Muslims 'victims of injustice'

KUWAIT: World cannot be unshackled from the menace of terrorism unless
the Palestinian-Israeli dispute is resolved in a just manner, said
Professor Ali A.Mazrui yesterday during a lecture at the Kuwait
University's Faculty of Social Sciences. The visiting professor from
Kenya was delivering his keynote address entitled: "USA and the Islamic
World after Sep 11". The session was attended also by Dr. Ali al-Tarrah,
dean of the social sciences faculty.

Professor Mazrui termed the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as the central
trigger of rage against the United States among all issues. He said that
Muslims are victims of violent injustice elsewhere in the world without
the globalisation of anger against the United States. Muslims in Kashmir
and Chechnya in their struggle for self-determination are victims of the
wrath of state security forces, he cited for example. Muslims in
Macedonia are trying to cope with discrimination from Christian
Macedonians; Muslims in Kosovo are facing the risk of reintegration with
Yugoslavia against their will; Muslims in Afghanistan faced the Soviet
Union earlier and defeated it; the Afghans have now endured military
action by the United States, Mazrui went on.

"If victimisation of Muslims is going on uninterrupted e1sewhere by
other powers, why is the victimization of Muslims in the Middle East
such a powder keg?" He asked.

He accused the United States as the main source of military support for
the enemy of the Arab World, Israel, and also that the USA is the main
destroyer of Arab potential to rise militarily. The latter is evident in
the emasculation of Egypt and Iraq, he argued. If terrorism is to end,
the Palestine problem is to be resolved. To the moralist, terrorism
against the United States is born out of evil; to the political analyst
terrorism is born out of rage and frustration, said the professor.

Ali A. Mazrui was born in Mombassa, Kenya, on Feb 24, 1933. He is the
Albert Schweitzer scholar in the Humanities and Director of the
Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University, State
University of New York. He is also Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large in
the Humanities and Development Studies at the University of Jos in
Nigeria. He is Andrew D. White Professor-at-Large Emeritus and Senior
Scholar in Africana Studies at Cornell University. He is Ibn Khaldoon
Professor-at-Large, School of Islamic and Social Sciences, Leesburg,
Virginia and Walter Rodney Professor at the University of Guyana,
Georgetown, Guyana. Mazrui obtained his B.A. with Distinction from
Manchester University in England, his M.A. from Columbia University in
New York, and his doctorate from Oxford University in England.

Financial Times Information Ltd - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire

Kuwait TimesNote: Articles listed under "Middle East studies in the News" provide information on current developments concerning Middle East studies on North American campuses. These reports do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch and do not necessarily correspond to Campus Watch's critique.

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