Muslim blowback? By M Junaid Levesque-Alam

[Douglas Carpenter]

A 2008 poll of six majority Muslim countries found that overwhelmingly large portions of the population, ranging from 71% in Morocco to 87% in Egypt, held unfavorable opinions of the United States. A 2009 poll in Pakistan revealed that 64% of the public views the United States as an outright enemy.

So it is a curious paradox that, despite the antagonistic and sometimes violent relationship between the United States and the Muslim world, Muslims in America have fared relatively well. According to a 2009 Gallup poll, 41% of Muslims in the United States describe themselves as "thriving" - only five percentage points below the national average, and higher than the percentage reported in any Muslim country aside from Saudi Arabia. A full 40% say they have at least a college degree, making them the second-most educated religious group after Jews (at 61%).

Further, US Muslim women, after their Jewish counterparts, are the most highly educated female religious group in the country, and Muslim economic gender parity is the nation's most egalitarian at both the low and high ends of the spectrum.

..


Although attention lavished on individual cases should not obscure the broader picture - of the 14,000 homicides committed in the United States last year, only 14 are attributable to Muslim militancy

..

The Obama administration at least appears to be listening on both counts.

In an April 14 speech, the president broke with a long tradition of enforced silence by asserting that the Israeli-Palestinian crisis has ended up "costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure". Ignoring the cacophony of neo-conservative complaints, the administration has also allowed Tariq Ramadan back into the United States and defended its choice of Rashad Hussain as special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

Moreover, Arab and Muslim community leaders feel they are finally being heard. "For the first time in eight years, we have the opportunity to meet, engage, discuss, disagree, but have an impact on policy," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute in Washington. "We're being made to feel a part of that process and that there is somebody listening."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LE06Ak01.html

[Jefferson23]

1. Yea, the right kind of positive blowback.

Not that this would be something you'll hear from Bill Maher.


Thanks for posting.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. k&r

Great article, Douglas. I think there's a long way to go when it comes to successfully combatting the reallyu ugly bigotry against Muslims that many Americans proudly hold (and I've seen more than a few DUers exhibit it), and I hope when the time comes, it's not just because negative attention has moved onto some other group...

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. on a personal level...I think most Americans - regardless of their political ideas- are actually

quite fair minded even when dealing with Arab or Muslim people on a personal level. As one Saudi told me about his experience as a student living in Florida at the time of September 11, 2001, "with Americans, even if they have it in their heads that they don't like Arabs - you talk to them for five minutes and they completely forget that you're an Arab and they're inviting you over to their house for a barbecue."

Even Arab and Muslim people I have known who lived, worked, studied or traveled in some of the most conservative parts of America like Orange County, California or rural Alabama or small town southern Illinois have almost without exception told me that people have been very nice and equally respectful.

The very real concern is about the political demagoguery and hate mongering being propagated in much of the mainstream American media and even at times by mainstream American politicians - demagoguery often swallowed hook, line and sinker by naive and gullible members of the American public. It is this demagoguery that enables a violent and aggressive policy in the Middle East and could set the stage for horrendous human rights abuses within the United States. There are books, several in fact that have made it to the top of the bestseller lists in America that make no secret of their hostile agenda - material on the top of several American bestseller list that sounds strangely familiar to material once propagated in Europe against another people.