This is what the war on terror does

[andrewducker]

Spread this one around a bit - whike it's fantastic that Saddam is gone, it's caused support for terrorist groups and anti-americanism to soar across the Middle East

The survey shows that negative attitudes among Muslims toward the United States have soared anew since the war, both in the Middle East and beyond.
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Several Muslim populations also express strong dislike of Americans as people. Nine out of 10 Palestinians, eight out of 10 Jordanians and 60 percent of Turks say they feel somewhat or very unfavorable toward Americans. The rise is sharpest in Jordan, where fewer than half had a negative view last summer.
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Distrust today blazes so brightly that majorities in seven of eight Muslim populations surveyed - Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan and Kuwait - expressed fears that the United States could become a military threat to their country.
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In Morocco, 79 percent said they felt Islam was under serious threat today, and people in other countries largely agreed, in many cases far more strongly than last summer.
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Perhaps as a consequence, bin Laden was one of the three "leaders" most trusted by the nine Muslim populations surveyed.
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The Qaeda leader's confidence rating was matched only by Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
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Overall, Muslim populations see U.S. policies as destabilizing the Middle East, as do pluralities in many other countries surveyed. Nearly 50 percent take this view in France and Spain, as do 63 percent in Morocco, 74 percent in Indonesia, and 91 percent in Jordan.
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Despite the animosity toward America, the survey found "a considerable appetite in the Muslim world for political freedoms," the Pew report says.
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In eight of the nine Muslim populations surveyed, at least 50 percent believe Western-style democracy can work in their countries. The exception is Indonesia, where 53 percent see democracy as a Western way of doing things that would not work in their country. International Herald Tribune

From an article in the International Herald Tribune here.

Comments

Re: Uh oh

[blackmanxy.livejournal.com]

I can't decide which cynical comment to go with, so I'll post them both and you can pick which one you like better.

Paranoid: Educate the populace, and they might realize they don't need you anymore.

Defeatist: The populace has to want to be educated before it can happen.

I could go on an extensive rant about education (in school and in news terms both) in the first world in general and America in particular right about now, but I think I'm too tired.