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Arab Media on British Terror

By Brian Shott and Jamal Dajani, Pacific News Service. Posted July 12, 2005.


Many Arab journalists claim that as long as the United States and Britain are occupying Iraq, more attacks are inevitable.
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Editor's Note: Jamal Dajani, director of Middle Eastern programming at Link TV, monitored Arab news programming, online newspapers and Web sites from Paris on July 7, the day of the London bombings. He was interviewed by phone and e-mail by Brian Shott, an editor at Pacific News Service.

Is there a single, dominant reaction to the London bombings in Arab news media?

Jamal Dajani: Arab media is condemning these attacks, which, incidentally, happened in areas of London with large Muslim and Arab populations. But the focus is that no place on earth is immune from terrorists, especially ones who are willing to kill or be killed.

Do Arab media take the London attack as a sign that Al Qaeda is shifting the focus of its attacks or its operations to the West?

The name "Al Qaeda" is now used by Islamist terrorists worldwide who have no connection, or a very loose one, to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda. This is clear from monitoring not only the news on satellite TV and the Arab print media, but the so-called Al Qaeda Web sites -- for example, those that showed the beheadings of hostages. The term "Al Qaeda" now is similar to the term "mafia" -- the U.S. mafia, Israeli mafia, Russian mafia and so on.

Before the London attacks, these groups were threatening England as well as Italy, to put pressure on these countries to withdraw from Iraq, similarly to what happened to Spain. This is my own analysis as well as many in the Arab media.

What kind of message, if any, is Arab media sending to Muslims in Europe about their vulnerability in the aftermath of the bombings?

Arab media praised Tony Blair for recognizing how Muslims condemned these horrific terrorist attacks, but they are also concerned about backlashes. Their communities have suffered from the aftermath of 9/11.

The National Association of British Arabs issued a press release to all Arab media on the day of the attacks. They unequivocally condemned the bombing, calling it a "horrific" attack against "this most diverse of cities." They noted that two of the blasts took place in largely Arab and/or Muslim communities, and called on all Londoners to "resist any voices inciting racial or religious hatred."

What kind of questions are Arab journalists and pundits raising in their commentaries or broadcasts?

The common denominator is the fear that the quagmire of Iraq may have sped out of control, beyond Iraq's borders. Many believe that the occupation of Iraq has refueled the hatred toward the United States, Britain and coalition countries.

How should the United States or Britain respond to these attacks, according to Arab commentators?

There's a general consensus here: The sympathy earned by the U.S. after 9/11 was squandered with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, followed by the occupation of Iraq and Baghdad, the ancient capital of the Islamic empire. This generates animosity toward the West. Britain is victimized due to Blair's blunder by following and supporting Bush's policies. As long as the United States and Britain are occupying Iraq, more attacks will happen. It is a matter of time. The terrorists are taking full advantage of the situation.

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Reg Keys on Blair
Posted by: dearkitty on Jul 12, 2005 12:52 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
See in this context also the comments by Reg Keys from Britain, whose soldier son died in Iraq, on Tony Blair: here.

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Truth is truth
Posted by: jeffrey7 on Jul 12, 2005 8:33 AM   
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This is a totally correct assesment.The two contries of Britian and the U.S. have both had a run at the world.Britian is still 'Puff-headed' at 'controling 2/3 rds of the known World'
and the U.S. thinks it's the only Superpower.Both countries enjoy the most ruthless of dealings with their World neighbors.
Plus both have the audassity to believe they are right.Such is the direction of a country that is governed by greed and plunder.They're screwing it up for the rest of us.

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Arab media's reaction to the London Subway bombings
Posted by: hotlipsin61 on Jul 12, 2005 10:12 AM   
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It was nice to hear a person from a member of the Arab media discuss the London bombings. You don't get their views on American TV stations anywhere, since Al-Jazeera has been pulled from Time-Warner cable company. Bummer!
Every time there is a terrorist attack, the name "Al-Qaida" comes up.
Haven't we forgotten that most nations have their own homegrown terrorists? I know the USA still has the Ku Klux Klan and Great Britain still hasn't subjugated the Irish Republican Army.
Let't not be quick to blame unfortunate incidents like the subway bombings on Arabs. Many of them have condemned the attacks.

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How do British Muslims feel about being targets?
Posted by: philame on Jul 12, 2005 11:44 AM   
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Of course most muslims don't support these extremists just like most Christians here do not support extremists in their faith.

I want to hear more about how British Muslims feel about being the target of Muslim extremists. Looking forward to the NPR program on that tonight.

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Iraq as the Reason?
Posted by: tobykreidler on Jul 12, 2005 1:21 PM   
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While I am not condoning our occupation of Iraq, lets not forget that terrorists were attacking the west before we occupied Iraq...

There are some good arguments for why the US & Brittain should get out of Iraq as soon as they can, but "to stop terrorist attacks on our nations" seems in the same realm as one of Bush's reason for invading in the first place "because Saddam was a friend & supporter of Osama." While I feel a great deal of sympathy for the people of Iraq, there is no justification for what happened in London and I refuse to grant the terrorists even the whisp of one.

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» RE: Iraq as the Reason? Posted by: Barbara
Stephen
Posted by: newsforreal.com on Jul 12, 2005 1:23 PM   
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I see ... we were asking for it dressing like that.

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The Thing That Pisses Me Off
Posted by: Joe on Jul 12, 2005 7:14 PM   
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Is that if some other countries were occupying the US or Britain dictating how we live our lives and run our country we would resort to the same tactics and use similar logical and religious justifications. For some reason (arrogance or supposed superiority) people have the inability to put themselves in other's shoes. These same people would throw rocks at a dog and then blame the dog when it mauls half of their leg off.

Hey 20,000-100,000 Iraqis are dead. Who cares, they are dogs anyway. Animals have the inability to feel pain.

You couldn't convince me that a majority don't think that way. It worked well during slavery.....

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to all those for and against terror
Posted by: ricallan on Jul 14, 2005 12:54 AM   
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all the above posters seem to assume that it was muslim terrorists terrorizing muslim neighborhoods. just stop and re-consider for a moment, like, for instance this "plan b":

this one has rove, cheny, rummy--and, oh yea, apparently arriving just in time for the blasts, just like he did in the good ol'days of 9/11, "mayor" jullie-annie's name--written all over it.

just askin,' but isn't this the perfect chess move for these power-addled multi-national civilization-crushing so-called christian execs ("hey, we need a new pearl harbor quick before rove gets everybody impeached, including blair")?
here's the (hypothetical, of course) plan...

1st, they do a quadruple bombing , then find some arab kids who were very previously in the wrong "religious gathering" at the wrong time who were also conviently blown up in the bombings, then very easily after that, pin it on them... and in the process not only give the west a new excuse to take over the rest of heathen world by turning northern london neighbors against their own beliefs and thus each other. you know? just like they've already done so successfully in America.

Beats the hell out of the Crusades... makes em look downright "fundamentalist"... only this time they got Jews on their side. and so divided we all fall.

just a theory, but after you've studied their methods of operation for awhile it just gets to the point where you wouldn't put anything like it past them.

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