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Towe is a UCLA alumnus.

By Joseph Towe

As a UCLA alumnus, I receive the UCLA magazine each quarter. I strongly disagree with one of the articles in the Winter 2001 addition, and since I couldn’t find a provision for letters in the magazine, I want to explain my grievance to The Bruin.

The article to which I refer, titled “Between peace and terror,” by Khalid Abou El Fadi, discusses the Sept. 11 tragedy and attempts to place blame on the United States and Europe as well as on terrorist organizations. 

Initially I was willing to entertain the possibility that U.S. policy could have contributed to a climate which motivated terror; but after reading Fadi’s article I have concluded that his arguments are without merit.

First, Fadi refers to “horrendous acts motivated by Islamophobics;” he does not however discuss specific realizations of these misguided attitudes or actions.

Second, Fadi discusses the magnanimous nature of Islamic law, claiming that terrorism is condemned by such law. However, he conveniently omits the provision that such condemnation is set aside as soon as an appropriate authority figure decides that “jihad” should be launched.

Thirdly, Fadi insists that the Islamic civilization was “wiped out” by an “aggressive and racist” European civilization and that the Arab states have since been victimized by the West.

In this case he attempts to cite some realizations, but in so doing involves blatant historical inaccuracies. He refers to the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the onslaught of colonialism. He seems oblivious to the fact that the Ottoman Empire represented colonialism at its worst.

He also refers to the “expulsion of Palestinians from their lands.” This claim involves an outright lie. Palestinians voluntarily left their homeland on the eve of the initial racially-motivated war, which was launched against the state of Israel by several Arab states.

The Palestinians left because they assumed the Arabs would be victorious and would “push Israel into the sea,” as had been arrogantly predicted. After the Arab states lost the war, they began demanding that the Palestinians be allowed to return to their lands, but at this point readmission was impossible. The Israelis would have opened the door for the Trojan horse.

Finally, Fadi addresses what he calls the “arrogance of the United States,” and the aspects of U.S. policy which he says motivate terrorism. He claims that while the U.S. “throws around moral imperatives,” the real motivations are self-interest and “realpolitik.” Admittedly self-interest has some influence upon U.S. foreign policy.

But is every nation on Earth not “guilty” of self-interest? 

Fadi follows this meaningless accusation by insisting that the U.S. supports “very repressive and corrupt governments with abysmal human rights records.”

Is Fadi referring here to those Arab states which permit participation in the trading of African slaves? 

Is he referring to the murder of approximately one million Africans in the Sudan by Muslims who were motivated by religious intolerance? 

Are these Muslims also of the puritan persuasion to which he attributes all Muslim atrocities? 

Does the shameful treatment of women in many Arab states partly constitute the human rights violations to which Fadi refers?

When he refers to corruption and repression and the violation of human rights, Fadi is aptly describing Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and several other Arab nations, but somehow one does not get the impression he is referring to these.

He says that the U.S. regards the “repressive governments” he mentions, as “friends and allies.” If he is referring to Israel, then he should have the moral courage to be specific.

I suspect that Fadi does classify Israel as repressive because the Israeli government has responded to terrorist attacks and has defended its right to exist against racially motivated Arab states who have vowed to destroy it since its inception.

I recently heard a statement from Osama bin Laden which blamed terrorism upon the “arrogance” of the United States. According to him, the act of the U.S. which most blatantly expressed this arrogance was U.S. recognition of Israel in 1948 – in the process he demonstrates the same arrogance he accuses the U.S. of, against Israel. So much for the idea that the U.S. is the only arrogant party.