An American friend told me a few days ago that he was shocked by the rising level of Saudi anger at the United States. Never before had he seen such a level of seething hatred as he is witnessing at present in the Kingdom. There have, of course, been differences and tensions in the past but nothing like this. The American incidentally observed that many youths expressing their bitterness at American policies were dressed in the latest American clothes.
“What has happened? Why do they hate America so much?”
My friend was not asking a straight question. He knows very well that the feelings which distress him have come about because of perceived American hostility toward Arabs and Muslims. I told him that according to an opinion poll of 2,000 people in 15 cities in the Kingdom conducted by a local newspaper before the recent Israeli atrocities on the West Bank, 60 percent of the participants said they hated the US. Seventy-five percent attributed their hatred to the pro-Israeli American stand regarding the Palestinians. They also saw that the American war against terrorism was a war against Islam. The percentage of people disgusted and sickened at the present American policies following the developments on the West Bank has gone even higher. The US president’s blind support for Sharon has infuriated not only Arab youths but the entire world.
The results of the poll are a reflection of the common feeling of hatred toward Americans sweeping the Arab and Muslim world. The results of a Gallup Poll — taken in December and January in nine Arab and Muslim countries including the Kingdom — were not markedly different from the Saudi findings. While 53 percent of the participants in the Gallup Poll hated the US, 58 percent were opposed to Bush. The pollsters attributed the hatred to America’s bias in favor Israel and its lack of respect for Islam. Shebli Talhami, a Middle East expert at the University of Maryland, said the Middle East did not believe that the US cared for their feelings or understood them at all.
I told my friend that the Arabs and Muslims do not hate American civilization, American science or American achievements. Neither do they hate the American people. Their hatred is directed at unjust American policies which do not distinguish between the oppressor and the oppressed. Their hatred springs from the American administration siding with the oppressor and ignoring the oppressed. They hate an arrogant America that despises Arabs and Muslims. They hate American doubles standard. They hate that aspect of America which supports Israel blindly despite disapproval by the whole world.
Dear friend, we do not hate the US blindly as you support Israel blindly. We cannot accept the ugly face of the US because no man with the smallest sense of justice can accept it. Several American thinkers have admitted that the American-sponsored war against terrorism is not a just war. They said in a letter sent to their European counterparts that the American public was unaware of the fact that the US military had no thought for humanitarian and democratic values once outside their country’s borders. The American administration has been propagating such falsehoods as Muslims and Arabs hating the US because of its enviable economic success and its stress on high moral standards. If anything, those are the very things which Arabs and Muslims do not hate about the US. America can create a good image in the Arab and Muslim world by shifting its policies and supporting truth and justice and not siding with the oppressors.
