DISPATCH
9-11, 1 year later:
Looking for directions

by Tarek Atia

It's nearly impossible to extricate Egyptians' sentiments about 11 September from their feelings about the US in general; about how their Arab and Muslim brothers are being treated there and worldwide; about the war on Iraq, and about what's going on in Palestine. And, in a vastly under-spoken but clearly visible way, about what's going on in this country -- as a result of, and in light of, the events of 11 September 2001.

Take Umm Ghada, a cleaning lady in her late 30s, who claims to have never really heard of 11 September. When pressed, however, she says she knows it has something to do with Palestine. "I avoid newspapers and TV", she says, "and politics". Even so, she laments the fact that her son, a student of tourism, has had a rough year trying to procure the same sort of training work he has done in the past at Cairo's five-star hotels. "They've hardly had anything for him since then," she says, shaking her head, "But it's picked up in the past few months or so."

That boost to tourism -- by Arab tourists who flocked to Cairo this summer in unprecedented numbers -- also has to do with 11 September, although Umm Ghada might not be aware of the connection. Desperate not to expose themselves to any form of humiliation or danger in the US or Europe, Arabs have chosen to spend their vacations nearby -- here, for instance -- instead.

"God helps improve matters," says Umm Ghada, "He always does". One thing that needs improvement, in her opinion, is the relationship between Egypt and the US. America has always been a great provider of opportunities, she says, "giving us food, lots of good things". It's a shame, then, that something has come between the friends: namely, the Israelis, who she says "kill the guilty and the innocent". And although her condemnation of attacks on innocents is heartfelt, Umm Ghada has her own opinions on what it might mean for a young girl to strap on explosives and blow herself up. "The attackers," she says, and here she's referring to the ones who hit the towers, "surely had no other option. They had reached the breaking point and there was no other way out."

Khaled, an accountant, says, "I won't lie. I was surprised and happy. Because it showed them that they weren't the only ones who could hit people with impunity, or help the Israelis hit people."

A year later, after waiting in vain for what he says was a sign that the US was learning its lesson, Khaled says all that he's seen, when it comes to America's treatment of others, is a nation getting even more arrogant and cruel. Khaled says he wants "something bigger to happen. But I know nothing bigger or even smaller will ever happen".

Having said that, Khaled insists he's against terrorism and that he never thought Bin Laden was a hero. "Although I was happy about it, I also felt very sorry for the victims."

But with or without 11 September, he says the world was heading for a disastrous clash between the Arabs and the West; 9/11 just sped things up. Arabs still haven't learned that the US is not their friend, says Khaled. "This was obvious before 11 September in Bush's total disregard for the carnage against Palestinians going on in the occupied territories."

According to Wael, a logistics specialist at a multinational company in Cairo, "the war declared against Afghanistan within 48 hours was like an Arabic film. It was fake." Wael says he thought the US was going to conduct a quick revenge operation, but "as time went by, it became clear that there was a sort of colonization going on, that it was to be a series of events that are only now starting to make sense, and that don't look too good for the Arab world."

It has been nearly a year since the sheikh who leads the Friday prayers at the Sayeda Aisha Mosque in an upscale part of Heliopolis, gave sermons comparing the attacks to religious parables of nations that had reached a point where they thought they were above the law. "The attacks were a message from God to the United States," says Sheikh Attia Gomaa today. "We don't like to see innocent people die, but at the same time, the Americans had gone too far in their support for the Zionists and those oppressing Muslims and Arabs everywhere in the world."

In Attia's view, the battle that began that day would be a hard one to win. "They're fighting against us but we're not even up to it because we're not able to live in a true Muslim society. We don't know our religion. Women are walking around in revealing clothes. People are living for this world rather than the hereafter. Relationships are more about business deals than about being brothers in religion."

The event's fallout gave the impression that a war was being fought against Islam itself. Why else would Egyptians like Taher, a 65-year-old retired senior reinsurance executive who has traveled the globe, be so quick to say, "The Jews are the ones who did it because they wanted to make Christians and Muslims worldwide hate each other?" Probably as a reaction to how quickly America and the world were to blame Arabs and Muslims for the acts.

And indeed, although Taher's comment sounds like a typical self-defense mechanism, many interpretations of the event have given the impression that a wedge has been driven between Muslims and the rest of the world. And, it seems, between Muslims and each other as well. One young man says the most surreal moment he's seen since 11 September was on a TV talk show that featured an American Muslim leader and an Islamic figure from Egypt. The Egyptian was insisting that Muslims in the US were being persecuted.

"No we're not," the US Muslim was saying.

"Yes, you are," the Middle Easterner said back, and their conversation soon degenerated into a fight.

The battle to define Islam is perhaps the biggest thing being played out everywhere you look.

Witness the words of Laila, a devout 60-year-old Muslim housewife, who supports the "war on terror". She says "it's obvious that Muslims in Afghanistan wanted to get a taste of modernity. The evidence was in the photos and reports that showed them going to the movies, shaving their beards, listening to music and getting educated."

Of the 11 September attacks, she says, "Whoever did this is not Muslim. These people with beards who want us to live in caves -- they don't understand the religion. It tells you to modernize. Modernity is good. They are backwards. That's why Al-Qa'eda could never have done this -- it required tremendous planning. They might be able to rob, or slap me in the face, but they could never do something like this. This needs something as strong as the US."

Her conspiracy theory continues: "Everything after it [9/11] was meant to put Muslims down. Like those Bin Laden tapes. They were meant to defeat the Muslim world by showing us that these people who supposedly represent us have no hearts."

Hers is a popular opinion which, by its very nature, turns any battle for hearts and minds on its very head.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

MAKE YOUR
VOICE HEARD
Send a comment to cairolive.com 

Disclaimer and Terms of Use
© Copyright 1996-2005 cairolive.com. All Rights Reserved

Read Tarek Atia's web log
Find out how the world media sees Egypt...

UPDATED DAILY!

The ultimate
East-West
world-view

 
Instant Arabic headlines