An interesting perspective from a Washington Post article this morning: how U.S. policies are alienating what was a pro-American generation of Muslims.
A generation of Arabs wooed by the United States and persuaded by its principles has become among the most vociferous critics of America’s world view. Within its ranks are affluent businessmen with ties to the West, U.S.-educated intellectuals and liberal activists. Their ire is directed not at U.S. culture, but at preparations for a war that they believe has left them voiceless, discredited and isolated in a landscape almost universally opposed to U.S. policy.
To them, the Bush administration’s talk of a more democratic Arab world is rendered hollow by its policy toward the Palestinians and Iraq. They see their desire for more secular, progressive societies overwhelmed by growing radicalism and religious fervor, a tide so pronounced that it has caught even mainstream Islamic activists off guard. In sentimental tones, they lament the end of an era in which the United States appeared as a beacon.
People like to say over and over that America has no quarrel with the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., but with their leaders.
I hope that the rest of the world has the same view: their quarrel is with the Bush administration, not the American people.
