The way Halil Hussein, a 43-year-old shopkeeper, sees the Middle East crisis, the solution is not peace but war, one waged by terror and suicide missions similar to the presumed boat attack on the destroyer USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in the port of Aden.
He scoffs at a hurried summit scheduled for Monday at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheik to defuse the crisis. Instead Hussein and friends envisage a future not unlike the dark days when Palestinian terrorist groups attacked Jewish and U.S. targets, hijacked planes and ships and massacred Israelis and others.
Only this time, experts studying Islam’s radical movements believe, the missions will be carried out by a new breed of religious zealots indoctrinated from childhood in Islamic schools with the belief their sacrifice will bring them eternal life in paradise and instant martyrdom on Earth.
Their determination to seek death makes them far more lethal than predecessors more inclined to remain alive. The conflict has already created new icons.
On the Arab side of the Middle East fence the almost mythical figure of Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden has acquired hero status. His network of holy warriors, trained in Afghani camps, are role models for many young men. Yemen, a country debilitated by tribal conflicts, is the new haven for radical groups like Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Egypt’s own Islamic Jihad, and Libyan and Algerian Islamic Brotherhoods.
Jerusalem has become a battle cry. The Old City’s Temple Mount, a holy place the Arabs call Haram ash Sharif (Noble Sanctuary), is the new Islamic banner
“The Iranian revolution once presented itself as an alternative to corruption in the Arab world. But after 20 years it lost its credibility and its status as a model for the middle and lower classes. Israel’s actions over the last weeks have revived this once fervent fundamentalism and Jerusalem has become a symbol for jihad,” or holy war, said Hala Mustafa. She is the author of two books on the roots and progression of the revival of Islamic fundamentalism.
Academics like Mustafa have no doubt the number of terrorist attacks will escalate, buoyant on a climate of revenge.
Their offensive is expected to target U.S. interests and installations, legitimized targets in an Arab world that has always blamed Washington for giving tiny Israel a qualitative military advantage over the combined forces of 250 million Arabs.
“Governments, especially those weak like the one in Yemen, will not be able to condemn or combat this radicalization, otherwise they would lose popularity and look like [Israeli] allies,” said Mustafa, head of the research unit for Political and Strategic Studies at the Al Ahram Center.
From Beirut to Bahrain, from Cairo to Aden and from Mecca to Amman, irate Arabs vented their emotions in the streets last week. Arab newspapers are filled with charges that Israel seeks war. The daily Al Ahram, mouthpiece of the usually moderate Egyptian government, called on President Hosni Mubarak to freeze relations with Israel.
Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, in what appeared to be more show than intent, mobilized military units. However, diplomats here said the units were definitely not prepared for bellicose action.
“Where is the Egyptian army? War! War! War!” chorused thousands of demonstrators this weekend in Cairo. Speakers pointed to the new “unholy” alliance between Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon, the man who the Arab world believes precipitated the crisis with a visit to the Temple Mount.
The demonstrators chanted an adapted version of the Islamic oath: “There is no other God but Allah — and Sharon is the enemy of God” (instead of “and Muhammad is his prophet”).
Anti-American sentiments are running high even in Egypt, considered the most moderate of the Arab nations, the first to make peace with Israel in 1979, the most bloodied in the four wars the Arabs fought and lost against the Jewish state.
“America has made Israel strong and gave it nuclear arms but will not allow the Arabs to have them. America is guilty,” Hussein, the shopkeeper, argued.
He claims he was no radical until he saw the images of Israeli gunships firing rockets. He says he is not a member of a jihad movement or an underground terrorist organization but applauds their fervor after watching the images of Palestinian children shot dead in a vicious crossfire.
“In the name of the Prophet we cannot allow this to go on,” he said.
Palestinians who once fought for their land are now viewed as the defenders of Islam in their quest to obtain sovereignty over Haram ash Sharif.
What is labeled terrorism in the West is privately hailed as a holy crusade, even in moderate nations like Egypt.
“The only regret I have is that our martyrs did not sink the American ship,” said a student named Achmed.
In the bazaars, on campuses and in the coffee shops where people meet for heated debates, the Palestinians are already labeled martyrs. Their new uprising has become a clarion call for Islamic fundamentalists.
Muslim militants already see a scheduled Arab summit here next weekend as a golden opportunity for Arab leaders to take a more hawkish and punitive stand against Israel and so regain approval from an alienated public.
