It has been said before, but rarely as articulately as this.

Qunfuz's analysis of the Arab relationship with Bin Laden shows what the Syrian blogosphere can do when it tries. Not angry rants, not winding grumbles, but clear, eloquent argument.

It's a shame the ones we call journalists and academics can't write as well as this.

He doesn't write often. But it's worth waiting for.

"Americans should have asked themselves the following questions [after September 11]: What has provoked this attack? Why do we encourage Israel in its aggression and oppression? ... At the very least, why have we been funding people like bin Laden and the Taliban? But instead of engaging in a process of self-questioning, America swallowed the line ‘they hate our freedom’. Instead of using its suffering to better understand the suffering of others, America demanded that the world recognise September 11th as uniquely terrible, as if American victims matter more than those from other countries.

...

So I don’t find Arab cheering for bin Laden difficult to understand. But it is misguided and stupid.

...

The September 11th attacks were a gift to that section of the American ruling class which wanted to rearrange the Middle East and Central Asia for the benefit of American capital. The neo-con Project for the New American Century report ‘Rebuilding America's Defenses,’ published in 2000, said that the American people would oppose these plans unless there were “some catastrophic and catalysing event – like a new Pearl Harbour.” September 11th gave them what they needed.

...

Iraq is of course the most obvious case of a national opposition movement being undermined by Wahhabi-nihilist violence. Look at the different responses of Shia Iraqis to the first and second American assaults on [the Sunni city of] Fallujah. During the first attack, Shia clerics led protests against America and sent supplies of weapons, food and medicine to the besieged city. During the second attack, Shia clerics were either silent or said the Fallujans were getting what they deserved. The change was a result of al-Qa’ida violence against the Iraqis they described as Saffavids or apostates.

Which brings us to the third reason why Muslims should reject bin Laden: his promotion of sectarianism, this curse which keeps the Muslims divided and weak, and which distracts their attention from the real causes of their suffering."