By Mustafa Abd ElHaleem, IOL Cairo Staff

CAIRO, March 13 (IslamOnline.net) - In a downtown Cairo restaurant, the mostly youth guests are eating with a usual sense of relish against a backdrop of modern Arabic music video clips baring from TV seats above their heads. But suddenly all eyes turned up, the country's icon of contemporary top music shows up with new lyrics on "The Attack against Iraq".

Touching on surging feelings of resentment, fervor, passion riled in an already restless region by Israeli aggressions worthy being described as "continued" and growing American threats to Iraq, an Arab and Islamic country many Egyptians proudly call friendly, the song of Shaaban Abdel-Rahim, bluntly opened with "Enough".

"Enough, enough, We are fed up with excuses and pretexts, Look at and inspect Israel and turn away from Iraq" goes the song with the usual electrifying music endearing to many of Shaaban's avid fans who used to nicknamed him Shabola.

But the words are not adding up much to Arab citizens. What makes a difference is that they can't speak them up. Shabola can do.

"Sharon makes blood falls like rain, while they insist Iraq is the real pain," goes another line, only echoing what many here feel at the U.S. doubled standards clearly backed by the two clear examples of Iraq and Israel.

"Shaaban is a manifestation of our de facto politicized nature, and our submissiveness to the reality of poverty and a lack of democracy. He symbolized the amazing way we manage to live with it all, without being able to change for the better," an Egyptian columnist lamented.

"Look at Israel and its army. It attacks and kills, why isn't too much" goes another line.

Bush used to utter "that's too much" many times in his hawkish speeches to precipitate a blitz on Iraq, few months after praising Sharon as a "man of peace" at a time Egyptians take to streets to show protest against Israeli aggressions in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin they used to refer as "mass murder" attacks.

Shabola is an illiterate irony laundryman turned pop singer. He topped Egypt's charts with his inflammatory song "I Hate Israel" that catapulted him to fame while pouring forth from taxis and minibuses careering through Cairo's cacophonous jammed streets.

"America is spreading corruption, oppression, trying hard to achieve Israel's dreams," go the subtle lyrics with an accompanying picture in the music video of Sharon shaking hands with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell followed by shots of dead bodies taken from underneath debris of destroyed buildings in Iraq and Palestine.

"While America kept assurances that a Palestinian state will be established, it turned a blind eye to atrocities of Israeli occupation forces in Palestinian areas. Even it defended the Jewish state vigorously," said Mohamed Ibrahim, a 20 years-old student while attentively watched the video in a restaurant.

"It is ridiculous after all of these incidents not to feel that Washington acts in complicity with Israel to destroy us," he added.

The U.S. was reportedly planned to stay in Iraq for three years and appoint an American commander to run the country, a piece of news many Arabs feel it is only a paraphrase of one world "occupation".

Shaaban also touched on these fears, in the same flamboyant language.

"Iraq, too, after Afghanistan? Nobody knows tomorrow whose turn would be next" he sings.

In Jordan, a key regional ally of Washington, the song has made the rounds among all of citizens. Bootleg copies flooded the markets and are selling like hot cakes.

Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Ragheb confirmed earlier in March that a "few hundred" U.S. troops were now in Jordan to man and train Jordanian troops on the use of three Patriot anti-missile batteries, adding that Jordan will not allow British planes to land on its territory for refueling if they are used in a military strike on Iraq.

Opposition groups stated that the presence of U.S. troops in Jordan was part of the "U.S.-British mobilization" for an attack against Iraq, warning Jordanians not to deal or assist them.

Here is Shabola's intelligence to speak up minds of many people sharing a joint concern.

"Do you want to partition Iraq or what do you want exactly? Do you have eyes on Iraq's oil" he sings.

Millions of demonstrators all over the world, including American cities, took to streets to slam Washington's war plans they believed are only driven by a thirst for oil. They chanted slogans and carried such banners as "No Oil for Blood"

In Lebanon, Melody Hits, a private channel airing songs at popular request, the "Iraq song", as people used to tell each other there, is aired several times a day.

The Egyptian satellite channel Dream TV broadcasts the song more than ten times a day.

"The song reflects the pulse of street man with its politicized content. Many people feel listening to them is better means to vent their anger safely rather than resorting to other options such as demonstrations," said an Egyptian journalist who asked to be named as Hassan.

"The emergency laws which prevented people from demonstrating without the difficult-to-get authorization, let alone throngs of riot police and state security men ready to blacklist anyone went to lengths in expressing his anger," he added, with a perceived tone of sadness and dismay.

"It is enough to let the Europeans and Japanese demonstrate for us," the Egyptian journalist ridiculed, with a laugh of hope for a better future in which people can do more than listen to Shabola's songs.