When Madrid suffered the worst, I was calling for a clear and unambiguous message condemning all terror, and full action to fight it. While all arabic countries have condemned the act, most have left some ambiguity, in that they have, in the same message when they condemn terrorism, talked about Israel, Iraq and the other issues that can put shades into their condemnation.

Yesterday, on a plane coming back home from Tunis, I saw on a newspaper that there were street protests in Rabat against "the israeli terrorist act of killing Ahmed Yassine, and all other forms of terrorism". I strongly think that the murder of Yassine is a very bad act, and that it is certainly no way a state should deal with issues, I fail to see how that act is worse than the Madrid attack (and as far as I can see, there was no mass street protest in Morocco against the Madrid bombings).

I think that Arabs are simply lacking any sense of communication, for I don't think they are any different than the rest of the good people of earth, and that their intellectuals are against all the violence and terror that is taking place. They simply need to express their positions and feelings in ways that can be understood :

- They need to separate their political views from their positions taken on basic principles, and say loud and clear that they are opposed to any form of terrorism, including those that might seem in tune with their political objectives. I think they should condemn clearly the "Al Qaeda" acts, the palestian suicide attacks on Isreali civilians, the israeli attacks on palestinian civilians, and any other form of organized attack on civilians as being all of the same category.

- They should distinguish between resistance in occupied land, which can take the form of a war if necessary, which is historically legitimate, and the terrorist acts that hit civilians. Resistance doesn't justify attacking civilians ... and therefore, occupied people attacking civilians, even in the occupiers terroritory, are guilty of Terrorism

- Expressing an opinion on terrorism is not enough, everyone should act to stop it

- Fighting terrorism is not the same as agreeing with bush on everything ... Arabs should fight terrorism, but at the same time defend their own interests and political objectives. However, they need to do a lot to make their official politics reflect the opinions of the people and defend the people's best interest. There is no excuse to dictatorship, not even the current cruisades of Bush and his administration.

3/29/2004 2:47:33 PM UTC    Comments [13]