Brothers in Alms

NY Times
Brothers in Alms
By PETER BERGEN
Published: January 8, 2005
Kabul, Afghanistan
AROUND the Islamic world it is common currency that Muslims are perpetual victims of Western and Zionist conspiracies. The bill of particulars includes the handling of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Israel's inequitable treatment of the Palestinians, and the deaths of thousands of civilians in Iraq - as a result first of United Nations sanctions after the Persian Gulf war, and more recently of the American occupation. The most articulate spokesman of such views is, of course, Osama bin Laden.
Yet when Muslims are suffering, it is usually the West, and often the United States, that takes the lead in helping....