JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia - Like other Muslims across the world,
many ordinary Saudis believe that no true follower of Islam could have carried
out this month's devastating air attacks on the United States.
The backlash of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic sentiment in the West has prompted
many of the country's people -- who are generally devout Muslims -- to ask
themselves why their religion is so widely misunderstood.
"No real Muslim could have done this thing," businessman Ali Saleh,
41, told Reuters.
"The American people are our friends...but very few of them know the Arab
world and Muslims. This is the main problem," he said.
Newspapers in the conservative desert kingdom, the birthplace of Islam, have
been filled every day with editorials and letters examining the issue since the
September 11 suicide attacks on buildings in New York and Washington.
Most are efforts to bridge the gap between the cultures of Islam and the
secular West -- a divide which many Arabs fear will widen if the United States
takes military action to retaliate for the assault.
"In the coming weeks and months it is not going to be easy to undo the
work of centuries and change Western attitudes to Muslims and Arabs," the
daily Arab News said in an editorial on Thursday.
"But it has to be done. The need has never been greater."
The newspaper's view has been echoed all over the Muslim world, but it takes
added weight in Saudi Arabia, the country where Islam began 14 centuries ago
and which hosts the religion's holiest places.
"Neither the law of Islam nor its ethical system justify such a
crime," Zaki Badawi, principal of the Muslim College in London, wrote in a
column published by the Arab News on Friday.
"There is a widespread belief in the West that Islam fosters violence.
This is utterly untrue."
MANY SAUDIS BELIEVE BIN LADEN INNOCENT
Washington has named Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden as the main suspect in
the hijacked airliner attacks, which left nearly 7,000 people dead or missing.
Some of the suspected hijackers named by the FBI were Saudi nationals.
But many Saudis remain firmly convinced that bin Laden, often seen as a hero
for his role in driving Soviet forces out of Afghanistan, did not mastermind
the suicide attacks.
They believe that the Americans may have jumped to conclusions too quickly.
"I don't think he did it because he is a Muslim and no real Islamic man
would have done this thing," said Majid al-Subaie, a 23-year-old pilot for
Saudi Arabia's air force.
"Why are they accusing Arabs of doing this? I like Americans, I work with
them. There is no problem between the U.S. military and the Saudis."
Bin Laden objects to the token, largely invisible U.S. military presence which
has remained in the kingdom since American forces helped drive Iraq out of
Kuwait in 1991.
He has vowed a jihad, or "holy struggle," against Americans and is
alleged by Washington to have played a role in attacks on U.S. targets in Saudi
Arabia in 1995 and 1996.
Few Saudis appear to share bin Laden's extreme views.
But like Arabs everywhere, they believe that the key to the whole issue is
defusing widespread anger over U.S. support for Israel in its confrontation
with the Palestinians, which is seen as unfairly one-sided.
"All Western countries should try to solve the problems in Israel. In my
opinion if they do this 70 percent of the terrorism in the world will
end," said Saud Hashim.
Hashim, a 46-year-old executive with Saudi Arabia's Civil Aviation, was at a
conference in Montreal, Canada, when the attacks happened.
"I am still confused, I find it hard to accept what has happened and I
don't know who did it," he said.
"I am afraid for the future of civilisation and I am worried that this
crisis will divide the world. But I can tell you one thing -- whoever did it is
not from Islam."
06:27 09-28-01
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