« US: British Muslim Indicted On Terror Charges |
| UK: Islamist Terror Trial Hears Of Canadian's Involvement »
July 19, 2006
Islamic World: Muslims Dislike U.S., Americans
The underlying commentary behind this UPI not-so-neutral story is that the U.S. should modify its policies so that the muslims would like us, really really like us. This is, well, stupid. The policies muslims want us to change are moral and good for America, if anything, we should be more aggressive in pursuing them. If muslims, including some who call themselves Americans, don't like us, tough: Experts: Islam-U.S. relations at nadir
WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Five years after the United States received the world's sympathy for the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Middle East and terrorism experts and a top poll taker reported to a Senate committee that the attitudes of Muslims have shifted sharply away from the United States.A panel of experts told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that, whether reasonable or not, the war in Iraq, the detainment of prisoners at Guantanamo, and now the United States refusal to intercede against Israel in Lebanon causes Muslims to believe the United States has abandoned its core principles of human rights, democracy and freedom.
In the year 2000, 52 percent of Turkish people polled reported a favorable view of the United States. That is now down to 12 percent favorable. In Indonesia in 2002, the favorable rating was 61 percent. Even with massive U.S. aid after the tsunami, in 2006 only 30 percent of those polled report a favorable impression of the United States. Nigeria has also seen a sharp decline: 72 percent rated the United States favorably in 2002; that is now down to 32 percent. And in both Indonesia and Nigeria, Osama bin Laden is regularly cited as a role model, the witnesses told the sparsely attended committee hearing.
Increasingly, that distaste for American policies is extending itself to a dislike of Americans, where once the two were considered separate issues. In Turkey, a NATO ally, 69 percent report a dislike of Americans. In Pakistan, it is 52 percent. In Indonesia, 60 percent dislike Americans and in Nigeria, 75 percent of Muslims report a dislike of or Americans, according to Andrew Kohut, the president off the Pew Research Center.[...]
Posted by Ruy Diaz at July 19, 2006 9:30 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)