America's opponents in the Middle East are gloating at the financial meltdown in the United States, describing it as the divinely inspired collapse of an overstretched empire.
Hardline clerics across the region, as well as representatives of US opponents such as Hamas and al-Qaeda, have described the plummeting stocks and frozen credit markets in the heartland of the world superpower as a kind of retribution for American misdeeds.
Hamas's prime minister in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, has told worshippers at Friday prayers ,''We are witnessing the collapse of the American Empire.
''What's going on in America is a result of the violation of the rights of people in Palestine, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Muslims around the world.''
Mr Haniyeh's comments come after those made by other regional leaders who have long been antagonistic to the US and appear to be enjoying that country's troubles.
But the meltdown has not left the region unscathed, with stockmarkets across the Middle East dropping by more than 10 per cent in the past week.
In an interview last Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described America's problems as a matter of chickens coming home to roost after years of exporting inflation and deficits to the rest of the world.
''Now the world capacity is full and these problems have returned to the US,'' he said. ''And finally they are oppressors, and systems based on oppression and unrighteous positions will not endure.''
A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, was more blunt when he addressed worshippers last Friday week, describing the situation as God's punishment.
''We are happy that the US economy is in anarchy and the anarchy is reaching Europe,'' Ayatollah Jannati said. ''They are seeing the result of their own ugly deeds and God is punishing them.''
The Iranian Government has said the financial crisis is not hurting Iran's economy.
But the turmoil has helped to drive the price of oil down by more than 40 per cent since record highs in July. The Iranian Government relies on oil revenue for 80 per cent of its budget.
Al-Qaeda, America's arch-nemesis in the region, was one of the first to express satisfaction at the financial crisis in a half-hour video message early in the month.
''The enemies of Islam are facing a crushing defeat, which is beginning to manifest itself in the expanding crisis their economy is experiencing,'' US al-Qaeda member Adam Gadahn said.
Gadahn blamed the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for the crisis, as well as Americans ''turning their backs on Allah's revealed laws, which forbid interest-bearing transactions, exploitation, greed and injustice in all its forms''. AP