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Dear  computer tech discussion,

Al Macintyre (MacWheel99@aol.com) wants you to see this article on 
Economist.com.

The sender also included the following message for you:

Here is confirmation of what I have been saying, that while there are islands 
of hatred, they are not representative of the majority of Muslims & Arabs, who 
support the USA.  Bin Laden is an enemy of the USA.  Other people, with same 
skin color, religion, living in same part of the world, are not.

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THE BLAME GAME


Many Americans see themselves locked in conflict with the forces of Islamic
extremism. But many Arabs blame America for generating that extremism

THE image of the Arab world broadcast around the globe in the first moments
after the cataclysm in America was that of Palestinians dancing in the streets.
Americans--already dumbfounded by the notion that anyone could so despise their
country that they would murder thousands and kill themselves just to spite
Uncle Sam--seemed even more thunderstruck by the revellers' blind callousness.
Many speculated that the devastation in New York and Washington was simply the
first battle in an impending "clash of civilisations" that would pit
unsuspecting Americans against whole nations of mindless fanatics. Ironically
enough, a similar sense of foreboding has infected the Arab world. It fears
that an ill-considered American response will target not only the perpetrators,
but also the benighted countries from which, it seems, they came.

Arabs have good reason to worry. Already, Israel appears to be taking advantage
of the world's distraction to press its military campaign against the
Palestinians. The temporary occupation of the West Bank town of Jenin, begun on
Monday, has lasted much longer than the Israeli army's three previous
incursions into Palestinian-controlled cities. At least 12 Palestinians have
died in the operation, but America's media have hardly noticed. As if to drive
the point home, on September 13th, the eighth anniversary of the Oslo Middle
East peace accords, Israeli tanks also entered Jericho, the first town handed
over to the Palestinians under that deal.

Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is also trying to use the carnage in
America for rhetorical advantage, likening Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian
leader, to Osama bin Laden, the suspected terrorist mastermind. The more
America equates the Palestinian struggle for national independence with
"terror", the more latitude it is likely to grant Israel in crushing it. So the
frail Mr Arafat, desperate to counter Israeli spin-doctoring, summoned the
cameras to film him donating blood for America's injured.

Fear of being singled out as scapegoats also prompted some of America's
staunchest foes in the region--from Hizbollah in Lebanon, to Muammar Qaddafi in
Libya--to swift and staunch denials of any link with the attackers. The press
in the Middle East has made as much mileage out of the sporadic attacks on
Arabs and Muslims in America as the American press did of the isolated scenes
of celebration on the streets of Gaza and Jerusalem.

Many Arabs, though appalled by the atrocity, do believe that America deserves
some sort of comeuppance for its seeming disregard of the plight of
Palestinians under Israeli occupation and of Iraqis under UN sanctions. The
Bush administration's apparent disengagement from the peace process, coupled
with Israel's use of sophisticated American weaponry to attack Palestinians,
has instilled a sense that America is no longer just Israel's distant
benefactor, but an accomplice in Israeli "crimes". Bloody bombings and street
battles have become so common in the dirt-poor and despairing refugee camps of
the Gaza Strip, in particular, that many residents have become entirely
insensitive to violence. Some danced similarly triumphant jigs when a suicide
bomber blew 20 teenagers limb from limb at a disco in Tel Aviv earlier this
year.

But those who have translated their resentment of America into murderous
messianic fervour number only a handful. Furthermore, they are considered even
more of a threat by the countries they live in than they are by America.
Morocco, Algeria and Egypt, among others, have resorted to gross violations of
human rights in an effort to wipe out Islamist opposition. Indeed, those
regimes will find it much more palatable to do America's bidding and hunt down
Islamic terrorists than to build ties with Israel, for example, or uphold
sanctions on Iraq. Even if America resorts to air-raids on Afghanistan, most
Arabs would probably shrug. They tend to view Afghanistan much as Europeans or
Americans do: as a mercifully distant, battle-scarred breeding ground of
zealots and gunmen.

Indeed, many Arabs would go further: they hold America itself responsible for
the spread of fundamentalist terror. After all, many of the suspects in
Tuesday's attacks are veterans of the American-funded war against the Soviet
occupation of Afghanistan, including Mr bin Laden. To this day, America
maintains an ambiguous policy on the Taliban. On the one hand, it fulminates
against their extremist policies, and the welcome they give other extremists.
On the other, it values the bulwark they present against neighbouring Iran and
the squeeze they put on the heroin trade. America has certainly done little to
stop Saudi Arabia, a close ally, funding the Taliban.

In the Arab world itself, in addition to pursuing policies on the peace process
and Iraq that enflame popular opinion, America also meddles incessantly in
local politics. It alternately builds up and disowns vile dictators, such as
Saddam Hussein, props up corrupt and unpopular regimes, as in Saudi Arabia, and
turns a blind eye to the unsavoury activities of its allies, in places such as
Bahrain and Tunisia. In other words, America has made a big contribution to the
sort of political disillusionment and upheaval that foster radical Islam.

Unfortunately, the events of the past week will only add to the woes of Arab
moderates. Already, tourists are cancelling trips to poor but pro-western Arab
states such as Jordan and Egypt. Foreign investment is also likely to suffer.
America's Arab allies will feel jittery, and clamp down harder on legitimate
dissent, thereby stoking Islamic extremism. A spirit of sheer defiance might
inhibit America from softening its policy on Iraq or cajoling Israel into
concessions in the peace process, with the same result. The upshot of the
tragedy in America could well be further tragedy in the Middle East, and more
recruits to extreme Islamic terror.

See related content at 
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID×85171

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