Some European states treated terrorists as freedom fighters, says Ali
Director of the Center for Middle East Studies
in Paris (CEMO) and Member of the Egyptian Parliament, Abdel Rahim Ali, said today
that terrorists and their financiers had benefited a lot from the presence of
political and ideological differences between countries in the past years.
"While Arab
states suffered an upsurge in terrorist attacks in the 1980s and 1990s, some of
them against state institutions, tourist establishments and Christian citizens
in Egypt, some European states, the UK in particular, viewed terrorists as
freedom fighters, even as they were a mere bunch of armed men," Ali said.
He added at a
seminar organized by CEMO on dialogue between the two banks of the
Mediterranean that the same terrorists were given the right to political
asylum.
They, Ali added,
were allowed to organize conferences and attend hearing sessions in elected
parliaments, including in the British House of Commons.
"European
media conducted interviews with the same terrorists and allowed them to express
their views in which they denigrated the faith of governments and those who
were different from them," Ali noted.
The seminar focuses
on cooperation between Europe and non-European Mediterranean states, including
Egypt, in the fight against terrorism; illegal immigration; education, and
water.
The seminar is held
on the sidelines of the Two Mediterranean Banks summit which is held in
Marseilles on June 23 and 24.
CEMO takes the
opportunity of the summit to open discussion on the issues that cause problems
between countries on the two banks of the Mediterranean.
Apart from the
Arab-Israeli conflict, which stands behind most of the violence in our world
today, the Arab Spring came to wreak disaster on the world and widen the scope
of problems in it.
