The European Union decision earlier this month to block the finances of Hamas-affiliates in Europe and to classify all arms of the Palestinian Authority-based Islamist organization as terrorist led to some upset in the Arab and Moslem world. A columnist for a Jordanian newspaper and a columnist for an Iranian newspaper found common ground in bashing the Europeans for being “just as bad as the Americans....”
Amman, Jordan’s al-Rai carried an article by columnist Khaled Mahadin, shortly after the EU decision on Hamas, in which the author compared the relative worth of the Europeans and the Americans: “The Americans have bad intentions toward the Arabs and the Europeans pretend to be different. But in reality the Europeans are just as bad as the Americans; perhaps worse, because they want the Arabs dead by US weapons, not by European ones.” Mahadin partially blamed the Europeans for the Israeli attempt on the life of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, which took place, he noted, “...just after the Europeans decided to blacklist Hamas.”
According to the Jordanian columnist, attacks such as the one on Yassin, Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden are actually attacks directed against all Moslems. As Mahadin put it: “It is not just Yassin’s head which is sought, but the head of all the Palestinians. Similarly, it is not only Saddam Hussein’s head which is sought in Iraq, but the heads of all Iraqis. And it is not just the head of Osama bin Laden, which is sought across the Arab world, but also the heads of all Moslem people.”
These attacks against the Moslems, the al-Rai article continued, are a manifestation of “the deep hatred the Europeans have for the Arabs.” And that hatred, he charged, can be traced back to the “hideous crimes some European countries committed against the Arabs in Algeria, Tunis, Morocco and Libya....”
Echoing his Arab co-religionist, Nawab Khan, an Iranian columnist, wrote, “The Arab-Muslim world now prefers that the European Union play an active role in the Middle East. But this could well fade into oblivion if they realize EU stance is no different than Uncle Sam’s.” In Iran Daily earlier this month, Khan explained that while the EU decision to label Hamas a terrorist group was widely seen to be the “result of growing US and Israeli pressure on the European bloc,” in fact, there is a pre-existing “European bias toward Israel....”
According to Khan, “This European sympathy for Israel has overclouded all sense of justice and fair play. Europe is turning a blind eye to the universal fact that occupation is the ultimate form of terror. Those who see the Hamas resistance fighters as terrorists perhaps consider Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a leader in the fight against terror.”
This “bias toward Israel must be seen in the historical context,” the columnist wrote. “Sympathy and support for Jews and anything Jewish sits deep in Europe’s conscience,” the Iran Daily article declared, “since the Second World War, when atrocities were committed by Nazi Germany against Jews.” But independent of that, the writer continued, “the Jewish control of money and media in today’s Europe is nurturing the ‘guilty conscience’ of many Europeans. ...Why should Palestinians pay the price for atrocities committed against Jews by Europe?”
In this state of affairs, the Iranian advised a threat issued by the Moslem world: “Arab-Moslem diplomacy must convince the EU that its pro-Israeli stance will only damage its own credibility and prestige in the world.... Europe can ill afford to overlook the fact that it has enormous economic and political interest in the Middle East.”
Amman, Jordan’s al-Rai carried an article by columnist Khaled Mahadin, shortly after the EU decision on Hamas, in which the author compared the relative worth of the Europeans and the Americans: “The Americans have bad intentions toward the Arabs and the Europeans pretend to be different. But in reality the Europeans are just as bad as the Americans; perhaps worse, because they want the Arabs dead by US weapons, not by European ones.” Mahadin partially blamed the Europeans for the Israeli attempt on the life of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, which took place, he noted, “...just after the Europeans decided to blacklist Hamas.”
According to the Jordanian columnist, attacks such as the one on Yassin, Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden are actually attacks directed against all Moslems. As Mahadin put it: “It is not just Yassin’s head which is sought, but the head of all the Palestinians. Similarly, it is not only Saddam Hussein’s head which is sought in Iraq, but the heads of all Iraqis. And it is not just the head of Osama bin Laden, which is sought across the Arab world, but also the heads of all Moslem people.”
These attacks against the Moslems, the al-Rai article continued, are a manifestation of “the deep hatred the Europeans have for the Arabs.” And that hatred, he charged, can be traced back to the “hideous crimes some European countries committed against the Arabs in Algeria, Tunis, Morocco and Libya....”
Echoing his Arab co-religionist, Nawab Khan, an Iranian columnist, wrote, “The Arab-Muslim world now prefers that the European Union play an active role in the Middle East. But this could well fade into oblivion if they realize EU stance is no different than Uncle Sam’s.” In Iran Daily earlier this month, Khan explained that while the EU decision to label Hamas a terrorist group was widely seen to be the “result of growing US and Israeli pressure on the European bloc,” in fact, there is a pre-existing “European bias toward Israel....”
According to Khan, “This European sympathy for Israel has overclouded all sense of justice and fair play. Europe is turning a blind eye to the universal fact that occupation is the ultimate form of terror. Those who see the Hamas resistance fighters as terrorists perhaps consider Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a leader in the fight against terror.”
This “bias toward Israel must be seen in the historical context,” the columnist wrote. “Sympathy and support for Jews and anything Jewish sits deep in Europe’s conscience,” the Iran Daily article declared, “since the Second World War, when atrocities were committed by Nazi Germany against Jews.” But independent of that, the writer continued, “the Jewish control of money and media in today’s Europe is nurturing the ‘guilty conscience’ of many Europeans. ...Why should Palestinians pay the price for atrocities committed against Jews by Europe?”
In this state of affairs, the Iranian advised a threat issued by the Moslem world: “Arab-Moslem diplomacy must convince the EU that its pro-Israeli stance will only damage its own credibility and prestige in the world.... Europe can ill afford to overlook the fact that it has enormous economic and political interest in the Middle East.”