raison

"Since the hotel bombings in Zarqawi's native Jordan, more and more Sunni Iraqis and Arabs have condemned the terrorist leader's nightmarish vision for their societies," writes Fawaz Gerges, a Lebanese-born professor of International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College. "Now that the holy warriors are waging their struggle in the heart of the Muslim community, or ummah -- in shopping centers, residential compounds, hotels and restaurants -- Muslims are getting a closer look at the terrorists' lack of respect for life, and most don't like what they see. Some of the protesters in Amman carried placards asking simply 'Why?' Why would Zarqawi target their country, where so many people had supported his jihad in Iraq? In a survey of more than 1,000 Jordanians conducted for the newspaper al-Ghad, more than 87 percent of the respondents said they now considered al Qaeda a terrorist organization. (In previous surveys in Jordan, al Qaeda had enjoyed approval ratings of upwards of 60 percent.) Other polls in Arab countries confirm this change of opinion."

Gerges characterizes this change of opinion as promising, and perhaps it is, but I can't help but be disgusted by the underlying logic: as long as Zarqawi kills other innocent people, he's a good guy fighting in the way of God, but when he kills "our people" we suddenly realize what he really is. How self-serving is that ideology?