MEDIA REACTION ON EGYPT TERROR ATTACKS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 005859

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR,
I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN
USAID/ANE/MEA
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON EGYPT TERROR ATTACKS


Summary

-- Lead stories in all papers today, July 24, focused
on the terror attacks in Sharm El-Sheikh yesterday.
Reports describe attacks as "carnage," "mortal blow,"
or simply "a bloody dawn" in Sharm El-Sheikh. A
noticeable number of commentaries strongly condemn the
attacks and their perpetrators as a faction of people
who seek to kill and murder. Furthermore,
commentaries strongly absolve Islam of such terror
actions and such terrorists, urging the world,
particularly Arabs and Muslims, to speak out clearly
against terror done in the name of Islam.

Editorial Commentary

-- "The war on terrorism: a major failure story"

Daily Columnist Urayb Rintawi writes on the op-ed page
of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(07/24): "We must admit that the war on terrorism has
failed to achieved its objectives, and that, despite
its high cost, its noise, and its many fronts, it is
still as far away from the finish line as it will ever
be. We must also admit that more bloody chapters of
this war are yet to come.. We talk so much about the
`reasons' for the terrorism and about its many violent
and bloody phenomena, but we never do anything to
overcome them and go beyond them. The status of the
Arab and Muslim regimes remains the same; in fact, it
is getting worse. Unemployment, hunger, and price
hikes take on millions of people every day; corrupt
and unjust regimes shoot and expand their prisons. As
for the west, the policies and strategies that stir
hatred and the clash of civilizations continue to do
their thing."

-- "Damn the terrorism"

Center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(07/24) editorializes: "The bombings in Sharm El-
Sheikh and the Egyptian, Arab, and foreign victims,
Christians and Muslims, all stand witness and proof
that the terrorists are criminals and murderers, that
they have no justification, that one cannot defend
their stand because they are not human and nor can one
defend their viewpoint because they have none. Their
primary objective is to kill. When we spoke in the
past about the reasons that lead to the growth of
terrorism, we had actually wanted to understand the
facts, and not to find justification for their
actions.. It is time to admit the fact that the
terrorists are made of the same clay, that they are a
united front despite the fact they come from separate
groupings. On the other hand, the world has not yet
formed a united front, and it is not easy to do that
when there are those who perpetrate terrorism in all
its forms, and when there are those who claim to fight
terrorism while they are the cause of it because of
the injustice, aggression, and usurpation they
exercise."

-- "The world is no longer safe"

Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back-page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(07/24): "The world cannot bear the continuation of
this war [on terror]. Moreover, the world cannot keep
quiet under this intellectual terrorism that Bush has
imposed on everyone when he declared, "if you are not
with us, you are against us." If a person wants to
talk about the roots and causes of terrorism, he is
accused of `justifying terrorism,' but then the person
realizes that sufficing with condemnation and
denunciation of terrorism actually means that he is
justifying the Bush-Blair war and with it, the daily
crimes in Iraq.. There must be another way to fight
terrorism. There must be a third camp, different from
the Bush-Blair camp and the Bin Laden-Zarqawi camp,
that would establish a comprehensive international
effort to put an end to terrorism and deal with its
root causes; a camp that would include countries
actually hurt by terrorism.. The Arabs and Muslims
are the first and most to suffer from terrorism and
there is plenty of evidence to that in Baghdad,
Riyadh, Rabat, and Sharm El-Sheikh. Without them,
without respecting their viewpoints, their suggestions
and their demands for fighting terrorism, humanity
will continue to be hostage to the Bush-Blair policy
that has left the world less safe in this open war
between crazy people and ghosts."

-- "Sharm El-Sheikh bombings: sinful terrorism and
criminal murderers"

Semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (07/24)
editorializes: "Silence is no longer a virtue. It
has become nearly the same as complicity with barbaric
actions committed in cold blood and dressed up by
their perpetrators as religious actions. What kind of
Jihad is this that takes innocent lives, destroys
public property, and puts peoples' lives at risk? The
most dangerous thing about these massacres perpetrated
by terrorists all over this world is that they speak
in the name of Islam, when Islam in fact is absolved
of such people. All Muslims must take the initiative,
with fear or hesitation, to declare that these
prodigal people have nothing to do with them, and
prove with action and not just that they share the
world feelings and tendency to act decisively and
effectively against terrorism."

-- "Terrorism cannot be condemned, but ."

Columnist Khairallah Khairallah writes on the op-ed
page of independent Arabic daily Al-Ghad (07/24):
"Terrorism is terrorism. What London faced is
terrorism and cannot be justified in any shape or
form. There is nothing called condemning terrorism
using the world `but.', as if it is possible to look
for mitigating circumstances for terrorists who kill
civilians who have nothing to do with their countries'
policies.. True, one can criticize British and
American policies in Iraq, but this criticism cannot
provide justification for the terrorism perpetrated in
London. The only thing that we can say is that the
only party that benefits from terrorism is the enemy
of all Arabs and Muslims, whoever that enemy might
be."
HALE