Jordan Times
Thursday, September 13, 2001

Most Jordanians in state of shock after US attacks

By Francesca Sawalha and Saad G. Hattar
(Excerpts)

Western embassies went on high alert amidst tightened security measures, several flights in and out of Amman were postponed, and official and cultural events were put off until further notice.

Meanwhile, vitriolic anti-Muslim slurs jammed chat rooms and Arabic sites, and some Jordanians in the US admitted to feeling uneasy and fearing a backlash of anti-Arab sentiment.

“It is `Apocalypse Now' in the US,” wrote Al Aswaq in its editorial yesterday. “US institutions should come to the conclusion that societies will always be threatened by killings and destruction as long as power comes first, at the expense of dialogue.”

Al Arab Al Yawm's Taher Adwan warned that the Zionist movement will seek to point the finger against Arabs and Muslims, and praised all Palestinian factions, from Islamic Jihad, to Hamas to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine for moving swiftly to deny any involvement in the horrific attacks.

“As Arabs and Palestinians, we totally differentiate between the US administration's policies, controlled by the Zionist lobby, and ordinary American citizens,” Adwan said. “The US is an open country with millions of Arabs and billions of Arab dollars in its banks,” he added.

Mohammad Kawash of Al Arab Al Yawm criticised the “hasty and unfounded” accusations against Arabs or Muslims.

Al Arab Al Yawm's Mohammad Subeihi expected the attacks to usher in a new phase in US foreign and security policies, while Al Ra'i's Fahed Fanek said the carnage exposed the failure of American security and law enforcement agencies.

The US embassy here was unusually quiet on Wednesday morning — no flag waving, not even at half-mast.

“We are open only for essential services,” an embassy spokeswoman told The Jordan Times. “But it will not be long. By tomorrow, it will be business as usual,” she added.

The imposing complex in Abdoun was surrounded by foot soldiers, while security cars patrolled the streets in the vicinities and an armoured vehicle was stationed beside the main gate.

All US embassies in the Middle East were on high alert, international reports noted.

The American mission in Syria closed for one day yesterday, while the one in Riyadh was open only for “essential services.”

The US embassy in Kuwait took “extraordinary precautions” and restricted its business to essential services only, while the US mission in Bahrain remained open.

The US consulate in Dubai and embassy in Abu Dhabi remained closed yesterday, while in Yemen, an embassy statement said services were “suspended indefinitely and urged US citizens to exercise heightened caution.”

The Israeli embassy here, which has been operating with only a skeleton staff since December 2000, said it took extra-precautionary measures and cancelled scheduled activities such as dinners and receptions.

An Israeli diplomat told The Jordan Times that his country's airspace, sealed after the terror attacks, reopened briefly only to allow the passage of His Majesty King Abdullah's plane at dawn yesterday.

King Abdullah put off a planned several-day visit to the US for scheduled talks with President George W. Bush on Sept. 20. His plane was already in American airspace as the news of the World Trade Centre explosion reached him, a Palace source said.

“Even though they gave the aircraft carrying His Majesty and the accompanying delegation permission to proceed to Houston, Texas, it was decided to return to Amman as there was too much confusion in America,” said one official.

The King was set to start his several-day US visit by delivering a lecture at the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy of Rice University in Texas.

Traffic in west Amman was light on Wednesday morning, while Radio Jordan broadcast a sequence of announcements of official and cultural events that were postponed or cancelled.

A concert by Algeria's rai musician Cheb Mami scheduled to take place at a private university on Thursday was called off.

The concert by the “prince of rai” was part of a week-long festival of cultural events known as Souk Ukaz, but organisers said yesterday the programme was being drastically reduced.

All lectures within the Souk Okaz were cancelled, but the festival went ahead with yesterday's oud concert by a Lebanese artist and will feature Friday's fashion show by Iraqi designer Hana Sadek.

A two-day conference on the Jordan-US Free Trade Agreement organised by the Jordan-American Business Association was postponed until further notice.

The Canadian embassy also announced that a premiere screening of the Canadian film “The Red Violin” at the British Council yesterday evening was also cancelled “in the wake of the attacks.”

Among the many other events put off after the spate of terror attacks was a charity train ride on the Ottoman Hijaz railway for the physically challenged.

Regular air-traffic was unlikely to resume today.

Royal Jordanian President Samer Majali said yesterday the national air carrier was ready to schedule a special flight to New York for today, but was still waiting for a decision by the US Federal Aviation Administration on reopening US airspace.

Two RJ planes bound to New York and Detroit were making a stop over in Shannon, Ireland at the time of the twin towers bombing. Both flights remained grounded in Shannon until yesterday afternoon, when they returned to Queen Alia Airport with their passengers.

“We flew two planes to Ireland and back for nothing, and cancelled today's [Wednesday's] flight to the US,” commented Majali.

Majali estimated RJ losses due to the tragedy in the US, including the cost of putting the two aircraft's passengers up in hotels in Shannon, “in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

But routine was also disrupted at the local offices of other airlines.

Lufthansa on Tuesday cancelled all its flights from Frankfurt to Tel Aviv, Amman and Beirut, but said business was expected to resume as usual today.

Alitalia also suspended direct flights to Egypt, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria on Wednesday, citing “security reasons.”

Meanwhile, Jordanians in the US have expressed fears of a backlash of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments amongst the American public.

Contacted by The Jordan Times, a university student in Boston said he was advised by school officials to remain on campus and not to go downtown. He added that, according to reports on Tuesday, stones had been thrown at several cars driven by or belonging to Arabs in downtown Boston.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles and the Islamic Networks Group in San Jose also reported calls with death threats, obscenities and racial slurs.

At least six million Americans are Muslims.

One Jordanian bank manager in San Francisco told The Jordan Times by telephone that his flat's front door was sprayed with death threats and anti-Muslim and anti-Arab insults overnight. He said also the homes of a two Arab acquaintances were sprayed with similar slurs.

The Jordan Times itself received between Tuesday and Wednesday a few hate e-mails, mainly venting anti-Muslim sentiments.