Suspicion of the unknown

FEMA

Ground zero: the remains of the world trade centre following the September 11 attacks. These attacks deeply affected East-West relations.

11 September hardened prejudices and encouraged stereotyping on both the Western and Middle Eastern sides. In the Middle East the West has typically been perceived as an imperial and often arrogant master at the political, economic and the cultural levels. The culture of conspiracy theories that permeates Middle Eastern politics commonly describes the West as the instigator of plots and the invisible 'mover' of events. The history of colonial domination in the nineteenth century, followed by mandate semi-colonialism in the interwar period, left deep suspicion towards European powers, especially Britain and France. The Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, which was played out to some extent in the Middle East, meant that ulterior motives were imputed to the actions and alliances of the superpowers in the region. US interest in the survival of Israel and in the constant flow of oil at low prices also meant that the US was seen as a self-interested actor in all its activities in the region. Since the end of the Cold War, the emergence of pax Americana has led to an exaggerated view of the degree to which the US can dominate the region and produce desired outcomes. This is deeply resented by local people, especially the Arabs and Persians, and has contributed to the explosion of Islamist politics in the region over the last twenty-odd years.

relationship, in turn, is also characterised by suspiciousness and misgivings towards the Middle East. There are those who argue that the Middle East has always been laden with a sense of threat for European societies, a sense that developed with the Ottoman incursions into European space and was strengthened by the centuries-long conflict between Christianity and Islam. There has also been an element of the 'mysterious' and the 'unknown' in Western conceptions of the 'Orient' that developed in the nineteenth century as Europeans explored and colonised the Middle Eastern region. But it is difficult to ascertain the extent to which such lingering notions shape the current perspective on the Middle East in Western societies. More directly relevant is the impact of political events over recent decades. The shock of the oil price rises of the 1970s that rocked the world economy is combined, in Western consciousness, with images of violence and terrorism--hijackings, hostage-taking, bombings--emanating from the region. Such violence gradually changed in form from nationalist to religious, the latter having a symbolic start with the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The World Trade Centre attack in New York in 1993, the terrorist attacks in France in 1995 and the massive explosions detonated against the US embassies in Nairobi in Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania in 1998 were all attributed to Islamist extremists, with the latter specifically attributed to Osama bin Laden.

The impact of 11 September
11 September accentuated the negative aspects of the Western-Middle Eastern relationship on both sides. Despite the insistence on the part of Western governments that they have no quarrel with Islam as such, but rather with the extremist exponents of it, the sense among Western publics that Islam is exceptional in its anti-Western animus increased. The 11 September attacks caused the United States to spring into action, hence the campaign in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban protectors of bin Laden and uproot Al Qaeda. This in turn hardened the sense on the part of many Middle Easterners that the West has a specifically anti-Muslim agenda. This sense of victimisation grew because the post-11 September crisis coincided with the upsurge in the violence of the second Palestinian intifada and the Israeli response to it. The cycle of violence led to desperation about the continuing failure of Western states to apply pressure on Israel to end the occupation. It will increase even more over the next few months if the US attacks Iraq to overthrow the regime of Saddam Hussein.