Newsletter:
Vol. 5. Iss. 2
20 June
2004
Who Says They Hate Us? cont'd.
The Rev. Peter J. Miano
I have always considered popular American misconceptions about the level of violence in other regions and the perception of anti-Americanism a troubling curiosity. It strikes me as peculiar that people who live in one of the most violent societies in the world, view other regions as unsafe. According to a report in The New York Times the level of violent crime in Florida is seventeen times higher than that in Massachusetts. I might be justified, then, in worrying about taking my family to Florida for vacation, but I don’t have such worries. Does anyone else? Should I have more worries when taking my family to Jerusalem, where the level of violent crime is half that of the City of Boston? In the 20th century more than 40 million people were killed in warfare on the continent of Europe. Nowhere in the Middle East has carnage occurred on such a horrific level. The appalling example of the Iran-Iraq war, with its displays of inhumanity did not nearly equal the carnage of the two World Wars, to say nothing of the Nazi genocide, yet many consider the Middle East to be a particularly violence prone area. How does Europe evade that reputation?
American attitudes toward others are interesting indeed. I suspect that they
say more about us as a people than they do about circumstances beyond our
borders. It strikes me that it is not coincidental that our society displays
violence in numerous ways, including its willingness to launch a pre-emptive
war, yet our perception of the “other” is that the “other”
is prone to violence. Many assume that others are antagonistic towards us,
but our media and our political leadership express attitudes of open hostility
toward others. Journalists, such as Jeff Jacoby of the Boston Globe, and A.
M. Rosenthal of The New York Times, regularly repeat scurrilous canards about
Muslims and Arabs. Rep. Peter King (R-NY) stated on Sean Hannity’s nationally
syndicated radio show that “85% of mosques in America are controlled
by Islamic fundamentalists.” Daniel Pipes, nominated by George Bush
to the board of The United States Institute of Peace, states that “all
Muslims are suspect and 15% are potential killers.” If such generalizations
and prejudices were spoken of African Americans or Jews, wouldn’t they
be correctly recognized instantly and rejected as abject bigotry? I find it
troubling that people who suspect others of malicious conduct and motives
themselves harbor such contemptuous attitudes. Is it for these that Jesus
uttered the remark, “First take the log out of your own eye so that
you can see take the speck out of your brother’s”?
My experience over the course of my ministry abroad leads me
to question commonly accepted assumptions about other peoples’ attitudes
toward Americans. I have not found rampant anti-American feeling anywhere
in Europe or the Middle East at any time during my ministry there. Having
said that, I should say also that I have found deep and broad anti-George
Bush sentiment. In fact, while I realize that my personal, anecdotal experience
is hardly a scientific approach, I have not found anyone from England to Egypt
who appreciates current American foreign policy. So broad and so deep is this
anti-Bush, anti-U.S. foreign policy feeling that it seems to me that these
are controversial only here in America where the public seems genuinely divided
over current U.S. policies in the Middle East.
Does this not constitute anti-Americanism? I would say not.
If honest expression of disillusionment with U.S. foreign policy is anti-American,
then a good many Americans are themselves anti-American. On the contrary,
I have heard many express admiration for Americans. I have heard many express
respect for American values. While in Jordan last summer, the Speaker of the
Upper House of the Jordanian Parliament, Mr. Zaid al-Refai, stated, “Every
Jordanian mother and father dreams of sending their children to study in America.”
Does this sound anti-American? In Egypt last February, an Egyptian colleague
expressed dismay, “America is a beacon of hope for us. We wish we had
the opportunities here that you have in America. We look to America to bring
hope not wars.” Does this sound anti-American?
In light of my own experience, I can hardly help but ask, “Who says they hate us?” At out March conference Our Enemies, Ourselves, keynote speaker Noam Chomsky suggested that the perception of vulnerability and threat from an outside source can be manipulated to build support for military intervention or as a diversion from internal problems. “Fear induces obedience,” as he put it. In an environment in which our leaders exhort the nation to prepare for unending war against evil, could it be possible that promoting fear of the foreign has become a feature of domestic policy? Perhaps not, but in any event, xenophobia has become part of the psyche of the American people. It is, thus, a urgent matter for ministry. Wouldn’t it be a tragedy if our churches failed to respond to it?
