Muslims don’t hate America

Another mendacious interpretation of the whole affair. Just one example to prove point;

Muslim societies still warmly welcome Americans, purchase American products, and aspire to recreate American success because Muslims do not hate America and its way of life.

Americans have products to offer and success worthy of following and Muslims don’t; this is no favour to Americans. Do Muslims have a choice?Recommend

Very well-written… How Islam is misunderstood, how the media plays its role, what really are the emotions of the general public… explained effectively!Recommend

I hope a lot of people in western europe get to read this article. You are very articulate and represent the common moderate Pakistani.Recommend

very well said Ms Mahreen. However, even though bigotry exists, there is still no denying that muslims are largely responsible for all this hatred coming towards them. And mind you, there is a large chunk of muslims around the world that still dream of a Muslim rule in the US..Recommend

Ms. Khan: I am afraid, no judge or jury will buy your argument.

When this unknown cuckoo in Florida threatens to burn Koran — which, by the way, is not a crime under US laws — religious leaders in the US representing all major churches, including evangelicals, condemn him, and rightly so. They point out that what he was threatening to do is not only un-Christian but also un-American.

On the other hand, when cuckoos in our neck of the wood cut innocent peoples’ throats or blow them up, or mow them down, or flog women, they claim they are doing it in the name of Islam. And, surprise, no major Islamic leader contradicts them, let alone condemns them. Even our media — most of it — seems to support the cuckoos. That’s why you see the reaction of the Western media that you see.Recommend

Correction,

“the writer is stating that overtly anti-American sentiment in Muslim countries is not a sign of anti Americanism.”

It’s difficult to write late in the night.Recommend

Mahareen, This is a letter from an infidel friend of yours’ that too in your full support. Here it is:- Thank you for appreciating the American media for showing the Pastor(a disgusting man I can ever imagine) his place. But lady, what pains me is none of the US media, including FOX news, called him a Saudi stooge or an Islamic conspirator! Having said that, how the western media can dare call itself bias less? How dare they call our own ‘bad boy/girls’ as more evil than the Pastor and his ilk? After all our boys just rammed a couple of planes into the world trade center, killed few commuters in London, bombed a train in Spain, sprayed little bullets on some infidels in a VT railway station and couple hotels in Mumbai and that is simply because infidel countries’ foreign policies were against Islam.
As for the Pakistan, it is none of their business! But, of course it is their business! Our boys are exploding themselves because, Amreeka is indulging in all kinds of sins! Its’ un-islamic way of life is just ruining pious muslims. And why should Americans feel bad when we burn it’s flag to protest against our own politicians or even against inefficient municipality guys! Particularly, when our innocent and gullible people take the overflowing sewage as a an American conspiracy? Besides, how can a lynching of two young lads in a broad daylight, right in front of law enforcers, be called a failure of society when we have a living example of Rwanda where a million or so were lynched in a month or so?
As if that is not enough, even our armed forces are not spared by the evil west. Pakistani army is using heavy artillery, rockets, helicopter gunships and F-16 fighter jets against our own people and it is being reported in Pakistan’s own unpatriotic media, but what a pity that the Kashmiri deaths resulting due to the bullets or otherwise are reported with such a reluctance in the world media, what a shame!
Oh, yes, the world media has been so harsh on our so called criminals( outrageous, there is no proof),but rather virtuous warriors like, Osama bin Landen, Ayaman Jhaveri, Mullha Umar, Muhammad Atta, Abu sayyaf, Hafiz Sayeed, Kasab, A…s bomber, Shoe bomber etc. or even the ‘foolish bomber shehzad, but never highlights the ‘positive side’ of the the faithful!
You are right, US is the most loved country in the Muslim world. The miles long queues in front of it’s embassies stand testimony to it. The problem is the queue has the capability to turn into mujahideen, the moment visa is denied!Recommend

THANK YOU FOR WRITING SUCH BRILLIANT ARTICLE.Recommend

Yes, clearly you love America.Recommend

Muslims don’t hate America

I’m afraid majority of Pakistani Muslims don’t agree with you on this Mahreen;

Nearly 6 in 10 Pakistanis view US as enemyRecommend

In Pakistan, when we happen to meet a foreigner, even if he/she happens to be Indian, we try to be extra-courteous towards him/her.
Do we get the same treatment in the west? Naa! They mock at us to the extent that many of us choose not to identify our Pakistani nationality before them. See their society is underpinned by latent hatred, not ours. And this is true even though they had inflicted comparatively far more injuries to muslim world.

Paradoxically, after all this, we are alleged for harbouring anti-west sentiments whereas they are labeled as peace loving, tolerant nation. See double standards are again on display.

This writer aptly said in her one of her preivious pieces, “you prey on the weak”.

You wont see the level of anti-west sentiment in Pakistani laymen as you see anti-Pak sentiment in western laymen. Believe it or not but this is true!Recommend

Why does this lady INSIST on making our issues sound menial by constant comparisons with how others act!Recommend

hmmm, but I still dont get one thing, why did this Pakistani British woman scoff at George when he called himself a British Pakistani?Recommend

I think they do.

Their role in the Israel-Palestine war alone is reason enough for most the Muslim community to hate America. Thats just for a start. The Base layer.

By interfering with the internal going ons of Muslim countries, using some of them for America’s own agenda (regardless of how it effects the people or the region) has obviously lead to many more layers of hate. Just as small example, they used the Afghani people to fight the Soviets, trained the local ‘Taliban’, armed them, showed them how easy it was for a handful of people to cause massive amounts of destruction, and then got up and left once their own agenda was completed, leaving behind a broken country and the locals armed to the teeth, trained to kill. Did they really expect the next Mother Teresa to pop up from those lot?

The obscenity of both the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions, the hundreds of thousands killed by America in her post 9/11 tantrum, are just recent reasons for someone Muslim (or even an ‘ordinary’ ‘sane’ person) to hate America. Really.. how many Muslims (or just ‘ordinary human beings’) have to die before her blind thirst for ‘retribution’ is satisfied. Personally, I think its quite enough. Although I feel more disgust than hate.. or maybe its so much hate that it makes me sick to my stomach. I would prefer to believe its moral disgust.

Granted it is not sensible to hate America.. Its too many different cultures to hate, including Muslim, it has both good and bad people, does one hate the State (its foreign policies etc) or its people?? how does one hurt the state without harming the people….I doubt the dude with the explosives tied to this chest gives a damn.Recommend

Assalam-o-Allaikum Warahmatullah.When we say we hate Americans we include muslims also because a lot of muslims also live in USA and mosques are being built in USA and people are proselytizing from Christianity to Islam.This is why we can’t say we hate Americans.But yes definitely muslims all over the world hate USA just due to its prejudicial policies for the muslims and the muslim world..For instance,in Jammu Kashmir Indian forces are killing innocent Kashmiris they are right,in Palestine Israeli forces killing innocent Palestinians they are right but when Alquaida or Taliban members kill any US or allied forces’ soldier they are terrorists.Now-a-days in USA the US leadership has started campaign to reduce hatred against the Americans in the world especially in the muslim world.If USA wants to reduce to hatred in real sense then American leaders must have to change their prejudicial polices against the muslims and the muslim world honestly and sincerely in practical sense.Recommend

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/opinion/19kristof.html?src=me&ref=general

Message to Muslims: I’m SorryBy NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Many Americans have suggested that more moderate Muslims should stand up to extremists, speak out for tolerance, and apologize for sins committed by their brethren.

That’s reasonable advice, and as a moderate myself, I’m going to take it. (Throat clearing.) I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs.

I’m inspired by another journalistic apology. The Portland Press Herald in Maine published an innocuous front-page article and photo a week ago about 3,000 local Muslims praying together to mark the end of Ramadan. Readers were upset, because publication coincided with the ninth anniversary of 9/11, and they deluged the paper with protests.

So the newspaper published a groveling front-page apology for being too respectful of Muslims. “We sincerely apologize,” wrote the editor and publisher, Richard Connor, and he added: “we erred by at least not offering balance to the story and its prominent position on the front page.” As a blog by James Poniewozik of Time paraphrased it: “Sorry for Portraying Muslims as Human.”

I called Mr. Connor, and he seems like a nice guy. Surely his front page isn’t reserved for stories about Bad Muslims, with articles about Good Muslims going inside. Must coverage of law-abiding Muslims be “balanced” by a discussion of Muslim terrorists?

Ah, balance — who can be against that? But should reporting of Pope Benedict’s trip to Britain be “balanced” by a discussion of Catholic terrorists in Ireland? And what about journalism itself?

I interrupt this discussion of peaceful journalism in Maine to provide some “balance.” Journalists can also be terrorists, murderers and rapists. For example, radio journalists in Rwanda promoted genocide.

I apologize to Muslims for another reason. This isn’t about them, but about us. I want to defend Muslims from intolerance, but I also want to defend America against extremists engineering a spasm of religious hatred.

Granted, the reason for the nastiness isn’t hard to understand. Extremist Muslims have led to fear and repugnance toward Islam as a whole. Threats by Muslim crazies just in the last few days forced a Seattle cartoonist, Molly Norris, to go into hiding after she drew a cartoon about Muhammad that went viral.

And then there’s 9/11. When I recently compared today’s prejudice toward Muslims to the historical bigotry toward Catholics, Mormons, Jews and Asian-Americans, many readers protested that it was a false parallel. As one, Carla, put it on my blog: “Catholics and Jews did not come here and kill thousands of people.”

That’s true, but Japanese did attack Pearl Harbor and in the end killed far more Americans than Al Qaeda ever did. Consumed by our fears, we lumped together anyone of Japanese ancestry and rounded them up in internment camps. The threat was real, but so were the hysteria and the overreaction.

Radicals tend to empower radicals, creating a gulf of mutual misunderstanding and anger. Many Americans believe that Osama bin Laden is representative of Muslims, and many Afghans believe that the Rev. Terry Jones (who talked about burning Korans) is representative of Christians.

Many Americans honestly believe that Muslims are prone to violence, but humans are too complicated and diverse to lump into groups that we form invidious conclusions about. We’ve mostly learned that about blacks, Jews and other groups that suffered historic discrimination, but it’s still O.K. to make sweeping statements about “Muslims” as an undifferentiated mass.

In my travels, I’ve seen some of the worst of Islam: theocratic mullahs oppressing people in Iran; girls kept out of school in Afghanistan in the name of religion; girls subjected to genital mutilation in Africa in the name of Islam; warlords in Yemen and Sudan who wield AK-47s and claim to be doing God’s bidding.

But I’ve also seen the exact opposite: Muslim aid workers in Afghanistan who risk their lives to educate girls; a Pakistani imam who shelters rape victims; Muslim leaders who campaign against female genital mutilation and note that it is not really an Islamic practice; Pakistani Muslims who stand up for oppressed Christians and Hindus; and above all, the innumerable Muslim aid workers in Congo, Darfur, Bangladesh and so many other parts of the world who are inspired by the Koran to risk their lives to help others. Those Muslims have helped keep me alive, and they set a standard of compassion, peacefulness and altruism that we should all emulate.

I’m sickened when I hear such gentle souls lumped in with Qaeda terrorists, and when I hear the faith they hold sacred excoriated and mocked. To them and to others smeared, I apologize.Recommend

Well written. I agree with you.Recommend