is he keeping his billions. Under the carpet? In the wardrobe? Where? He has no known teachings, no published books, no theories, no ideology to brainwash young minds. True, Bin Laden has a network of followers. He may have been behind the attacks on American targets at Al- Khobar, the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the destroyer Cole in Aden; but I still find it hard to believe he could "hire" 19 men to carry out such a horrendous attack and commit suicide in the process.
Still, the war is on. Against whom? With the CIA, the FBI, and all its intelligence surveillance equipment, America can listen to every telephone conversation on the globe; but it has not been able to pinpoint Bin Laden's exact location. It is said the US will fight "not only the terrorists, but the countries that harbour them" (meaning the Taliban). This goal can be achieved by "smoking them out" using Cruise missiles, and implementing other feel-good measures like carpet-bombing vast areas -- sending Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. But this poor God-forsaken country is not too far from the Stone Age anyway. Ground troops? Well, the Afghans defeated two former superpowers: the British in the 19th century, and the Soviets in the 20th. Besides, what if these attacks disrupt life in Pakistan and beyond, in other Muslim countries, creating counter-productive anti-American instabilities and terrorist attacks everywhere? It is easy to say we are going to root out their cells. How? They are everywhere; but where is everywhere? These are highly motivated and highly organised underground groups. Until the recent attacks on America, hundreds (even thousands) of Arabs had lost their lives in their own lands because of them.
What happened should no doubt be a wake-up call for America. But it should also be a wake- up call for the Arab world. Here in the US, many are saying that the attack is directly related to America's blind support for Israel, to its providing the Israeli army with the most lethal weapons even as it kills and maims Palestinians every day. Many see America aiding and abetting the occupation, and therefore encouraging annexation and ethnic cleansing on a scale never exercised before against any people.
Yet some in the US media continue to beat the drums of war relentlessly. We must also confront the Arab-Israeli problem. In an interview, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said that one per cent of the population of Pakistan -- the extremists -- is holding the remaining 99 per cent hostage. That, I believe, does not sound much different from America. There are unconditional supporters of Israel's policies, like Dennis Ross, former special envoy to the Middle East, who asserts that this would have happened even if we had reached peace at Camp David last July. There are, however, many others, like Bill McLaughlin, who devoted his Saturday night television programme to a discussion of the direct effect US policies -- especially America's unqualified support for Israel -- have on the Middle East. Henry Kissinger, a guest on the show, adopted a contemptuous and condescending attitude toward recent US policy, which he described as being subordinated to psychotherapy. Not surprisingly, he adopted Ross's view that this tragedy has nothing to do with the Middle East and would have happened regardless.
Then again, Kissinger has always been part of the problem, not the solution. After all, this is the man described as having done more for Israel than all its leaders put together. He is also the man who advised the Israelis during the first Intifada to shoot the kids but hide the cameras, at a time when television coverage of Israeli atrocities against children was turning the tide of American public opinion against the Israelis.
There is a call for what Hanan Ashrawi has called "re-examination and soul searching" on all sides. We should start by going beyond expressions of regret and deep sorrow. We should be telling the US that whatever the grievance, it does not justify this criminal act. Traditional Arab chivalry demands we show this minimum of decency, even to an adversary.
A Libyan friend of mine opined recently that America's status as the sole superpower at this juncture of human history may be a godsend. After all, it is multi-ethnic, non- ideological, non-totalitarian, non-chauvinistic, and God-fearing country. Americans believe deeply in justice and fairness. We need to admit that, even if we disagree vehemently with their policy in the Middle East; then we must embark together on the search for real solutions. We must tell America that we have been victims of the same terrorists for at least 20 years. European countries have long refused to cooperate on intelligence sharing about terrorism for fear that suspects may be subjected to torture and government-perpetrated human rights abuses. They were only half right. We yearn for the modern institutions Americans enjoy: free elections, a vibrant and representative parliament, a free press and a civil society that would render terrorist groups purposeless and irrelevant. We yearn to modernise our religious institutions so that they can confront and defeat ignorant, extremist and distorted perceptions of Islam. A healthy effervescence is doing just that. Unfortunately, unless they are supported by the government, people will hesitate to voice their opinions freely.
Our governments are terrified of being identified as "secular" for fear of being labeled non- Muslim. Yet we had secular democratic governments for decades and remained solidly Muslim at the same time. Unfortunately, the 1952 Revolution (and similar movements in other Arab countries) destroyed our chances of developing enlightened and progressive Islamic institutions by nationalising not only the Awqaf (charitable, private religious endowments), but also Al-Azhar itself. For 1,000 years, Al-Azhar was the centre of enlightened learning. Nationalisation made it part of the government bureaucracy.
Some foolishly believe that the terrorists hate America for what it is and what it stands for. Not true. These acts are not directed against the American way of life but, as Marwan Bishara, the Israeli Palestinian, says, "against all of us, against humanity, and against civilisation." We all share the same values and the same principles. Islam is part of the same groups of monotheistic faiths as Judaism and Christianity. Its God is not a strange deity. Those who argue otherwise in the West are simply ignorant. The US has not had the expertise required to understand the true spirit of Islam in the past 50 years. When Edward Said tried to explain this in Covering Islam, he was attacked viciously.
There are a few institutions of Islamic learning in America; Arab American organisations have achieved a degree of progress in this regard. But a lot more needs to be done. After the attack, a Sudanese friend of mine said: "It took us nearly 20 years to have the White House recognise and celebrate Ramadan, our month of fasting, our religious holidays, Eid Al-Adha and Eid Al-Fitr. Now, the terrorists have threatened all we had achieved."
It may be true that nothing will be the same again; but I hope this wake-up call will end with a real reassessment and reexamination of relations between America and the Arab world -- of all that led misguided souls to this utterly senseless crime.
* The writer is a Washington-based veteran Egyptian journalist and political analyst.
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