International public opinion of America has plummeted over the last eight years. This is especially true around Muslim countries in or near the Middle East, but according to thePew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Survey that came out this month, public opinion of the United States is “edging up.” The amount of people who have favorable views of the U.S increased over the last year in five of the six majority-Muslim countries surveyed. However, when you look at the actual statistics, the survey is quite disturbing. Public opinion of the U.S. did go up in Turkey, but it went up from only nine percent to 12 percent of people expressing positive opinions of our country. In Egypt, public opinion went from 21 percent to 22 percent, and in Jordan, my summer home, public opinion decreased from 20 to 19 percent. I cringed when I saw Indonesia’s results. Only 37 percent of the people have a positive view of the U.S. there; eight years ago, that number was around 80 percent, according to American University in Cairo professorLawrence Pintak.
As I wrapped my head around the numbers, all I could say was, “Why do Arab and Muslim countries feel so differently now?” The answers became clearer after conversations this summer with youth in Amman, Jordan; Cairo, Egypt and Doha, Qatar. Just two words: “Iraq” and “Israel.”
“The Palestinian and Iraqi refugees are coming into our country so fast, and we don’t have jobs or anything for them,” Dina Basiony, a 21 year-old from Egypt, said. “It’s shocking.”
When asked by one of my American friends why the Palestinian cause matters so much to them now when it had not mattered much to Egypt since the 1960, she and other Arab youth agreed that “the American and Israeli presence” is just more “in you face” since the War on Terror began.
I was then reminded of a famous picture at the start of the war showing an American soldier carrying an Iraqi baby. I remembered how proud I was to have such heroes serving my country, and I just knew the future of Iraq would start to improve now that we were there to help. In reality, while most Americans saw a soldier rescuing a child, many Arabs saw a child orphaned by the blast of American guns.
Sometimes Arabs hold America accountable when American soldiers aren’t the ones holding the smoking gun. The Israel/Palestine conflict is an obvious example. In my opinion, neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians hold the moral high ground in the conflict between the two groups. However, despite the fact that President Bush was the first U.S. president to acknowledge a Palestinian state, America often comes to the aid of Israel. Many Muslims in the Arab world see this as a clash of religions rather than a political decision to support a long-standing ally.
“America is too materialistic,” our friend Hussain A.B., 21, added. Ironically, he is from Qatar, one of the wealthiest countries per capita in the world.
“I would never go to America and make my family grow up in that kind of place,” Alaa Al Asaal, a 20-year-old Palestinan, said. “I want my family to be raised as good and proper Muslims.”
“But, Alaa,” I said, “my Arabic teacher back home is a very religious Palestinian Muslim and a very proper man. In fact, there are very large communities of Muslims that choose to live in North Carolina. That’s the beauty of being an American. Our government lets you choose your faith and doesn’t stop you from practicing any religion.”
She later retracted what she said, telling my American friends and me that she was too “harsh.” Maybe her true feelings had already been forcefully thrown out in the open. Her Facebook page now says, “ I miss my American friends.”
So what can we do as American youth? Dialogue, dialogue, and more dialogue with those outside of the U.S. will lead to a better understanding of each other and our culture. We need to put ourselves out there and remind people in and around the Middle East that the actions of an elected administration in power does not always represent the desires of its people. And most importantly, we need to continue the dialogue to show how all sides in conflicts are suffering. Americans soldiers are being asked to leave their loved ones to aid another country. They are dying, coming home with lost limbs and emotional instability, and hurting just like the refugees they are trying to keep safe. We are “America the democracy” not “America the dictator of the world,” and it will be human-to-human understanding, not just government diplomacy, that will bring us back into the good graces of the world.