Posted on 12/29/2001 6:57:10 PM PST by Nachum
MUSCAT (R) — Gulf Arab leaders, worried that the West increasingly sees Arabs and Muslims as “evil,” plan to launch a multimillion-dollar media campaign to improve their peoples' image at a summit opening on Sunday. The annual conference of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was expected to approve a plan to counter what it sees as a campaign of “hatred and enmity” towards Arabs and Muslims since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, delegates said on Saturday.
Gulf governments have condemned the attacks, but decry what they see as Western media attempts to link Islam with terrorism.
“The campaign against Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia, is itself a form of terrorism,” Omani Foreign Minister Youssef Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah said on the eve of the two-day summit.
But he said Arabs should also play a more active part in the US-led war on terrorism.
“Muslims should not be mere spectators in the campaign against terrorism... They should be more active and not absent because of emotions and hesitation,” Alawi said. The pro-Western GCC, set up 20 years ago as a political and economic alliance, comprises Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
A ministerial panel to implement the media blitz would be led by UAE Information Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahayan, who runs Abu Dhabi satellite television, one of the most prolific state-owned channels in the Arab world.
It calls for setting up three satellite television channels — in English, French and Spanish — to woo public opinion in North America and Europe, which have seen a spate of hate crimes against Arabs and Muslims since the September attacks.
“We need a media that reaches the people who have begun to see Arabs as evil and see Islam as against other religions and supporting terrorism and the killing of the innocent,” GCC Secretary General Jameel Al Hujailan said.
Better late than never
Arab media experts say wealthy countries such as Saudi Arabia have done little to polish their image.
“As usual with us, we are reactive rather being pro-active, but it's better late than never,” said a Saudi analyst.
The GCC summit was also expected to focus on potential regional repercussions of the US-led military action in Afghanistan and Washington's efforts to crack down on Islamic militants, delegates said. Washington blames Saudi-born dissident Osama Ben Laden and his Al Qaeda network for the September attacks, and named 19 Arabs including 15 Saudis and two UAE nationals as the Sept. 11 hijackers — prompting the West to scrutinise the closed political systems of Gulf states.
Analysts and delegates said they expected the United States and other Western countries to pressure the GCC to crack down harder on radical Islamists and to reform education systems seen as breeding ground for militancy.
“When they finish up with Afghanistan, the pressure on countries in the region will intensify,” Kuwaiti analyst Jasem Al Saadoun told Reuters by telephone from Kuwait.
“This means a need for more democracy,” he said. “And without fundamental economic and financial reforms, there will be no political stability.”
In discussions on the war on Afghanistan, the GCC was more likely to agree to take part in efforts to help rebuild the fellow Muslim country rather than contribute to an international peacekeeping force, delegates said.
Some how I get the feeling that this PR effort will be more to cover up than to correct the things they don't like having exposed. If it's embarrassing to get seen as supporting international terrorism,then don't do it.
Actually, it is the terrorists themselves who have been linking Islam with terrorism - the Western media are merely reporting facts.
While I agree with everything else you said, I don't think Israel targeted civilians in pizza parlors, restaurants, or school buses etc. This is something that the Palestinians do quite well.
Another Jesse Jackson wannabe.
This is already being done! < /sarcasm >
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