While reading Michael Gersh's post on the recent bombing in Riyadh the mention of the news coverage struck me as a kind of magnified and translated image for the unique understanding of the Arab and Muslim world. What was difficult for them to see from a physical and cultural distance has now been rendered for them with the same sort of perfect "art" and clarity that was imposed on us through our televisions for weeks in September, 2001.
I have an Iranian friend, the one who built the computer I use, who feels that when the people of the Middle East understand how they too can be "seduced" by the sort of evil they've attributed solely to the Western "House of War" the stage may be set for a reinvention of Democracy, and a new Renaissance. For him, the awakening is related to the disillusionment over the Theocratic Totalitarianism that rules his country, but for much of the rest of Islam it's the sudden realization that their "Robin Hood" is really a mad cutthroat without a semblance of civilization in his empty hollowed-out soul. So 11/9 could be a very "big deal."
"This was their main battle. In the past they would pretend to be against Americans, Christians -- whoever they perceive to be the enemy. Now their enemy is the same people whose approval they seek."POPULAR ANGER
Graphic pictures, including a maimed and bloody corpse and the blood-spattered head of a wounded man, were peppered across the front pages of Saudi newspapers, fueling popular anger.
"I think they are either brain-washed or crazy. I don't understand why they are doing this," said an executive called Abdullah, who did not want to give his full name. "Are they Muslims or non-Muslims? Islam does not support this."
"And it's worse, because Ramadan is the holy month."
Some Saudis expressed support for their government, which has waged a crackdown on militants and religious extremism since May. It had faced pressure to act since the September 11, 2001, attacks carried out by mainly Saudi hijackers.
But some blamed the failure of Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Islam, to rein in conservative clerics over the decades for helping foster militancy in the kingdom.
"Society will bear responsibility for this," said Hussein Nasser, a 28-year-old bank employee. "We put the men of religion above fault, and made them unaccountable. We gave them special privilege -- and this is the result." -- Reuters
Not that the BBC will quite get it, because there are always two sides to every story, even if one has the stench of Baudelaire's sickly diseased landscapes. Yes, we know we're corruptible and corrupted, but the Ummah hasn't quite seen that it is yet. Yesterday in Riyadh the message may have broken through.
Posted by Demosophist at November 10, 2003 01:39 AM | TrackBack