Why do they hate us?

On Morning Joe today someone asked about Muslims: Why do they hate us?  It was a key questions and
no one even ventured to give an opinion.
It is important we understand the why's of the conflicts; if we do not, we are in danger of undertaking the wrong policies toward the Muslim world that have and will continue to backfire on our national security interests.We have already committed blunders bulling our way into ethnic and factional conflicts we do not understand, such as happened in  Iraq and in the future possibly  in Syria and Bahrain.

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Since the election of Pres. Obama, international polls show Muslims worldwide  hate us less and over 90% do not believe that 9/11  's killing of innocents was  justified. Most Muslims do not embrace the ideology of Al Qaeda and the jihadists.  Putting that in perspective, there are shades of approval and disapproval of the  US  throughout the Muslim world. Given that reality, where are  those who disapprove or hate coming from?
Most of those Americans who express opinions have never met a Muslim...understandable in our Fortress America where there are few Muslims next door, and even then, they are concentrated in a few states and cities.
For most Americans the picture of the Muslim next door is one bent over his computer plotting to bomb the New York subway, an army base, an airplane, and Times Square. Indeed, some  are misguided (considered so by  even their parents), male youth who have bought into some Imam's rantings conveyed from the Middle East. on a Web site and by email. The rest are law abiding Congressmen, businesspeople, students and a generation of African-American converts from the Black Muslim movement of the '60's just trying to live the American dream. That is the sum total of  tiny minority of Muslims in the US.
Then...why are there angry, radical Imams abroad?
It's complicated.

Since my university studies in Europe in the late 1950's, I have been fascinated by the interface between the Western  and the Muslim cultures.  Having met a medical student from the Balkans, whom I contemplated marrying (and we have been married now for over 50 years), I travelled extensively there to understand his family and his roots. I  returned to Northwestern University and devoted my classroom  and independent studies to try to get a handle on the history and ethnic conflicts that made the Balkans such a laboratory of religious and ethnic strife . In fact, the conclusion of our seminars and professor in 1960 was that there would be a revolt against the modern world resulting in a counter revival of  a more conservative and militant Islam.
   These experiences  inspired my life long quest   to gain  a better understanding of Islam and the Muslim world outside the Balkans.  However, much of the current interpretation of Islam held by both some  in the Muslim world and  the criticism of the  religion itself by some  Americans  in no way resembles the practice of the religion by traditional  Muslims I have known in the Balkans. My 30 years of activities in the Institute of International Education  providing hospitality to many many Muslim women from all over the world visiting the US under State Department  sponsorship confirms my impression that the practice of  Islam
varies greatly from country to country.

My view of this cultural and religious conflict has not been fossilized in the 1950's.   I  have had the unique opportunity to visit the Balkan  region nearly every couple of years since then , before and after the ethnic  cleansing wars of the 1990's. My interaction has not been at the official level...just with family, relatives and many ordinary people. I have  admittedly been influenced by some writings: Karen Armstrong's "The Battle for God" comparing the roots of radicalization and politicization of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism and CNN producer Peter Bergen's book of an often first hand accounting of  the history of Al Qaeda and Afghanistan, "The Longest War".

I am not a partisan of  the religions in conflict...Catholics, Orthodox, Jews, or
Muslim. I am a practicing  Protestant with an ecumenical and tolerant outlook. I find these conflicts based on ethnic and religious identification to be self defeating and a disaster for those caught up in it, not only resulting in the death of innocents, but relegating them to economic and cultural isolation and having to play catch up with the rest of the technologically advanced world. So that is where I am coming from as I list some reasons I believe they hate us.

1. A  belief espoused by some in the US has not gone unnoticed:  that the Muslim religion is evil and we should take practitioners at its word. That only plays into the radical Muslim belief that it is indeed a battle between  religions and it is the Americans that are launching a new Crusade   For Americans it   is  matter of  ignorance of the wide variations  in interpretations of the Koran. The Islamic world is as divided as the Christian world in the sects, philosophies and the application of law and customs.There are conservatives and liberals as well as secularists who believe religion and government should not mix. There are conflicts between Shia and Sunni whose loyalties and religious differences make protestant-Catholic Irish troubles look like child's play . The Shia see Iran as their homeland; the Sunni dominate in North Africa and much of the Arab world. When one takes a Muslim at their word, the response should be which Muslims, what words, which interpretation of the Koran and which  in what way they translate that into action. We should  tailor make policies to the individual circumstances..
2. Western dependence on oil has led the West to support or cut deals with brutal dictatorship who imprisoned, tortured any one who did not march to their tune. Victims who blamed the West for supporting their oppressors have made up much of the Al Qaeda cadres. Pres. Obama's reaction to the uprisings is key to changing those elements of resentment.  In the long term, removing our dependence on mid east oil would make a profound change in our interaction with the Middle East.
3. Cultural Westernization    has resulted in resistance to change and a push back with greater conservative religious fervor. Such conservative movements have turned  into political action.  That revolt against changing values  is not unique to the Mid East. I am forever amazed at the similarities with the political Evangelical movements in the US and the return to old values and culture in the Middle East. One recent example:one of  the Muslim Brotherhood's political platforms, as Egypt tries to find itself post Mubarak,  is supporting Islamist candidates because secular governments might permit gay marriage.

4.  A festering thorn in the side of Muslims  is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict...unresolved with no progress in sight . There are those who did not even want a resolution; they want Israel just to go way.  Given US popular support of Israel , that one is something  the Muslim world may never accept and it will continue to give wings to the radicals.


5. There is a large demographic bulge in the numbers of young adults who  have now learned from uncensored satellite TV and the Internet that there is another world out there which is not corrupt or oppressive of their rights to express themselves without fear of  being arrested, tortured, and worse, by their own governments. They blame those governments for retarding their economic development and job opportunities. Until recently, the US got the blame for support of these governments  Pres. Obama's profound contribution to changing that perception is befriending the youth movements .

The leap of the faithless-Muslimphobia in the US

Muslimphobia in the US is at an all time high, if one is to believe the polls. CNN will air a program Sunday regarding anti Muslim attitudes,"The Muslims Next Door". Here is a question I hope they will answer and explain to me: How would an act of terror committed in the US perpetrated by a young Muslim, who is either a sleeper planted some time ago, influenced by members of a local mosque  or one recruited over the Internet, cause the US  to embrace the Koran instead of the Bible and adopt Sharia law?

It certainly did not happen after 9/11 and instead, public opinion hardened and  cable talkers boosted their ratings and income to exploit irrational fears of their already skittish audiences. Jihadists became the new villains  of fiction writers, and politicians revelled in passing useless laws outlawing consideration of Sharia  in trials, condemning the building of mosques, holding hearings to gin up fear, and even trying to ban the practice of the Muslim religion.

 Here is what I do not get: some of the practices of Islam are due to interpretations of the Koran to which not even most Muslims subscribe and certainly most  in the US do not. Even then, Muslims in the US have little clout, constituting .6% of the population. They are very far from being a political force.  Some parts of the Koran indeed are not in our US Judeo-Christian cultural or religious traditions. Have  those subscribing  to Christianity have no faith that their religion would triumph if Americans were given a choice? Oh ye men and women of little faith,  I just do not get it.

Also not getting it, are those who do not understand the basic concepts of US law and our Constitution. For them fear overrides the protection of religion guaranteed in the Constitution, the understanding that secular laws in the US trump any contradictory religious practice.While the Koran permits beating a wife, it is assault and  battery in the US. While some interpret the Koran to permit killing a spouse for infidelity, it is murder in the US and has been so prosecuted here.

We do not need to just look at examples of  Muslims  to understand the concept of  superiority of US secular laws over religious practices: While some religions do not believe in medical treatment for their children, and the children die or nearly do, it is child abuse and neglect in the US.  While some Mormons interpret their religion to practice polygamy and marry underage children, it is considered rape by our laws. The old testament exhorts taking an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, yet if you  try to take some one's eye or tooth seeking revenge,  see where that gets you in the criminal justice system.  Some think their Christian belief gives someone the right to take a life to stop abortions. That gets them charged with murder. Some once  believed that they are  doing their Christian duty by donning white robes and hanging Negro offenders. Law enforcement may once have looked the other way , but today murder is murder and hate crimes are subject to special, more severe penalties.

  It is no wonder the courts put a hold on the Oklahoma law banning Sharia law as being  unnecessary.  Clearly, legislative anti Muslim  initiatives elsewhere ran into opposition because they were clearly unconstitutional.  Nonetheless,  anti-Muslims soldier on, ignoring these technicalities in their fear and hate driven zeal, fertilizing  the fields of xenophobia, paranoia, and ignorance.