What citizens of other countries are reading about the Middle East.
By COMPILEDTHE MEDIA LINEDeputy chairman of Hamas’s political bureau Musa Abu Marzouk talks during an interview in Cairo on August 9.(photo credit: REUTERS)The Islamic State: An American demon Al-Ahram, Egypt, September 17Ever since the September 11 attacks and the false claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein held weapons of mass destruction, American foreign policy began focusing on US incursions into the Middle East. Since then, this ploy continued to grow: Following Iraq, the United States began fanning flames throughout the Middle East watching the Arab Spring unfold. When al-Qaida was no longer its legitimate excuse to attack in the region, the US proceeded to train young Arabs to revolt and demonstrate for democracy. When this democracy yielded a Muslim Brotherhood regime, America then realized that it needed to protect its “little girl” in the region, Israel.And now, as the Arab Spring no longer serves as an excuse for its foreign intervention, America has made up the Islamic State excuse. In an attempt to destabilize the region, the US is calling Arab states to take part in the joint international front against Islamic State. In his recent meeting with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, US Secretary of State John Kerry asked that Egypt join the effort. I am begging all of you: Let us not intervene in a war that only benefits America and Israel. Let us remember that it is America’s interest to create a demon in our region. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.Abu Marzouk’s attempt to get out of the bottleneck Ma'an, Ramallah, September 16Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzouk’s comments last week regarding his organization’s willingness to negotiate with Israel were not coincidental. An official of his stature does not speak to the press unannounced without carefully considering his words beforehand.We can therefore assume that he carefully prepared his statement, and spoke objectively and rationally. Abu Marzouk’s comments reflect Hamas’s coming to terms with the political situation surrounding it: Egypt has turned its back on the Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar has expelled senior Hamas officials and the war in Gaza did not give Hamas the achievements it had hoped for.The bomb “launched” by Abu Marzouk was not only a direct message to the occupation and the Quartet (that requires Hamas to recognize Israel), but also to the PLO. It was a reminder to Chairman Mahmoud Abbas that if he fails to accept and cooperate with Hamas, the latter will assume the role of the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, breaking the monopoly of the Palestinian Liberalization Organization.Despite this bold statement, things will be left up to the occupation to decide whether negotiations will take place or not. Will these statements have impact on our political map? Only the coming weeks and months will tell.Does Sheikh al-Qaradawi support Islamic State?Asharq Alawsat, London, September 17Dr. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars and spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, recently criticized the United States’ war on the Islamic State, stating: “I disagree with the means used by the Islamic State to promote its agenda, but America is bloodthirsty and motivated by skewed interests – not by the values of Islam.” How can the same person who justified NATO’s attacks in Libya reject an intervention against Islamic State in Iraq? How can he expect an international front against the Islamic State when he does not believe that the US can promote the values of Islam? How is it possible that NATO’s intervention in Libya – which was by all means contested – was approved by him; while the international front against the Islamic State – widely embraced by all leaders of the world, including the majority of Arab and Muslim leaders – is not. Thus, we face two possibilities: Either Qaradawi does not understand his own policies; or, perhaps, he supports the Islamic State. To me, it seems as if the Muslim Brotherhood is giving up on its politicization and attempting to return to its roots.Following its political failure in Egypt and elsewhere, the Brotherhood is returning to its traditional stance of flying the banner of fundamental Islam in order to gain popularity. This is what Qaradawi is doing. What the Brotherhood fails to realize is that the Middle East has dramatically changed, and that today, there is widespread rejection of extremism in the Arab world. More than they oppose corruption and dictatorship, Arabs today – Shi’ites, Sunnis, individual groups, and regimes – all come together to reject one thing: Extremism as the kind provided us by Qaradawi.America’s lack of morals in the Middle East Al Jazeera al-Saudiah, Saudi Arabia, September 18In order to assess America’s stance on the Syrian civil war, it is important to go back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and to the American role in expelling the Soviets from Afghan soil. Back in the day, the CIA supplied heavy weaponry, including advanced antiaircraft missiles, to the Afghan Mujaheedin – with hopes that the latter would successfully protect their lands. The United States wanted to save the Afghans from being killed or displaced, similarly to its intervention a few years later in Bosnia, while the Serbs attacked it. Sadly, this humanitarian approach completely disappeared in the case of Syria, as the number of Syrian refugees mounted to 200,000 with no foreign intervention. Despite the Syrian opposition’s numerous pleas to provide it with antiaircraft missiles, no one in the Western world – and the US in particular – bothered complying. Thus, the American position is no longer a secret: The United States wants the regime in Damascus to continue its existence, regardless of the thousands of innocent civilians it has killed so far. This raises many ethical questions regarding the US’s role in the Middle East, and why it failed to defend the Syrian people where it previously defended other helpless nationalities. The answer to this dilemma has a lot to do with the formation of the State of Israel, which was a product of Western colonization of the region. The ugliest type of crime against innocents – expelling people from their lands and performing genocide in order to establish a Western state – did not affect the Americans. Since then, the American policy in the Middle East lacks morality – which only exacerbates the hostility and hate Arab peoples hold against the West.
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