Frank Viviano Writes     Arab world glued to TV sets -- streets appear calm But anger at U.S. lies under surface Cairo -- Despite fears that U.S. military action against Afghanistan would set off angry demonstrations in the Middle East, the initial reaction to yesterday's air strikes was subdued in Cairo, the largest city in the Arab world and a longtime focal point of Islamic activism. In coffee shops, small clusters of people gathered around TV sets, quietly watching broadcast news on Egyptian and other Arabic stations -- most of which carried the same footage as CNN and the BBC. "America, Afghanistan, boom! boom!" one of them said to a reporter. On learning the reporter was American, he shrugged and smiled, then went back to watching the set. Official comment was slow in coming here -- and in most of the rest of the Arab world -- as was reaction from the streets. "Anybody who might be inclined to protest is probably watching TV like all of us," remarked a senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. Nevertheless, he added, the embassy put out a new caution to U.S. citizens in Egypt. "The fear here is that the conflict might spread to other countries," said the diplomat. "If it is limited to Afghanistan, it will probably remain calm in Egypt." Iraqi TV, quoted by the Associated Press, denounced the U.S.-British missile assault on Afghanistan as "treacherous aggression." In Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi branded the attacks unacceptable, saying they were launched "regardless of the world public opinion, especially the Muslim nations, and will damage the innocent and oppressed Afghans." Initial Palestinian reaction was milder. "The crucial thing is that we must differentiate between attacks launched against a military force and acts against civilians," Zuhair Sanduqa, the chief of parliamentary affairs of the Palestinian National Council, told The Chronicle last night. Egypt, like other moderate Arab governments, has voiced general support for the U.S. campaign against terrorism. While President Hosni Mubarak has refused to commit Egyptian troops to the effort, he is reported to be sharing intelligence information. He has also called for a U.N. anti-terrorism conference. But public opinion in Cairo, as elsewhere in the Arab world, has been more critical, and in the aftermath of the strikes, appeared to remain that way. "No way the U.S. military should do this, for their own sake," said a Cairene shopkeeper of Afghan descent. "I know my people. Afghans can live for days on a cup of water and a piece of bread. "This will make Muslims everywhere hate America -- but also, they will very happy, because America will now learn lessons in defeat. It will be much worse than Vietnam." On Tal'at Harb Street, in the heart of downtown Cairo, large numbers of people were milling around at midnight -- on their way home from movie houses, cafes and restaurants. But few appeared to have paid much attention to the U.S. and British attacks. "In killing this one man, bin Laden, can you justify what will happen to men, women and children in Afghanistan?" asked one man, leaning against a car. "What he has done to America is a violation of Islam. But what of the harm that America has done to innocent people here?" "I don't care at all about what happens to this bin Laden," said a businessman. "What he does is something that (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon does all of the time. And what America has done to children in Iraq." Before yesterday's air strikes, a popular belief in Cairo was that the Sept. 11 attacks were not the work of bin Laden nor of Islamic extremists, but a plot by Israel and its secret intelligence service, the Mossad, aimed at discrediting Arab and Islamic countries. The televised videotape of bin Laden saying the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been "hit by God in one of its softest spots . . . Thank God for that," changed few minds here. "No Arab has the necessary technology to make such a broadcast," a lawyer said about the bin Laden tape, which had been broadcast by the Al-Jazeera station in Qatar. "Mubarak, King Abdullah, all of them know that Mossad did it, so that America could be goaded to destroy the Palestinians, and so that the world's eyes would be closed to the Palestinians' fate." Another Egyptian businessman wasn't so sure. "Yes, if bin Laden did admit to it, he has broken Islamic law," he said. "So it is appropriate that he be killed. But only him, and no one else." The secretary general of the Islamic Action Front in Jordan was also taken aback when told of the bin Laden tape. "If it does turn out to be true that bin Laden accepts responsibility for this crime -- that it was not a conspiracy involving the Israelis or someone else -- then it changes matters," said Abdul Latif Arabiyat. "As Muslims, we cannot possibly approve of what happened in New York and Washington. It goes against the most basic principles of our value system." back to index page     back to