Tough sell

In the waning days of war in Iraq, extensive interviews in this largely secular country suggest that the virulently anti-American attitudes ...

In the waning days of war in Iraq, extensive interviews in this largely secular country suggest that the virulently anti-American attitudes known to flourish in some Islamic schools have become conventional wisdom among a broad cross section of youths, whether religious or secular, Muslim or Christian.

If Syria is any indication, young Arabs — who make up a large portion of West Asia’s burgeoning population — have become further radicalised and embittered toward the US as they have watched the round-the-clock coverage of the war on Arab TV channels.

Those attitudes prompted hundreds of them early in the conflict to board buses bound for the fight against US forces in Iraq, and encouraged the view that suicide bombings against American soldiers were a legitimate response to the troops’ presence on Arab soil. These trends have serious implications for the stated US goal of moving the region toward greater democracy.

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Ayman Sharif, who attends an Islamic law school in Damascus, has a gentle manner and speaks in a soft voice. But he has a steely message about the US-led war in Iraq. ‘‘Before the war I would have said that if Osama bin Laden was responsible for the two towers, we would not be proud of it. But if he did it now, we would be proud of him,’’ said the bearded 21-year-old, whose ambition is to be a mujahid.

Here, in the agrarian town of As Suwayda, where the highways follow the ancient Roman roads, Dima Mulhem, 22, is just as uncompromising, though she and her family are Druse — a religion that combines elements of Islam and Christianity, and live a secular life. ‘‘Do you think that the Americans love the Arab people enough to come and solve their problems?’’ she asked, her eyes flashing, her voice cold. ‘‘What they are doing is worse than what Saddam has done.’’

As the TV images of bloodied civilians and demolished buildings become less frequent, some of the most vitriolic feelings may fade. But for many young Arabs, say scholars, the conflict will linger as a major experience of their lives. ‘‘Images like those will be stuck in their minds,’’ said Walid Sarhan, a psychiatrist in Jordan, who has done research throughout the region. ‘‘It’s a big project for the US government to work on in the next 10 years to change those images.’’ It is the support of the younger generation the US needs most.

‘‘What we’re seeing now is a self-perpetuating, vicious cycle,’’ said Jonathan Schanzer, an analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. ‘‘What these young people are watching on Al-Jazeera and Abu Dhabi TV is reinforcing a message about the US that has already taken root: that America supports and is run by Zionists; that it’s anti-Arab, anti-Muslim. ‘‘The big problem that I see here,’’ he added, ‘‘is that the rapprochement between the US and Arab world is going to be much more difficult because of the messages being hammered home.’’

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A typical Syrian TV segment during intense fighting showed viewers clip after clip of US warplanes taking off from aircraft carriers.

Then, flames from the jets’ engines dissolved into pictures of children lying in hospitals, some with legs amputated and bandages soaked with blood. The images replayed repeatedly. (LAT-WP)