Issue No. 603
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12 - 18 September 2002 Issue No. 603 Home news |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
'Giants', sleeping and on the run
Islamists taking part in a Cairo seminar called upon the US to change its "biased" policies and embrace peaceful coexistence with the Islamic world. Jailan Halawi writes
Dozens of journalists and TV news correspondents waited in feverish anticipation for Ayman El-Zawahri -- Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man -- to appear in some form or another at the five-star Nile-side hotel where a seminar entitled "The Future of the Islamist Movement Following the 11 September Attacks" was taking place. El-Zawahri, after all, had been plugged by Islamist lawyer Montasser El-Zayyat, the head of the Cairo-based Future Centre for Studies and Research which organised the one-day seminar, as the event's main speaker.
Predictably perhaps, El- Zawahri did not show up, virtually or otherwise, despite El- Zayyat's claim of having contacted several unidentified people said to have knowledge of how to get in touch with the Egyptian-born physician. The invitation to El-Zawahri to respond and answer questions about the 11 September attacks had also been posted on several Islamist Web sites.
El-Zayyat said it was "understandable" that El-Zawahri, who is on the US's most wanted list with a death sentence also hanging over his head in Egypt, would not show up. Just like other Al-Qa'eda members, his whereabouts have been unknown following the US-led war on Afghanistan in October.
Nevertheless, El-Zayyat said that within days, he expected to hear from sources close to Al- Qa'eda regarding new details and explanations concerning the group's role in the 11 September attacks, and the future of its leaders.
El-Zawahri's absence was -- relatively speaking -- compensated by the participation of his maternal uncle, Mahfouz Azzam, the vice-president of the frozen Labour Party, which counted many Islamists as members. Azzam said he did not know of El-Zawahri's whereabouts but that he hopes he is alive.
During the seminar's opening session, Azzam said that if the US widens its war against Arab and Islamic states, a "sleeping giant" of Islamic forces who used to believe in coexistence with the West will be awakened. "The campaigns against Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Kashmir, and Sudan will surely awaken the sleeping giant... [and] those forces will surely move, and the picture and the future of the world will change," opined Azzam.
He described 11 September as "a defining moment in modern world history [which] showed that the real battle is between Western civilisation and Islam, and this is according to [US President George W] Bush himself".
The proof, noted Azzam, was that the US has expanded its war beyond Bin Laden and the Taliban with the aim of "dismantling" the Arab world and "laying siege" to the Islamic one.
Echoing Azzam's view, El- Zayyat described the US war on terror as "a danger that threatens our culture, our beliefs and our national security".
El-Zayyat said that a year following the 11 September attacks, "we are surprised by America's [intention of] launching of a war against Iraq, which is sure to arouse yet more feelings of anger among Muslims... The Americans should ask themselves why the strikes were aimed at them and not elsewhere, like Europe? The answer is the US's biased policies regarding Israel against the Muslims."
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