Arab perspective of the US.. never worse ?

Great Debates
1

With Bush saying we should all thank Sharon.

With Bush [supporting](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3682825.stm) Sharon no matter what. (check Sharon's happy face in that foto !)

 With Bush disregarding his few [Arab Allies](during [URL=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east), who now feel very foolish.  

 With Soldiers abusing and humiliating prisoners more [resentment](during [URL=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east) is in order.

 With the humiliation of Arabs in general due to the US heavy handed occupation of Iraq. Imposing a new flag... a government full of US croonies as well.

 Can anyone blame Arabs and Iraqis for hating America ? Can anyone think Bush cares at all about arab hearts and minds ? That any moderate Arabs still think the US and the west might be a good thing for Arabs ? That Bush is leading the world to a less terrorism ?    

  Take the Arab perspective on this... and honestly answer the above questions.
2

Sorry for the Bad Links:

America’s Arab allies feel the strain

Arab Anger

3

So I can see the Palestinians being pissed off and some Iraqis being none too happy but how did that suddenly become all Arabs?

4

Maybe because they share the same religion… many are tied by blood ? There is a feeling of “community” ? Or do you think Arabs in general are happy for the liberation of Iraq ?

5

Funny that. I didn’t know that all Buddhists agreed on everything. I mean, they all have the same religion and stuff, right?

6

Paul Woods (author of both articles) makes statements about Jordan and Egypt and the “tea house chatter” of the Arab street. What about the Moroccans or Tunisians? We don’t know. It seems the lazy way out, looking at two points and making the broad statement that all Arabs loath the US. It would be more accurate to focus on the regional views of Middle Eastern Arabs.

Is the view of the US at it lowest ever in the Middle East? Maybe. The recent pictures are obviously a blow to American prestige in the area. Yet at the same time the “Arab Street” is likely more free now than every before, and so has higher visibility than ever.

7

[QUOTE=Rashak ManiTake the Arab perspective on this… and honestly answer the above questions.[/QUOTE]

Pretty difficult to do unless you are at least a muslem, I would suggest. We can say we are taking the Arab perspective on your OP but I suspect most of us will be lugging our own world views into our posts.

That said I think it is far to say that the muslem religion unites their followers in a a similar way that the Jews are united by theirs, and cannot be compared to modern Christians let alone Buddists.

I will hold off expressing my views on how the Arabs should think, or what I think they do think, and give some muslim posters first go.

8

Pretty goddamn bad. Way down from 9-11-2001. Bush’s fault.

9

Arab and Muslim checking in.

I think it’s pretty accurate to say that a lot of Arabs are very upset with current US foreign policy, regardless of whether they’re from Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, or Saudi Arabia. Even non-Muslim Arabs are empathising with what they see as the ill-treatment of the Iraqis and Palestinians, so it has less to do with sharing a religion than with sharing a common ethnicity, background, language and culture.

I think Rashak Mani was pretty close when he said that it could be down to a sense of “community”.

Is it really surprising Arabs feel this way? I don’t think so, but it can certainly get worse. Imagine for example, if the US decided to send troops into Israel to support the IDF. Obviously tinfoil-hat territory, but it’s just one example of the many ways in which Arabs could be riled up even more.

10

Given how Buddhists aren’t traditionally known for martyring themselves, I think it’s a poor example.

A more comparable analogy would be to ask, if someone in Iraq was systematically targeting Catholics, would American Catholics ignore the matter? How about American Methodists and Baptists?

11

Sorry to pile on, but there is a phrase in Arabic, “alWtn alArabi” which translates into “The Arab Homeland.” Also “alDwla alArabi” which is “The Arab World.”

The area involved with these terms is Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwauit, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and Iraq…I might have missed one. These are the lands where you’ll find Arab culture…as opposed to Islam which is the predominant religion and not limited by geopolitical boundaries.

I had an Iraqi teacher who summed up the unity of the Arab countries with a little phrase, the gist of which is, “Brothers will fight each other, but will unite against someone outside the family.” Basically, if you’re not one of the Arab States the best way to handle a civil war, or a conflict between two Arab states is to avoid the conflict altogether. With this view, 1990 was between Iraq and Kuwait. Yeah, Kuwait called for aid, but probably they shouldn’t have–from an Arab’s point of view. Culturally, no non-Arab states should have been involved in that conflict. Saddam’s mistreatment of his own people was, likewise, Iraq’s business, not ours.

Any Arabs are welcome to call BS on all this, and I will consider myself re-educated. But from what I understand of Arab culture, the West, represented of late by the US but also historically by the English and French, are basically a bunch of manipulative meddlers who sometimes bring prosperity, sometimes destruction and war, and always at the expense of heritage.

The phrase “Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining” comes to mind, I expect the Ay-Rabs are getting tired of Western Meteorology.

12

Didn’t the (a?) Buddha martyr himself to feed a family of tigers? I guess that’s a dumb example…forget I said anything.

13

Further proofs of Arab “brotherhood” are the fact that so many arabs are worried about what happens in smallish palestine… and also the number of outsider Arabs who were Mujahadeen in Afghanistan vs the Soviets, fought in Bosnia and even with the Taliban.

14

Don’t forget that angry protest erupted in Malaysia in response to the invasion of Afghanistan. The only motivating factor was Muslim solidarity.