On this, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York, the Arab press objects to America's prosecution of the War on Terror. These objections take several forms. One is that the Arab and Muslim worlds bear no culpability for September 11. For example:
A year after the 11 of September events, not a shred of evidence has been found to link Arabs and Muslims to the attacks. There are even those who believe them to have been mounted by Americans inside the US. Only time will tell. Arabs and Muslims may yet be found innocent.
Al Akhbar
Ask Arabs and Muslims again whether they believe Osama did it and you are in for another surprise. Most think he is innocent! Al-Jazeera, the Pan-Arab satellite TV network, broadcast a program last Thursday about the kind of conspiracy theories many Arabs and Muslims still believe in. The CIA, Israeli Mossad, and the right-wing US militias could have carried out the attacks to start a new Christian crusade against the Muslim Ummah (nation), they say. But what about Bin Laden confessing on tape? It has been doctored in Hollywood. Watch the movie "Wag the Dog" and you will see for yourself what that group is capable of and for less compelling reasons. How was America able to announce so soon after the event the names of the terrorists even though most of them were dead?
Later, they remind you, many of those named were found to be alive and innocent in Saudi Arabia. The haste, they will tell you, shows either the US intelligence agencies knew in advance or did it themselves. Osama, they say, is innocent. The worst they will agree to is that he condones such terrorist attacks. Reaction? They would pray to Allah to give him guidance away from these criminal thoughts, to enlighten his mind and methods - but to protect him in the meantime.
You may well ask what is wrong with these people who believe such things. After all, the evidence is abundant and the conviction is on tape! The answer is in psychology. Parents won?t believe their darling son is involved in a horrible crime until they are overwhelmed by absolutely conclusive proof. Regardless of all the evidence against him, black America didn?t believe in O.J. Simpson?s guilt.
Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi, Asharq Alawsat
The next objection is that no Arab state, Iraq, Iran, Syria or Libya, could be sponsors of terrorism. Any attack against Araby, therefore, would be an unprovoked aggression. Lastly, the US is somehow acting both as a neo-colonialist superpower and pliable client of Israel, using it's massive force to impose a Pax Americana:
When critics of Washington?s war plans point out that Iraq has nothing to do with Sept. 11 and does not possess weapons of mass destruction, Washington replies that Baghdad might engage in terrorism and someday revive its nuclear program, so it must be prevented by means of a pre-emptive war.
This mirrors the thinking of Israeli hard-liners who preach ?permanent war? on the Palestinian people in their entirety, on grounds that today?s Palestinian children could grow up to be terrorists.
Faced with this skewed logic that lacks the simplest rationale, and with an American-Israeli blitz that spares no one in the region, the Arabs have no choice but to close ranks and seriously revive collective Arab action, while sharing responsibilities and burying differences. Arabs must engage in unison with the international community to prevent Washington from using force and intimidation to put together an ?international coalition? aimed at eroding the Arabs? rights and independence and seizing control of their resources in keeping with Zionist and neocolonialist whims. Tishrin
Despite the condemnation by Arabs and Muslims of the cowardly attacks on the US in September 2000, Washington, by being even more flagrantly biased towards Israel than ever before, has since added the fuel of discontent to the already inflamed feelings of despair and frustration among Arab and Muslim peoples. Americans have gone a step too far having equated the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence with the heartless atrocities of the Israeli occupation, whose crimes are more repulsive than the terrorist attacks on the US. Israeli forces have been using state-of-the-art American-made weapons against an unarmed Palestinian people in full view of the international community. The September events, though calamitous on Arabs and Muslims without due cause, could have helped awaken America's conscience and put it on the right path towards justice and international legitimacy, had it not been for the Zionist-controlled media, who, taking advantage of the September attacks, gained greater support of Israeli terrorism, now hiding behind an American mantle to achieve its expansionist goals at the expense of the Palestinian people's rights. Galal Dowidar, Al Akhbar
A year after the 11 of September events, not a shred of evidence has been found to link Arabs and Muslims to the attacks. There are even those who believe them to have been mounted by Americans inside the US. Only time will tell. Arabs and Muslims may yet be found innocent.
Al Akhbar
Ask Arabs and Muslims again whether they believe Osama did it and you are in for another surprise. Most think he is innocent! Al-Jazeera, the Pan-Arab satellite TV network, broadcast a program last Thursday about the kind of conspiracy theories many Arabs and Muslims still believe in. The CIA, Israeli Mossad, and the right-wing US militias could have carried out the attacks to start a new Christian crusade against the Muslim Ummah (nation), they say. But what about Bin Laden confessing on tape? It has been doctored in Hollywood. Watch the movie "Wag the Dog" and you will see for yourself what that group is capable of and for less compelling reasons. How was America able to announce so soon after the event the names of the terrorists even though most of them were dead?
Later, they remind you, many of those named were found to be alive and innocent in Saudi Arabia. The haste, they will tell you, shows either the US intelligence agencies knew in advance or did it themselves. Osama, they say, is innocent. The worst they will agree to is that he condones such terrorist attacks. Reaction? They would pray to Allah to give him guidance away from these criminal thoughts, to enlighten his mind and methods - but to protect him in the meantime.
You may well ask what is wrong with these people who believe such things. After all, the evidence is abundant and the conviction is on tape! The answer is in psychology. Parents won?t believe their darling son is involved in a horrible crime until they are overwhelmed by absolutely conclusive proof. Regardless of all the evidence against him, black America didn?t believe in O.J. Simpson?s guilt.
Dr. Khaled M. Batarfi, Asharq Alawsat
The next objection is that no Arab state, Iraq, Iran, Syria or Libya, could be sponsors of terrorism. Any attack against Araby, therefore, would be an unprovoked aggression. Lastly, the US is somehow acting both as a neo-colonialist superpower and pliable client of Israel, using it's massive force to impose a Pax Americana:
When critics of Washington?s war plans point out that Iraq has nothing to do with Sept. 11 and does not possess weapons of mass destruction, Washington replies that Baghdad might engage in terrorism and someday revive its nuclear program, so it must be prevented by means of a pre-emptive war.
This mirrors the thinking of Israeli hard-liners who preach ?permanent war? on the Palestinian people in their entirety, on grounds that today?s Palestinian children could grow up to be terrorists.
Faced with this skewed logic that lacks the simplest rationale, and with an American-Israeli blitz that spares no one in the region, the Arabs have no choice but to close ranks and seriously revive collective Arab action, while sharing responsibilities and burying differences. Arabs must engage in unison with the international community to prevent Washington from using force and intimidation to put together an ?international coalition? aimed at eroding the Arabs? rights and independence and seizing control of their resources in keeping with Zionist and neocolonialist whims. Tishrin
Despite the condemnation by Arabs and Muslims of the cowardly attacks on the US in September 2000, Washington, by being even more flagrantly biased towards Israel than ever before, has since added the fuel of discontent to the already inflamed feelings of despair and frustration among Arab and Muslim peoples. Americans have gone a step too far having equated the Palestinian struggle for freedom and independence with the heartless atrocities of the Israeli occupation, whose crimes are more repulsive than the terrorist attacks on the US. Israeli forces have been using state-of-the-art American-made weapons against an unarmed Palestinian people in full view of the international community. The September events, though calamitous on Arabs and Muslims without due cause, could have helped awaken America's conscience and put it on the right path towards justice and international legitimacy, had it not been for the Zionist-controlled media, who, taking advantage of the September attacks, gained greater support of Israeli terrorism, now hiding behind an American mantle to achieve its expansionist goals at the expense of the Palestinian people's rights. Galal Dowidar, Al Akhbar