"The Iraqi resistance is in urgent need of liberation after the explosions which targetted five churches in Baghdad, and in light of the palpable escalation of operations which are kiling dozens of innocent Iraqis every day. Such operations are highly damaging to the nationalist [watani] resistance, and hurts its image to the point where I can almost believe that this is the purpose of such operations." - Fahmi Huwaydi, leading Egyptian columnist, in today's al Sharq al Awsat.
UPDATE: some folks were puzzled by this. I posted it because it suggests an important shift in Arab opinion. Huwaydi endorses and defends the right of a legitimate national resistance against the American occupation, but condemns what he describes as a new trend of senseless terrorism. Now, many people (or at least one e-mailer) might be inclined to reject this kind of distinction - it's the same kind of distinction which leads to support for Hamas attacks on Israeli troops but a condemnation of suicide bombing which kills innocent civilians. But I still find it interesting to see leading Arab public intellectuals arguing about the meaning and value of this kind of violence.. you know, exactly the kind of public argument which we keep being told that Arabs aren't having.
AGAIN: it isn't just Huwaydi, either. I thought that was obvious - I quoted him not because he's the only person saying it, but because it is suggestive of a trend. Just the other day (August 2), the al Jazeera show "The Al Jazeera Platform" was devoted to "The explosions in Iraq between resistance and terrorism." My point is that there is an important and interesting dialogue going on in the Arab media about the question, that it isn't being ignored, angrily shouted down, or buried beneath suffocating conformity (all of which are commonly alleged to be the case). Sheesh, that'll teach me to write cryptic posts!
Yes, a couple of days ago a bunch of people in Fallujah found some kidnappers and one way or another persuaded them to release four hostages. The kidnappers apparently ran off and there were no casualties. I'm seeing a lot of bloggers take this as tremendously good news, they think it means the iraqi civilians are finally rising up against the resistance. But it could just as easily be the resistance inhibiting kidnappers, from all I've seen of it.
Posted by: J Thomas | August 07, 2004 at 10:37 AM
Excuse my ignorance, but what is a TypePad people list?
Posted by: Paul | August 12, 2004 at 11:34 AM