Wall Of Ideas

NYT, March 3, 2002
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I've spent the last six weeks traveling around the Arab-Muslim world, talking with people about Sept. 11 and U.S.-Muslim relations. So I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I got home and read that the Pentagon was considering putting out false stories that might advance America's antiterrorism campaign. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry because if you spend five minutes in the Arab-Muslim world these days, you'll instantly discover that people there don't believe us when we tell the truth! The idea that they might believe our lies is ludicrous. (Fortunately, the Pentagon has dropped this idea.)

Ladies and gentlemen, in 1989 the Berlin Wall came down, and on the other side we found millions of people receptive to U.S. ideals and perceptions. Well, there is another wall in the world today. It's not on the ground -- it's in people's heads -- and it divides America from the Arab-Muslim world. Unlike the Berlin Wall, though, this wall was built by both sides and it can be taken down only by both.

Just go anywhere -- Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan -- and you'll hit your head against this wall. You say the problem is Islamist terrorism; they will say it is Israeli brutality to Palestinians. You say America liberated Afghans from the Taliban; they will say we bombed innocent Afghan civilians. You say Saddam Hussein is evil; they will say Ariel Sharon is worse. You say America is a democracy; they will say it's a country whose media and politics are controlled by Jews. You say President Bill Clinton devoted the end of his presidency to creating a Palestinian state; they will tell you that America never showed them the plans. You say the problem is their lack of democracy; they will say that must be what America prefers -- given the sorts of Arab-Muslim regimes it backs.

From my own experience, the only thing surprising about last week's Gallup poll from nine Muslim countries -- which showed that 61 percent of Muslims believe that Arabs were not involved in the 9/11 attack and 53 percent view the U.S. unfavorably -- is that the numbers aren't worse.

How was this iron wall of ideas built? By many hands. Let's start with ours. We've been pathetic at telling Arabs and Muslims who we are. Have U.S. diplomats pointed out in any sustained way how, for the last decade, America has fought to save Muslims in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia and Kuwait? Has America ever told the world exactly how the Clinton peace plan, which Yasir Arafat rejected, would have produced a Palestinian state on close to 100 percent of the land sought by Palestinians?

U.S. officials rightly say that Israel is our friend because it is a democracy. But for 30 years, these same officials have failed to speak out against Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, even though they know those settlements, if unrestrained, are going to destroy Israel as a Jewish, democratic state and deprive Palestinians of any potential homeland. Do we ever press our values -- democracy, freedom, women's rights -- in the Arab-Muslim world? No. We talk about them only for China or North Korea, never for countries whose oil or bases we may need. Is there any wonder some people there see us as hypocrites?

But our Arab-Muslim allies also helped erect this wall. Their leaders have encouraged their press to print the worst lies about America, as well as blatant anti-Jewish and Holocaust-denial articles, as a way of deflecting their people's anger away from them. That's why these regimes can now cooperate with us only in secret. And they have let their conspiracy theories about America and Israel become easy excuses for why they never have to look at themselves -- why they never have to ask, How is it that we had this incredible windfall of oil wealth and have done so poorly at building societies that can tap the vast potential of our people?

Next week a key Arab-Muslim leader, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, will meet here with President Bush. No doubt he will whisper all the great things Egypt is doing in secret to help us in the war on terrorism. And we will whisper back. But that's not what we need.

We need Mr. Mubarak to articulate publicly a progressive, modern-looking, Arab-Muslim vision to counter bin Ladenism. We need him to get Egypt's act together, to stop riding on its past and start leading the Arab world into the future. And we need Mr. Bush to talk to the Egyptian people, and to Arab societies -- not just to their rulers -- about how that future can also be theirs.

Hosni Mubarak, George Bush, tear down this wall.