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Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (12406)	12/30/2001 8:22:40 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27754

Arab leaders plan media campaign By Reuters, 12/30/2001 USCAT, Oman - Persian 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 today. The annual conference of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council is expected to approve a plan to counter what it sees as a campaign of ''hatred and enmity'' toward Arabs and Muslims since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, delegates said yesterday. 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,'' Foreign Minister Youssef bin Alawi bin Abdullah of Oman said on the eve of the two-day summit. But he also said Arabs should 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,'' he said. The pro-Western council, 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 campaign would be led by the United Arab Emirates information minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zaid al Nahayan. He 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,'' the council's secretary general, Jameel al-Hujailan, has said. Arab media specialists say wealthy countries such as Saudi Arabia have done little to polish their tarnished image. ''As usual with us, we are reactive rather than being proactive, but it's better late than never,'' said a Saudi analyst. The summit also is 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 bin Laden and his network Al Qaeda for the September attacks, and named 19 Arabs including 15 Saudis and two United Arab Emirates nationals as the Sept. 11 hijackers. Analysts and delegates said they expected the United States to pressure the council to crack down harder on radical Islamists and to reform education systems seen as a breeding ground for militancy. boston.com