Friday October 12, 3:02 AM

Bush's "most wanted" move risks alienating Muslims

By Karen Matusic

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States has put a face on terrorism -- and that face is Arab: just the sort of action analysts fear will pit the West against Islam.

They say the new U.S. "most wanted" list is more dramatic than diplomatic and risks inciting racial hatred, for all the West's insistence that it is fighting terrorism and not Islam.

"The irony is that by personalising and demonising you alienate. Despite all the attempts to show that its battle is not against Islam, (U.S. President George W.) Bush is making it all about Islam," said George Joffe, a Middle East expert at Cambridge University.

"All the indicators, the simplifiers -- the head dress, the beards, the appearance -- all indicate a particular group, associated with a particular culture. All this goes against the attempts by the U.S. administration to de-demonise Islam."

Bush's list, unveiled on Wednesday, smacked of the same kind of "Wild West" imagery as his vow to capture "Dead or Alive" the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks on U.S. landmarks that killed more than 5,500.

While the list might alienate Arabs, Bush needs to show the U.S. public he is alert to all threats at home.

Since so many of those appearing on Wednesday's "most wanted terrorists" posters -- which offer a $5 million reward -- were Arab in appearance and all had Muslim names, many Arabs and Muslims fear they will now become targets of racial attacks.

GUILTY BY OPINION

"Terrorism has a face, and today we expose it for the world to see," Bush said as he broadened the hunt beyond bin Laden.

Amnesty International said the United States must be careful not to violate basic human rights in its pursuit of justice.

"The U.S. is obviously entitled to bring to justice those responsible for the September 11 attacks...but there should be no suggestion of conviction through public opinion," Amnesty spokesman Claudio Cordone told Reuters.

Diplomats from the Middle East in London say the United States is in danger of denting already shaky support from moderate Arab allies who themselves fear reprisals from Islamic dissidents.

"This situation is very sensitive for my country. We are behind the United States in this war on terror but they have to take a softer approach," said a senior Gulf envoy.

Analysts say anti-U.S. sentiment could harden following the release of the posters and the continuing military strikes on Muslim Afghanistan for harbouring bin Laden.

Surely white Christians could make a U.S. most-wanted list?

"Why pick on Arabs? Are there no South Americans, Irish, Serbs, Japanese among the most wanted? This will increase the bitterness people here feel against the West," Hussein Amin, a writer on Islamic affairs and former Egyptian ambassador to Algeria, told Reuters.

Some Arabs say this growing divide between the West and Islam is just what the perpetrators of the attacks had intended.

"Now Americans think all Arabs are bad men and many Arabs now think Americans all hate them. This wasn't the case before," said Muhareb al-Emezi, a Kuwaiti businessman visiting London.

Emezi and others said they feared being victimised by their Arab appearance and language.

"The story has become more about looks and complexion than substance. People will be scared of Arabs and Muslims," a well-travelled Lebanese businessman said.

"We are likely to be mistreated or arrested. If I am there (Europe or America) I will avoid talking Arabic in public. I am sure if I take a bus, go into a restaurant or on a plane, people will turn to look at me in a strange way," he said.

Others were more sanguine.

"We Saudis are used to stereotypes in the West," said Mohammed al-Awwam, deputy editor of pan-Arab daily newspaper Asharq al Awsat.

"Before taxi drivers would say 'Oh a Saudi, oil, money' and hassle me for a big tip. Now they give me a hard time at immigration at the airport."

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001