The attack on three hotels in Amman, which left 57 dead and nearly 100 injured, is being seen by many throughout the world as principally an attack on the West. After all, the three are part of Western hotel chains, are used by Western tourists and businessmen, as well as officials and contractors involved in Iraq. It is easy, then, to conclude that this was an anti-Western strike. Indeed, that is precisely what Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has claimed responsibility, wants people to believe. On its website, it specifically said that the Radisson, Hyatt and Days Inn hotels were targeted because they were favorites with American, Israeli and other Western intelligence.
No one should be deceived by this. As with past Al-Qaeda attacks here and elsewhere in the region, neither the West nor Israel is the real target. The real targets are Arab and Muslim countries. They are the places Al-Qaeda wants to take over. It does not want to take over the West. When it attacks Western targets whether in Jordan, or Egypt or here, it is simply to frighten Westerners away — as well as being a recruitment tactic, hoping to draw on resentment against the West.
A brief look at the list of dead in Amman tells the real story. Almost all were Arabs — mostly Jordanians, but also Iraqis, Bahrainis, Saudis. It includes Syrian-born filmmaker Moustapha Akkad, best known for the film “The Message: The Story of Islam”, and his daughter. This was no attack on the West or Westerners. The bombers knew that almost all of their victims would be Arabs and Muslims. They did not stumble into the wrong place at the wrong time. The suicide bomber who blew so many guests to eternity at the wedding reception in the Radisson and the people who sent him there knew exactly who would die.
The three hotel attacks were not just an act of revenge by Al-Qaeda’s Jordanian-born leader in Iraq Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi for Jordan’s role as a transit center for Iraq — although there was that. Nor were they aimed purely at undermining the country’s tourist industry and thus the economy — although there was that too. This was, above all, an outburst of pure hate: Hate for Jordan (in this case), hate of the West and anything to do with it, and above all hate of Arabs and Muslims who do not conform to Al-Qaeda’s warped vision of Islam.
As for those who refuse to believe that there is any such organization as Al-Qaeda, they are right in the sense that it is not a structured body, but it exists. It is more a franchise operation, drawing in groups and freelance individuals with a common militant mindset of hate, determined to impose their fascist will on the entire Muslim world.
Jordan’s King Abdallah has vowed to pursue those behind the blasts. He can rely on Saudi Arabia providing him whatever help his country needs. This is our war too, just as it is Egypt’s war, Iraq’s war, the world’s war. We are all potential targets for Al-Qaeda. That is the lesson that the Amman bombings again reinforces.
