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Originally Posted by Edward64
(2) The polls seems to indicate a large majority of Muslims in all Muslim countries hate the US, and probably to a lesser degree the West in general.
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And vice-versa. In fact, most Americans probably don't even know the three basic tenets of the al-Qaeda fatwa against the United States (which was written in 1998 before we invaded Iraq). While I strongly hate them and condemn their actions, at least I know why they
claim to be attacking the United States. I don't agree with them, but at least I've taken the time to research their grievances. In their words:
1. U.S. occupation of the Arabian Peninsula.
In their mind, the U.S. has been occupying their land and using it as a staging ground to attack other Muslims. They also believe that their riches are being plundered, and that their non-elected rulers are being utilized as puppets.
2. U.S. aggression against the Iraqi people.
This was written in 1998, but they also believe that the subsequent invasion of Iraq has been responsible for tens of thousands of civilian casualties in Iraq. They also believe that the main reason for the U.S. presence is to protect its oil interests, not to help the Iraqi people.
3. U.S. support of Israel
In their own words: "If the Americans' aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews' petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there. The best proof of this is their eagerness to destroy Iraq, the strongest neighboring Arab state, and their endeavor to fragment all the states of the region such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sudan into paper statelets and through their disunion and weakness to guarantee Israel's survival and the continuation of the brutal crusade occupation of the Peninsula."
I don't agree with this, but we're talking about the hearts and minds of the average poverty stricken citizens over there, who eat this stuff up.
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Originally Posted by Edward64
(3) There seems to be a lack of will/want of Muslim governments and religious authorities to reconcile their population with the West.
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Well, to put it quite simply, most of the governments that are friendly to the U. S. are between a rock and a hard place. On any given day, they don't know if they're going to be overthrown by the general population, which doesn't share the same camaraderie with their non-elected leaders that the U. S. does. (e.g. the Saudi Royal family, King Abdullah of Jordan, Musharraf of Pakistan, etc.). When given the chance to express themselves in free elections, we have seen the recent results in Egypt, Iraq and Palestine. The Muslim Brotherhood gained strength in Egypt, the puppet government established in Iraq was booted out in short order, and Hamas crushed the U.S. supported Fatah government in Palestine.
The most common name for newborn sons in Pakistan over the past two years is “Osama”.
And we still sit back and scratch our heads and wonder why they aren't throwing the flowers in the streets that Dick Cheney predicted when we invaded Iraq.