Can we expect a Muslim backlash from the war?

Many Muslims were uncomfortable when the US-led coalition went into Iraq in 1991.

While they acknowledged that Iraq was the clear cut aggressor in invading Kuwait, many sympathised with fellow Muslims who were under attack.

That sympathy grew into concern and even anger in the years following the Gulf War, when it became clear that Iraqi citizens were suffering from the food and medicine embargo imposed by the UN.

With a second Gulf War looming we take a look at the concerns and fears this time round.

The war on terror is not a war on Islam says America, but many of its policies seem to be targeting Muslims.

Take for example America's stringent new immigration checks.

They require all citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Sudan be fingerprinted and photographed.

These will be checked against criminal and terrorist databases.

Visitors from other Muslim and Middle Eastern countries may also be subject to the new measures.

The procedures have sparked an uproar.

Leaders of Islamic countries have criticised the policy as anti-Muslim hysteria.

Now with the US moving in on Iraq, tensions between America and the Muslim world look set to rise.

Dr Eric Teo from the Singapore Institute of International Affairs commented, " ....it will be seen as a war between a Western power and a Muslim country. although it will be put in the legitimate forms necessary. most Muslims will see it that way."

If that's true, it will translate into dire consequences for the US.

While Washington may win the battle in Baghdad, it might compromise the war on terror.

Dr Chin Kin Wah, also from the Singapore Institute of International Affairs added, "It will also complicate regional support for a US-led war against terror. Especially support and cooperation from otherwise moderate governments, be they Malaysia or Indonesia, which will nevertheless have to relate to their majority Muslim constituencies. "

Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek International said, "The great opportunity here if there were a change of regime in Iraq would be that this could be a kind of rebuilding that could draw on a great deal of expertise and help from the other Muslim countries, primarily in SEA. Malaysia and Indonesia could play a very important role in helping construct a regime that mixes islam with modernity."

This seems to be the best possible result of a war on Iraq, and some quarters in the US are brushing away the doomsayers with this reminder.

"We've heard this talk about a muslim backlash many times. Most notably in the first Gul War and in Afghanistan. In both cases it fizzled. It fizzled I think in part because regimes were able to contain it but I think also because it became apparent after the war that what the Americans were doing was tremendously popular for the locals," according to Professor eliot Cohen from the Johns Hopkins University.

Whether that will happen this time round, remains to be seen.

But the opposite could also be possible, that a strike on Iraq could lead to an increasing loss of global harmony.