Arab-Muslim – USA Viewpoints

Perspective: Michael Hunter

It seems with each act of terrorism by a Muslim around the world, a challenge goes out by us in the western world for moderate Muslims to publicly condemn and repudiate violent Islamic terrorism. The supreme clerical body of Saudi Arabia, the “Council of Senior Ulema” actually issued a “fatwa” (binding religious ruling for Muslims) that defined terrorism specifically (“a crime aimed primarily to destabilize security,” among other definitions) and also branded anyone who committed a terrorist act banned from “paradise” in the afterlife last month. Ironically, it has largely gone unreported back in the U.S. with headlines dominated by the economy, oil spill, etc. So this got me to thinking about jotting down some of the opinions and viewpoints I hear from a few of the Muslim friends that I work with.

1. Do they hate America? The population of extremist-minded Saudis (and probably throughout the Arab world) is very small per capita – surely, these people have been trained to “hate” America for various reasons (mostly for cultural reasons, not necessarily religious. i.e. they view us as having loose or non-existent morals by the way we act, what we show on TV, movies, etc.). But overall, no, the average Saudi does not hate America. In fact, the average Saudi knows of America as a place that has much much greater personal freedom and opportunity for advancement. In a country that has a large disparity between rich and poor, the “American dream” still has pull. Saudi Arabia is the most conservative Muslim country in the world (no alcohol, movies, censored television, dancing between men and women, women must wear the full veil, etc.) in name, but the people are not naive. They are not really opposed to the way we live our lives in our own country, and in fact, most don’t mind “indulging” when they travel outside of Saudi Arabia…

2. What is the major issue they have with the U.S.? The biggest issue will probably always be our confusing foreign policy and it all hinges on our relationship with Israel. Saudi Arabia has never recognized Israel as a nation because they believe that Israel was forced upon the Palestinian‘s land by the west. They of course are not in love with the west for pushing this, but most of their hatred and suspicion is geared toward Israel. The U.S. has relatively good diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, but they feel that they can never fully trust us as long as we also have good relations with (from their view) a destabilizing, occupying, and terrorist nation – Israel. Most Saudis are serious conspiracy theorists when it comes to Jews. They believe that the Zionists are pulling strings all throughout the western world and that their aim is to take over or destroy all of Islam.

Well, there is a couple of thoughts at least. I’ve been thoroughly enjoying having regular conversations with Saudis that I meet about politics and international issues… the overwhelming response I get is that they hold positive views of the U.S. personally, but there is just an overarching sense of suspicion that it’s not necessarily something that they’d broadcast to the local paper (or equivalent).
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