The Pew Global Attitudes Project just released a fascinating report on what Muslims and non-Muslims think about each other. If you’re curious about anti-Americanism, support for terrorism, and views on September 11 in the Muslim world, this is definitely worth checking out. The study is also really interesting because the samples in Great Britain, Spain, Germany, and France included a fairly large number of Muslim minorities (~400 in each country), so it’s now possible to compare Muslim/non-Muslim attitudes across a wider spectrum of nations. This kind of data should catch the eye of policymakers as well as people wanting to do comparative studies on anti-Muslim sentiment and Muslims’ views toward the West, democracy, etc.
On a personal note, it seems that Pew releases a study like this about every year just before I head off to Turkey, and over the last 3-4 years, the attitudes of Turks toward the US has consistently become more negative. Last year 46% of Turks had a very negative view of American and this year Pew draws attention to the finding that 59% of Turks do not believe that groups of Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks (sort of a different issue, but it’s related). So far I haven’t had any trouble as an American in Turkey, but I’m starting to wonder, Man, how much lower can their view of the US go?
3 comments ↓
Quite frankly, I consider muslims to be the nazis of our time. I’ve personally known muslims, and their unrelenting insistence of following their religious laws (a false and dangerous religion, I might add) plus their complete unwillingness to consider (or even tolerate) any difference in opinion make these people very unstable. Just look at how much death is caused between the Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. Islam is a dangerous religion that really should be squashed. As an American, I want to believe in freedom of religion, but should we allow such a dangerous religion to be a major voice in the world?
Associating such a harsh criticism with a huge religious group does nothing but deepen the rift between the Western world and Islam. I wonder how exactly could “we” not “allow such a dangerous religion to be a major voice in the world” without WORLDWIDE conflict. The fact of the matter is that Islam, in a desirably global democracy, should have an important word to say. The other option is annihilation. I sometimes wonder what exactly do they teach you in schools that you can come up with such a “brilliant” analysis. Do you even know how the Nazis DID? I live in a country that still bears the psychological marks of their occupation and I can tell you it’s not nice at all. Quite the contrary, I see Iraqis and Somalis pouring out of their war-ravaged countries where conflict festers due ALSO to American policies in the area. Somehow I fail to see the Nazis in these poor people taking refuge in my not-very-well-off Eastern European country which still seems like heaven to them. All these however might be only useless abstractions to your made up mind about the “unrelenting insistence of following their religious laws”. “Quite frankly” John, maybe i should think of a simpler way to put all this for you…someday….hopefully by then the Western world won’t be destroyed by “the Nazis of our time”. Bottom line, please feel free to consider anti-Western attitudes toward the West as a good subject of reflection from any point of view you wish to, but maybe you could avoid associations such as the one you used here.
Thank you for your response to John’s comment, Anastasia. His comment showed up so long after I wrote the post and was so distasteful that I wasn’t sure how to respond; at first I hoped it was a joke, but then I figured that, sadly, it was an all too common sentiment. And I just let it sit. I’m glad you took it on.
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