DUBAI - Terror motivated by "religious extremism" must be fought by expanding freedom in the Arab-Islamic world and making better use of economic resources, the United Arab Emirates information minister said Thursday.
"If we succeed in creating an environment that does not suffer from a dearth of freedom (and) in making better use of resources ... we would create better conditions to deal with extremism, which cannot be eradicated by war alone," Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed wrote in the Saudi-owned daily Asharq al-Awsat.
In an article based on questions put to the UAE official on his "outlook" for 2002, Sheikh Abdullah said the kind of terror that struck New York and Washington on September 11 -- "and which harmed Arabs and Muslims no less than it harmed the United States" -- could not be rooted out in a short time.
"In my view, religious extremism that begets terrorism will not recede without a review of Arab and Islamic conditions," he said.
"We cannot speak of stamping out extremism without revising the educational system and without rethinking our political state of affairs and economic problems.
"Extremism is a product of all (these factors), and its decline is a function of our ability to establish a (different) political climate providing greater freedoms, a better standard of living and advanced methods ... of education," Sheikh Abdullah said.
The United States has accused Saudi-born Islamist Osama bin Laden of masterminding the September 11 atrocities and launched a "war on terror" in Afghanistan, which it has indicated might extend to other Arab and Islamic states.
While castigating Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "state terrorism" against the Palestinians, the UAE minister implicitly criticized suicide bombings by Palestinian Islamist groups against Israeli targets.
"Without meaning to ... belittle the victims who fell while resisting the occupation, we must admit that the second (ongoing) Palestinian intifada in which the initiative was in the hands of extremist forces was not as politically successful as the first (1987- 1993) intifada," he said.
The first uprising "embarrassed Israel and ultimately forced it to recognize Palestinian political rights," Sheikh Abdullah said, referring to the subsequent Oslo accords.
Arab officials have generally backed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's demand for a halt to armed operations against Israel.