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Listening to Arabs

(Commentary) Joshua Muravchik - A summer institute in Greece for 83 students from the Balkans, the Mediterranean basin, and the U.S., brought me into closer contact with Arabs than I had been before and left me with new impressions. "How can you say Israel is a democracy when they invaded us in 1967?" demanded one Syrian, revealing volumes about his education. An Egyptian girl pointed out that America could not be considered a real democracy because "no leftists are allowed to teach in American universities," something she had heard from her professor, the daughter of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Later in Morocco at a symposium on "Europe, America, and Islam," I decided to speak bluntly about the three decades of attacks visited on Americans by Middle Eastern terrorists. These were not an expression of Islam, but rather an outgrowth of an unhealthy political culture of violence and extremism that held sway in the region. A professor of political science from the American University of Cairo, unable to control her rage, shrieked that my remarks were "unacceptable" and, because they were being heard by such a large audience, also "dangerous." Was it a coincidence that here, as at the summer institute, the shrillest voices were Egyptian? Asked their overall opinion of the U.S., 86% of Egyptians said unfavorable and only 14% favorable in a poll by Zogby International.
2003-12-03 00:00:00
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