Arab Comments About America

[A_Wanderer]

Going over at http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/ and I found a translation of some quotes regarding the "wave of hatred against America". I will repost some here because I think that they are very enlightening about opinions within the Arab world.

“America is not an enemy of Arabs and Muslims, on the contrary, on many occasions she backed Muslims when other Muslims did nothing like in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. America helped us get rid of the worst dictatorship in history and despite the unstable security situation now in Iraq we breath freely and say whatever we want to say without fear from Saddam and his dogs
I was-and still-working as a teacher and Saddam was paying me 2 dollars a month, can you imagine that? while he paid thousands and thousands to his followers. Things now are much better for me and I feel grateful for America and the coalition for what they did to save us”
Amjad Al Ubaidy -Baghdad/Iraq.

“The Americans are peaceful and smart people. Unfortunately, this hatred was created by some clerics who try to brain-wash the youth every Friday after the prayers so many would go out with hatred in their hearts and anger toward America”
Reemon A’adil Sammi-Iraq.

“The Arab youths are living under cultural, religious and even sexual repression while people in the West enjoy all aspects of freedom and this motivates the Arabs to immigrate to the US or Europe to be able to live in a civilized environment but unfortunately most immigrants fail to merge with the western communities because of the effect of the religious heritage they accumulated since childhood therefore they tend to establish a closed Islamic-Arab community in America or Europe and this will eventually lead to a conflict between the two cultures”
Mohammed Othman-Syria.

“I had finished my studies in America and lived there for years and I sensed how advanced is that country but I was shocked when I returned back to my country to see how the governments are humiliating our people. I chanted anti-American slogans against my will and I long for living there again and I’m sure that some of those who have spoke against America on this forum wouldn’t mind living in America in spite of all the hatred their words contained”
Hisham-Cairo.

“America offers freedom for free. It’s true that I’ve never been there and I don’t have friends living there either but I keep America in my mind and sole. Hatred was brought to us by the extremists; the enemies of mankind.
I and every true Iraqi love America because to us she represents freedom and liberation. America untied us from Saddam’s chains and also liberated Yugoslavia from her dictator and liberated Germany before that. History is full of events that support my feelings”
Hazim Al Shammari-Bafgdad/Iraq.

“America should not be blamed for the hatred that grew against her. If an Arab country (with powers similar to those of America) have suffered what America had suffered from terrorism and if it was some Americans who carried out the attacks on that Arab country. The Arabs would’ve terminated America and slaughtered every American woman and child just like what the Islamists are doing now in Iraq”
Yusuf Al Muhandis-Iraq.

“The problem lies inside us, the Arabs; whether governors or citizens. We’re still living the era of backwardness, ignorance and crying for the past. We don’t understand how decisions are made in America and the defect is within ourselves.
I’m a big admirer of America and the progress that America had achieved in such a short period.
One more thing, those who offend America must not forget that it was America who helped the Muslims in Albania, Bosnia, Kuwait and Sudan. Where is the Arab civilization? We never saw the Arabs offer help but we all saw the food packages and flour sacks carrying the letters USA.
The problem with Arabs is that they always have find someone to put the blame on.”
Fadi-Libya.

“I believe the West has a lot of good qualities for which we should show respect and love and perhaps its being a shelter for runaways from oppression and poverty in our Arab countries is the most admirable thing.
Arabs’ hatred towards America is primarily attributed to the political and religious system in Arab countries which is feeding this hatred because of the belief that any proximity between Arab and American people would weaken its (the system’s) position among its people. The losing party from this hatred remains the Arab people that needs the West’s help in many fields while the West needs us in very few ones and that’s why who opposes the West is in fact opposing his own interests.
The question remains: shall we let the hatred provokers use us?”
Mohammed-Baghdad.

It is important to have perspective, I find it most unfortunate that so many people consider Arabs unable to comprehend freedom and will make out that it is wrong to help other human beings for that very reason, just a little food for thought.

 

[anitram]

A lot of these people have been out West and therefore they have a point for comparison. It may be a little bit harder for someone whose life experience has been limited to a small village or town, etc, but yes, I would say on the whole, many of them if not most want sweeping changes.

Which makes it all the more reprehensible of us to be propping up dictatorships like the House of Saud, which would like nothing more but to keep stepping on top of their citizens, squashing any hopes of any sort of democratic changes, in the name of greed and power. And they're hardly the only ones in the region who behave in this way. Change won't come to your ordinary Arab citizen until these people are well out of the way. It's simply the reality.