>>My question: Why are we (America) so hated by some Arabs and Muslims?

Thanks to everyone. This is exactly the kind of serious thinking that I hoped I might get.

Evan said: "Disclaimer: I am not arguing the rightness or wrongness of these reasons, just listing them."

Precisely. Before we get into defending the moral rightness of the American Way, it is very helpful to understand the thinking of those who are trying to hurt us.

This is a summary of the reasons that Arabs and Muslims might hate America that I have heard so far. I'm trying to arange things in approximate chronological order. The dates I've offered come from a few quick web searches and are certainly not authoriatative.

.......-2001 Human motivation to hate to make your circumstances seem better
.......-2001 Manipulation of tendancy towards hate by leaders with agendas
.......-2001 Fanaticism inspired by beliefs of obedience and infailability
0622-2001 Spiritual and religious differences
0623-2001 Historical Islamic support for killing non-believers
0640-2001 Enormous cultural differences between nations
1095-1272 The Crusades
1881-2001 Oposition to Zionism by Arab nations
1920-2001 The rise of Christian and Islamic fundamentalism (1)
1945-2001 American arrogance (2)
1947-2001 Profiteering by western oil companies
1947-2001 Pro-western policies of IMF and World Bank
1947-2001 Fostering of hate by Arab nations to oppose Israel
1948-2001 Support for the creation and maintenance of Israel
1948-2001 The existence of Palestinian refugees
1953-1953 The CIA engineering of a coup in Iran.
1968-2001 Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza (3)
1978-1996 The shelling of Lebanon
1979-2001 Overt opposition to spread of American culture and power (4)
1980-1988 Backing Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war
1990-2001 Military presence in Saudi Arabia
1991-2001 Bombing of Iraq

(1) This one is mine. It seems to me that Christian and Islamic fundamentalism have a lot in common. As I understand it both movements view modern society as having lost fundamental values. They believe that industrial society is dominated by the values of self-gratification and self-glorification.

(2) Grigore Dolghin said "so-called 'american arogance'" but I dropped the qualifier. Walking out of the Durban conference on racism is only the latest example of American arrogance. The repetition of the phrase "the world's only superpower" is another contributor.

(3) Mine also. NB: I have always supported the creation of a Jewish homeland and some of my closest friends are Jews. It seems to me that as Palestinians watch the steady expansion of the settlements, they see the irreversable disappearence of their own homeland and their pathetic powerlessness to stop this process. This process is so excruciating to them that death in a suicide bombing is more attractive. (Also see Impunity below.)

(4) Mine also. I'm talking about opposing "The Great Satan", for example the overwhelming use of sexual images in Western culture in order to make profits.



Dragan said:

How does any, or all of this taken together, get to the degree of hatred and suicidal action, is beyond me. From what I've seen, I know that war doesn't create better people, in most cases, and that some give in to their uncivilized side, gaining the feeling that anything is allowed and that any form of revenge is allowed. With America being perceived as the the enemy (of Iraq, Iran), or protector of the enemy (Israel), it can be expected that a certain number of individuals will take this path. Perceiving themselves as freedom fighters, and having seen their family killed, they probably feel a heaven-sent right to any retaliation is given to them.


I believe that America and Israel are perceived as acting with IMPUNITY -- "exemption or freedom from punishment, harm, or loss." The way we have used bombs and cruise missiles as a policy tool implies to me that we believe that we can act with impunity. In other words when we calculate whether we should launch the missiles or drop the bombs, possible harm to America is not part of the calcuation.

I think that the greatest motivation for the Islamic fundamentalists is to fundamentally change this calculation. To permanently shatter the myth of invunerability of America.

Let's keep discussing this.

Peter