Report: Muslim world largely anti-American (there's a news flash)

KAREN MATTHEWS

Associated Press

NEW YORK - Anti-American feelings are widespread in the Muslim world and extend to U.S. consumer brands, according to a report released Wednesday. It suggested the U.S. burnish its image with a change in tone and by publicizing aid programs.

The United States should emphasize its development aid to Muslim countries rather than try to persuade Muslims to support U.S. policies in Iraq or in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Council on Foreign Relations report.

The report, by Charney Research, is based on 14 focus groups conducted last December and January among college-educated men and women in Egypt, Morocco and Indonesia. Anger at U.S. foreign policy and at the U.S. government dominated spontaneous reactions in all three countries.

Many young Muslims said they admired Osama bin Laden, while views of President Bush were uniformly negative. All focus group members rejected U.S. views of the war in Iraq, saying the United States invaded on a false premise to further its own regional goals.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/nation/11679767.htm

I mean, I never knew. I bet it was Newsweek's fault. They were throwing roses at us before, weren't they ... or was that bombs? I forget the difference.

:sarcasm:

:eyes:

NOTE: Dropping bombs on people and pissing all over their culture is not a way to win hearts and minds.

Our government has managed to piss off everybody.
That is not good for business. Really.

Maybe less Artillery shells exploding type tone?

Maybe a tone that doesn't include a hick from Crawford?

Like our 300 billion dollar Iraqi aid program where we go and wreck and country and pollute it for a billion years with Depleted Uranium ensuring massive genetic damage and mutations of 10s of millions of people for billion of years.


Just publicize that "aid program".. and all will be well.

is sad.

:sarcasm:

american govt hostile to arab world since bush takeover.

friends with saudi "royalty", exploiters of the masses. kill all who get in the way.

what do you expect.

to the Muslim world.

Sarcasm off. Everyday wing nut radio demonizes Muslims. The talk about the good Muslims then go on to name every Muslim country in the world as head chopping terrorists.

He'd make an excellent ambassador. Write your Congresscritters!

Seems like a good job to me: Doing a research project to answer an obvious question with an obvious answer.

it needs to do quite a bit more than "change its tone."

How about actually changing its actions?

And targeting innocent Muslims, detaining people with no recourse to basic civil rights, racial profiling at airports and so forth, disrespecting the religious heritage of the Muslim people - not to mention torturing people and disappearing them - my G*d - these are things you read about the horrible dictatorships of the past.

And apart from the violence overseas - none of us here at home are immune - once a government treats any of its citizens badly, we are all vulnerable.

Worst administration in history.

that the people in the mideast love us so much that they almost beat up an American who didn't love America as much as they did...I kid you not!!

Anti-American feelings are widespread in the Muslim world and extend to U.S. consumer brands, according to a report released Wednesday. It suggested the U.S. burnish its image with a change in tone and by publicizing aid programs.

The United States should emphasize its development aid to Muslim countries rather than try to persuade Muslims to support U.S. policies in Iraq or in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, according to the Council on Foreign Relations report.

Many young Muslims said they admired Osama bin Laden, while views of President Bush were uniformly negative. All focus group members rejected U.S. views of the war in Iraq, saying the United States invaded on a false premise to further its own regional goals.

Anti-Semitic stereotypes also were noted. Focus group members saw the United States and Israel as synonymous and estimated the proportion of Jews in the U.S. population at up to 85 percent; it is 2 percent.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/05/18/national/a162643D03.DTL&sn=008&sc=463

Then people won't notice they are being invaded or their relatives are being spirited away to a Gulag.

What a bunch of ingrates.

Americans are just folks and can be led astray like everybody else.

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I lived in the Middle East for a time, and (with the exception of the fundamentalists) we were NOT hated in the Middle East as we are today!

...certainly have a firm grasp on the obvious.

would that the White House had access to his talents...

Please check again. I am sure this was reported in error and SFgate will put out a correction soon. Ohh those silly reporters..totally mischaracterized and misread the poor old muslims/a-rabs :-( They have soooo much love in their hearts, they just need somebody to give them to.

"It suggested the U.S. burnish its image with a change in tone and by publicizing aid programs."

Smile nicely while we bomb their homes, torture their people, and desecrate and mock their religion; a nice smile helps anyone's image. And keep reminding them that we give candy bars to kids on the days that we don't kill them.

These people think that all problems are PR problems; after all, we're the good guys, by definition. (Except when Clinton is president.)

say "At least we tried". :eyes:

just blithely assume the obvious result of our actions... :sarcasm:

--bears shit in the woods. Also, the sun will rise tomorrow.

the approval ratings from 1999 and now.

sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bush. It would seem that dumping Bush is the key - and perhaps the anti US sentiment would be diminished.

Since the Iraq war - I have consciously tried not to buy American products....sorry guys. This Canuck tries to buy Canadian products when they can be found that is!

And I NEVER shop at Walmart.....

What the American people must understand (at least from my little viewpoint) is that I do not consider myself anti-american (I am leaning more that way after the last general election of yours) I am anti-Bush. And my visceral dislike for him is so intense - I cannot watch him or listen to him. It is a gut feeling - primal with no conscious reasoning - it is just there.

If Americans REALLY want to improve their world image and reputation (right Scott McCLellan?????) they would impeach George W. Bush for sending the nation to war under false pretenses.

thanks for coninuing to feel more anti-bush than anti-American although honestly I think that is starting to fade world-wide - people see us putting up with this corrupt piece of shit misadminstration and wonder WTF ???

Change in policy is the only thing that will do. Withdrawal of military forces from the Muslim world would be a start. Otherwise, this will go on forever and the "clash of civilization" prophecies will have become self-fulfilling. And who have been promoting those ideas? The very PNACers who have led the crusade in Iraq. They wanted a clash of civilizations. What would the right-wing be without an enemy?

It is hard evidence to support what has only been an opinion before. All those corporations and republicans who could have easily discounted our argument as opinion now have to deal with researched fact.

I'm one of the ones who made fun of this as obvious in above postings, but you do have a point. I doubt that this report will have any effect though--they'll ignore it, say it's liberal bias, or make up a reluctant pro-American responsder hypothesis that is proven by the hypothesis itself.

:eyes:

and if only Clinton had accepted those nice Sudanese offers of Bin Laden's head on a platter, all would be perfect in the universe!

</wingnut>

I just can't handle all these shocking revelations!

:dunce:

The US could improve its image among Muslims if it listened more, adopted a humbler tone and emphasised its aid programmes, a report says. (...)

The support of the educated elite in the Muslim world - the group surveyed - is vital for US-backed reforms, the report's authors say.

"Although many Muslims are angry at what they perceive America does, the right efforts to communicate can produce significant shifts in attitude.

"Such efforts would involve listening more, speaking in a humbler tone, and focusing on bilateral aid and partnership, while tolerating disagreement on controversial policy issues."

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4563601.stm