Stranger in the Arab-Muslim World Author(s): Fouad Ajami Reviewed work(s): Source: The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), Vol.

25, No. 2 (Spring, 2001), pp. 56-60 Published by: Wilson Quarterly Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40260187 . Accessed: 11/05/2012 04:40
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HOW THE WORLD VIEWS AMERICA

in the Stranger
by Fouad Ajami

World Arab-Muslim
wily, flamboyantEgyptian rulerAnwaral-Sadatcontracted an affection for things and people American when he dominated his land in the 1970s.In the distant,powerfulUnited States,which had ventured into Egypt, he sawsalvationfor his country- a way out of the panArabcaptivity, the warswith Israel,and the drabausterity of a command economy. But Sadatwas struckdown in October 1981. The following year Sherif Hetata, a distinguishedEgyptianman of letters,published a novel called alShabaka (The net), into which he poured the heartbreakand unease of his political breed (the secular Left) at America'snew role in Egypt. It is not a brilliant novel. The fiction is merely a vehicle for Hetata'sradical politics. A net (an American net) is cast over Egypt and dragsthe old, burdened land into a bewildering new world. The protagonistof the novel, KhalilMansourKhalil,is an educated Egyptianwho worksfor the public sector in the pharmaceutical industry and has known the setbacks and the accomplishments of the Nasseryears.The Six-DayWarshatteredthe peace and promise of his world in 1967, but vindication came six years later, in October 1973, when Egyptian armor crossed the Suez Canal. "We lived through a period of great enthusiasm, but it did not last."American diplomacy changed things, "weaned"Egypt awayfrom its old commitments. Khalil feels the new world'stemptations when Ruth Harrison,a mysterious American woman with some command of Arabic, enters his life. Glamorous and alluring, Harrisonoffers him a contract with an American and Khalil's drabworldand marriage to AminaTewfic,a woman multinational, with "roots deep in the ground," are set against the dazzle of Harrison's world: "Aminaalwaysfaced me with the facts, laid bare the contradictions in my life; perhaps that is why I kept running awayfrom her. But Ruth was different.She exercisedan attractionI found difficultto resist.Was it justthe fascinationof the unknown,of visitinganotherworldwhere everything is there for the asking?" Khalil throwsover his life and is doomed. Harrisonis a spy come to this new American sphere of influence to decimate the Egyptian Left. the affairends in disaster. Harrison is murdered,and Khalil,insistPredictably, ing on his innocence, is put to death. American spies and trickstersand the Egyptianswho fall under their swaydismantle the old world and erect in its time-honplace a worldof betrayal.Egyptwadesbeyond its depth and barters ored truthsfor glitter, grief, and ruin.

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chroniclers of Arab-Islamic since the mid-1970smustcome history to terms with two especially puzzling developments:the spreadof American of the Arabworld,andthe pop culturethroughvaststretches concomitantspreadof a furiousanti-Americanism. Thus, even as Egyptwas into the American a relentless anti-Americanism animated incorporated imperium, and secularists alike.It flowedfreelythroughEgyptian letters EgyptianIslamists andcinemaandseemedto be the dailystapleof the official andsemiofficial organs of the regime.A similarsituationnow prevails the Arabian Peninsula throughout andthe Persian to things coexists withan obligAmerican Gulf,wherean addiction to the whose shadow lies across the atoryhostility power landscape. Historians whotakenoteof thesedevelopments willnotexplain themadequately iftheybelievethatthe anti-Americanism atplayin the Muslimworldmerelyreflects the anti-Americanism now visiblein Franceor Russiaor India,or among a certain segment of the Latin American intelligentsia.America'sprimacyin the worldsince the defeatof communismhaswhippedup a powerful strain of resentment. Envy was the predictableresponseof many societiesto the astonishing American in the 1990s- the unprecedented economicperformance bull run,the "New Economy,"the wild valuationsin American equities, the triumphant claimsthatAmericahad discovered a new economic world,free of the market's and of the busidiscipline ness cycle itself. This global resentment inevitablymade its wayto Araband Muslim shores. But the Muslim worldwasa case apart for Pax Americana and sui generis in the kind of anti-Americanism it nurtured.JosBov,the provocateur attacking the spread of McDonald's outletsin France,is not to be compared with Osama bin Laden, the Saudi-born financiersusof pected bankrollinga deadly campaign of terroragainst American embassies and military barracks. The essayists of Le MondeDiplomatique mayrailagainstmondialisation American-style (thebusinessschools,the A Teheran scene. During the 1990s, some 100,000 bad food, the unsentiIranians legally immigrated to the United States.

Spring2001 57

How the World Views America mental capitalismof a Wall Street-U.S.Treasury alliance). But a whollydifferent wind blowsthroughArablands,wherea young boy drovea Mercedestruck in October1983; loadedwithTNT intoan American military compoundin Beirut a for the American whereterrorists militaryin Saudi targeted housing complex Arabiain June 1996;where two men in a skiffcrippledan Americandestroyer on a re-fuelingstop in Aden, Yemen. Grim, definingepisodesof that sort,and domains. manyotherslike them, markthe Americanpresencein Arab-Muslim of the October 1973 war,the Araband Iranianheartland the aftermath slipped under Americansway,and Americaacquireda kind of Muslim imperium.The developmentgained momentum fromthe needs of both states andthe socialeliteswho hadtakento American the rulers ways.The poorer (read Egypt) needed sustenance;the wealthier states (read the states of the ArabianPeninsulaand the PersianGulf), protectionagainstthe covetouspoorof a neuroticsense A monarchin Iran,at once imperiousand possessed er states. of dependency on American judgment, effectively brought down his own in the popularpsyregime.The orderhe had put togetherbecame inseparable che fromthe Americanpresencein Iran.And they were torchedtogether.The skilled RuhollahKhomeini,wasparticularly tribuneof the revolution, Ayatollah between at turningthe foreignpowerintothe demon he needed. Iranalternated to the foreigner's waysandloathingitselfforsurrendering fallingforthe foreigner's seduction.It swungwildly,fromthe embraceof the foreignerinto a faithin the of the ancientsand the reignof a clerical redeemer. authority In the yearsto come, therewould be no respiteforAmerica.Khomeinihad shown the way. There would be tributariesof his revolutionand emulators in and lost It let the foreigner A worldhad flungwide itsown floodgates. aplenty. broadsegmentsof itsyoungto the hip, freewheelingcultureof America.Byviolent reactionthe seductioncould be coveredup, or undone. of America,as reported ConsiderOsamabin Laden's by a young description American witness for turned and defected who Laden of bin follower Sudanese "The snake is America,and we have to stop them. We have to cut authorities: offthe head of the snake.We cannotlet the Americanarmyin ourarea.We have to do something.We have to fightthem." Osamabin Laden,thathoversover forcethattroubles The Americanmilitary land in Yemen,is there his Saudihomelandand reachesthe portsof his ancestral becausethe rulersof those landsacquiescedin itspresence,even soughtit. Bin Laden and his followers cannot overturn the ruling order in the Arabian thathave masteredthe Peninsulaand the PersianGulf- entrencheddynasties with the governed.Butthe socialcontracts artof governingand struckworkable rebelscannotconcede thatharshtruth.Betterto hackatthe foreignpower.More to the cause to saythatthe politicalordersin the regionwould fall of flattering of the Americansand the military theirown weightwere it not forthe armadas and weaponsthey have storedin the portsof the PersianGulf and installations the Arabian Peninsula. Pax Americana may insist on its innocence, but,
>FOUAD AjAMI is the Majid Khadduri Professorof Middle Eastern Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and the author of The Dream Palace of the Arabs (1998). Copyright 2001 by FouadAjami.

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betweenthe powersthatbe and the insurit is caughtin the crossfire inevitably, gentswho havetakenup armsagainstthem and who seek nothingless thanthe of America's presencefromMuslim lands. extirpation In fact,as Muslim societiesbecome involvedin a global economy they can haveno choice but to conneithermasternor ignore,both rulersand insurgents frontthe Americanpresence.Americahas become partof the uneven, painful of the Islamicworld.Even Americanembassieshave acquiredan "modernity" and besieged by ambivalentsymboliccharacter: they are targetedby terrorists who havegivenup on failedeconomiesanda restricted visaseekers- professionals timeswouldnever andthe urbanpoor,who in earlier wayof life;the half-educated and a havesoughtopportunity new life in a distantland. Denial is at the heart of Denial is at the heartof the between the Arab the relationship between relationship and MuslimworldsandAmerthe Arab and Muslim ica. There can be no written worlds and america. praiseof America,no acknowledgment of its tolerance or in Karachi Cairo andTeheran, Americahasstirred orof the yearnings hospitality, extendIn America November of Ramallah. and Beirut,and in the streets 2000, the twonations.Jordan between a free-trade ed a specialgiftto Jordan: agreement wasonly the fourthcountryto be so favored,afterCanada,Mexico, and Israel. The agreement was an investment in peace, a tribute to the late Jordanian stakein the reignof his young of America's ruler,KingHussein,andan admission the anti-Americanism not II. But it did heir, Abdullah among profesdampen sionalsand intellectualsin Jordan. There, as elsewhere,no intellectualcan speakkindlyof America.The attraction has to be hidden, or never fully owned up to. From Afghanistanto the while America movestoward to Cairo,humantraffic fromKarachi Mediterranean, American of familiar the demonstrations anti-American flags spectacle supply in Arablandsin recent set to the torch.I knowof no seriousworkof commentary yearsthathas spokenof the Americanpoliticalexperienceor the Americanculis automatic, tural landscape with any appreciation.The anti-Americanism Americais the upholderof reac"liberals," unexamined,innate.To self-styled the backerof a Zionistproto a to tion; Islamists, defilingpresence; pan-Arabists, ject to dominatethe region. the pan-Arab imagination,there would be a measureof Arabunityhad of wealthandsome harit.Therewouldbe a "balance" not aborted America and the poorer,more oil states Arab the between populated sparsely mony a driven not hadAmerica Arab landsof the Levant wedgebetweenthem. populous There would be wealth for things that matterhad those oil states not been exercises trickedintoweaponsdealsand jointmilitary they neitherneed norcan afford."Ihate America ,"a young Palestinian boy in the streetsof Gaza saidlate who had come to cover the lastyearto Michael Finkel, an Americanreporter that is hardly Times forthe NewYork "SecondIntifada" Magazine.Butthe matter simple.Likethe largerworldto which he belongs,the boy hatesAmericaand is 2001 59 Spring

How the World Views America drawnto it. His world wants American things without having to partakeof Americanways.It has beckonedAmerica,and then bloodiedAmerica. enteredArablands on particular terms.The landswere, in the main, authoritarian societies,and such middle classesas existed in them were excluded from meaningful political power. Monarchsand rulersof nationalstatesclaimed the politicalworld,and it was precisely through their good graces that America came on the scene. Pax Americanatook to this transaction. It neitherknew nor trustedthe civil associto susAmericahad good reasons ations,the professional classes,the opposition. that the was not fertile for It was satisfied democratic pect ground undertakings. thatEgypt s military rulers thosewho opposed keptthe peace.Whybother engaging the regime, even the fragile bourgeois opposition that emerged in the late 1970s?Similarly, the only trafficto be had with Morocco wasthroughits autocraticruler,HassanII. The man was harshand merciless(his son, and successor,MohammadVI, hasall but admitted that),but he keptorder,was"ourman" in NorthAfrica,and could be relied on to supportAmerica's largerpurposes. America extended the sameindulgence toYasir the latest, andmostdubiArafat, ruler to be In into its the Palestinian ous, world,the secuincorporated designs. andthe politicalarrangements hadbeen struck withArafat. His rityarrangements Americanhandlersignoredsuch oppositionas had arisento him. With no real accessto the Palestinian littleknowledge ofArafat s opponents, world,andprecious Americaseemed to have to choose betweenthe IslamicmovementHamasand Arafat's Palestinian NationalAuthority. An easycall. The Palestinian strongman, in turn,acceptedAmerica's but frustrated America's wishes. patronage The middle classesin the Arabworldwere miredin the politicsof nationalseemed suppleand readyto winkat reality. There ism,whereasthe rulersalways waspreciouslittle economic life outsidethe state-dominated oil sectors,and little business to be done without recourseto the custodiansof the command economies. It was the prudent and, really, inevitable solution to negotiate AmericanpresenceandAmericaninterests withthosewho, as the Arabicexpression hasit, haveeatenthe greenandthe dryand monopolizedthe life of the land. The populationsshut out of powerfell backon theirimaginations and their bitterness. them. It was easiThey resentedthe rulersbut could not overthrow er to lashout atAmerican American Andtheyhave powerandquestion purposes. been permitted the politicalspaceto do so. They can burnAmericanflagsatwill, so long as they remember that the rulersand their prerogatives are beyond The rulers have been in the scrutiny. particularly sly monitoring politicalsafety valvesin their domains.They know when to indulge the periodicoutbursts at American power. Not a prettyspectacle, but such are the politics in this sphereof Americaninfluence. America's willendurein Arab andMuslimlands,butthe foreign primacy power will haveto treadcarefully. is of "England Europe,and I am a friendof the Ingliz, theirally,"Ibn Saud, the legendaryfounderof the Saudistate,once said of his with the British."ButI will walkwith them only as faras my relirelationship and will permit." honor In Araband Muslim domains, it is the stranger's gion fateto walkalone.

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