Islamicists Hatred for America

[Adam's Apple]

Islamicists Hate Us for Who We Are, Not What We Do
By Victor Davis Hanson
January 13, 2005

As the third recent Middle East election nears in Iraq, Americans are still puzzled over why well-off Islamic fundamentalists crashed planes into skyscrapers and now send mercenaries to the Sunni Triangle to slaughter us as we sponsor democracy. Yet since Sept. 11, we have grasped that Muslim fascists understood that the course of American-led world history — democracy and globalized capitalism — was leaving them behind. Thus they strike the United States before they are made irrelevant.

America symbolized the onset of a hated modernism and its breakdown of religious, gender and ethnic hierarchies that were so treasured by Islamicist patriarchs. As this war wore on, we also fathomed the pathological partnerships of tyrannies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria with al-Qaida and other terrorist cadres. Both groups scapegoated the superpower United States for their own failures. In addition, killers in bin Laden's mafia and other terrorist planners from Iran to the West Bank turned out not to be the impoverished, but more often the pampered of the middle class — like the Saudi suicide zealot who just blew up Americans in Mosul.

Yet in the gloom over postwar Iraq, ex-CIA agents and moody public intellectuals have recently doubted this "They hate us for who we are" explanation. Instead, they have reintroduced the notion of "They hate us for what we do" — as if there are legitimate grievances that logically earn such violent attacks organized by petro-heirs, doctors and crackpot mullahs. Even a toned-down bin Laden is quoted as witness. He recently joked that al-Qaida is going after America, not liberal Sweden: had we just shrunk to the stature of the politically correct Scandinavians, then our problems would vanish. But would they? Not at all.

1. The Islamofascists of the Middle East, like all autocrats, cannot be believed since they neither allow criticism nor tolerate self-reflection. Lying is their bible. Did poor Tojo and Hitler really have cause to gobble up their neighbors? Was Stalin's postwar Soviet Union that overran Eastern Europe unfairly stigmatized because of purported anti-communist frenzy? Of course not.

2. Alleged sins against Islam transform monthly. Americans have been murdered with near impunity all over the Middle East for a near quarter-century on a variety of pretexts. Sometimes fatwas and infomercials cited the "loss" of Jerusalem. Then there were the U.S. troops in the Land of the Holy Shrines or the U.N. embargo of Iraq — such gripes still persisting long after withdrawal of American soldiers from Saudi Arabia and massive aid to, not boycotts of, Iraq. Do not forget hurt over the expulsion of the Moors from Spain or the Crusades — as if the Islamicists alone can nurse centuries-old wounds. What unites this tired victimization is never logic, but always a preexisting antipathy toward Western liberalism, tempting and repelling the fundamentalists all at once.

3. Bin Laden and various mujahideen distort history. American beneficence — saving Kuwaitis, protecting Bosnians, feeding Somalis, or billions in aid for Egyptians — means nothing, while Islamic internecine murder is excused. The unspoken truth is that the killers of the Middle East have mostly been other Middle-Eastern Muslims: the Kurdish holocaust, millions butchered in the Iranian-Iraqi war, Iraq's rape of Kuwait, Syrian obliteration of Hama, Algerian massacres or the genocide in the Sudan. Land, oil, religion or ethnic hatred — not America — prompted such slaughter.

4. Terrorists still imperil liberal Europe that subsidized Hamas, armed Saddam and chastised America for its pro-Israel policy. After Spain fled from Iraq, it was rewarded with further terrorist threats. France is under intimidation for scarves, Holland for films and England still for Salman Rushdie.


5. Al-Qaida's hatred is opportunistically selective. The United States is slurred with allegations of petrol imperialism. But why no charges against a cutthroat nuclear China that is hungrier for Arab oil than is America and digested Tibet? Israel purportedly occupies Palestinian land, but Syria gobbled up Lebanon to the silence of the Arab League. We earn loathing for billions given to Israel, but why not gratitude for matching that amount to Egypt and Jordan?

It is humane to send massive aid to Southeast Asia after the tsunami. Yet the idea that the fundamentalist Muslim world in recompense will temper its hatred of the United States because we give far more than Saudi Arabia or China is sadly mistaken. If Israel were to disappear, or America were to give the Middle East $100 billion, the deductive hatred from radical Islam would persist.

The United States has adopted a rational strategy against Islamic fascism: kill the terrorists, remove illegitimate regimes that aid the extremists, foster democracies in their places and alter American policy from tolerance of the corrupt status quo to calls for reform. Yet we cannot finish the Islamicists' war unless we understand why they started it. For that answer, look at who Americans are and what we represent — not at what we supposedly have done.

 

[onedomino]

Bin Laden and various mujahideen distort history. American beneficence — saving Kuwaitis, protecting Bosnians, feeding Somalis, or billions in aid for Egyptians — means nothing, while Islamic internecine murder is excused. The unspoken truth is that the killers of the Middle East have mostly been other Middle-Eastern Muslims: the Kurdish holocaust, millions butchered in the Iranian-Iraqi war, Iraq's rape of Kuwait, Syrian obliteration of Hama, Algerian massacres or the genocide in the Sudan. Land, oil, religion or ethnic hatred — not America — prompted such slaughter.

That is why the millions in tsunami aid to Indonesia will do nothing to diminish that country’s Islamic inspired hatred of the United States.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/004602.php
Colin Powell hopes that the aid that the United States is giving to countries hit by the tsunami will turn the tide of anti-American sentiment in the Muslim world. Speaking from Banda Aceh, Indonesia on NBC’s Nightly News, he said that he thought American aid to Indonesia would “show to the Muslim world the nature of our society. But we’ve done a lot for the Muslim world. I mean, we rescued the Muslim people from the tyranny of the Taliban and al-Qaida in Afghanistan. We rescued them from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. We rescued Muslims in Kosovo some years ago.”
Powell added: “So I think if people will look at our actions and look at the subsequent results of those actions, and we see a democracy in Afghanistan and hopefully one in Iraq as well, people will judge us by what we end up accomplishing, and the anti-American feeling that we have seen in various parts of the world over the past year and a half will start to dissipate.”
Unfortunately, it was more than a year and a half ago that the South African Mufti Ebrahim Desai, the imam of an “Ask the Imam” feature at a Muslim question and answer site, made a statement that, had Powell known of it, might have diminished his confidence in the effect of the aid. The questioner asked (spelling and grammar as in the original): “The west is often criticised by Muslims for many reasons, such as allowing women go to work. But shouldnt the west also recieve praise because its always them who intervene when muslims r being tortured, they stopped Milosovic kiling muslims and sent their own troops to the country, they r usually the first to send aid when theres a flood, they r also intervening in Isreal and condeming them killing Muslims, so should we appreciate their efforts or not?”
Desai’s answer was brief: “In simple the Kuffaar [unbelievers] can never be trusted for any possible good they do. They have their own interest at heart.”
One man’s opinion? Sure. But it is an opinion with deep roots in Islamic tradition, and it would therefore be naïve to dismiss it as simply Desai’s own mean-spiritedness. The Qur’an contains a warning against those who turn “in friendship to the Unbelievers….If only they had believed in Allah, in the Prophet, and in what hath been revealed to him, never would they have taken them for friends and protectors, but most of them are rebellious wrong-doers” (5:80-81). It also tells Muslims that “never will the Jews or the Christians be satisfied with thee unless thou follow their form of religion” (2:120).
These are words that Powell should consider carefully — because Muslims in the tsunami-stricken areas and elsewhere are doing so. They lead them to regard the relief efforts not as a sign of American goodwill, but as part of a larger plan to subvert Islam. Statements by Muslim leaders blaming the disaster on the area Muslims’ non-observance of Islam should likewise cause ears to perk up at the State Department, because they lead to the same conclusions. “God is angry with Aceh people, because most of them do not do what is written in the Qur’an and the Hadith,” said the Indonesian imam Cut Bukhaini. “I hope this will lead all Muslims in Aceh to do what is in the Qur’an and its teachings. If we do so, God will be merciful and compassionate.”
In my book Islam Unveiled, I discuss a recurring phenomenon of Islamic history: when disaster of any kind strikes, it is all too frequently interpreted as having been caused by a failure on the part of the people to be Islamic enough. So the result is a renewed fervor, and new miseries for non-Muslims inside and often also outside the Islamic state in question. It is beginning to look as if the tsunami may be another occasion of this. There is nothing wrong with focusing and reforming one’s actions in the face of the reality of death; the potential problem here is that when the Muslims “wake up,” as they are being called to do now in Indonesia, they will direct their attentions not only to matters of individual piety, but to that other Muslim obligation, jihad.
After Mt. Tambora erupted in 1815, killing 100,000, a Christian Science Monitor report notes that “imams on the northwest coast of Java preached that the eruption was a sign of Allah’s displeasure at infidel rule, and urged a violent jihad, according to Sartono Kartodirdjo, am Indonesian historian.”
Likewise, after the eruption of Mt. Krakatoa in 1883, according to historian Simon Winchester, “the Dutch made this superhuman effort to bring relief to the area because they were aware of the significance of the event and that the Muslim clerics were quickly making political capital from the event.” But the relief changed no hearts, and Muslims mounted a violent assassination campaign against Dutch officials.
Does all this mean that the U.S. should not aid the tsunami victims? Of course we should aid them. But if Powell, or the State Department in general, expects that we will win hearts and minds by doing so, he is manifesting the same myopia about jihad and Islam that led State to underestimate and dismiss the Ayatollah Khomeini, to treat jihad terrorism as a matter for criminal law enforcement, and to make scores of other blunders that could have been avoided if anyone had been willing to throw off their politically correct blinders long enough to face the realities of the situation. U.S. officials should be prepared for the very real possibility that the aid, paradoxically enough, will only increase resentment and hatred of America — and not allow themselves to be blindsided.

-

 

[William Joyce]

Islamic and Arab people hate the United States because it supports Israel. Pretty much every other explanation is wrong.

 

[supermarine]

Man you gotta be blaming jews and israelis for everything, " THE JEWS CAUSED THE TSUNAMI" "THE NAZIS WERE JEWS" jews this jews that, man SHUT THE FUCK UP! go back to your little backwater shack down in redneck land and marry your sister

 

[Bullypulpit]

Islamic fundamentalists don't hate America's freedom. They could care less about what we do at home. They hate us for the policies our government, under both democratic and republican administrations, has pursued in the Middle East since the end of WW II, particularly those intended to secure a steady flow of oil from the region.

So ignore the adminstration rhetoric about radical Islam hating America's freedoms. Because that's all it is...Empty, overblown, simplistic rhetoric. All sound and fury, signifying nothing.

 

[William Joyce]

Islamic fundamentalists don't hate America's freedom. They could care less about what we do at home. They hate us for the policies our government, under both democratic and republican administrations, has pursued in the Middle East since the end of WW II, particularly those intended to secure a steady flow of oil from the region.

So ignore the adminstration rhetoric about radical Islam hating America's freedoms. Because that's all it is...Empty, overblown, simplistic rhetoric. All sound and fury, signifying nothing.

I'd say yes to the first part, not really to the second. We've been in Saudi for a long, long time. Dirty crap goes on, sure, but basically, capitalists don't care WHAT government's in place, so long as oil flows. That means Islamic fundamentalism would be cool, communism would be cool, fascism, whatever. But the reason Jews don't want Islamic fundamentalism is because that threatens Israel's security more than, say, the Shah. They also don't like strong secularist nationalist Arabs like Saddam. Basically, any time Arabs say, "let's flex our muscles," Jews get scared and want to blast them away using our tax dollars.

"They hate us for our freedom" is thinking like a kindergartner. Which Bush is, basically.

 

[sitarro]

Man you gotta be blaming jews and israelis for everything, " THE JEWS CAUSED THE TSUNAMI" "THE NAZIS WERE JEWS" jews this jews that, man SHUT THE FUCK UP! go back to your little backwater shack down in redneck land and marry your sister

supermarine ,
Calling William a redneck insults everyone in the south , he is from New York City . The other asswipe is from Columbus ,Ohio . . . aren't you Bully ? Oh and Bully ,what do you mean by the phrase "could care less" ? Did you mean to write "couldn't care less" because what you wrote doesn't make sense .. . .but then again , what's new?

 

[William Joyce]

I happen to live here; I'm not from here.

I don't "blame the Jews for everything." I do blame them for our involvement in the Middle East. That's an easily confirmable fact. We would not have the Middle East as our No. 1 news story if not for the fact that Jews dominate the media and the Pentagon. The truth is that they are not interested in what's best for America, they're interested in what's best for Israel.

 

[supermarine]

Calling William a redneck insults everyone in the south , he is from New York City . The other asswipe is from Columbus ,Ohio . . . aren't you Bully ? Oh and Bully ,what do you mean by the phrase "could care less" ? Did you mean to write "couldn't care less" because what you wrote doesn't make sense .. . .but then again , what's new?

I'm not insulting everyone in the south, I should clarify that when i say redneck, i mean the racists who mainly live in the south. These days they are a minority to the moderate people of the south. BUt yet they still spoil the image of the American South. And that's partially why i hate them.

 

[sitarro]

Calling William a redneck insults everyone in the south , he is from New York City . The other asswipe is from Columbus ,Ohio . . . aren't you Bully ? Oh and Bully ,what do you mean by the phrase "could care less" ? Did you mean to write "couldn't care less" because what you wrote doesn't make sense .. . .but then again , what's new?

I'm not insulting everyone in the south, I should clarify that when i say redneck, i mean the racists who mainly live in the south. These days they are a minority to the moderate people of the south. BUt yet they still spoil the image of the American South. And that's partially why i hate them.

I have lived all over the USA , there are racist everywhere , they just don't have a history. I lived in Southern California for 4 years and was stuck in a school that had over 18 riots in 1 year . . . all started by radical black and hispanic jerks . I also lived in Denver for 10 years and got to witness KKK rallies twice a year on the capital steps . I am constantly amazed at the prejudice against the south as a whole . Where exactly does the "south" start on the map . I know that Virginia is pretty far north and yet they continue to elect a Senator with KKK ties . Washington D.C. had a black Mayor that was caught on film doing crack , he was reelected , who would reelect a crackhead for their Mayor. Chicago is well known for their Nazis. And wasn't it New York cops that screwed a blackman in the ass with a broom handle?
These stereotypes of the racist ignorant south are really old and pathetic . The civil war was a long time ago , I wish the "intellectuals" of the Northern states would get over it . The moonlanding and the placement of the Hubble telescope was handled by people in the south . The best food in the country is in the south . Some of the best looking women in the U.S. live in the south .Great music , great whiskey , great golf courses , incredible fishing , oil and gas production , the biggest party anywhere(Mardi Gras) , and the best vacation spots are all in the south . And the last 2 days we have suffered with 80 degree temperatures throughout the south .
I know all of this and I am not even a fan of the south eastern states , I would much rather be back in Colorado . . . I like the 4 seasons and snow . Every place has it's shit and everywhere has it's incredible places . . . The south is no better or worse than the north , it is just that simple .

 

[CSM]

"Where exactly does the "south" start on the map ."

Anything south of the New Hampshire/Massacheussetts border is the South as far as I'm concerned....j/k!

 

[redram]

It is true that muslims hate the U.S. for establishing Israel and if some of you think that Israel is not established then flat out you are wrong, for one they have the second best air force maybe it just depends on what you look at in it and their army is battle hardened they do have some security issues but we would too if we were in their spot on the face of this earth, what i mean is all their neighbors are prejudice and hate their guts religiously which led them to hating them in every way possible. As for the U.S. they do hate the U.S. for its foreign policy which tends to be aggressive from time to time, but thats the way the U.S. operates and it is only because thats the way people force us to operate a nation as strong as the U.S. does not in anyway put up with bullshit and when terrorists or rebels do an attack such as 9/11 expect a huge war for the strongest nation on the earth has been attacked well we went over and took out the taliban pretty much and now their pretty much in a retreat in the mountains. But the thing is when we declared war with the taliban we declared war with terrorists everywhere and believe me the U.S. wants a fight with all the terrorists the U.S. is not in over its head i believe its the other way around this war on terrorism will go on from years to come but hopefully it will turn in to more of a international police chase instead of military action or else might as well take apart of the military design it to fight only urban warfare and label it terrorists fighting army. Also if there are any of you that are thinking this war is pointless well take a look at the fact that we were attacked by an enemy we believed to be a pussy, so now the pussy bit us and we are going to beat all them pussys into the ground while staying the worlds superpower in fact we are the only superpower the only reason we refer to other nations as superpowers is because they are the next strongest just face america is one big ass kicking bad ass that dont put up with any shit, yet i believe people should respect it because the only ones we really hurt are the ones whon hurt us. Although that view is biased for i am a U.S. citizen

 

[Merlin1047]

First, the US did not establish Israel. That was the League of Nations, the UN and the Brits.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/mandate3.html

And frankly, I couldn't possibly care less WHY muslims hate us. It doesn't matter. Because if they didn't have the Israeli issue to motivate them, then they would find some other pretext to impose their racist cult of violence on the rest of the world.

 

[Merlin1047]

"Where exactly does the "south" start on the map ."

Anything south of the New Hampshire/Massacheussetts border is the South as far as I'm concerned....j/k!

That's funny. I consider anyone north of Birmingham as a yankee. Anyone north of the Mason-Dixon line is a damnyankee.

And your sister drives a lobster boat.

 

[5stringJeff]

"Where exactly does the "south" start on the map ."

Anything south of the New Hampshire/Massacheussetts border is the South as far as I'm concerned....j/k!

If they left the Union, it's the South.

If not, it's the North - and yes, that includes Kentucky!

 

[Merlin1047]

Man you gotta be blaming jews and israelis for everything, " THE JEWS CAUSED THE TSUNAMI" "THE NAZIS WERE JEWS" jews this jews that, man SHUT THE **** UP! go back to your little backwater shack down in redneck land and marry your sister

First, let me request that you find a means of expressing dissension that is a little shorter on temper and vulgarity and a little longer on rational thought and explanation.

I'm not insulting everyone in the south, I should clarify that when i say redneck, i mean the racists who mainly live in the south. These days they are a minority to the moderate people of the south. BUt yet they still spoil the image of the American South. And that's partially why i hate them.

Second - Aah - I love stereotypes. They are the divining rod for discovering a source of ignorance.

So you dislike "racists who mainly live in the South". I suppose then that you find racists who live in other parts of the country to be less objectionable. I suggest that you update your information before making such statements which serve mainly to reveal your substantial lack of knowledge of the subject you raise. Today's South is far less racist than the North. Reason being that the South was once overtly racist. It was nothing for a white to call a black a "******" to his or her face. It was the accepted norm to have separate facilities from churches to schools to restaurants to hospitals for whites and blacks. Most of that is gone now. It is gone in part by the action of the federal government, but it is gone also because Southern racism was out in the open. Since it was overt, people could deal with it and overcome it more effectively. Whereas in other parts of the country, racism was more covert and subtle. Since it was much harder to prove its existence, it is much harder to confront and to defeat. For that reason, there is more racism today in parts of the country which never admitted that it ever existed.

There's a saying: Southern whites dislike blacks as a group, but like them as individuals, whereas northern whites like blacks as a group, but dislike them as individuals. Now I don't know just how true that is across the board, but there is certainly some degree of validity there.

So I suggest you put aside your stereotyped prejudices and come down South to see what is really going on here today.

We won't even make you sit in the back of the bus.
I promise.

 

[Merlin1047]

Islamic fundamentalists don't hate America's freedom. They could care less about what we do at home. They hate us for the policies our government, under both democratic and republican administrations, has pursued in the Middle East since the end of WW II, particularly those intended to secure a steady flow of oil from the region.

So ignore the adminstration rhetoric about radical Islam hating America's freedoms. Because that's all it is...Empty, overblown, simplistic rhetoric. All sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Bah humbug. Just another Bush-bashing opportunity for ya, huh. Really Bully, that song is getting pretty old. You may want to write some new lyrics.

Your assertion totally ignores recent statements by the terrorist leadership wherein they declared themselves as the enemies of democracy. It ignores the very tenets of islam which enjoins muslims to defeat "infidels" wherever they find non-believers who are unwilling to convert to islam. It ignores the multitude of statements made about our "decadent" lifestyle. It even ignores recent proclamations by muslim clerics that the tsunami was allah's judgement for those who had been living "sinful" lives.

But selective vision seems to be your specialty. If you can't squeeze it through your "hate Bush" filter, then it just doesn't exist.

 

[William Joyce]

First, the US did not establish Israel. That was the League of Nations, the UN and the Brits.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/mandate3.html

And frankly, I couldn't possibly care less WHY muslims hate us. It doesn't matter. Because if they didn't have the Israeli issue to motivate them, then they would find some other pretext to impose their racist cult of violence on the rest of the world.

You're partly right about the establishment of Israel, but Jewish pressure on Harry Truman did play a significant part.

I think you should care why Muslims hate us. It helps us get to the root of things so we can evaluate. If you are correct that they would attack us even without the Israel issue, I would stand with you in blowing their asses to bits. But I agree with Pat Buchanan that they simply would not care about us were it not for Jewish influence on U.S. foreign policy. There is simply no other rational explanation. As for racist cults of violence, the Jews invented this about 4,000 years ago and still hold the patent. Arabs try to copy it with Islam and whites tried to copy it with Nazism, etc. They tried this because they had a powerful example in the Jews. It's a cycle that cannot and will not be broken. Such is life.

 

[HorhayAtAMD]

First, the US did not establish Israel. That was the League of Nations, the UN and the Brits.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/mandate3.html

And frankly, I couldn't possibly care less WHY muslims hate us. It doesn't matter. Because if they didn't have the Israeli issue to motivate them, then they would find some other pretext to impose their racist cult of violence on the rest of the world.

Amen Merlin. The first thing Iraq did when the US went in to protect Kuwait was try to muddle the issue by bringing Israel into it. The undeniable fact is that the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait would have happened even if Israel didn't exist and the US would still have defended Kuwait. It seems to me that anti-US sentiments in the arab world really started taking off at that point. This is how the arab world operates: "Do what you want and then bring Israel into it if the western world reacts."

 

[Merlin1047]

I think you should care why Muslims hate us. It helps us get to the root of things so we can evaluate. If you are correct that they would attack us even without the Israel issue, I would stand with you in blowing their asses to bits. But I agree with Pat Buchanan that they simply would not care about us were it not for Jewish influence on U.S. foreign policy. There is simply no other rational explanation. As for racist cults of violence, the Jews invented this about 4,000 years ago and still hold the patent. Arabs try to copy it with Islam and whites tried to copy it with Nazism, etc. They tried this because they had a powerful example in the Jews. It's a cycle that cannot and will not be broken. Such is life.

I can't agree with your assessment of the situation and I think Pat Robertson is a fool - but that's beside the point.

Since the Jewish state was created, the US has supported and defended the Israelis. Certainly this has earned us the enmity of muslims throughout the world. But that doesn't make our support any less valid.

The Israelis are a free people surrounded on all sides by theorcracies, autocracies and miscellaneous fiefdoms all bent on the destruction of the Jews. The majority of Americans have felt for many years that the state of Israel deserves our support. If we are going to defend another nation, then we have to be prepared to accept whatever fallout develops from that policy.

It is both grossly unfair and ill-considered to blame the Jews for the fact that moslems hate them and by extension, us. Your propensity for blaming Jews for all our ills has become somewhat irrational. Yes, there are questions that need to be answered such as continued Jewish spying on the US, the attack on the intelligence gathering ship etc. But your continuing need to blame the Jews for everything from nuclear proliferation to a cockroach infestation is as irrational and paranoid as Bully's constant railing against Pres. Bush.