View from Duba: Why Muslims love and hate the US

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View from Duba: Why Muslims love and hate the US

By Aijaz Zaka Syed

A QUESTION in response to a question can often be the answer. This is what one realised when Major-General William B Caldwell, the deputy chief of staff for strategic effects and spokesman for the US-led coalition in Iraq, visited the Khaleej Times earlier this week with a team of high-ranking US officials.

The US officials were ostensibly on a mission to win “hearts and minds” in the Middle East and the Muslim world by reaching out to the media and telling their side of the story. When asked what the US proposed to do to reach out to the alienated Arab and Muslim world, Major-General Caldwell in turn asked as to what one thought the US should do to win over the Muslims.

One mumbled something to the effect that the US should bridge the gulf by initiating a genuinely free and frank dialogue with the Islamic world addressing each other’s concerns. Caldwell agreed, pointing out that his very inability to answer the question underscored the seriousness of the problem.

A great deal has been said and written about the yawning gulf that exists between the West, especially the US, and the Muslim world. It’s hardly a secret that while the ruling classes in the Muslim world revel in their proximity to the US, the same cannot be said of the majority of ordinary people. In fact, of late the commotion in the street over America’s far from popular policies in the Middle East has grown alarmingly. Yet our American friends appear genuinely surprised every time there is a pointed expression of anger against US policies and actions. They ask themselves: “Why do they hate us?”

Is it that hard to figure out why the world’s 1.8 billion Arabs and Muslim have some serious issues with the reigning superpower that has invaded and occupied at least two Muslim countries and could be planning to attack a third one? It’s not only America’s unquestioning support of Israel and the letter’s persecution of Palestinians that agitates the Muslim world. The superpower's historical political and economic exploitation of the Middle East and its attempts to redraw the map of the region after the Second World War have been at the heart of this alienation.

A recent survey by the University of Maryland and Zogby International found that 78 per cent of Arabs have an unfavourable view of the US. At least 72 per cent of them see the US as the biggest “state threat”. Another poll in 40 Muslim countries by Gallup’s Centre for Muslim Studies reveals that 52 per cent of Iranians have an unfavourable view of the “Big Satan”. That’s hardly a surprise, given the US-Iran conflict. But this antipathy towards Uncle Sam is significantly lower than that recorded in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Jordan — all three close US allies. Two-thirds of Jordanians and Pakistanis and a staggering 79 per cent of Saudis have a negative view of their so-called friend and ally.

But remember, this disillusionment with the Americans is not limited to the Muslim world. Anti-Americanism as a movement in Europe and around the world has survived the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

By contrast, way back in 1993, a State Department study found that a whopping 83 per cent of the British had a favourable opinion of their cousins across the Atlantic. This support has drastically dwindled in recent times. Most Britons, polled by Pew Global Attitudes Project, today see the US presence in the Middle East and its “war on terror” as a bigger threat to world peace than Iran or North Korea.

It should be a real source of concern to the Americans that this view is widely shared by respondents in France, Spain, Russia, India, China and throughout the Middle East. Clearly, what unites the world today is hatred of America the almighty. Should these findings really come as a surprise to the Americans? Remarkably, few of them seem to realise that it is the callous policies — especially, foreign policy — of their successive governments that make them the world's most despised nation.

Conversely, according to the same Gallup poll cited earlier, most Arabs and Muslims also admire America for many of its positive qualities and features. For example, an overwhelming majority of Muslims admires American technology, its democracy and political freedom, among many other things. According to the poll, all Muslims want is “more respect” from America. Clearly, it is a complex, love-hate relationship.

From one’s own personal experience as a Muslim who grew up admiring all things American, it is not hard to understand how fellow believers the world over feel about America. For many adolescent Pakistanis introduction to America begins with westerns and thrillers by lovable writers such as Oliver Strange and James Hadley Chase, who rubbed shoulders with the best in Urdu classics in one’s father’s library. This adolescent affair with America can develop into a heady passion when one goes to university.

It was, for instance, my fawning fascination for Amriika — as we call it back home — that made me choose American literature as an elective subject in MA English. I never regretted that decision — to be in the enriching company of Frost, Whitman, Hemingway and many others. Over the years, this bond with America has only strengthened with my philistine fondness for Hollywood and exposure to US democracy and civil liberties icons.

Like fellow Muslims everywhere, I still love and admire America and all that it stands for and represents — or once did. I admire its democratic values, its love of liberty and personal freedom and respect for the rule of law and human rights — notwithstanding Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

But what really makes the American way of life so attractive to us Muslims — from the edge of Africa to the end of Asia — is its celebration of honesty, fair play and hard work. If you are confident, hard working and enterprising, the American dream can embrace you as its own. Which is why the rags-to-riches stories are so common in the New World. And this is why it remains the favourite destination of dream chasers everywhere.

From actor-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to Sabeer Bhatia of Hotmail, in our own lifetime there have been numerous examples of immigrants scaling dizzying heights to become a part of the great American dream. It’s this side of America that conquers hearts and minds everywhere — in the Muslim world and elsewhere.

Indeed, there is a great deal that Muslims have in common with America. We share a faith in God, justice, honesty, freedom and humanity. It is such a shame, then, that such a huge gulf between the US and the Muslims and between the West and Islam should exist.

How do we bridge this divide? The only way to end the rift is by trying to understand what has caused this in the first place. If the Americans — the US establishment, to be more precise — are indeed keen to bridge the divide preventing a clash of civilisations, they must start by showing some respect to Arabs and Muslims. It’s only when you respect the other side that you pay attention to their point of view.

Bush is wrong to claim that Muslims hate America and the West because we abhor their “way of life”. We do not hate America or its way of life. It’s one’s life after all and one has the right to live it the way one wants. As the Quran puts it, “To you be your way, to me mine.” Trouble starts only when you try to force your way upon others.Ordinary Muslims find it hard to accept that a nation inspired by the ideals of freedom, democracy, dignity and justice should unconditionally support a state like Israel which is rooted in injustice, oppression and tyranny. This gulf between the US and Muslims is not impossible to bridge, if the US establishment makes a sincere effort to understand what really concerns and agitates Muslims.

Our American friends, including well-meaning individuals like Major-General Caldwell, can rest assured that it’s not that difficult to figure out what makes Muslims unhappy with America. Identify and eliminate those causes and Muslims and America can emerge on the same side.

The writer is a journalist based in Dubai

Email:aijazsyed@khaleejtimes.com

http://www.dawn.com/2007/03/03/ed.htm#4