The real War on Terror
Speaker talks about what U.S. faces overseas
By Jordan Funderburk, contributing writer
Posted on September 18, 2006

In an effort to give students and faculty a better understanding of what the United States faces in the War on Terror, Salameh Nematt presented “The World is not Flat: A Clash of Civilizations or a New World Order?”  Wednesday night in HHS 2301.

He aimed to show the severe poverty facing the Middle East today, the results of the war on terrorism, and how America must resolve these issues to have any success in the region.

Nematt titled his speech after the national best-selling book, “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman. Friedman argues the world has become an equal playing field economically thanks to advances like the Internet.

Nematt disagrees.

“Try to tell this to 98 percent of the population of the Arab world that has no access to the Internet,” he said. He continued to describe how poverty creates hostility toward areas of the world that have the means to help the poor, but do not.

Nematt explained all terrorists come from oppressive countries that will continue to produce them. “You cannot win against a faceless enemy that continues to reproduce itself,” Nematt said. He called for a global strategy where the Western world would try to clean up the Middle East peacefully instead of fighting an impossible fight.

Nematt also warned against turning the War on Terrorism into a war on Islam. Nematt wished to “try to separate Islam from terrorism” during his speech. He noted that today’s terrorists do not fight for Muslims, as apparent by the fact that 90 percent of today’s terrorist targets are Muslim.

“We must not confuse the word ‘Jihad’ with terrorism,” he said.

He acknowledged, however, this is not the view from the West.

“Because this enemy has no national identity, it is easier to make it a war against Islamists,” Nematt said. He also noted that this lack of national identity and adherence to the Geneva Convention could cause other problems. “[It is] tempting to abandon the rules of warfare when your enemy doesn’t use them,” he said.

While Nematt hoped the Middle East could break out of their economic struggles, he did not think terrorism is the Middle East’s best solution.

“They should not resort to violence,” Nematt said. Instead, he proposed that the $300 billion currently spent on the war be redirected toward constructing a strong infrastructure in the Middle East, as well as continuing to push for freedoms in those countries.

“U.S. officials talk about spreading freedom and justice, but things keep getting worse and worse,” Nematt said. “What we need to do is not just protect ourselves, but try to neutralize the hatred.”

The speech was presented by the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence and sponsored by the department of philosophy and religion. Nematt is a leading expert on U.S. and Muslim relations and is the Washington bureau chief of Al-Hayat, an Arabic newspaper based in London. Nematt is also a correspondent for a Lebanese television station and was a previous correspondent for the BBC Arabic service.