14 - 20 February 2002
Issue No.573
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 February 2002 Issue No.573 |
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Simple minds
The "dialogue of civilisations" that took place this week in Turkey should send a clear message to the Bush administration in its attempts to divide the word into good and bad, or, as the US president put it, good and "evil."
The conference, attended by over 50 member states of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the 15 European Union (EU) members looked at ways of enhancing dialogue between Muslim/Arab and Western civilisations. The top officials from Arab, Muslim and European countries who were attending, according to the communiqué issued in Istanbul this week, rejected allegations of a clash of civilisations and called on the international community to pursue pathways to cultural tolerance.
The world needs tolerance and communication badly, perhaps more so today than ever before. The spirit of belligerence the US president has been fostering since his State of the Union address in late January will not make the world a better place -- rather the opposite.
Singling out members of the international community on a strictly unilateral and subjective basis as members in an "axis of evil" will not bring an end to acts of violence. In fact, it will increase the anti-American sentiment that has been brewing in this part of the word.
The US administration, hawks and doves alike, must realise that Arab sympathy, aroused by the tragedy of 11 September, is fading quickly. The world is reeling in horror at the way the US has lashed out, striking Afghan villagers, starving Iraqi children, and allowing Israel to demolish Palestinian houses and murder activists and bystanders wholesale.
The US would do well to listen to the wise words of its EU friends. Washington must abandon the "simplistic" approach that reduces international relations to a question of whom to attack. The US may be armed to the teeth, but all the weapons in the world will not make its policies more palatable.
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