Why don't Americans like Muslims?
By Spengler

Popular antipathy to a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero is so fierce that even President Barack Obama, the nation's Islamophile-in-chief, "clarified" his August 11 statement supporting the plan to say, "I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there." It is not just a mosque, of which there are two in the neighborhood, but a symbol of Islamic presence. The most recent CNN poll shows an overwhelming 70%-29% margin of opposition.

When liberal politicians - like the president and New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg - defend the plan, what they mean is, "We want a big Islamic statement near Ground Zero as a gesture of outreach to the Muslim world." When the political right denounces it, they mean, "Muslim conquerors always build a mosque atop the ruins of the places they conquer, and we're not going to give the rascals the satisfaction." That was predictable.

What is surprising is how passionately Americans oppose the Ground Zero mosque. A revolt is brewing against America's liberal political elite.

It is hard to find consistent polling data about American attitudes towards Islam. The largest polling organizations, Pew and Gallup, draw funding from organizations with a vested interest in promoting a benign view of Islam. Nonetheless, the results are striking: in a Gallup inquiry [1] published in January 2010, Americans had an "unfavorable" view of Islam by a margin of 53%-42%, with 31% holding a strongly negative view. That contrasts with 15% for Judaism and 4% for Christianity.

Similar results emerge from polls of respective support for Israel and the Palestinians. All the data show overwhelming support for Israel; one recent inquiry [2] shows that 60% of Americans believe that Washington should "take Israel's side" in the conflict, against only 5% who want to take the Palestinian side, a preponderance of 12 to 1.

Who likes Islam, and who doesn't? The lines appear drawn sharply. According to a 2007 Pew Foundation survey, two-thirds of liberal Democrats have a favorable view of Islam. Slightly over half of mainline (that is, liberal) Protestants view Islam favorably, but only a fifth of white evangelical Protestants.

The least religious part of the American public has the most favorable view of Islam as a religion, while the most devout part has the least favorable view. For liberals (and especially for non-religious liberals) all religions are equally bad, or equally good. They all worship some kind of flying spaghetti monster, in Richard Dawkins' infelicitous phrase, or they all seek a vague sort of "spirituality".

Devout Christians have a radically different experience of religion. They believe that God loves everyone and act on this belief. More than 100,000 of them serve as missionaries overseas, many in parts of the global south where no other Westerners venture. Their charities are the last resort of the desperately poor.

Evangelicals give US$3,600 per capita per year to charity, the most of any group except for Jews; a quarter of them tithe. Their charities show pictures of the world's poorest on late-night television, and they risk their lives to deliver help where no one else will. The largest such charity, ChildFund (formerly Christian Children's Fund) has the lowest overhead ratio of any such organization in the world. And they are more likely than other Americans to have served in the armed forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The elaborate rationalizations offered by the liberal elite for Muslim violence do not impress them. "Root causes" do not explain what they see on television news. Pentecostalists do not perpetrate suicide bombings against Catholics, the way that Sunni and Shi'ite kill one another in Iraq, Pakistan, and other Muslim countries.

A million and a quarter Americans have rotated through Afghanistan and Iraq, moreover, and what they have seen horrifies them. For the first time, very large numbers of Americans have had direct exposure to the Muslim world. American servicemen returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are the main source of Americans' first-hand knowledge of the Muslim world.

The accumulation of first-hand information may explain why American attitudes toward Islam have hardened since 2001. In November 2001, with the memory of the World Trade Center attacks fresh in their minds, half of Americans told the Pew Forum poll that there was not much difference between Islam and their own religion. By 2007, the proportion had risen to 70%, the same percentage that opposes the Ground Zero Islamic center.

Iraq is the first American war in which soldiers stationed overseas are not fraternizing with the locals. Americans are not hostile to foreigners. On the contrary, American soldiers abroad used to fall for the local girls in huge numbers. American soldiers have brought three quarters of a million brides home since World War II. Only a few hundred American soldiers [3] have requested visas for Iraqi spouses or fiances, by contrast, a vanishingly small number. Unlike all previous American wars, American boys and Iraqi girls don't fall in love. Part of the problem is security - it's harder for Americans to fraternize with the locals than in previous wars - but the bigger issue is cultural. Americans and Arab Muslims come from worlds far less compatible than Americans and say, Vietnamese or Japanese.

I wish they would start disliking Mexicans as much too

The viciousness of war in the Middle East, in particular the easy sacrifice of civilian lives by contending forces. The Global Terrorism Database lists 1,868 attacks on religious figures and institutions through December 2008, including 848 bombings - all but a handful perpetrated by Muslims. It is not only that Muslims seem just as willing to kill one another as to kill Christians or Jews, but that they choose to do so in a fashion intended to horrify their enemies and the world.

Never in American history has the gap been greater between the experience of ordinary Americans and the picture of the world drawn by the intellectual elite. Hollywood has not distributed a film about Muslim terrorists for a generation. The major media go out of their way to portray Islam favorably. But when a line is drawn in the sand over a public gesture to Islam, we find a seven to three margin against.

We should conclude from this exercise that America remains a Christian nation in marrow and bone, despite the atheism of its intellectual elite (only a fifth of professors at elite American universities say they believe in God, compared with about nine-tenths of the general population). [4]

Most Americans do not confuse a God of love with whatever radical Muslims might worship. Former president George W Bush told them that Islam was "a religion of peace", and Obama adds that Muslims "excel in every walk of life" (Americans can't think of an example, excluding the stray convert among African-American athletes).

What Americans observe, though, is that Islam has produced a large number of individuals enraged enough to kill themselves in order to murder Americans as well as each other. Most Muslims, to be sure, are peaceable folk who want nothing better than to live their own lives undisturbed. But every religion must take ownership of a visible minority that favors violence, and the American public can to some extend be excused for holding Islam to account.

Notes
1. See In US, Religious Prejudice Stronger Against Muslims
2. See New Bipartisan Poll Shows Strong American Support for Israel
3. See Love and War Newsweek, October 13, 2007.
4. See More Believe In God Than Heaven Fox News Polls, June 18, 2004.

Spengler is channeled by David P Goldman senior editor at First Things (www.firstthings.com).

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LH17Ak01.html

Soren wrote on Aug 21^st, 2010 at 10:04am:

Why don't Americans like Muslims?

WHO LIKES THEM EXCEPT THEMSELVES?

Do Indians like them?
Do Chinese like them?
Do Europeans like them?

I apologies for being politically incorrect by telling the truth.

A lot of people seem to forget, that the anti-Muslim propaganda was really ramping up in the West before the theatre of 9/11...

This is one of the reasons why, I am dubious about the official story of the terrible events of that fateful day...

That, and the fact that the 'bomb-in-the-backpack mob' have never staged something anywhere near that spectacular 'shock 'n' awe' Hollywood scale - never before nor since...

Quote:

This is one of the reasons why, I am dubious about the official story of the terrible events of that fateful day...

::)

aikmann4 wrote on Aug 21^st, 2010 at 10:15am:

Quote: This is one of the reasons why, I am dubious about the official story of the terrible events of that fateful day... ::)

I actually agree with him/her.

That said, the reason Americans don't like Muslims is the same as why they don't like gays, or a black President, or the thought of interracial marriage.
America is the most racist country in the entire western world. It is hateful, homophobic, and racist.

Which is why America is hated by pretty much everyone.

DON'T LIKE THE THOUGHT OF A BLACK PRESIDENT, DESPITE ELECTING ONE!

You are an idiot.

aikmann4 wrote on Aug 21^st, 2010 at 1:59pm:

DON'T LIKE THE THOUGHT OF A BLACK PRESIDENT, DESPITE ELECTING ONE! You are an idiot.

I wasn't aware I am an American citizen.

The conservatives didn't vote for Obama. They vote for whoever has the whitest skin.

Quote:

The conservatives didn't vote for Obama. They vote for whoever has the whitest skin.

The conservative voters not voting for.. the non-conservative candidate (in this case, Obama)? :o :o :o

Did you know that even most Black conservatives voted for Obama? That sounds an awful lot like racist, bloc-voting to me.

athos wrote on Aug 21^st, 2010 at 10:08am:

Soren wrote on Aug 21st, 2010 at 10:04am: Why don't Americans like Muslims? WHO LIKES THEM EXCEPT THEMSELVES? Do Indians like them? Do Chinese like them? Do Europeans like them? I apologies for being politically incorrect by telling the truth.

Au contraire - it is very PC to apologise for telling the truth.

;)

Equitist wrote on Aug 21^st, 2010 at 10:14am:

A lot of people seem to forget, that the anti-Muslim propaganda was really ramping up in the West before the theatre of 9/11... This is one of the reasons why, I am dubious about the official story of the terrible events of that fateful day... That, and the fact that the 'bomb-in-the-backpack mob' have never staged something anywhere near that spectacular 'shock 'n' awe' Hollywood scale - never before nor since...

You know why, Mr Memory Loss? Because they bombed the World Trade Centre already in 1993. In the name of Islam.
http://neveryetmelted.com/wp-images/Omar.jpg

Vanessa wrote on Aug 21^st, 2010 at 1:54pm:

aikmann4 wrote on Aug 21st, 2010 at 10:15am: Quote: This is one of the reasons why, I am dubious about the official story of the terrible events of that fateful day... ::) I actually agree with him/her.

Well, you too have the attention span of a goldfish then - every new turn within your little fish tank is an amazing new beginning.

I'm assuming that a 'fat ranga rock chick' is going to need more than just a little fish bowl to contain her.

Quote:

America is the most racist country in the entire western world.

The one with the black president?

Equitist wrote on Aug 21^st, 2010 at 10:14am:

A lot of people seem to forget, that the anti-Muslim propaganda was really ramping up in the West before the theatre of 9/11... This is one of the reasons why, I am dubious about the official story of the terrible events of that fateful day... That, and the fact that the 'bomb-in-the-backpack mob' have never staged something anywhere near that spectacular 'shock 'n' awe' Hollywood scale - never before nor since...

You know why? because after 2001, there was no reason NOT keep a sharp eye on the Musulmans. But for nutters like you, letting go of a monomania is letting go of your sense of self. So a nutter must remain a consistently nutty nutter, come ying or yang, hail or shine.

Muslim terrorist attacks JUST o US interests between the Iranian kidnapping of embassy staff and 11 September 2001:

1979 Iran Hostage Crisis: seizure of US Tehran Embassy, Iran (Nov 4, 1979 for 444 days)
1983 Bombing of US Beirut Embassy, Lebanon (April 18, 1983)
1983 Bombing of US Marine barracks, Beirut, Lebanon (Oct 23, 1983)
1983 Bombing of US Kuwait Embassy (Dec 12, 1983)
1984 Bombing of US Beirut Embassy (again) (Sept 20, 1984)
1984 Kuwait Airlines Flight 221 hijacked to Tehran – American passengers murdered (Dec 3, 1984)
1985 Hijacking TWA Flight 847 hijacked to Beirut (June 14, 1985)
1985 Hijacking cruise ship Achille Lauro, wheelchair-bound American is thrown overboard & killed (Oct 7, 1985)
1986 Bombing Berlin disco frequented by US servicemen (April 5, 1986)
1988 Bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, 100′s murdered (Dec 21, 1988)
1993 First bombing World Trade Center, New York City, 7 Killed, 1,042 wounded (Feb 26, 1993)
1993 Foiled NY Landmarks plot by Omar Abdel Rahman to blow up the Holland and Lincoln tunnels
and other New York City landmarks
1993 Attempted Assassination of Pres. Bush Sr. during visit to Kuwait (April 14, 1993)
1993 Black Hawk Down: shot down US helicopters in Mogadishu, Somalia,
during Operation Restore Hope (Oct 3-4, 1993)
1994 Plot to assassinate President Clinton during visit to the Philippines
1995 Failed Project Bojinka by Ramzi Yousef to blow up a dozen US airliners over the Pacific (end in Jan 1995)
1995 Bombing US military headquarters, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Nov 13, 1995)
1996 Bombing Khobar Towers, Saudi Arabia, housing U.S. foreign military personnel (Jun 25, 1996)
1998 Bombing U.S. Nairobi Embassy, Kenya, Africa (Aug 7, 1998)
1998 Bombing U.S. Dar es Salaam Embassy, Tanzania, Africa (Aug 7, 1998)
1999 Foiled LAX Millennium plot by Ahmed Ressam to bomb Los Angeles International Airport
(Ressam was arrested at US Canadian border)
2000 Failed USS The Sullivans bombing that was refueling in the port of Aden, Yemen. (Jan 3, 2000)
2000 Bombing USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, 17 U.S. Navy sailors murdered (Oct 12, 2000)
(The USS Cole was not engaged in any combat during this period)
2000 Bombing plaza across from US Manila Embassy (Dec 30, 2000)

Major attacks between 2001 and 2005:
March 2002, Israel
Three bombs, independently planned but all timed to coincide with the Passover festival. One hits a Passover dinner at a hotel in Netanya, killing 20 people. Another in Tel Aviv kills 29 and a suicide bomber attacks an Arab-owned restaurant in Haifa and kills 14.
October 12 2002, Bali, Indonesia
Car bombs outside nightclubs popular with foreign tourists kill 202 people, 91 of them Australians. An Indonesian Islamist group with Al-Qaida links is blamed.

October 23 2002, Moscow
Chechen gunmen and women take over a theatre and hold everyone inside hostage. They later shoot dead several of the hostages. Russian troops use gas to subdue the hostage takers, and kill 50 of them. However, the gas also kills 179 of the hostages.

May 16 2003, Casablanca, Morocco
Five bombs targeted at Jewish and western people in the city kill 41, mostly Moroccans. Six Europeans also die.

May 12 2003, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Suicide bomber attacks on residential compounds inhabited by westerners kills 34 people. Al-Qaida blamed.

November 20 2003, Istanbul, Turkey
Truck bomb attacks on the British Consulate and the HSBC bank kill over 60 people, including the British consul general in the city.

March 11 2004, Madrid
Explosions aboard four commuter trains arriving at Atocha station during the morning rush hour. Bombs were in backpacks, and detonated using a mobile phone, killing191 people and injuring 1,800. Spanish government of Jose Maria Aznar at first suggests the Basque separatist group Eta is to blame, but later concedes the attacks were the work of Islamists. Popular anger at being "misled" leads to victory of the opposition at a general election a few days later.

September 1 - 3 2004, Beslan, Russia
Islamist gunmen take over 1,000 hostages, mostly children, at a school in North Ossetia. After a three-day siege many of the hostages are killed in an explosion in the school gym, after which Russian troops storm the building. The final death toll is over 330, many of them children. 800 more are injured.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/jul/07/terrorism.uk1

Re thread title :
Muslims hate each other, so the septics can hate them too.

muslims want islam.
islam is oppposed to democracy.

islam can get buggered
muslims don't like that.
muslims can get buggered too.

a sprintilogism

athos wrote on Aug 21^st, 2010 at 10:08am:

Soren wrote on Aug 21st, 2010 at 10:04am: Why don't Americans like Muslims? WHO LIKES THEM EXCEPT THEMSELVES? Do Indians like them? Do Chinese like them? Do Europeans like them? I apologies for being politically incorrect by telling the truth.

What's to like?
Possibly because they spend too much time on their knees everyday.
It's unmanly.

Americans hate everyone because they love themselves.
Just like Australians hate themselves, but love everyone else.

Huh? (I hear you say)

Take a look at our Footy Codes.
AFL is a very 'domesticated' Code, whereas NRL is a very 'international' Code.
In other words, the popularity of AFL was centred around the suburbs of Melbourne, whereas the popularity of the NRL was its Tests against Britain.
Then take a look at Cricket and how it exists at a State level.

So, it seems Americans, via their very domesticated patriotism make a lot of enemies overseas.
Thus Australians have the 'Criminal Within' element - or did you enjoy watching those Cronulla riots in the name of Aussie Pride.
Lets face it, anything 'Australia' tends to be sold overseas ASAP.

Which is the better?
What would happen if Australia went to war with America ...the Civil War upon a grander scale?
Well America would kick our butts, but I guess when America goes to War with Australia ...it goes to war with the whole World and that is the crux of the matter.

There are 8 different races upon this planet (yeah, yeah I know "We are all one race") so there are 8 right answers to a problem.

Vanessa wrote on Aug 21^st, 2010 at 1:54pm:

aikmann4 wrote on Aug 21st, 2010 at 10:15am: Quote: This is one of the reasons why, I am dubious about the official story of the terrible events of that fateful day... ::) I actually agree with him/her. That said, the reason Americans don't like Muslims is the same as why they don't like gays, or a black President, or the thought of interracial marriage. America is the most racist country in the entire western world. It is hateful, homophobic, and racist. Which is why America is hated by pretty much everyone.

You took the words out of my mouth. Since we are the 51st state of America, we must hate Muslims too, we tend to follow them very closely..

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Aug 24^th, 2010 at 5:42pm:

Vanessa wrote on Aug 21st, 2010 at 1:54pm: aikmann4 wrote on Aug 21st, 2010 at 10:15am: Quote: This is one of the reasons why, I am dubious about the official story of the terrible events of that fateful day... ::) I actually agree with him/her. That said, the reason Americans don't like Muslims is the same as why they don't like gays, or a black President, or the thought of interracial marriage. America is the most racist country in the entire western world. It is hateful, homophobic, and racist. Which is why America is hated by pretty much everyone. You took the words out of my mouth. Since we are the 51st state of America, we must hate Muslims too, we tend to follow them very closely..

You would be happier in a Muslim country, I`m sure.  :D

Well they pay me far better and give me petrol for just 30 cents a litre.
;D