Why Anti-American Sentiments Exist in The Muslim World

The Arab world resents the US for its past interference in political matters and the two faced, hypocritical alliances the US has made with them. When one looks back into history, anti-western sentiments began with the crusades. The Arab world, which at the time was going through its golden age considered the crusaders as backward and barbaric. Therefore the first contact between the east and the west was not peaceful. The glorifying moment and sense of superiority attained by the Muslims came when they, led by Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, defeated the crusader army in 1187 which relocated Jerusalem into the Islamic fold after 88 years of Christian occupation. Gradually the Mamelukes were replaced by the Ottoman Turks as the premiere power in the Muslim world. The Ottomans confrontation with the ‘Christian West’ began with their expansion into modern day Turkey and reached its zenith at the capture of Constantinople. As western power increased and the ottomans stagnated, the west began to exert more control over the ottoman treatment of their non-Muslim minorities. This sort of direct meddling in one civilizations affair by another causes the kind of resentment, which eventually degenerates into complete and utter hatred. Due to the power re-alignments in the post cold-war era, America replaced Britain, in Muslim perceptions, as the flag bearer of the crusading spirit. The focus of this paper and the brief history provided above is to bring to light the reasons for anti-western (specifically the US) sentiments held by the Muslim world. The Israel- Palestinian conflict, Afghan-Soviet war, Iran-Iraq war, Gulf war, the UN as the US puppet and negative western media are all reasons that lead to Muslim dislike of the western world. I will explain all these conflicts in the rest of my thesis.

On 2nd November, 1917 the Balfour declaration was issued promising Jews a state of their own in Palestine. In the immediate aftermath of the First World War, the British found it necessary, due to strategic reasons, to maintain a military presence in Palestine. Knowing that the American president Wilson would oppose this move, the British hinted at making Palestine a place for American and European Jews. President Wilson decided not to oppose the idea further as this would also help him gain public and specifically Jewish support in the US. With the increasing migration of Jews to Palestine in the 1920’s and 30’s, the Muslims and Arabs felt that their homeland was slowly being taken away, much the same way the American Indians felt when new settlers encroached upon their land. To make matters worse, most of the immigrants who migrated between 1919-1923 were socialist in their political outlook. The Arabs were anti socialist in general. According to Charles D. Smith “On May 2nd 1921, riots erupted in Tel Aviv…the fighting spread into adjacent areas and led to Arab attacks on Jews and Jewish reprisals” . Mary Ann Kenny describes the same time period by stating that “Anti-Western sentiments at the popular level had reached a crescendo after the Arabs defeat at the hands of the new state of Israel in 1948-49” . It was the Arab’s perception that president Truman’s policies are what led to the creation of Israel in the first place. Ever since then, the Palestinians have had to deal with the unfair treatment and the total support of the west for the Jews America, sympathizes or has remorse for taking over someone else’s land. According to the Muslims in the Middle East the US has 51 states, Israel being the 51st. To have someone’s homeland taken away, to give the best weapons and arms to the Jews (Israelis) with no support for the Muslims and threats of trade sanctions on anyone who does support them in by no means fair. Is it not fair to understand why the Muslims hate the US and the west, or is that unfair too? Maybe if tomorrow someone takes over a US state and no one agrees to support the US when it wants its own land back, maybe then the western public will understand the plight of the Muslims in Israel, and the hatred they have for them.

Time moves on and in 1979, another incident sparks in the Muslim world, which would lead the Muslims to believe that the westerners are two faced. Prior to this in 1976, Pakistan decided to build a uranium enrichment facility in Kahuta . News spread quickly and the BBC dubbed it as ‘project 706- The Islamic Bomb ’. To anyone common man, and to the US which had used the atom bomb to end World War 2, I doubt there is anything Islamic about a bomb containing Uranium. Nonetheless, Pakistan unfortunately being a Muslim country had to deal with the negative western media. At the time, the secretary of state proposed the Symington Amendment, which prevented Pakistan from obtaining aid if it continued its nuclear plans. America opposed and at one point planned to send American and Israeli commandos to destroy Kahuta. 1979, and the USSR attacks Afghanistan and the US sees an obvious opportunity to reduce the USSR’s domination of the world. Afghanistan is a land-locked country and the only allied nation with a port is Pakistan. The US suddenly changes its views about Pakistan and according to Noam Chomsky “in October 1981, the Symington amendment is suspended for six years in the National interest of the United States. ” Pakistan is grated $3.2 Billion in ‘economic’ aid. The Aid was used to transport weapons to Afghanistan for the war. By 1990 the war had ended, USSR was economically drained and broke away into many states, thus fulfilling ‘the national interest of the United States’. Immediately following this, and when the US had no more interest in Pakistan, President Reagan and then George Bush, who had been previously denying to the congress that Pakistan had the atom bomb changed face and stopped aid to Pakistan by giving the excuse that they could no longer claim Pakistan did not have the bomb. This, in fact, was something they knew all throughout the Afghanistan-USSR war. This led to negative sentiments and a sense of betrayal amongst the Pakistani public and six Americans were ambushed and killed in Karachi, Pakistan. In less than two years, once allied and helpful America, stopped aid for Pakistan and the media and US government changed the title of ‘most allied nation’ to ‘Islamic terrorist nation.’ This is yet another example of betrayal by the west that causes the Muslim world to have anti-western and specifically anti-American sentiments.

Political issues aside, what hurts Muslims on a deeply personal level is the disrespect accorded to their religion by westerners since the two came into contact. The people of the book are accorded a special status in Islam. Christ and Moses are respected as two of the greatest Prophets of God, and Islam as a continuation and perfection of their message. With a few exceptions, Christians and Jews lived in peace under Muslim rule. Many, such as Ibrahim Pasha reached very high ranks within Muslim empires. Yet, in the West, Islam was always looked at, as a twisted and sick copy of other religions, a macabre mixture of Judaism, Christianity, and Arab paganism. The Prophet was thought and taught to be a sadistic, pleasure loving, bloodthirsty, womanizer, bent on conquest and plunder. Fake histories were created and false reasons made up for some of his actions that the western mind found questionable, while his good deeds were either ignored or just plain belittled. Montgomery Watt in his book ‘Muhammad at Medina writes:

“The world's greatest men none has been so much maligned as Muhammad. It is easy to see how this has come about. For centuries Islam was the great enemy of Christendom, for Christendom was in direct contact with no other organized states comparable in power to the Muslims. The Byzantine Empire, after losing its provinces in Syria and Egypt, was being attacked in Asia Minor, while Western Europe was threatened through Spain and Sicily. Even before the Crusades focused attention on the expulsion of the Sarcens from the Holy Land, medieval war-propaganda, free from the restraints of factuality was building up a conception of 'the great enemy'. At one point Muhammad was transformed into Mahound , the prince of darkness. ”

It is clear from the discussions above that anti-western and anti-American sentiments stem not only from the political realm but have a deep rooted history in their religious conflicts and the constant badgering of Muslims by the Christians. One needs to look further and into present time to see how the world views Islam and the Muslim world now.

In the ‘small world’ that we have today, media controls the minds of many an ignorant people who are not ready to look beyond or accept anything other than what the news reporter has to say. According to Kai Hafez “Muslims, along with other minority groups, are more newsworthy if they cause trouble or problems for the majority culture” .

During the Gulf War, there were many times when Saddam Hussain was shown while praying. I clearly recall the CNN correspondent claiming that it seems as if he (Saddam) is talking to someone. It is surprising that a correspondent stationed in Iraq would not know how Muslims pray.

Another media flaw is that any country that has a majority of Muslims in it is always referend to as so and so ‘Muslim’ country. I wait to hear England being referred to as ‘England, the Christian country’. This does not only pertain to identifying countries but also any act conducted by a Muslim. If a Muslim kills someone he is automatically a ‘Muslim’ murderer or ‘Muslim’ terrorist. Did anyone ask the media why Timothy Mcveigh was not referred to as a ‘Christian’ terrorist when he masterminded the bombing in Oklahoma? The media portrays the Muslim world as backward, fanatical, terrorist and a male dominated society where women are suppressed and have to wear a hijab . The media rarely ever tries to not have an ethnocentric view about Muslims. It is just as difficult for a Muslim to understand why there is a strip club in every town in America as it is for Americans to understand the concept of Hijab (veiling).

In conclusion, it is obvious that Muslims have been a target for the West. From betrayal in politics, to old religious issues and the news media, there seems to be no breathing space for the Muslims. It is like cornering a cat, and the obvious reaction would be to jump back. This is specifically why the Muslim world springs back with anti-western sentiments and rightfully so. If the west were to put themselves in the shoes of the Muslims, they too may understand why this hatred exists. Till then, the Muslim world, will suffer and the west will not do anything to make it better. History may repeat itself with the east on the short end of the stick.

Bibliography

1. Anti-Americanism in the third world by Rubenstein/smith

2. Mamelukes were Turkish slaves raised in the military tradition. They formed the bulk of Arab and Egyptian armies and at one time ruled Egypt.

3. The ottoman Turks were central Asian nomads who settled in modern day turkey Charles D. Smith. Palestine and the Arab Israeli Conflict

4. Mary Ann Kenny. The Islamic World and the west

5. Kahuta is a small town in north West Pakistan.

6. Mary Ann Kenny. The Islamic world and the west

7. Noam Chomsky. Deterring Democracy

8. Ibrahim Pasha was the Prime minister of Suleman the magnificent, the ottoman emperor. He was a Christian.

9. Mahound in Scottish also means dog

10. http://members.nbci.com/_XMCM/lordexarkun/Islam/muh_lies.html

11. Kai Hafez. Islam and the west in mass media. Pg 167.

12. Hijab is the word for veil in Arabic