Help me understand why Muslims hate us...

Factual Questions
1

I am very sorry if this has already been covered, but I dont look at the boards daily. I am desperate to understand what exactly we have done to Arabs/Muslims to make them hate us so much. I read a Newsweek article in which a Muslim wife said the following:

“America thinks it is killing Islam. God will make America disappear from the surface of the Earth, as it has made the Soviet Union disappear.”
“Honestly, we were pleased in the beginning because this happened in America, which treats us with arrogance. It doesn’t have sympathy towards us. Its attention is always directed toward the good of Israel.”
“It is the American administration that we hate and not individuals.”
“What is happening to America now is due to its meanness.”

One of the main reasons I keep hearing for the hate they have towards us is our support of Israel and/or our hatred of Islam.
Why do they think we are so ‘mean’?
Why do they think we are trying to kill Islam?
How do we treat them with arrogance?
Why do they care about our free and laid-back lifestyles, our independent women, our televisions?
I guess I am still trying to make sense of where they got these ideas, and how their opinions justify the killing of thousands of our people.

2

First off, let me say that I’m as much of an American as anyone, deplore the attacks that happened, etc.

Down to business: The US has basically been murdering thousands of innocent civilians in the Middle East for years. The US essentially supports Israel, which has taken a great deal of land initially belonging to Palestine—the two groups have been battling for hundreds of years and the US feels the need to put itself in the middle. Frankly, US foreign policy is pretty damn arrogant (witness the fact that we won’t agree to an International Court on Human Rights unless US military members are exempt from being tried there.)

And it’s not MUSLIMS who dislike us, it’s Muslim EXTREMISTS. Just as the KKK is not representative of all Christians, this group is not representative of all Muslims.

This is obviously condensed, but remember that the US ain’t all good. It does some pretty horrific stuff in other countries, and I think those of us who are American tend to forget that.

Peace.

3

This is more of a Great Debate than a General Question. Feel free to repost in the proper forum. You may want to read the “Ask the Muslim Guy” thread in IMHO first.

bibliophage
moderator GQ