| Author | Message | | Guest | | Posted: Sun Sep 15, 2002 10:58 pm Post subject: Feeling of Frustration' Makes Arab World Explosive Region |
| http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/13/international/middleeast/13KHAL.html
PERSPECTIVES
'Feeling of Frustration' Makes Arab World an Explosive Region
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
IDDA, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 6 — The Arab world has been wary about the campaign against terrorism ever since President Bush first described it as a crusade, his offhand remark conjuring up ghosts of the Middle Ages. Those ghosts were never completely laid to rest, and now, with talk of a war in Iraq, the Arab world believes the fight against terror may ultimately breed more violence, not less.
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That dread is rooted in the perception that the entire effort to fight terrorism was shanghaied by Israel to justify its occupation of Palestinian land.
"We think that the Zionist movement is using this opportunity to make Islam and the Arabs the enemy of the West and this is entirely wrong," said Prince Khalid al-Faisal al-Saud of Saudi Arabia. "It is very frustrating to see your people killed every day; you see them on television, you see women and children being bombed by American airplanes, by American helicopters, American tanks and American money. This is disturbing.
"This makes this region the most explosive region in the world because of the feeling of frustration," he added.
A conversation with the prince, the son of the Saudi king and the longstanding governor of Asir Province — home to four of the hijackers — underscored the dislocation wrought by Sept. 11.
In a region whose absolute rulers ultimately see terrorism as an effort to unseat them, they say they feel maligned as enemies rather than embraced as natural allies, estranged from Washington in a way never experienced before.
The prince's remarks echo the attitudes of not just the kingdom, but the Arab world at large. They reflect how the widening gap between the United States and its traditional Arab allies has emerged because each paints the other as the problem and dismisses the other's perceptions. The Arabs believe that the United States is biased toward Israel, and that that bias inspires most of the violence directed against Western targets. Washington remains suspicious that Arab governments in general, and Saudi Arabia in particular, are financing and coddling murderous organizations.
Prince Khalid reiterated the position the kingdom adopted soon after the attacks, seeking to disassociate itself entirely from what it sees as a delusional, lunatic fringe trying to use a warped version of Islam as the route to ruling the Arabian peninsula.
He shakes his head to a series of questions about the Sept. 11 hijackers.
No, they were not recruited in the kingdom. No, no religious aspect of their education might have helped induce them to kill Americans. No, young Saudis are not prone to violence because of their possible frustrations with their lack of political freedom or shrinking economic prospects.
He will not concede any direct link between the kingdom and the events of 2001. He only acknowledges one small effect. "There is a little bit of change in the attitude toward progress, toward development," he said. "I think we feel, all the Arabs, all the Muslims, that we need to speed up our programs of development and progress."
The official stance of the Arab governments is that any American attack on Iraq will further retard that progress.
But late at night, the educated, cosmopolitan men of Jidda gather in salons, drinking tea and coffee as they chew over events of the day. On the subject of Iraq, they sometimes wonder: what if the United States succeeded in creating a democracy in Iraq? What if there was a real crescent of economic and social development from Baghdad to Beirut? What if that exerted real pressure on the royal family of Saudi Arabia and other gulf princes to share their wealth and the decision-making process.
Prince Khalid is not buying it. "We don't like Saddam, we hope that they get another government than Saddam's," he said. "But we don't want people from outside Iraq to come and change the government. That is for the Iraqi people to decide."
In the oil boom years of the late 1970's and early 1980's, Prince Khalid's family presided over a country whose per capita income rocketed to $22,000. It is now roughly one-third that.
In the midst of these uncertain times, the ailing King Fahd, who handed much of his power to his brother Crown Prince Abdullah after a stroke, has been vacationing on the coast of Spain. His gallivanting entourage of hundreds overflows local luxury hotels, while press reports detail spending estimated at a few million dollars daily.
Yet Prince Khalid rejects the notion that what most people view as the royal family's monopoly on power and its profligate ways has any connection with the frustrations that lead some young men to terrorism.
"It's frustration about what is going on in Palestine, yes, but nothing else," he said. "This region has been politically disturbed for more than 60 or 70 years and the reason is Israel. Israel is occupying Palestinian lands, they are confiscating land, they are destroying houses, the towns, villages, they are pushing the Palestinians out of the homes, their houses. All of this is happening in front of the Arabs and because of the United States helping the Israelis, all the Arabs cannot do anything against the strongest country in the world."
The 15 of the 19 hijackers who were Saudi were led astray outside the kingdom, he believes, and not by any aspect of life here.
"I think they went like everybody else to Afghanistan to fight Communism there and to liberate Afghanistan from the Communists," he said, noting that more recent struggles, like the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, were painted as extensions of the Afghanistan jihad.
"These people were born in Saudi Arabia," he said, "they have been helped by everybody to go to Afghanistan to fight against Communism and over there, in Afghanistan, they have been used by mentally disturbed people who are fanatics, who want power, they want to fight against the world, they want to fight against Saudi Arabia."
"Islam has been the same for 14 centuries," he said. "It is not suddenly changing because one or two or three people are using it for their own purposes."
Since the attacks, Prince Khalid, who helped establish Al Watan, a leading Saudi daily newspaper, has pushed the formation of a private, pan-Arab foundation, the Arabic Thought Foundation. Its stated goal is to improve cultural and news media offerings in the region, among other things. He believes the best counter to extremism by Muslims is spreading the message that such violence is unacceptable under Islam.
He believes that Osama bin Laden deliberately recruited 15 Saudis as hijackers to drive a wedge between the Saud family and its longtime guardian, the United States.
"The 11th of September is not a product of Saudi society and the Saudi government," he said. "It is the product of some fanatics in Afghanistan — Saudis and non-Saudis."
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PERSPECTIVES
Sept. 11 and Beyond:
Prince Khalid al-Faisal al-Saud
• Articles in This Series
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An Interview with Prince Khalid al-Faisal al-Saud (September 13, 2002)
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A Prince With a Talent for Art
EARLY YEARS: Born 1940 in Mecca. Educated at Hun School in Princeton, N.J.; B.A. Oxford, 1966.
PUBLIC CAREER: Governor of Asir Province since 1971. Pushed development of the impoverished region and gradually promoted it as a tourism destination, establishing a nature preserve.
PUBLIC SERVICE: Chairman of the King Faisal International Charity Association, which presents prestigious awards in the Arab world in fields like economics, the sciences and religious studies. Since Sept. 11, helped found The Arab Thought Foundation, dedicated to improving ties among Arab states, promoting the region's culture and improving its news media. Helped found Al Watan, a Saudi daily.
INTERESTS: Known as a poet, a writer and an oil painter. In 2000 and 2001 held a joint exhibit of paintings with Prince Charles of Britain. Wrote a poem during the gulf war attacking Saddam Hussein for fomenting war among the Arabs. | |  | | Guest | | Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2002 5:58 am Post subject: |
| | Quote: | | "It is very frustrating to see your people killed every day; you see them on television, you see women and children being bombed by American airplanes, by American helicopters, American tanks and American money. This is disturbing. |
Americans find 15 out of the 19 hijackers Saudi Arabian and your medevil form of Wahhabbism a true distortion all bought from Saudi money and Saudi "wink-wink" approval., that is what is disturbing. You rival Israel in concern and compassion for people. You will not be missed. | | | | Jefferson Davis | | Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2002 6:02 am Post subject: |
| | Above is mine, Seems I'm log-in challenged | | | | Guest | | | | Guest | | Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2002 12:41 pm Post subject: |
| Above is mine, Seems I'm log-in challenged
Who cares, the sentiment is correct whatever.
Im beginning to warm to you Jeff old son, seems we have more in common than I thought.
Its guest here by the way, was going to be Mary Poppins but saving that one for Abba. | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
