Changing Arab world need support
The Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo
They also wonder why they are so reviled.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks last year raised a vital question: Why has Arab society generated terrorists? Just as Americans have begun to ask why they are hated so, the Arab nations are groping for answers.
One source of this effort is among Islamic organizations in Egypt, the birthplace of fundamentalist Islam. There, they ask whether Muslims can achieve their objectives simply by cursing the Americans. This is directed at Ayman al-Zawahiri, a former close associate of Osama bin Laden.
Resentment of corrupt governments is boiling over in the Arab world. Left behind people in other parts of the world in economic development, Arabs find themselves no better off now than before, but they are unable to change the political situation because there are still no democratic institutions in place. Their anger is vented at the United States, which they see providing behind- the-scenes support of their governments.
Is such a situation to be condoned? Shouldn't the Arabs be doing what they can for change? Protests in the Arab world seem to support such notions.
Another notable development is the United Nations Development Program's Arab Human Development Report 2002, the first prepared by Arab intellectuals. It provides a statistical analysis of problems in Arab countries. Among them, it notes that even though there are oil-producing Arab nations, the growth of per capita income in those countries is the second-lowest in the world after nations of sub-Sahara Africa. Political freedom is the lowest among the seven regions of the world.
The report does not mention religion. It is pointless to play up the peculiarities of the Arab world in terms of "jihad" or "martyrdom." What is appropriate is to seek an understanding of what people say makes them so angry.
The common denominator involved is the attitude of recognizing the contradictions of Arab society. This also raises the question of how to reconcile modernization and Islam rather than simply condemning colonial rule by big powers and the U.S. policy toward the Palestinians.
But are Arab leaders ready to respond to the question? The elderly King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, ruler of Saudi Arabia, is resting at his villa in Spain with a retinue of 3,000.
Saudi Arabia's population has doubled in the past 20 years, but the people are not as wealthy as they once were. Lavish lifestyles and jet-skiing by the princes who follow King Fahd are no help in winning public trust in the monarchy.
Osama bin Laden is idolized by many of the 280 million people of 22 Arab nations and areas. They liken him to the Islamic warriors who fought the Crusaders in the Middle Ages. But it is also widely agreed that indiscriminate terrorism goes against Muslim precepts. Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the Arab world's most popular cleric for his satellite-broadcast lectures, has consistently denounced bin Laden's philosophy as anti-Islam.
Isn't it important to support reform-minded Arabs without ignoring Muslims of Arab nations as violent?