Jeroen wrote:
> I did not see the footage. How many people were there, celebrating? I have
> heard somewhere that there were ~6,000 people celebrating. Not much, when
> you consider that are millions of people living in that region.
It was approximately 4000 and not 6000. (Attached AP article has references)
Let me ask you this, do you think it's right that these 4000 are celebrating
the murder of innocent human beings? Should I interpret your statements to
mean that you are defending them?
Jon
Some Arabs rejoice, others reflect
By Donna Bryson
Sept. 12, 2001 | CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Explosions and fire, gritty ash
falling like a shroud on the faces of the frightened and the fleeing. Arabs
watching these television images from New York and Washington saw reminders
of their own wars -- and some said they rejoiced that the United States was
learning a lesson in suffering.
Others condemned the celebrations in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan and
the coffee shops of Iraq and Egypt, where revelers fired rifles in the air
and distributed soft drinks at news of Tuesday's attacks.
"We have to reflect on why we, as Arabs and Muslims, have sunk so low as to
glorify violence and destruction," said Ahmed Bishara, a Kuwaiti political
activist. "Yes, we can differ with U.S. policy. Yes, the U.S. way of life may
differ. But there's no way for me as a human being to accept violence."
Others say it is America that should take notice.
"If American policy-makers are wise, they are going to try to get to the
bottom of this ... American indifference," said Gamal Nkrumah, a writer
living in Cairo. "A lot of people feel that the U.S. couldn't care less about
the suffering of three-quarters of mankind."
Few Americans would recognize the portrait of their country in places like
Ein el-Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp gripped by poverty and factional
fighting in south Lebanon.
Ein el-Hilweh's 70,000 residents blame America's military and diplomatic
support of Israel for preventing them from returning to homes they or their
parents fled when the Jewish state was founded in 1948.
"I felt sorry for the victims of the New York attacks, but, regrettably,
America feels no sorrow for those who are killed with U.S. weapons," said
Ebtissam Shaaban, a 27-year-old hair stylist in Ein el-Hilweh.
While Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat condemned the attacks Tuesday, when
news of the catastrophe broke in the West Bank town of Nablus, about 4,000
people poured into the streets chanting, "God is Great."
Still, even nations long at odds with the United States -- Libya, Syria,
Sudan and Iran -- denounced the attacks.
"Irrespective of the conflict with America, it is a human duty to show
sympathy with the American people, and be with them at these horrifying and
awesome events, which are bound to awaken human conscience," Libyan leader
Moammar Gadhafi said.
Sudan's Foreign Ministry expressed its regret in a statement issued Wednesday
and "reaffirmed its rejection of all kinds of violence."
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami "expressed deep regret and sympathy with
the victims" and said "it is an international duty to try to undermine
terrorism."
That contrasted sharply with the conservative Tehran Times newspaper, which
juxtaposed a photo of the World Trade Center reduced to rubble with one of
Mohammed al-Dura, the 12-year-old whose death in his father's arms during a
gunbattle with Israeli troops in October turned him into a Palestinian symbol
of martyrdom.
America is the terrorist, wrote an editorialist in Iraq, which has been
crippled by U.S.-backed U.N. sanctions imposed to punish it for invading
Kuwait in 1990.
Such anger only sporadically translates into armed attacks on the United
States. Even attempts to hit America economically -- such as boycotts against
such icons as McDonald's restaurants or Coca-Cola -- are short-lived,
reflecting a love-hate element in Arabs' image of the United States.
By celebrating an attack on America, "we are violating our own cultural
edicts," said Bishara, head of Kuwait's National Democratic Movement. "We are
not Muslims anymore if we do this. There are norms and rules for fighting
your enemy and getting your rights."
Many Muslim clerics agreed.
"The killing of innocent people is a despicable and heinous act that is
accepted by neither religion nor human sensibility," said Grand Sheik
Mohammed Sayed Tantawi of Cairo's Al-Azhar, Islam's oldest and most prominent
religious institution.
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri also criticized those who took joy in
the terror attacks.
"They are not representing the feeling of the Arab world and the Islamic
world," he told CNN.
Months or years from now, investigators may conclude that no Arab was behind
the attacks. But Americans who watched Arabs applauding terrorism may
nonetheless conclude they are the enemy, worried Egyptian political analyst
Gehad Auda.
Auda recalled the 1991 Gulf War -- when Palestinians rallied around Iraq --
and its attempt to turn its invasion of Kuwait into a confrontation with
Israel. The Palestinians ended up isolated.
"The Palestinians are making the same mistake in not controlling their
emotions. Celebration at the moment of grief is wrong, uncalled for. And it's
unwise," Auda said. "America before was undecided. Now America will be
decided -- for the Israelis."
