JEDDAH, 22 January — An international business forum that attracted a former US president and a brother of the current US leader saw its closing session turn into an East-West debate over how the Western and Islamic worlds view leadership action during times of crisis. The Sept. 11 attacks casting a heavy shadow over the debate.

"America has moved from a country that upholds and protects freedom to having a military government. It has assumed the right to reshape the world according to its own will. This is a unilateral view that strikes away the other side," said Saudi writer Nora Al-Saad.

She was one of several commentators, many of them women, who expressed varying points of view on the panel discussion titled "leadership in times of crisis." The session ended the Jeddah Economic Forum held in this Red Sea city over the past three days.

Adel Fakeih, chairman and managing director of the Savola Group, was the main panel member and the moderator was John Van Maanen of MIT Sloan School of Management. Fakeih reflected on key concepts on how the West views the issue of crisis management, including with emphasis on why people disagree, conflict factors and ways to resolve them. He then went on to give the Islamic perspective versus the Western model.

Neither former President Bill Clinton nor Neil Bush, chairman & CEO of IGNITE, USA and brother of President George W. Bush, were present at the session, having delivered their speeches earlier and left.

Neil Bush was of the view that Arabs and Muslims whose image continues to suffer following the Sept. 11 attacks could still win the hearts and minds of the American people. This, he said, could be done through lobbying US politicians. The distorted image, he said, could be removed if the Arabs knew how to influence public opinion.

While such expressions as fear, power and force, fairness, funds which entails the cost of conflict making and conflict settling and compromise and consensus are common in the Western perception of crisis and leadership, the Islamic point of view has it that a leader must in the first place be gifted and committed to a balanced framework of ethics.

According to Fakeih, these span over three areas; values which include amana (honesty and responsibility toward others), taqwa (the inner voice telling one to do good), bir (justice with love and care) and tawadou (confident humility and humbleness) that makes people open to criticism.

Van Maanen said what is expected of the leadership at times of disaster is three things; tell the truth, act quickly and be visible. "What people are looking for is why it happened, why it happened to me and what to do now," he said.

He cited retribution and compassion as the two elements shown by the American leadership following the Sept. 11 attacks. In reference was the punishment that President Bush continues to mete on those whom he blames for being responsible for the attacks against New York and Washington and the compassion shown by the president when he visited a Washington mosque and invited Muslim leaders to the While House. "There was a call for retribution and at the same time there was a show of compassion," Van Maanen said.

One commentator expressed amazement at the fact that while the East-West conflict could easily be traced to centuries back, almost all the speakers over the past days have been using Sept. 11 as the term of reference.

"While we think of those incidents from a different perspective, the question is how can this reflect on the culture of tolerance" asked Dr. Ameera Kashkari from the College of Education.

One Western commentator gave an example of how public opinion went wrong. He cited the refusal by outgoing New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani to accept a $10 million check from leading Saudi businessman Prince Alwaleed ibn Talal as donation to the victims of the attacks because the prince issued a statement on the plight of the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation and the American support for Israel. "Good may have been done if the check had been accepted," said the commentator.

There were those who see the West as a source of inspiration and model to follow when it comes to handling crisis. "There are lessons to be learned from the West in this regard. Here we see more maturity in the mobilization process especially when it comes to charity and aid. As for us, the shock we experience as a result of the crisis makes us less efficient in mobilizing help. We have to be more rational instead of being emotional," commented one speaker.

Faced with an endless flow of comments and questions, Van Maanen said he came here to learn more than to teach and expressed the hope that diplomacy would win over the military choice.

Fakeih said crisis should be a source of lesson learning and experience gaining away from blaming games. The notion that we are better than you will not solve problems. Americans, too, should think deeply and learn. Conflicts can be an opportunity for learning, he said.

The closing words came from Henry D. Jacoby, professor of management, MIT Sloan School of Management, who underlined the link between energy and leadership. "We are locked in a global community," he said, while describing the debate as sophisticated discussion.