Iraqis see a double standard.

Terrorism in Jordan

Jordan has been jolted awake, said Jordan’s Al Ghad in an editorial. For too long, some among us had “sympathy with terrorists” such as Osama bin Laden or his henchman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Those sympathizers believed that al Qaida was “working in the service of just Arab causes.” But last week’s bombings at three hotels in our own capital, Amman, have showed us how wrong such a belief was. The suicide bombers dispatched from al-Zarqawi’s group killed 57 people, nearly all of them Jordanian or Palestinian Muslims. King Abdullah was right when he said that such terrorists have “no religion or conscience.”

It’s “high time” the Jordanians figured that out, said Egypt’s Al-Ahram in an editorial. Egypt has been plagued by terrorist bomb attacks in the past. The most recent one came just this past summer at the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where 90 people were killed—most of them Egyptian. A group claiming to be linked to al Qaida took responsibility. Egypt has long known that perpetrators of such acts are criminals. Now, after the Amman attacks, maybe the rest of “Arab public opinion” will realize that there can be no justification for terrorism “if it targets innocent civilians.”

So the deaths of thousands of Iraqi innocents made no impression on the Arab world? asked Iraq’s Al-Bayyinah in an editorial. Al-Zarqawi has been blowing up Iraqi civilians for years. But in a disgusting “double standard,” the Iraqi deaths were always seen as justified in the name of jihad, while these Jordanian deaths were somehow “real terrorism.” At least we can take comfort in the fact that Jordan will finally crack down on the imams whose sermons call for jihad in Iraq. Maybe the government will even close the charities that funnel all their donations to al-Zarqawi’s terrorists.

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Al-Sabah al-Jadid