ARIEL SHARON WORST PERSONALITY OF 2001

Bush beats Bin Laden to become second worst
By Abdul Wahab Bashir
Asharq Al-Awsat (Saudi daily)
January 1, 2002

A pan-Arab poll has chosen Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as the worst personality of 2001, with US President George W. Bush coming in second place ahead of his two arch enemies, Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Muhammad Omar.

The poll published by Okaz newspaper was conducted on a randomly selected sample of 1,116 readers in Riyadh, Beirut, Amman, Abu Dhabi, Sanaa, Aden, Gaza and Bonn. Sharon topped the list while Bush beat both the leader of Al-Qaeda network and head of the Taleban militia to become the second worst person of the year.

The paper said those polled chose Sharon for his "crooked political ideology and bad political behavior". Bush came second because of his "lack of understanding of international politics and his unlimited support for Israel". Bin Laden was selected because he involved Arabs and Muslims in problems with the rest of the world.

Fifty-six percent of those polled said Sharon was the worst personality of the year, while 29 percent chose President Bush. Eleven percent voted Bin Laden and three percent Mullah Omar.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein came in fifth and sixth places, both with 0.5 percent of the votes.

Thirty-eight percent of those polled said the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States were the worst incidents of the outgoing year, followed by the US-led war on Afghanistan with 33 percent and the continuous Israeli attacks on Palestinians which came third with 27 percent.

The paper gave four reasons cited by those polled for selecting the worst personality that include bad influence on world peace, bad handling of affairs and perverted thinking, dragging the world into a new crisis and failure to understand the dictates of international politics. The first reason attracted 55 percent of those polled, the second 20 percent, the third 15 percent and the fourth 10 percent.