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| Volume IX, September 2002, Number 3 |
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| EXCERPT: Egypt: Osama's Star is Rising |
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| Nivien Saleh |
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Ms. Saleh is a doctoral candidate at American University in Washington, DC. She recently spent five months in Cairo doing research.
The U.S. "War on Terrorism" may
be doing Osama bin Laden more
good than harm. As American
troops were shelling Al Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan, his star was rising in the Middle East. Arab citizens have become increasingly disaffected with the U.S. approach to the Middle East, and the more they resent the United States, the more they sympathize with Bin Laden, America's nemesis.
Egypt is a case in point. Traditionally critical of U.S. Middle East policy and the tendency of Washington to side with Israel, popular opinion has lately been accusing President Bush of injustice and of indiscriminately targeting Arabs and Muslims. When asked for their opinion, members of Cairo's middle class openly say: "Bush is utterly bad." In April, the American embassy in Cairo received a bogus bomb threat. In his weekly TV show, political commentator Hamdy Qandeel had to urge Egyptians not to destroy American property, but rather boycott its commercial interests by not buying at McDonald's.
What did the Bush administration do to evoke such a strong response by the "street"? It combined a failure to understand Arab sensitivities with the absence of a strategy. Exposure to graphic depictions of Palestinian suffering in the occupied territories left the impression with Egyptians that President Bush is supporting the slaughtering of Palestinians and – by extension – Arabs.
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