Saudi anger with the West

Blair's visit: many Arabs just don't believe him

		By Frank Gardner BBC Middle East Correspondent

In a shaded courtyard in a whitewashed villa, we sat on cushions, sipping tea so sweet it made my teeth grate. My grey-bearded Saudi host leaned forward, tucking his gnarled feet beneath his pure white robe.

"You must tell your people in the West," he hissed in Arabic. "They must stop the bombing in Afghanistan. If it continues, even women will rise up and confront the Americans."

Approaching the cloth market, I drew shrieks from veiled women: 'What's that bloody American doing here? Get him out!'

This was fighting talk from a man who has sent his own son to wage war alongside the Taleban. He told me that countless Saudis praised Osama Bin Laden because of his support for the Palestinian and other Muslim causes.

He added that hundreds of young Saudis had gone to fight in Afghanistan since 11 September. From behind a screen came a high-pitched cough. His wife, I learned, had opposed sending her son to die in a far-off country.

We were in Buraida, a bleak, desert town known to be a stronghold of militant Islamism. Since the attacks on the United States it has become a place of checkpoints, undercover informers and arbitrary arrests.

It is also not a place to walk around in as a lone Westerner. Approaching the cloth market, I drew shrieks from veiled women. "What's that bloody American doing here? Get him out!" they shouted. I flagged down a taxi and retreated to the capital, Riyadh.

Skyscrapered city

To be fair to Saudi Arabia, Buraida is an extreme example of Saudi opinion. Not everyone here supports Bin Laden. Not all Saudis hate the West.

In the plate glass skyscrapers of Riyadh, US-educated Saudi businessmen sit in their air-conditioned offices, twiddling gold pens and pointing to their framed MBAs on the wall.

What happened to the World Trade Center has hurt them just as much as it hurt the West. They have nothing in common with Bin Laden, and no wish to see their own rulers overthrown.

Palestinian deaths feed Arab anger

And yet, from everyone here in the Arab world, I keep hearing the same message. The West, particularly America, has ignored the plight of the Palestinians for too long, Arabs tell me. They talk of the double standards of Western policy in the Middle East, punishing Iraq with sanctions, yet allowing Israel to flout UN resolutions.

One Saudi journalist made the point that if Bin Laden had sent planes to attack, say, Tokyo, then Arabs and Muslims would all have denounced him. But instead, in the eyes of many Arabs, Bin Laden is taking the credit for appearing to punish America for its policies.

His motives may be twisted, his methods abhorrent, but Bin Laden has tapped into a rich vein of pent-up Arab frustration.

"Yes, it's terrible that 6,000 people died in New York", say the Arabs. "But what about the thousands of Iraqi children supposedly dying from sanctions? And what about the Palestinians who die every day under Israeli occupation?"

Such questions are always accompanied by a pained, accusing expression, as if by being British, I am somehow personally responsible.

It used to be OK to be British here, before 11 September.

Mr Blair does not command Arab respect

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair was seen as a sincere, if powerless, player in the Palestinian-Israeli problem. But since then, Britain's support for the war in Afghanistan has convinced many Arabs that Britain has joined America, in a war against Muslims.

I have sat in Arab living rooms while Mr Blair has spoken out on satellite television, trying to win Arab support. The Arabs listen then shake their heads. They just don't believe him.

Serious mistakes

Most Arabs see Mr Blair as little more than an ambassador for President George W Bush.

And America supports Israel, so by association, say the Arabs, Mr Blair is not to be trusted. They suspect that when the war against terror is won, the West will just wash its hands of the troubles of the Middle East.

So how did things get this bad? Just why is there this huge credibility problem for the West amongst Arabs?

Bush: Talk of a crusade infuriated the Arabs

In the short term the answer is simple. The Bush administration made some serious mistakes in the first few weeks after the attacks.

President Bush initially talked of "a crusade" against terror, a word that smacks of a Christian campaign against Muslims.

More damagingly though, Washington delayed too long in sharing with its Arab allies the alleged evidence against Osama Bin Laden.

By the time it was out, Bin Laden's video broadcasts had already reached into millions of Arab homes, and the damage had been done. Ordinary Arabs were on his side.

It is not, of course, irreparable. Little by little, Arabs are starting to realise that Bin Laden is not perhaps the superhero he was here a month ago.

His recent verbal attack on the UN, for example, was judged a public relations disaster.

But out of all of this, one thing is becoming very clear. Unless the Palestinians are given a viable homeland soon, there will always be someone, somewhere, willing to commit the most terrible violence in their name.