War views meld old Arab nationalism, new Islamism

After a string of military defeats over the past 35 years, Arabs from Morocco to Bahrain are drawing a sense of pride from Iraqi forces' continued opposition to the US military juggernaut, although few expect that opposition to prevail.

"Everyone in the area is saying the same thing - that this campaign is against the Arab nation," explains Abdulateef Arabiyat, a leading Jordanian Islamist. "He who has been sleeping has woken up. The Americans are insulting everybody, not just Saddam Hussein or the Iraqis."

This attitude finds a firm foundation in the general sense of malaise that assails ordinary Arabs across the region - deprived of job prospects, political freedoms, and hope for the future.

In many cases Arab governments proclaiming a pan-Arab nationalist ideology are held to blame for this state of affairs, and political parties driven by Islam find more support. But the current crisis has brought secular nationalists and religious leaders together under the umbrella of their common Arab identity.

In Jordan, for example, communists, Islamists and a former police chief joined in addressing a letter to the king last week demanding that he declare the war illegal.

"In the past the slogans were revolutionary, now our kids demonstrate carrying Korans, but basically it is the same sentiment of oneness" being expressed, says Dr. Hamarneh.

"Pan-Arab causes always unite people," he adds. "But they are united for the immediacy of the act - condemning the war. Nothing else unites them. Nothing political will come out of it."

This is partly because governments throughout the region have been careful, in more or less subtle ways, to prevent the emergence of credible and organized opposition movements. In some countries, such as Syria or the Gulf states, antigovernment activity is simply illegal. In others, such as Jordan and Egypt, it is hedged about with electoral laws and press freedom decrees designed to limit its impact.

Forced underground into the dark and fevered world of secret cells, however, Arab hostility to America and its allies could bolster America's enemies in the "war on terror," observers in the region warn. "We know regimes won't allow people to organize massive demonstrations, so the trend now is to form small splinter groups to commit violence against Americans," says Hamarneh.

"Anti-Americanism is deepening," adds Dr. Said in Cairo. "There is a deep frustration with the US, and fundamentalists are capitalizing on it. Osama bin Laden is very happy with this war."

• Danna Harman in Cairo and Dan Murphy in Jakarta contributed to this report.

BEIRUT - Ask Lebanese electrician Ali Hijazi what he is doing at the Iraqi embassy here, and his reply is chilling: "I want to be in a martyrdom operation," he says. "I want to blow myself up and kill as many Americans as I can."

Mr. Hijazi was among eight Lebanese and one Egyptian waiting Thursday at the embassy to collect visas to Iraq - all determined to join their Arab "brothers" in fighting the invading coalition forces.

Arab anger has been heightened by images broadcast daily on Arabic-language television of dead and wounded Iraqi civilians. "I cannot stand by and watch Muslim children being murdered by the Americans," says Hijazi.

Like many of the volunteers, Hijazi is single and has few ties to keep him from traveling to Iraq. He says he gained military experience as a fighter in the Fatah faction of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war.

Iraqi officials have claimed that 4,000 jihadis have joined the fight against the US. But there is little sign of their appearance and, so far, little evidence that the Iraq war has inspired a generation of Islamic fighters like those who flocked to Afghanistan to oust the Soviets two decades ago.

Not all of those waiting at the Iraqi embassy in Beirut are fighters. "Some of us are traveling to Baghdad to assess the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people in terms of medicines and food,"says Ramzi Dayshoun, who belongs to a humanitarian agency called Muslims Without Borders.

Nour Tamimi, an official at the Iraqi embassy, says that four busloads of volunteers have left for Iraq by way of Syria. A bus carrying Palestinian and other volunteers was bombed by a US plane four days into the war.

- Nicholas Blanford

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