Unfortunately you are quite right.
I have more than a few friends who have had hassle for being American. One friend of mine who was
studying in Scotland had seven bells of shirt kicked out of him just for being from the US.
People have always picked on foreigners no matter what the country in question might be, but Americans seem to get it much worse than other folks from the likes of the E.U.
True enough. I spend most of my time abroad. At the moment I'm in Arizona. By the weekend, I'll be in the middle east, again.
The international perception of the US is that of a bully and a meddler. While you and I know that as a nation we pour a lot of money and effort (and lives) into raising up, protecting, and helping in all corners of the world, that's not how we're known. We have a habit of going into countries, causing death and destruction, then walking away. Whether it's Vietnam, or Iraq, or Somalia, or any other place that we do half a job and leave, we're famous for stirring things up and then leaving everyone hanging. We managed to stir up the Kurds against Saddam in the first go-around, then left them to be slaughtered (after promising to back them in the uprising we asked them to make). It's what we do. It's what we're known for.
There's plenty of suffering and death and sadness out there; we get involved when we have something to gain (or in the case of the last president, when he has something to gain, or his cronies have something to gain). We don't get involved in genocides globally, or massive famines or pestilence, much of the time. It was an embarrassment to watch the President of the United States dodging a shoe, then turning around and donating a pittance to the tidal wave victims...when actors and actresses were donating 30 times as much out of their own pockets.
We're a great nation. We're founded on great ideals, and we offer great freedoms. I have been nearly everywhere (I mean that literally). I've been to some of the nicest, and some of the worst places on earth. I've sat on white sand beaches that are really too beautiful to adequately describe, and I've listened to rockets explode around me in the night in hellholes that most would do well to never see or visit. So be it. I'm going back again (and again after that, too). I very much believe in our country and what it stands for, and like many, many others, my own life gets placed in harms way on a regular basis on behalf of my country, and that for which it stands. Not as some great ideal, but because I go where I'm told, and do what I'm asked to do.
That said, no one should be under the misapprehension that we're a loved and appreciated people. Our flag is burned regularly. When someone abroad finds out one is from America, they're relieved to learn it's Canada, and not the United States. As a US Citizen, I follow good counsel and don't wave my passport around. I stay heads-up. As targets go, if you're from the US, you're golden. You have political value as a cut-up corpse, as a kidnap victim, and a terrorist treat.
Today, by stereotype and by virtue of fact, I guarantee that I look on any muslim with suspicion. I look on every Arab with suspicion. Is this right? Probably not, but I'm generally not in the position of being able to feel self-righteous behind the closed doors of my home in the US. I'm usually somewhere in the world where attacks happen every day, and where it's not an academic issue whether I might or might not become a victim. It's a very real probability.
Muslims make up 1/5 or the world population. Think about it. It's not a small religion. The religion is not an organized one in the same sense that many think of with respect to Christianity. There's no leader of Islam. There are preachers, imams, that operate under various veins...but Islam isn't really an organized religion. It's about many sects doing their own thing, teaching their own thing, teaching the big picture...with the potential for any number of personal slants, political views, and dangerous doctrines to be introduced. This is exactly why it can be perverted and used by the likes of Bin Ladin, et al.
Islam is about being subject to God. In this respect, it's no different than Christianity. One could say that God is God, and that God is called by different names. That overly simplistic view could also be used to note that the Bible is full of accounts of slaughter and violence, just as the Qur'an. Neither one is a bastian of peace. Islam presumes that God is supreme, and all things are subject to God, whether they wish to be or not, whether they know it or not; Islam presumes to be the natural order of things, and that it encompasses every natural law from gravity to physical movement to the properties of heat, chemical action, and astrological movement. The way a blade of grass grows, the bends in a tree, and the cycles of the moon are considered Islam. From the Islamic point of view, anything which runs contrary to Islam, then, is against the natural order, and a trifle; the non-believer's death is as important as dust.
Make no mistakes about it; if you don't believe, you're not considered a potential convert, you're considered an object in the way. Just as some will say that Islam is Satan, we need to understand that Islam considers us exactly the same.
When I lived in Saudi Arabia, a monetary value was put on my life; exactly half of a Muslim. If I died in a traffic accident, for example, the value of my life was precisely one half. This, because I am a non-believer, an infidel. When I go to the middle east, I am tolerated, but always looked down upon...and depending where I am, often little more than a target to be exterminated. It's easy to understand being in Iraq or Afghanistan and being shot at, bombed, or having rockets lobbed my way...this is expected, if you will. Dangerous places, dangerous people, dangerous times. I'm often in Kuwait, Bahrain, Dubai, and other locations throughout that region too...locations where "tolerance" is much higher. Various religions practice, including Christianity. People from all cultures combine. Some places are very middle eastern, yet very western at the same time. I have yet to stand in any of these places and feel safe. I never will. I have yet to walk in one of these places and not feel the need or the desire to have a weapon. I never will.
I will never walk among the arabs, or among the muslims, and feel safe. I walk among them all the time (and in fairness, muslims encompass far more than arabs...a distinction not often made by most who sit home and watch CNN)...but I always walk with suspicion.
When I was in Iraq, no member of the Iraqi army was allowed on a US base with his weapons. They were confiscated at the gate. We didn't trust the IA with their own weapons on a US base. I think this says a lot. I was in XXX when an Iraqi compound was being built within the base perimeter...the bases are eventually to be turned over to the Iraqi army, of course. I don't know anyone who didn't fully believe that the risk would go up substantially once the Iraqi's were allowed to have weapons on base. To go outside the wire among the Iraqi population, of course, is a little like going into the movie "matrix," where anyone can be one's enemy. Distrust everyone, with good reason.
What I read in this thread is ignorance on most fronts. Yes, most Islamic nations have other practicing religions, including Christianity. Yes, most muslims are non-violent. Yes, when we think "terrorist" today, we think of young muslim males between the ages of 18 and 26. Yes, most of the high-profile terrorist events today are connected to Islamic extremists. Yes, it's a threat that shouldn't be ignored. Never the less, we ought to remember that we have more than a few organizations within our own borders who are considered subversive, some of whom are on terrorist watch lists. We're applying blinders if we delude ourselves into believing that arabs are the threat, or that muslims are the threat. Bad guys come in all flavors, foreign and domestic, and a terrorist doesn't always look like a terrorist.
I'm concerned about the idiotic statements such as "All I need to know about muslims I learned on 09/11." These reflect nearly redneck-like understanding of both Islam and of the world, to say nothing of an extreme lack of understanding and experience where experience counts. It's reticent of the people who droned around after 09/11 waving a flag and chanting "Gawd Bluss Amurika," who couldn't tell you what the red in the stripes on the flag they waved is for, or even count all the stars. Let's not celebrate ignorance. If you're going to be pissed off, do it with reason, do it with substance, and know what they hell you're talking about. Most don't.
Islam is not your enemy, and neither is the arab world. Some that belong to both are your enemy, but the enemy is far greater, far more substantial than this simplistic, one-sided view. Open your eyes. Look at your neighbor. Look at yourself, and make sure you're not one of them. When I say them, I don't mean an olive-skinned guy that doesn't shave. I mean one of them that subvert freedom and who isn't open to the freedoms on which our country is founded. The statue still says "bring us your huddled masses." We're a nation. We're still open for business. We don't need to close our borders. We don't need to isolate. We're part of a global community, and we're not the popular kid in class. We're hated abroad, and we can't afford to tolerate that hate. By and large, we have an image that's well-deserved, but very poor, that needs to be cleaned up. Those who perpetuate the redneck mentalities we see here and elsewhere are a part of that problem, and building blocks in the stereotypical "ugly american." Don't be one. It's not who we are, or who we should be.
If we truly intend to be the greatest nation on earth, then let's act like it.
