US war on terror radicalises Arabs - UN report

AMMAN, Oct 20 (Reuters) - The U.S.-led war on terror has radicalised more Arabs angry both with the West and their autocratic rulers who are bent on curbing their political rights, a U.N.-commissioned study released on Monday showed.

The Arab Human Development Report 2003 said Arab countries lagged other regions in dissemination of knowledge. Readership of books was relatively limited, education dictated submission rather than critical thought, the Arabic language was in crisis. The report, launched in Amman, blamed an absence of "effective and peaceful channels for dealing with injustices" for pushing radical political groups to seek change by violence.

Rima Khalaf Hunaidi, the top U.N. official behind the team of Arab intellectuals who wrote the report, said anti-Arab sentiment in the West after the September 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities was a further factor radicalising Arabs.

The U.N. Assistant Secretary General and regional director of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Arab states said educational opportunities were further limited as an anti-Arab backlash made young Arabs retreat from studying in the United States.

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