Following the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center in New York and Pentagon in Washington on Sept. 11, there was a string of hate crimes directed against people of Middle Eastern origin and Muslims. Inspite of the very special relationship between the USA and Saudi Arabia, the nationality of the people accused in the attacks became an issue in the American and world media. Consequently, Saudi citizens, especially students, suffered a violent backlash. How could a community cope with such a situation? Arab News contacted some experts for their views on this and related topics. Here are their comments:
Othman Alrawaf
Professor, King Saud University, Riyadh
The foundation of the strong relationship between Saudi Arabia and USA was laid down by King Abdulaziz and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This relationship is based on friendship and mutual strategic and economic interests.
The strong ties between Saudi Arabia and USA were reinforced during the Gulf crisis, and now Saudi Arabia strongly condemns the terrorist attacks on ‘Black Tuesday’ which resulted in the death of many innocent American citizens.
Saudi Arabia itself has suffered from terrorist attacks in the past, and yet there are now unjustified reports and articles that link Saudi Arabia to the terrorist activities. One example is a piece by Steven Schwartz, which in the Sunday Telegraph last week. Schwartz links the activities of Osama Bin Laden to the ideas of Wahabism. This is totally insane, as Saudi Arabia is known throughout the world for its political and religious moderation.
Thousands of Saudi students have studied in the USA; they have been good students and the best representatives of their culture, country and society in America.
They have been known for their respect for the American laws and regulations, and they have established long-standing friendships with Americans, and strong social, cultural and academic relationships with many American institutions. Therefore it is neither fair nor justified seeing some Saudi students suffer a violent backlash just because some of the accused in the terrorist attacks are Saudis. I believe Saudi-American relationships will not be affected by what happened on Sept. 11.
Barbara Allen Roberson
Professor of Political Science, Waric University, UK
Obviously the relationship between the USA and the Middle East is going to be affected, but what one notices is that from the initial response to the crisis that President Bush made until a week afterward you see a change of terminology. The task is still trying to route out terrorism and to try to capture Osama Bin Laden. President Bush’s advisors have an added pressure having realized the help of Muslim governments is going to be very difficult to manage, so whatever was said at the beginning about just focusing on the war on terrorism and nothing else is no longer the case and these other issues involve Arabs grievances. I think there will be a lot of quiet negotiations between the USA and individual Muslim governments to bring them onboard.
It is very difficult to prevent these backlashes from happening, but the public has said on television that the police have been very helpful in protecting and supporting the Muslim community. It is very difficult to get through to the public, you are not talking to an intellectual, you are talking to people with prejudices. I think the media, by not provoking the public, can help in calming the situation. In my opinion academics must make it clear that any kind of abuse or attacks on students at campuses will lead to strong disciplinary measures. This certainly is the case at our university.
Bruce Kent
Vice President, Pax Christi (UK)
In this country, amongst ignorant and prejudiced people, there has been since Sept. 11, a backlash against all people thought to be Arabs. It is the responsibility of all those who have any influence on public opinion to repudiate such attitudes and to promote harmony and peace between peoples. Potential victims of such hatred should of course do their best to avoid situations in which they may find themselves vulnerable.
Eugene Rogan
Professor of political science and ME Affairs, Oxford University
It is criminal to make innocents scapegoats for the crimes of others. The only response to such acts of violence and intimidation should be arrest and prosecution. I personally would make no allowance for crimes of racism or hatred. A strong response by American authorities would send a clear message to American citizens that such acts will not be tolerated.
It is important to stress to readers in the Arab world that those who commit hate crimes are no more representative of American values than terrorists are of Arab or Islamic values. All civilized people have a common interest in standing strong against those who sow fear and hatred against others.
Paul Lalor
International Institute of Strategic Studies, Edinburgh University
There is usually a backlash of this kind in the wake of incidents of violence. Statements by media and government help to produce it and can help to end it. Pressure from the Saudi government would be useful here.
George Joffe
Cambridge University and expert on North African Affairs
It is a mistake to assume that formal relations between states reflect attitudes at a popular level, except in the most banal of senses. In reality, there are profound prejudices in America, as in Europe, against Muslims and Arabs and the coexistence of formal good relations with alienation at the personal psychological level is nothing strange. Indeed, it is not even specific to the Arab world — recall the profound antagonism to Japanese in the United States a decade ago. It also needs to be remembered that America has been fed a diet of violent films presenting Arabs as terrorists ever since the 1970s and that the intense support for Israel (which also cloaks a degree of anti-Semitism) further clouds popular perceptions. Saudis in the United States need to be acutely aware of these factors which will condition all their personal relations for the immediate and medium-term futures.
Harvey Morris
Editor at Financial Times, London
People in the United States, because of their country’s geographical isolation, sometimes have only the vaguest notion of the outside world. Among the first targets of isolated acts of revenge were Sikhs easily identifiable by their beards and turbans and bearing a superficial resemblance to widely published pictures of Osama Bin Laden. Those who carried out the attacks would have been unaware that Sikhs have no involvement in the situation.
It was only somewhat later that the American public became aware, through the press, of a Saudi connection to the outrage, leading to a backlash, again from a minority, against all Saudis. Americans are probably surprised that any Saudi should be anti-American given that Saudi Arabia is seen simplistically in the US as an American “asset” in the Middle East.
There is no doubt that the horrific events of Sept. 11 have created major policy dilemmas both for the US and for Saudi Arabia. It is also true that the historic relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia has been placed under unprecedented strain. On the popular level, most Americans know that Saudi Arabia is especially important to the US because of its oil. But Americans also know that Osama Bin Laden comes from a prominent Saudi family. They have learned that many of the suspected hijackers came from Saudi Arabia or were associated with Saudi Arabia. They believe that the austere and harsh form of Islam practiced by the Taleban somehow may have originated in Saudi Arabia. They may be vaguely aware that at one stage Saudi Arabia, along with the US and Pakistan, actually helped create the Taleban. They know that Saudi Arabia disowned Osama Bin Laden and they know that the Saudi Arabian government has condemned the terrorism that occurred in New York and Washington. But there is an impression that Saudi Arabia is not 100 percent behind the efforts of the Bush administration. News media reports about Saudi Arabian restrictions on US military activity from the Kingdom have created some unease in public opinion which official Saudi spokesmen are having difficulty dispelling.
On the political and governmental level here in the US there is another kind of concern. Analysts are wondering why Saudi intelligence might not have been aware of the plot since so many Saudis apparently were involved. They speculate that there is such significant anti-American feeling in certain sections of the Saudi public opinion that the government is reluctant to appear too close or subservient to the US “war on terrorism.” There is also long-standing but growing concern about the condition of the Saudi economy.
For their part, Saudi public opinion and official circles are alarmed about what the Americans are planning in the “war on terrorism.” They fear that America may end up going to war against Islam, and that massive US military strikes might kill thousands of innocent Muslims in Afghanistan and perhaps elsewhere. They bemoan the lack of clarity in identifying the enemy. They chastise the Americans for not having provided the Saudi government with sufficient information on “Islamist terrorists” residing in the US. And they are understandably alarmed at the instances of hate crimes directed against Saudis and other Arabs and Muslims residing in the US, including of course American citizens of Arab or Muslim origin.
Michael C. Hudson
Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University Washington, D.C.
As I said on the phone, I do not think I really know what kind of a backlash is going on in the US against Saudi citizens, so I cannot comment. Since I do not know Canada and the US nor am I either an Arab or a Muslim, I frankly do not think I can advise Arabs and Muslims on what to do, beyond using their common sense.
Nadim Shehadi
Director, Center of Lebanese Studies, Oxford university
The violent backlash was not directed against Saudi citizens or students only, it was aimed at all people that could be identified with the fictional ‘enemy’ that was being identified in the media. It is also a reaction to a perceived jubilant reaction in the Arab and Islamic worlds that strengthened their identification with the ‘enemy’. The tragedy is that the actual perpetrators of the act in New York are themselves dead and the anger and need for revenge had to be directed against some enemy, but the enemy was not there in a concrete fashion, so it had to be invented. Thus anybody with a Middle Eastern/Arab/Muslim appearance could have been identified as such. The immediate reactions from Muslim community leaders in the US and elsewhere condemning the atrocity as well as statements by Western and Arab politicians helped to appease the backlash initially but pictures that were broadcast on television showing Arab/Muslim anger toward the US combined with anti-Western statements exacerbated the situation. I think the situation will gradually get worse before it gets better.
