Al Qaeda And Some Orientalism Draw The Ugly Arab World

Khaled Haroub     Al-Hayat     2004/03/22

Not all Orientalism is bad. However, there is a bad Orientalism full of hostile feelings toward the East. It tried to draw a picture of the Arab world describing it as savage, cowardly, unable to take decisions and tending to betrayal. This picture does not correspond to the Arab world, not even before Islam. In fact, good values always carried the features of religion and new culture.

Today, under Islam, the Arab world became terrorist. The Islamic Arab values deteriorated to the lowest levels. Suddenly, targeting civilians becomes the strategy. In fact, we have witnessed many criminal 'invasions' ever since the 9/11 attacks and they are all inhumane, savage and unacceptable politically, morally and strategically. It is senseless to say that they are killing our civilians too; for Arab civilians are not the direct target.

The reader might say that this is an accusation of Al Qaeda; this is what I said after the 9/11 attacks. However, I was deceived when bin Laden proudly declared Al Qaeda responsible for them, which led to offering Afghanistan and Iraq as a cheap gift for the U.S. and allowed Sharon to act savagely in Palestine. Soon enough, bin Laden will show up declaring Al Qaeda responsible for the Madrid bombings because he wanted to punish a people for standing beside the U.S. in its war on Iraq. He wants to punish the people, 90% of which were against the war, and millions of them demonstrated in the streets - as it happened in no Arab country.

We can no longer bear the results of what we do, as if our opponents' actions are not enough. In addition, there is no argument to use in order to justify these ugly crimes. We can no longer bear that the victim is becoming worse than its slayers.

* Mr. Haroub is a Palestinian writer.     

<h1>Al Qaeda And Some Orientalism Draw The Ugly Arab World</h1><h4>Khaled Haroub     Al-Hayat     2004/03/22</h4><p><p>Not all Orientalism is bad. However, there is a bad Orientalism full of hostile feelings toward the East. It tried to draw a picture of the Arab world describing it as savage, cowardly, unable to take decisions and tending to betrayal. This picture does not correspond to the Arab world, not even before Islam. In fact, good values always carried the features of religion and new culture.</p><p>Today, under Islam, the Arab world became terrorist. The Islamic Arab values deteriorated to the lowest levels. Suddenly, targeting civilians becomes the strategy. In fact, we have witnessed many criminal 'invasions' ever since the 9/11 attacks and they are all inhumane, savage and unacceptable politically, morally and strategically. It is senseless to say that they are killing our civilians too; for Arab civilians are not the direct target.</p><p>The reader might say that this is an accusation of Al Qaeda; this is what I said after the 9/11 attacks. However, I was deceived when bin Laden proudly declared Al Qaeda responsible for them, which led to offering Afghanistan and Iraq as a cheap gift for the U.S. and allowed Sharon to act savagely in Palestine. Soon enough, bin Laden will show up declaring Al Qaeda responsible for the Madrid bombings because he wanted to punish a people for standing beside the U.S. in its war on Iraq. He wants to punish the people, 90% of which were against the war, and millions of them demonstrated in the streets - as it happened in no Arab country.</p><p>We can no longer bear the results of what we do, as if our opponents' actions are not enough. In addition, there is no argument to use in order to justify these ugly crimes. We can no longer bear that the victim is becoming worse than its slayers.</p><p>* Mr. Haroub is a Palestinian writer.     </p></p>