18 - 24 October 2001
Issue No.556
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 18 - 24 October 2001 Issue No.556 |
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Unease in the Gulf
As the military campaign against Afghanistan runs into a second week, tension is mounting in the Gulf region. Ayman Ali reports from Dubai
During the last two weeks, internal security has been stepped up in an unprecedented way in the Gulf region as expatriate communities are advised to be extraordinarily vigilant.
Although UAE and Bahrain seem the safest places in the Gulf, Western embassies and consulates advised their expatriates to take extra care of personal security. Elsewhere in the Gulf, especially in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, things are worse. A Canadian aircraft technician was recently shot dead in Kuwait in an attack apparently linked to the current war in Afghanistan.
Though authorities in Kuwait tried to play down the connection, the victim's companion, a Filipino who was injured in the shooting, said that the attacker yelled "Allahu Akbar" as he opened fire. She has also identified the attacker as coming from the sub-continent. The victim was employed at Kuwait's Ahmad Al-Jaber airbase, where the United States has kept aircraft since the 1991 Gulf War.
The United States responded to the attack by telling its some 8,000 citizens in Kuwait to keep a low profile. Diplomats said several Western embassies in Kuwait were reviewing already strict security measures. The French embassy told about 500 French citizens in Kuwait to avoid market places, wear "appropriate" clothes and exercise additional prudence in movements. Western schools and other institutions in Kuwait swiftly introduced new security measures to limit access and some now ask parents to show identity documents.
Meanwhile, in Riyadh, a man threw a Molotov cocktail at a German couple in an incident, also believed to be related to tensions following last month's attacks on the United States. The man and woman escaped unhurt but the episode has prompted the embassy to advise Germans to tighten their personal security. Fear is growing, not only of retaliatory actions by Afghanis or Pakistanis working in Gulf countries, but of reprisals by Gulf nationals, too. Demonstrations against the US strikes on Afghanistan showed that Omanis are not fully behind the official stance of support for the US.
Children leaving the Universal American School in Kuwait under the watchful eye of beefed up police
(photo:AFP)
More than 100,000 Americans and Europeans and several million Asians live and work in the Gulf, which sits on two-thirds of the world's oil reserves. Some Americans and Europeans have been stocking food and other essentials as a precaution amid rising international tensions. Some in the much larger Asian expatriate community have done the same.
The Kuwaiti government's treatment of Suleiman Abu Ghaith, spokesman for Al- Qa'ida, demonstrates the quandary it now faces. The Kuwaiti government stripped Abu Ghaith of his citizenship after a weekly meeting citing "article 14 of the citizenship law which bans dual nationality [and] receiving military training in another state." This followed US Secretary of State Colin Powell's description of Abu Ghaith as "an evil person." But the cabinet decree needs parliamentary endorsement, and Islamists in Kuwait have vowed to take legal action against the government decision.
The main Islamist groups have also denounced the US-led strikes on Afghanistan and called for swift action by Muslim countries to "protect the lives and resources of Muslims." A statement jointly signed by Kuwait's Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM), the Shi'ite National Islamic Alliance (NIA) and the Salaf movement said, "It is unacceptable to offer support for killing innocent Muslims, no matter what the justifications are."
Many think that Saudi Arabia's decision not to receive British Prime Minister Tony Blair during his Middle East tour showed a government torn between appeasing the West on the one hand, and mollifying Islamists on the other. British officials denied such interpretations, insisting the visit was postponed because of the logistical difficulties of arranging adequate time to make full use of the visit. But informed sources in Riyadh said that Crown Prince Abdullah had explained Saudi sensitivities to Blair before he left for Oman and Egypt.
If Gulf people are not fully behind their governments' support of the US-led war against terror, they are even more uneasy at the prospect of attacks on other Muslim countries. Many Gulf citizens suspect the US coalition is using the war against terror as a pretext to target Arabs and Muslims. When New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani refused Saudi billionaire businessman Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal's donation to the "World Trade Center" fund, after he made some critical remarks of US policy in the Middle East, those fears flourished. Saudi businessmen are now finding it hard to get a visa to the US, which is increasing anti-US sentiment.
Nor are the promises coming from Washington and London, of a peaceful settlement in Palestine, believed. "We heard that during the Gulf war in 1991, and then they [Americans and British] did nothing," is a commonly expressed sentiment.
Tony Blair himself conceded that the West is in danger of losing the propaganda battle for Arab and Muslim support. Blair said the only solution was for the Allies to put the case for their military campaign in Afghanistan more actively. "One thing becoming increasingly clear to me is the need to upgrade our media and public opinion operations in the Arab and Muslim world," he told reporters during his visit to the region. "There is a need for us to communicate effectively," he said.
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