oracle
02-02-2003, 05:41 PM
Arabs Hope Shuttle Disaster Prompts U.S. Reflection (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/international/middleeast/02CND-ARAB.html)
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
CAIRO, Egypt, Feb. 2 -- In the Middle East, where the hand of God is never believed too far off the tiller of daily events, one explanation for the shuttle disaster quickly gained widespread currency today: divine retribution.
Your average café denizen, not to mention the odd newspaper columnist, looked no further than the Israeli colonel on board and reports that the shuttle apparently first began crumbling over Palestine, Tex., to conclude that God was sending the United States a message that its entire Mideast policy is misguided.
"It was definitely a divine retribution against America for its ongoing preparation for war against Iraq," said Marwa Abdel Wahab, the 29-year-old administrator for a multinational oil company, walking through the upscale Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek.
"It did not make me feel happy, though," she added, "I sympathized with those scientists because they are, after all, human beings. An Egyptian might have been among them."
As word of the disaster spread, Arabs braced for the inevitable accusations that automatically follow disaster in the United States these days.
"Most people thought it was an accident, but thought the Americans would blame it on Al Qaeda or Arabs or Muslims," said Khaled M. Batarfi, the managing editor of the newspaper Al Madina in Jidda. "They were bracing themselves for the worst. It was kind a relief that it was not an act of terrorism."
A Jordanian columnist even wrote a wry column on the subject.
"We believe that the theories emerging from Columbia will again be related to terrorism, especially that a U.S. astronaut among the crew was of Indian descent," wrote Bassem Sakkijha, a columnist in the Jordanian daily Al Dustour. "We fear that the Americans will declare her Muslim and say that she relied on God and thus destroyed Columbia."
He was harkening back to the October 1999 crash of an Egypt Air flight off the United States, for which investigators blamed a despondent co-pilot who they believed deliberately crashed the plane.
...
Click here to read more (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/international/middleeast/02CND-ARAB.html)
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
CAIRO, Egypt, Feb. 2 -- In the Middle East, where the hand of God is never believed too far off the tiller of daily events, one explanation for the shuttle disaster quickly gained widespread currency today: divine retribution.
Your average café denizen, not to mention the odd newspaper columnist, looked no further than the Israeli colonel on board and reports that the shuttle apparently first began crumbling over Palestine, Tex., to conclude that God was sending the United States a message that its entire Mideast policy is misguided.
"It was definitely a divine retribution against America for its ongoing preparation for war against Iraq," said Marwa Abdel Wahab, the 29-year-old administrator for a multinational oil company, walking through the upscale Cairo neighborhood of Zamalek.
"It did not make me feel happy, though," she added, "I sympathized with those scientists because they are, after all, human beings. An Egyptian might have been among them."
As word of the disaster spread, Arabs braced for the inevitable accusations that automatically follow disaster in the United States these days.
"Most people thought it was an accident, but thought the Americans would blame it on Al Qaeda or Arabs or Muslims," said Khaled M. Batarfi, the managing editor of the newspaper Al Madina in Jidda. "They were bracing themselves for the worst. It was kind a relief that it was not an act of terrorism."
A Jordanian columnist even wrote a wry column on the subject.
"We believe that the theories emerging from Columbia will again be related to terrorism, especially that a U.S. astronaut among the crew was of Indian descent," wrote Bassem Sakkijha, a columnist in the Jordanian daily Al Dustour. "We fear that the Americans will declare her Muslim and say that she relied on God and thus destroyed Columbia."
He was harkening back to the October 1999 crash of an Egypt Air flight off the United States, for which investigators blamed a despondent co-pilot who they believed deliberately crashed the plane.
...
Click here to read more (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/02/international/middleeast/02CND-ARAB.html)