Perceptions of America

Even before Osama bin Laden was killed in that historically significant raid in Abbottabad, US President Barack Obama’s ratings had been sinking across the Muslim world. A survey by the Washington-based Pew Research Centre, conducted over a month in March and April this year, found only 11 per cent looked at the US in a favourable light, compared to 17 per cent last year and 16 per cent in 2009. The findings may be tied in with the fact that 78 per cent of people believed laws should be based strictly on religious belief. This could, of course, be a factor in the strong anti-US sentiments, though they are clearly not the only ones. The drone attacks, US involvement in the Middle East and the manner in which Washington seems so often to be giving orders to Islamabad, are all factors in this.

It is not insignificant that similar views appear to prevail across the Muslim world, with the exception of Indonesia. There has been almost blanket disapproval in these states for the US handling of revolts in the Middle East. Men like former president Hosni Mobarik in Egypt are, of course, all seen as US pawns imposed on unwilling people by that country. Perhaps President Obama’s speech at the State Department, on the wave seeking change in the Middle East, and proposals on a Palestinian State were meant to address the mistrust for the US in the Muslim world. But the fact is it will take deeds, not just words, to move towards change of any meaningful kind.

The survey also suggests what a long way there is to go in Pakistan. The strategy of winning ‘hearts and minds’, a kind of battle cry for the Obama administration, when it took power, still has a very, very long way to go. Yet the highly negative perceptions regarding the US, held by the overwhelming mass of people in the country, need to be addressed. Ignoring them for so many years has contributed to the tide of militancy which has flooded over us and created a sea of problems that are proving more and more difficult to deal with.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2011.