15 - 21 November 2001
Issue No.560
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 15 - 21 November 2001 Issue No.560 |
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The sickness and the cure
An Arab academic recently made the controversial announcement that the Arab countries would be the greatest source of terrorism worldwide in the coming five years. While America is leading an international coalition against terrorism, respected thinkers are prophesying not only that terrorism will rise again, but that it will be the Arabs, and no one else, who will propel it forward.
The most immediate implication is that international efforts to combat terrorism will cause further terrorist acts in the Arab world. Taking this hypothesis further, one might analyse the statement along more concrete lines. First, terrorism is being fought with its own weapons; as former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said, terrorism will be confronted with terrorism, giving rise to a vicious circle of violence. Secondly, the Arab world is a fertile breeding ground for armed terrorists, because all the factors that contribute to the emergence of terrorism obtain there; and the only measures being taken to counter this trend are increases in security. Other state institutions that could be addressing the factors encouraging the development of terrorism, meanwhile, do nothing.
What we need is an open, integrated and clear-cut vision with which to address the extremely complex issue of terrorism in the Arab world, especially now, as the US beings to institutionalise its global war on terrorism. This vision, in turn, must be based on a correct understanding of what others expect of us, and a knowledge of both our interests and those of others. In the absence of such understanding, we will be suffering the brunt of both terrorism and its alleged cures.
*This week's Soapbox speaker is editor- in-chief of Al-Wafd.
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