Attacks Expected to Stoke Extremist Fires Against U.S.

The U.S. missile strikes at suspected terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan are likely to heighten the resentment and hostility that many in this region already feel toward the world’s only superpower, several experts in Islamic extremism said Friday.

Indeed, the hatred of the United States that found an outlet in the recent East African embassy bombings may be only the most visible--and by far the most violent--manifestation of frustration felt by many people in the Middle East with U.S. policy here, those interviewed said.

“Many people are outraged over this,” said Ziad abu Amr, a Palestinian legislator and academic who specializes in the study of Islamic fundamentalism. “They were upset with the United States already, and now they are very angry at what they see as the injustice of these strikes.”

Israel’s expression of strong support for the American action only served to underline the close friendship between the two countries--a special relationship that, along with continuing Arab perceptions of an imbalance in regional U.S. policy, is one of the root causes of growing anger in the Middle East against the United States, among militants and mainstream people alike.

Even a group of Palestinian men waiting for a wedding to begin Friday in the West Bank city of Hebron took time out to denounce the United States. “America is the No. 1 terrorist country in the world,” said one man who gave his name as Yousef. “America wants to control the whole world, and therefore it attacks the weak countries.”

Mohammed Abdel Muneim, the chief editor of the political magazine Rose el Yousef in Cairo, said: “The American attitude toward the Arab-Israeli conflict is unfair and biased toward Israel. The extremists can use this fact to convince other people of the justice of their cause.”

Muneim said the United States, the main sponsor of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, has lost credibility with many Arabs for its unwillingness to pressure Israel publicly to accept a U.S. formula for restarting the paralyzed negotiations. The Palestinians accepted the initiative in March, although it fell far below their expectations.

Many Arabs also accuse the United States of having a double standard. For years, successive administrations have turned a blind eye, at least publicly, to Israel’s widely known but unacknowledged nuclear weapons program; India and Pakistan, however, were hit with sanctions after they carried out nuclear tests this year.

“This lack of evenhanded policy causes many problems for the U.S.,” said Muneim, who is also a former spokesman for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

More broadly, many Arabs perceive Israel, backed by its superpower ally, as an occupying force on Palestinian land, with the issue of Jerusalem’s Old City and its holy sites among the most sensitive. The Al Aqsa mosque is considered the third-holiest site in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and wresting control of the Old City from Israel is a rallying cry for many Muslims.

Several of those interviewed noted that an Islamic umbrella group announced this year by Osama bin Laden, the dissident Saudi millionaire whose network of organizations has been blamed for the embassy bombings, said it would fight against Jews and “Crusaders,” an allusion to the Christians who once tried to oust Muslims from Jerusalem.

“They see imperialism as a return to the Crusades and lash out against Western ideology, capitalism, culture and, not least of all, secularism,” said Uri Kupferxchmidt, a lecturer in Middle East history at the University of Haifa.

But a U.S. policy toward Israel is hardly the only reason for anti-Americanism in the region.

For Muslim fundamentalists, the United States is the embodiment of all the evils of Western society, viewed as lacking in any moral guideposts or religious values. And that culture is spreading, through American movies, television programs and music.

“Islam puts God at its center,” explained Menachem Klein, a lecturer in political studies at Bar-Ilan University and a specialist in Islamic extremism. “The Western world, on the other hand, is concerned with liberalism, freedom and democracy. It’s absolute heresy. And worst of all, from the Islamists’ point of view, this culture is increasingly successful.”

Batsheva Sobelman and Maher abu Khater of The Times’ Jerusalem Bureau and Aline Kazandjian of The Times’ Cairo Bureau contributed to this report.

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How a Terrorist Camp Works

The Zhawar Kili al Badr terrorist complex in Afghanistan contained several sites that accommodated as many as 600 people. The terrorists were provided with refuge, travel funds and training in tactics and weapons. Here is how such camps are set up, based on briefings by American officials

Support facilities: Primary logistics areas for the complex; includes storage for many weapons and a large amount of ammunition.

Training sites: Used for training in terrorist tactics; within the camp are numerous structures such as tent stands, obstacle courses, firing ranges and areas for explosives testing.

Base camp: The headquarters for the complex; includes storage, housing, training and administration facilities. It is also the key command and control node.

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What They Learn

* Tactics

* Indoctrination

* Weapons handling

* Using improvised explosive devices

* Negotiating obstacle courses

* How to handle and use explosives

Source: Pentagon briefings