For the most part I do not like the whole “clash of cultures” metaphor that some people use to describe the conflict between the West and Arab countries. I think it is really dangerous to start considering other countries and cultures as completely alien and diametrically opposed to our own.
On the other hand, sometimes things happen that make me wonder if there aren’t some deep, fundamentally different assumptions at work.
For example, according to the BBC, representatives from Arab countries meeting at a conference on terrorism reacted angrily to the suggestion that terrorism be defined as the intentional killing of civilians.
On the second day of their meeting here in Kuala Lumpur, ministers from 53 Muslim countries were clearly struggling to produce their own definition of terrorism.
The suggestion by the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, that all attacks on civilians, including those by Palestinian suicide bombers, constituted terrorism got little support.
Many Arab states regard such acts as legitimate self-defence.
No, sorry, but intentionally targeting civilians with suicide bombers isn’t even in the same universe as legitimate self-defense.
Moreoever there seems to be a large gap between Arab and Western cultures about the targeting of civilians. To be sure, Western governments have not been above targeting civilians in order to achieve a military objective. But, for the most part, they must do so in secret and generally lie about the nature of such attacks or cover them up in order for Westerners to approve them.
In the Arab world, however, leaders seem to be able to voice approval for even large scale killings of civilians even for an unattainable military objective, with little opposition. There is a very active peace movement in Israel, for example, that has no analogue, to my knowledge, in the Arab world.
On the op-ed pages, as well, you can find plenty of people who support Israel but at the same time argue that ratcheting up the violence is not a solution. Meanwhile most of the prominent pro-Palestinian commentators, such as Edward Said, seem to have no problem justifying Palestinian terrorist attacks.