A young Australian woman faces 20 years in jail after being convicted in an Indonesian court of drug smuggling after a holiday in Bali. It appears that most Australians believe her conviction is wrong and there is widespread anger at this and at what is perceived as a very harsh sentence. There is also, however, widespread shock at what has happened since the woman, Schapelle Corby was found guilty. A package containing a quantity of bacillus-type bacteria has been delivered to the Indonesian Embassy in the Australian capital, Canberra. There is strong evidence that this crime was carried out by supporters of Corby.
Whatever most Australians feel about the Indonesian court’s findings, they are revolted that anyone could have stooped to biological terrorism in the deluded idea that this could possibly help the woman. The Australian government has rightly expressed its profound regret for the attack and vowed that the perpetrators will be found and brought to justice. Australia has, with America and its other allies, been to the fore in warning the world about the possible use of biological weapons by international terrorists but it can hardly have imagined that this device would be used on its own doorstep. Thankfully, it is not thought that this biological attack has caused any lasting injury. It may indeed have done some good if it causes Australians and others to reflect on the way in which the actions of a tiny minority can besmirch the reputation and obscure the point of view of the overwhelmingly peaceful and reasonable majority.
Most everyone in the Arab world regards the US intervention in Iraq as a major error of judgment which has actually enhanced the very terrorism that it was supposed to destroy. They see this mayhem as an inevitable consequence of an occupation that should never have happened. Nevertheless, there is profound revulsion at the crimes of Al-Qaeda terrorists and other Iraqi insurgents. These fanatics do not speak on anyone’s behalf. Yet because people in the region oppose US policy, the tendency in Washington is to suspect that there is widespread support for terrorism, primarily directed against American interests.
By this same reasoning, can it therefore be concluded that because most Australians believe that Corby was wrongly convicted in an Indonesian court, they approve of a terrorist biological attack on the Indonesia Embassy in their country? Yet that is the suggestion that is being made about Muslims and terrorism.
Perhaps now they can understand the quiet anger felt in the Arab — and wider Muslim world — when their own feelings are so misrepresented. Supposing new terrorists arrived who began a murderous and heartless campaign to advance the cause of democracy? Would not Americans and citizens of other democratic states deplore the barbarous methods of the men of violence? They would. But would their support for the values of democracy, in the name of which the terrorists claimed to be acting, make them terrorists too? Of course not.
