DUBAI, 4 January — Terror-breeding religious extremism must be fought by expanding freedom in the Arab-Islamic world and making better use of economic resources and reviewing the educational system, the United Arab Emirates information minister said yesterday.
"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 ibn Zayed wrote in the "Future Vision" for 2002 in Asharq Al-Awsat.
Sheikh Abdullah said the kind of terror that struck New York and Washington on Sept. 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 political climate providing greater freedoms, a better standard of living and advanced methods ... of education," Sheikh Abdullah said.
While castigating Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s state terrorism against the Palestinians, the UAE minister implicitly criticized 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, which "embarrassed Israel and ultimately forced it to recognize Palestinian political rights," Sheikh Abdullah said.
"This does not mean that we should give up resistance but we should choose a more appropriate and effective means which is capable of consolidating the past achievements," the sheikh added.
The state terrorism sponsored by Sharon will continue as he has got the green signal from the United States and also because of the state in which the Arab countries are, the shiekh said.
UAE has succeeded in weathering the negative effects of the terror attacks in the US on its economy. Neither Emirates’ economy nor its position as a hub of regional economic activities has been seriously affected, he said.
