Frequently we ask ourselves why they do this. How can they not know that we are good, caring people? Why do they seek to hurt us? What is it that foreigners believe about America that breeds so much misunderstanding and hatred?
I work with a woman from rural China who immigrated to the United States with her husband in the early 1990's. They were both university students who were given the opportunity to study in the U.S. She told me a few months ago that she did not know the United States even existed until two years before she immigrated! As a bright student in China, she was taught about the continents, and even the names of many of the other countries. However, she thought all those other countries had governments, economic systems, and social systems similar to what she knew in China. She was astonished when she moved here!
Fortunately my friend was not taught to hate America or Americans when she grew up in China. She was just not told much of anything at all about us. Obviously, in the twenty years since she immigrated, communication between China and the United States has improved dramatically, and very few Chinese would be completely ignorant of life in America. However, are they now getting the impression of us that we would like to portray?
Citizens of many other countries often believe that they know a great deal about America. Unfortunately, what they often think they know is based on promiscuous, silly or violent movies and television shows that are shown around the world. While we are able to dismiss the content of these films as pure fiction, many foreigners believe that they are seeing a true depiction of life in America and extremists in their coutries are often more than willing to encourage their citizens to believe these distortions.
An Iranian-American writer, in an article called "Inside Iran" on the website http://faqs.shivathespy.com, reports that many Iranians believe that Americans are arrogant, rich, sexually promiscuous, irreligious, liberal, and heavy drinkers. They also believe that there are no poor people in American and that no one has to work very hard in order to afford all the abundant luxuries that we enjoy. Many American citizens perceive these beliefs about our country to be complete lies. However, we seem helpless to convey better information to the citizens of other other nations.
While the writer of "Inside Iran" was speaking only about Iran, these beliefs are common among people in many other developing nations. These attitudes breed jealousy, resentment, anger and hostility towards Americans. While those of us who live in America realize that these movies do not accurately depict ourselves or the people we know in our neighborhoods, foreigners do not realize this.
In 2007, Dr. Steven Kuli, the director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs about the negative attitudes of Muslims towards the United States. His report dealt with the countries of Morocco, Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia. These are all countries that have governments that have cooperative relationships with the United States. However, his research indicated that the majority of citizens of those countries believed that the U.S. was engaged in a war on Islam.
According to research conducted by Dr. Kuli, 93% of Egyptians, 76% of Morrocans, 67% of Pakistanis and 66% of Indonesians had unfavorable views of the US. About half of the citizens of those countries approved attacks on US troops, although substantially fewer agreed that it was acceptable to harm civilians.
With so many misconceptions about America, American life, and our citizens, it is no wonder that citizens in the Middle East erupted in anger against our country when a virtually unknown American produced a low quality film that was highly critical of the Prophet Mohammad. This movie simply fueled their belief that Americans were arrogant, self-centered and in a war against Islam.
Most of those involved in the riots do not understand our government. What they have been told is often based on lies and distortions. I saw one person interviewed on television who said that they would not stop attacking our embassies until the US government assured them that no one in the United States would ever make a movie like that again. It was obvious that this man did not understand how impossible it would be for a government that believes in personal freedom, as well as freedom of expression, to make such a guarantee.
There are no easy solutions to the communication problems that exist between the ordinary citizens of the United States and the peaceful, religious citizens of other countries. However, it is evident that we need to work together to promote better understanding and harmony whenever we can.
You are reading from the blog: http://lies-and-liars.blogspot.com
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