Sad news with a silver lining

I don't know if it was news in the U.S., but several days ago an Egyptian, possibly tied to Al Qaeda but probably not, blew up a car bomb in Doha, Qatar. One man died and twelve were injured. This was important to me for a couple of reasons.

First, I was in Doha about three weeks ago. The suicide bomber attacked a theatre where Shakespeare's Twelfth Night was showing to a packed house.

Second, the man who was killed, Jonathan Adams of Britain, was the director of the play and an expat living in Doha. He was a teacher at an English school in Doha, and only a few years ago he taught at a similar school in Dubai. In fact, one of my current students actually knew him, took a drama class from him.

I'm a teacher; I've directed plays. I feel like I understand this guy. He was watching the play he directed, sitting next to his wife, and when he heard a noise backstage, he went to check it out. Then a suicide bomber blew him up.

This is a very ugly story, but there is a silver lining. The next day, Qataris turned out in large numbers -- thousands, maybe -- near the site of the bombing to protest terrorism. According to the British Globe and Mail newspaper, banners at the demonstration read "Western expatriates we love you. Your security is our concern."

"'We love all Westerners and we don't want this to happen again in our country,' said Khalifa al-Tamimi, an employee of state-owned Qatar Petroleum. 'Whoever did this is illiterate and uncivilized. Surely this is not the work of Qatari people.'"

This rally was organized by the government, for the purpose of reassuring western wallets that they will continue to be safe in the Gulf region. Dubai's rulers would have done the same. But the sentiment among the people was genuine, I'm sure of it. Dubai reminds me of New York in the way that people have generally come to accept -- even value -- the almost radical diversity of the place. Westerners, even Americans, feel welcome here, at least so it seems to me. This is the sort of mindset that will need to become dominant in the Middle East if we're going to win the "War on Terror." But maybe it will, in the long run... I was really encouraged to read about the big rally in Doha.