Egypt initiates peace process
I refer to the comment of Christopher McRae published in The Jakarta Post on Dec. 1.
The comment and the language used reflects a poor and subjective view about the phenomenon of terrorism and its roots. Instead of dealing with the issue in a thoughtful and objective manner, McRae is using a biased language that lacks the minimum standard of decent common sense.
It is very well known that the main objective of al-Qaeda is to build a Taliban-like Islamic regime using the slogan "Islam is the solution". Taking the suicide bombing in Riyadh, as proof of al-Qaeda's objective, is a naive interpretation on the part of McRae. His logic fails to explain the reasons behind the terrorist attack in Turkey, which is regarded, by many western countries, as a good example of Muslim democracy, or even to find an explanation to the Bali and JW Marriott bombings, at a time when Indonesia is going through a process of democratization.
McRae should understand the fact that Egypt's initiation of the peace process in the Middle East more than 25 years ago, and its enthusiasm and leading role in finding a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, is mainly based on its firm belief that the region will never enjoy stability and peace without finding a solution to the Palestinian question that remains the longest case of military occupation with all the components of a colonial condition in a post neo-colonial world.
It is in Egypt's credit that terrorism there declined to nil since 1997, at the time al-Qaeda was growing. The government successfully dealt with the problem, not by security measures only but through an extensive dialog between the Egyptian Islamic thinkers and the radicals that led the leaders of a group like Gamaa Islamiya to recognize recently that their actions have not been in accordance with Islamic law and forbade their members to join al-Qaeda.
McRae, whose comment revealed an ignorance and lack of knowledge about the Middle East, especially its post World War II history and its current realities, should know that my views are shared by many scholars and analysts, known for their objectivity.
As an example, and for the purpose of a better understanding of the issue, I advise him to start with Paul Krugman's article A willful ignorance about the sources of terrorism and Jonathan Power's Keeping terrorism in perspective, both published in The International Herald Tribune on Oct. 29, 2003 and Nov. 27, 2003 respectively.
EZZAT SAAD EL SAYED Ambassador of Egypt to the Republic of Indonesia Jakarta