Stoking Muslim anger

Stoking Muslim anger
By Fawaz A. Gerges
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: October 13, 2006


CAIRO While the U.S. debate over Iraq focuses mainly on the effects of the American military presence on Al Qaeda and its affiliates, the Bush administration has little appreciation for how its involvement in Iraq, as well as its staunch support of Israel, is radicalizing mainstream Muslim opinion.

In the past few weeks I have interviewed scores of Muslim activists, human-rights advocates, Islamists, liberals and ordinary citizens. Most have been telling me that the West, particularly the United States, is waging a modern crusade against Islam.
From high school teachers to taxi drivers, America is seen as a new colonial power. Few Muslims accept the American narrative that touts democracy and freedom. They view America's military presence in the Arab heartland as a sinister plot to divide the world of Islam and subjugate Muslims.

"Look at what America is doing in Iraq," said Hazem Salem, an Egyptian human-rights advocate in his twenties. "America is using democracy as a mask to colonize Muslim lands and to steal our oil." I reminded him that President George W. Bush claims he is promoting democracy in the Arab world. "No, he is promoting chaos and civil war," he fired back.

When I visited the American University in Cairo, which is a stronghold of Western liberalism, many students were openly angry at America's support for Israel. "Bush has given Israel carte blanche to attack Palestinians and Lebanese," Rania, a teenager with strikingly dark eyes, told me in the campus courtyard. "The war on terror is an open-ended war on Muslims," she insisted. Many students at the American University in Beirut expressed similar views.

Recently, I attended an "iftar," an evening meal after the daylong Ramadan fast, with hundreds of prominent Egyptians and Arabs of all political persuasions. The speaker, a moderate political leader and rising star in Egyptian society, said this year's Ramadan coincided with a coordinated attack on Islam. "The Pope has given Bush religious justification for his war on Islam and Muslims," he declared, as guests nodded their heads in agreement.

I have not met a taxi driver, a fruit vendor or a teacher who does not see a connection between the Danish cartoons portraying Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist, President George W. Bush's use of the term Islamo-fascism, and Pope Benedict XVI's remarks linking Islam and violence.

Of course, leading European countries opposed the American venture in Iraq. The pope also said that the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq is unjust, and opposed Israel's indiscriminate tactics against the Palestinians and the Lebanese. But in terms of quelling Muslim anger, this is all irrelevant because most Muslims see the West as united.

An Islamic leader, Abed al- Rahim Barakat, said, "President Bush himself used the word 'crusade' to describe his war on terror." "It was a slip of tongue," I retorted. "No, it was a Freudian slip. He revealed what he feels deep inside," he said.
Five years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Al Qaeda's notion of a clash of religions is no longer farfetched. In both camps, there exist tiny minorities who are beating the drums, and rallying the faithful to fight in a war they believe was caused by the other.

By staying the course in Iraq, Bush plays into the hands of extremists and alienates the floating middle of Muslim public opinion. If America really wants to win the war against Al Qaeda and its affiliates, it needs the hearts and minds of mainstream Muslims.

The bottom line is that a way must be found - and soon - to extract American troops from Iraq's shifting sands and to stop the shedding of Jewish and Palestinian blood.

Fawaz A. Gerges, a Carnegie Scholar and visiting professor at the American University in Cairo, is the author of "Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy."