Arab newspapers recoil in horror

Another hostage, another horrible execution and like their Western counterparts Arab newspapers can only watch in horror.

The Arab News in Saudi Arabia set the tone: "It is with grim satisfaction that we must hail the success of the Saudi security forces in killing [the Saudi al-Qaeda leader] Abdul Aziz al-Muqrin and his three henchmen after they had dumped the body of their victim, Paul Johnson, in Riyadh.

"This has been a major blow to the fanatics who imagined that they could hold the kingdom to ransom. Yet at this moment of triumph for the forces of law and order, we must mourn the death of the American hostage. It was not just the helpless Johnson who was being held to ransom, but everyone in Saudi Arabia. It was always unthinkable that detained al-Qaeda terrorists would be released as the thugs demanded. We must hope that this major blow to al-Qaeda is the beginning of the end of the struggle against this greatest of evils."

In Dubai, the Gulf News also despaired: "Saudi investigating officers have killed several people important in al-Qaeda. But these successes need to be more consistent ... terrorists cannot work in an environment where no one backs their aims. By their savagery, the terrorists have alienated many Saudis - and Arabs generally - who might have sympathised with them in a broad way. These criminals are their own worst enemy."

In Lebanon, the Daily Star columnist Fadi Chahine agreed with the American view of the atrocity: "For the first time since George Bush took the helm in Washington, I am forced to agree with his words [that Johnson’s killers] represent a stain on Islam and they are the enemies of all decent Muslims around the world.

"I have come to the grave conclusion that in order for the civilised world to continue to exist and prosper, these terrorists simply will have to be eliminated."

In London, Christopher Hitchens wrote in the Daily Mirror: "Once the sympathy for Mr Johnson and his family has ebbed, and been replaced by the sorrow of another ’hostage’, it will become more obvious the real war is not against ’terrorism’, but a civil war, in every Islamic country, for the life and soul of the Muslim world."

Newsday spelt out the threat: "Al-Qaeda’s terror aims at nothing less than destroying balance, creating economic chaos in the West and toppling the Saudi regime. For the sake of the civilised world, they must not succeed."

Alan Kennedy

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/21/1087669923866.html