Al-Sharq Al-Awsat Editor: Why Does the Arab World Keep Silent as Muslim Suicide Bombers Target Innocent Muslim Civilians?

In a January 3, 2010 article titled "Truly Saddening," Al-Sharq Al-Awsat chief editor Tariq Al-Homayed complained that the Arab media and public make a fuss over such issues as the minaret ban in Switzerland or the Niqab debate in France, but remain silent in the face of the large-scale suicide bombings in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, in which scores of innocent civilians are brutally murdered by Muslim terrorists.

He stressed that the solution lies in educating the youth against extremism, and in clarifying that the Muslim faith categorically prohibits suicide bombings.  
Following are excerpts from the article:

"The Killing and Terrorizing of Innocent People by Suicide Bombers... Barely Causes Us to Bat an Eyelash"

"News of suicide bombings, murder, and destruction in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as in Iraq, has become commonplace, and we do not give it much thought. It is as though this [issue] does not concern us. [Instead], we see our media [preoccupied] with minor battles, such as [the issue] of the Swiss minarets and [various] other matters, while the killing and terrorizing of people by suicide bombers in these regions barely causes us to bat an eyelash, unfortunately.
"The last such suicide bombing, which took place at a volleyball game in a Pakistani village and caused 88 fatalities, was a depraved act that clearly reflected the brutality and extremism of its perpetrators. We say again and again that we cannot sit [on the sidelines] and just watch these events, believing that these [raging] flames will never [truly threaten] the Arab and Muslim [world]. It is Al-Qaeda and other [organizations] of its sort that are behind these operations – so this is something that gravely concerns us.

"The unsuccessful terrorist [attack] carried out by a young Nigerian on the American Delta [Airlines flight] proved that terrorist cells are interconnected. This Nigerian studied in London and became an extremist there, [but] he trained in Yemen and set out from Amsterdam to commit a crime in America. The day before yesterday, we heard that extremists in Somalia have announced that they would send fighters to Yemen in order to assist Al-Qaeda [there]. And that is not all. The mastermind behind the [attempted] assassination of Saudi Deputy Interior Minister Prince Mohammed Bin Naif came from Yemen, and even though he is a Saudi national, he [entered the country] from beyond the [Saudi] borders. We have also learned that the ones who kidnapped the British nationals in Iraq [later] transferred them to Iran. What some people fail to grasp is that the terrorists realize the importance of international activity, of linking interests, and of [taking] initiative far better than the [forces] fighting against them, [which are trapped in] a conventional mode of thinking."

What Is Needed "Is to Take a Firm Stand against Suicide Bombings, First of All by Firmly Inculcating the Shari'a [Law against Them]"
"What is required here is not intervention with money or men. All that is needed, [and needed] urgently, is to take a firm stand against suicide bombings, first of all by firmly inculcating the shari'a [law against them], which is not such a difficult [task]… I realize that fatwas prohibiting [suicide bombings] have [already] been issued, but unfortunately they are not imparted strongly enough. In fact, [these] fatwas are sometimes undermined by subjecting them to political interpretations or by following them with the word 'but'. Moreover, they are not given wide media coverage so as to bring them to the attention of wide sectors [in society]. What is needed is to inculcate these fatwas and explain them to the youth in the Arab and Muslim world, especially in communities blighted by ignorance and poverty.

"We see the media mounting campaigns over [various] issues which may indeed be worthy [of attention], but not as much as the killing and terrorizing of innocent people. People thus become distracted by such issues as the minarets in Switzerland, the niqab in France, and others [matters] that preoccupy the Arab and Islamic media and become the [focus] of public opinion, with [various] statements and condemnations [mobilizing]  public opinion. But when 88 innocent people are killed in a Muslim country like Pakistan, and also in Iraq – and at the hands of those who claim to be Muslims, [no less] – we encounter total silence. This confuses and saddens the observer, and we must ask ourselves a simple question: What sort of value system are we employing? And how can we [accuse] others of employing a double standard when we suffer from the very same [problem]?"


Al-Hayat Editor: The Americans Do Not Understand the Realities of the Middle East

On a May 24, 2010 editorial in the London daily Al-Hayat, the paper's editor-in-chief, Ghassan Charbel, wrote that the Americans came to Iraq without understanding the nature of this country and region. They thought, he says, that they could topple Saddam's regime and rebuild Iraq like they rebuilt Japan and Germany, establishing an attractive democracy that would tempt the neighboring countries to emulate the Iraqi model. However, they failed to understand that the peoples of the Middle East "'are made up of different races, sects and denominations, which drag behind them a history of clashes, fear, and attempts to eradicate and exterminate one another, and that our real identity – like our loyalties – is either smaller or greater than the area of the countries we inhabit."
Charbel adds that the failure in Iraq is not only American, since the Iraqis also took part in the "carnival of despoliation."

Following are excerpts from an English translation of the article published in Al-Hayat:[1]    
"The Americans Came to Iraq from Another Planet"
"The Americans came to Iraq from another planet. They missed the fact that this part of the world was living in a different historical period. They had a deluded [notion] that they could perform a deep surgical procedure on the region by removing Saddam Hussein's regime.

"The Iraqi politician smiles. Experience shows that the Americans were wrong in interpreting [the] people's demands and feelings. They believed that toppling Saddam Hussein would allow them to rebuild Iraq as they did Germany and Japan. They forgot about the different circumstances, the degree of economic and social development and the religious and cultural differences.

"In their faraway offices, the planners [dreamt] a naïve dream. They believed that democracy was the only dream of the people in the region, and that the mere fact of opening the Iraqi window would encourage the Iranians and Arabs to take to the streets in emulation of the Iraqi model."

The Americans "Did Not Understand that Our Real Homelands Are Our Sects and Regions"
"They did not know that we are made up of different races, sects, and denominations, which drag behind them a history of clashes, fear and attempts to eradicate and exterminate one another, and that our real identity – like our loyalties – is either smaller or greater than the area of the countries we inhabit. They did not understand that our real homelands are our sects and the regions [inhabited by people like ourselves].

"I listened to officials, politicians, and intellectuals, who all agreed that the U.S. role in Iraq has become secondary, that the invasion succeeded at toppling Saddam Hussein's regime but failed to build an attractive democratic model that would entice the region's inhabitants to embrace democracy and change and live in pluralism and rule of law. And then [they added that] the Americans were not a charity organization to begin with."

"The Talk about the U.S.'s Failure Sometimes Aims to Cover Up the Failure of the Iraqis Themselves"

"Those visiting Iraq also hear bitter confessions from politicians and intellectuals. The talk about the U.S.'s failure sometimes aims to cover up the failure of the Iraqis themselves, their failure to seize the opportunity and to quickly unite around a state with [proper] institutions and rule of law.
"One politician places the Iraqis themselves on the list of those who have despoiled Iraq. He speaks of the horrors of the violence on the streets, and of the looting of ministries and institutions. This politician denounces the foreign parties that despoiled Iraq and continue to do so, but he considers the catastrophe to lie in the Iraqi forces' contribution to the drawn-out carnival of despoliation.
"The future of Iraq is uncertain, as many admit.  One also hears that Iraq used to be a player and has become a playground, used to be a country and has become an arena, that the dream of a strong Iraq [standing] once again at the Eastern gates of the Arab World is a dream that can no longer be fulfilled, and that restoring the Iraqi side of the Iraq-Iran-Turkey triangle will take a long time – aside from the fact that the return of a strong Iraq seems impossible due to [Iraq's] structure and the changes it has suffered."
 

[1] http://www.daralhayat.com/portalarticlendah/145262, May 24, 2010. The original English has been lightly edited for clarity.