Why doesn't Afghanistan make Rolexes?
Arab politicians and pundits speak of a highjacked
faith and endlessly repeated scenarios
by Tarek Atia
(cairolive.com, November 6, 2001)
The continuing war in Afghanistan, while temporarily
putting the Palestinian-Israeli crisis on the world
media's back burner, has brought the geopolitical
ramifications of that long-running conflict into
sharp focus for the Arab world. Recent comments by
diplomats and columnists reveal the intricacies of
the situation, and the clear need for more vigilance
on matters pertaining to the future of the Middle
East.
Speaking to the Follow-up Committee meeting of the
Arab Summit in Damascus this week, Arab League
Secretary General Amr Moussa concentrated on the
prospects for a Palestinian state. The Arab world
should beware of becoming the victims of another
"political trick", Moussa warned, alluding to the
failure of Oslo and its promises of permanent status
for the Palestinians. This time, said the head of the
Arab League , there must be an international mechanism
to ensure a Palestinian state.
Both Moussa and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher
will be in New York next week for the meeting of the
UN General Assembly. They -- along with much of the
world -- will surely be seeking a stronger stance from
the world body vis a vis both the Palestinian issue
and the ongoing US strikes on Afghanistan, which have
been denounced in most of the Arab world for having
gone on too long without achieving clearly defined
goals.
But while there is sympathy for the plight of the
Afghan people, Osama bin Laden's claim that the war
in Afghanistan is between Christians and Muslims, got
a very cold shoulder from both top Arab diplomats.
Maher quipped that the war is between "bin Laden and
the world," and Moussa insisted that bin Laden does
not represent either Arabs or Muslims.
Bin Laden, meanwhile, was highly critical of the UN in
a speech that was broadcast last Saturday by
Al-Jazeera, calling leaders who waited for the UN to
give their actions legitimacy heretics.
Recounting the rising civilian death toll from the US
attacks in a recent column, Al-Ahram's Salama Ahmed
Salama lists a veritable global who's who of people
and organizations who have called for the American
military campaign in Afghanistan to end. With Ramadan
on the way, the geopolitical implications of
continuing to strike -- including Pakistan's
Mussharaf's ability to hold onto power amidst growing
dissent within his own country -- will become even
more complex, writes Salama, and the Americans will
have to accept responsibility for whatever happens.
"It's going to be harder for the Americans to get out
of Afghanistan than it was to go in," Salama
succinctly concludes.
Searching for the some of the roots of the current
crisis, political analyst Abdel-Moneim Said, who heads
Al-Ahram's Strategic Studies Center, begins his most
recent column with a tale of an irreverent
conversation between a Swiss and Afghan man on a
plane. The Afghan gentleman is trying to convince the
Swiss fellow that geographically and historically
their countries are virtually identical -- both
boasting beautiful mountain scenery and harsh winters.
Both nations have also uncannily been capable of
resisting occupation and domination by their larger
neighbors.
The Swiss man reacts by merely showing the Afghan man
his Rolex. "Do you make these?" he asks.
Using this story as his preface, Said then sets out to
touch upon some of the reasons why Afghanistan and
other Islamic countries don't make Swiss-quality
watches, arguing that these nations have to bear much
of the blame for their devastating economic and social
conditions -- conditions which he methodically lists,
comparing each one disastrously with its Swiss
counterpart.
Acknowledging imperialism of both the American and
Israeli kind as primary causes of the problem as well,
Said says the Muslim world must also list improper
thought patterns in the equation of failure. He ends
with a tirade against "groups of ideologues both
national and religious who take us in all directions
except for the proper one, confusing the
umma, and taking it from one hole to another, and from
one battle to another, and from one war to another..."
It goes without saying, of course, that Bin Laden is
the granddaddy of these rabble-rousers who seem to be
preventing a fairer playing field for Arabs and
Muslims in the global marketplace.
Ragab Al-Banna in Al-Ahram is also quite critical,
predicting a dire future for Arabs in the upcoming
American century if they don't straighten themselves
out and take the possibility of Arab unity --
beginning with economic unity -- more seriously. In
al-Banna's view, Arab weakness is summarized by the
current situation: While Israel's Sharon wreaks havoc
on innocent Palestinians, "Arab states are pressured
by the West both politically and via the court of
public opinion with strange claims that they support
terrorism, and export and fund it.... all so that the
Arab states will bend over backwards to show that they
are innocent of these claims... and keep quiet about
what's happening to innocents being killed
everywhere."
El-Banna warns that, "The same exact scenarios in the
Middle East are endlessly repeated," calling Bush Jr's
support of a Palestinian state, "an American promise
using the same words [from a long line of broken
promises made by Bush Sr and Clinton] to attract Arab
states to the coalition..."
