Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

What Impact Has Osama bin Laden's Audiotape Had in Middle East?

Aired February 15, 2003 - 07:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HIEDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Four days after it appeared, what can we learn form the audiotaped message, which officials say is almost certainly from Osama bin Laden? And what impact has it had on people in Kuwait and elsewhere in the Middle East? And helping us to sort all this out is Mamoun Fandy, a Mid East scholar who is in Washington this morning to help us out.
Good morning to you, sir. Thanks for being here.

MAMOUN FANDY, AUTHOR, "SAUDI ARABIA AND THE POLITICS OF DISSENT": Good morning, Heidi. How are you?

COLLINS: I'd like to begin with -- I'm wondering, how seriously have Mid Easterners taken this message?

FANDY: Well, the Middle East, really, it's a totally different dynamic from the West. While you see all these demonstrations in the West today, you see nothing in the Middle East, with the exception of Baghdad. So in a way, the Osama bin Laden message, it's elicited different responses.

From government, it elicits tremendous resolve. His homeland, Saudi Arabia, it elicited a response from the chief religious leaders of that community to reject bin Laden's message, whether it was bin Laden who was speaking or not. But that kind of message is rejected straight out of hand. So Arab government in particular are very upset at this and very unhappy because they see it as threatening to their own stability.

Only Islamic activists, the Islamic groups that are pro bin Laden, they were happy that there is a tape. But very few people believe it's authentic. Very few people believe that bin Laden is with us.

COLLINS: As far as what people are saying on the streets, I was reading some information here about you this morning, and your thoughts. Care to share with us about these categories that you have that sort of divide up the different street levels?

FANDY: Well, I mean, you know the Arab street is divided into three levels. I mean there is the Arab basement, where these people mix the molotov cocktails, the bin Laden crowd. And there is the Arab street that very much can be galvanized for the Palestinians, because this is the oldest cause. But the biggest of all is really the Arab couch, which is people watching AL-Jazeera and supporting Saddam Hussein. But they will never come to the streets to support him.

COLLINS: So what can we actually take out of this message? Is it indeed a call to arms?

FANDY: I'm not certain. I followed this region for a long time. I'm not certain that many people would respond to bin Laden's call.

As I said, you know you see all these demonstrations throughout the world. But the Arab world knows a different story. September 11 just sunk in in the Arab world. People just felt the story (ph).

It's different. While here, people are above the hump and moved forward, in the Arab world, they just felt this with the presence of troops and all of that. So it's a different dynamic altogether.

I'm not sure that bin Laden will be supported. I'm not sure there are many people who will rally behind Saddam Hussein.

COLLINS: Let's talk for a minute, if we could, Mr. Fandy, about Saudi Arabia. What does it mean when the Saudi religious leaders say that they are absolutely against any sort of attacks on non-Muslims or any sort of violence whatsoever on non-Muslims?

FANDY: This is an amazing change in Saudi Arabia that should be taken tremendously seriously. This is the country that is the seat of the Muslim world. Its religious authority has tremendous voice that resonates from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia to Africa. So if that message goes forth, telling Muslims that it's not acceptable to kill non-Muslims, this is an amazing change in Saudi Arabia and shows indeed that the government of Saudi Arabia is moving to push its religious authority to speak out.

COLLINS: Does it mean that they are standing by the United States?

FANDY: It means an amazing shift. It's a seat change. It means, yes, they are closing ranks with the United States, and this is why they pushed their religious leaders to actually denounce bin Laden and denounce those who are anti-Western and those who call for the killing of non-Muslims.

COLLINS: All right. Now as far as the Palestinians siding with Saddam, what sort of support might they provide to the Iraqis and the Iraqi regime?

FANDY: I'm not sure if the Palestinians will support Saddam this time around, because only yesterday President Arafat announced that he will have a prime minister, that he is going with the changes demanded by the United States. I think it will be amazingly damaging to the Palestinians, who are expecting a state in 2005, to get behind Saddam Hussein. They have done it when they were supporting Saddam Hussein's invasion in Kuwait and paid a very heavy price. And I think now reason started to sink in.

COLLINS: All right. Mamoun Fandy, our wonderful Mid Eastern scholar, we certainly appreciate your insight this morning. FANDY: Thank you very much, Heidi.

COLLINS: And thank you for joining us from Washington.

FANDY: Thank you.

COLLINS: We will talk again soon, I'm sure.

FANDY: Thank you, Heidi.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





East?>


Aired February 15, 2003 - 07:38   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HIEDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Four days after it appeared, what can we learn form the audiotaped message, which officials say is almost certainly from Osama bin Laden? And what impact has it had on people in Kuwait and elsewhere in the Middle East? And helping us to sort all this out is Mamoun Fandy, a Mid East scholar who is in Washington this morning to help us out.
Good morning to you, sir. Thanks for being here.

MAMOUN FANDY, AUTHOR, "SAUDI ARABIA AND THE POLITICS OF DISSENT": Good morning, Heidi. How are you?

COLLINS: I'd like to begin with -- I'm wondering, how seriously have Mid Easterners taken this message?

FANDY: Well, the Middle East, really, it's a totally different dynamic from the West. While you see all these demonstrations in the West today, you see nothing in the Middle East, with the exception of Baghdad. So in a way, the Osama bin Laden message, it's elicited different responses.

From government, it elicits tremendous resolve. His homeland, Saudi Arabia, it elicited a response from the chief religious leaders of that community to reject bin Laden's message, whether it was bin Laden who was speaking or not. But that kind of message is rejected straight out of hand. So Arab government in particular are very upset at this and very unhappy because they see it as threatening to their own stability.

Only Islamic activists, the Islamic groups that are pro bin Laden, they were happy that there is a tape. But very few people believe it's authentic. Very few people believe that bin Laden is with us.

COLLINS: As far as what people are saying on the streets, I was reading some information here about you this morning, and your thoughts. Care to share with us about these categories that you have that sort of divide up the different street levels?

FANDY: Well, I mean, you know the Arab street is divided into three levels. I mean there is the Arab basement, where these people mix the molotov cocktails, the bin Laden crowd. And there is the Arab street that very much can be galvanized for the Palestinians, because this is the oldest cause. But the biggest of all is really the Arab couch, which is people watching AL-Jazeera and supporting Saddam Hussein. But they will never come to the streets to support him.

COLLINS: So what can we actually take out of this message? Is it indeed a call to arms?

FANDY: I'm not certain. I followed this region for a long time. I'm not certain that many people would respond to bin Laden's call.

As I said, you know you see all these demonstrations throughout the world. But the Arab world knows a different story. September 11 just sunk in in the Arab world. People just felt the story (ph).

It's different. While here, people are above the hump and moved forward, in the Arab world, they just felt this with the presence of troops and all of that. So it's a different dynamic altogether.

I'm not sure that bin Laden will be supported. I'm not sure there are many people who will rally behind Saddam Hussein.

COLLINS: Let's talk for a minute, if we could, Mr. Fandy, about Saudi Arabia. What does it mean when the Saudi religious leaders say that they are absolutely against any sort of attacks on non-Muslims or any sort of violence whatsoever on non-Muslims?

FANDY: This is an amazing change in Saudi Arabia that should be taken tremendously seriously. This is the country that is the seat of the Muslim world. Its religious authority has tremendous voice that resonates from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia to Africa. So if that message goes forth, telling Muslims that it's not acceptable to kill non-Muslims, this is an amazing change in Saudi Arabia and shows indeed that the government of Saudi Arabia is moving to push its religious authority to speak out.

COLLINS: Does it mean that they are standing by the United States?

FANDY: It means an amazing shift. It's a seat change. It means, yes, they are closing ranks with the United States, and this is why they pushed their religious leaders to actually denounce bin Laden and denounce those who are anti-Western and those who call for the killing of non-Muslims.

COLLINS: All right. Now as far as the Palestinians siding with Saddam, what sort of support might they provide to the Iraqis and the Iraqi regime?

FANDY: I'm not sure if the Palestinians will support Saddam this time around, because only yesterday President Arafat announced that he will have a prime minister, that he is going with the changes demanded by the United States. I think it will be amazingly damaging to the Palestinians, who are expecting a state in 2005, to get behind Saddam Hussein. They have done it when they were supporting Saddam Hussein's invasion in Kuwait and paid a very heavy price. And I think now reason started to sink in.

COLLINS: All right. Mamoun Fandy, our wonderful Mid Eastern scholar, we certainly appreciate your insight this morning. FANDY: Thank you very much, Heidi.

COLLINS: And thank you for joining us from Washington.

FANDY: Thank you.

COLLINS: We will talk again soon, I'm sure.

FANDY: Thank you, Heidi.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





East?>