The latest trend in the Arab world is to get on any of the anti-American satellite channels, (preferably Al-Jazeera), scream and shout against American hegemony and curse America, “the great Satan.”
I guess I feel very alone whenever I get to be on this channel or on more moderate ones like MBC or Arabia and openly voice my love for America. It is not an easy job to explain to my fellow Arabs the fundamental values that make America so special. I love the American model, the democracy, the freedoms and rights granted by the Constitution to its citizens, the unique congressional system, its capitalist culture, its movies, music and art.
It takes a considerable effort to explain the charitable nature of the American people. Americans are the first to lend a helping hand to the victims of natural catastrophes and contribute generously to disaster relief efforts all over the world regardless of the race or religion of the distressed people. I also remind my fellow Muslim brothers that it was the American interference in Serbia that stopped the genocide and ethnic cleansing committed by the Serbs against the Muslims there. It was America and not any Muslim country in the MEA who saved those Muslim lives.
It is well known that the hatred and the distorted picture of America mainly stems from what Arabs call “blatant bias of America towards Israel”. I understand and fully empathize with the agony, discrimination and intolerance Jews have suffered from medieval times to the Holocaust, and I acknowledge their right to a sovereign state.
As a Christian, it is difficult for me to see the Holy Land become a place where daily bloodsheds and acts of atrocities are committed against innocent civilians. Fairness is a veryimportant element in solving the Middle East conflict ethically and rationally. Palestinians are deprived of their basic human rights, many forced to live in refugee camps, the rest live under siege, desperately longing for autonomy and justice. I am sure that any fair Jew would acknowledge the right of Palestinians to coexist and have their own state.
America’s support of Israeli practices in the last Lebanese war triggered more feelings of resentment and hatred of America. Most of us Arabs, civilians and politicians, condemned the kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas as an unnecessary aggression serving Iran and Syria and totally against the interest of the Lebanese people.
Israel’s strong retaliation in defense of its people and civilians who were intentionally targeted by Hezbollah rockets, while justified, was a wrong move, resulting in making Nassrallah a hero. I believe that real power lies in the wise refrain from using this very power.
The Abu Gharib prison scandal and the abuse of detainees by American military personnel is widely used by Arab media to show the evil nature of America. I like to draw attention to the fact that it was the American media that exposed these horrific practices and the American legal system that sentenced several American soldiers to federal prison time, dishonorable discharge from service and demoted the commanding officer. I am sure that similar abuses and stories occur in the Arab world and I know that the system will not allow the disclosure of such incidents by keeping the media in its firm grip.
I was in favor of the Iraqi war, as I like to see justice on earth and I was fed up with Saddam’s dictatorship and the abuses suffered under his totalitarian regime, as well as his suppression of his own people, torturing and killing his opponents and bankrupting Iraq’s economy by repeatedly dragging his country into miscalculated wars. While I was for this war, I am a big critic of post-war management of Iraq. Innocent lives are shed at the rate of 100 per day, for which terrorism is to blame. I feel that something has to change, be it to increase military force or withdraw, as a half solution i.e. the current status-quo, is very costly for innocent Iraqi civilian lives and gives evil forces a partial yet critical triumph that should not be allowed.
In conclusion, I would like to state that America has friends in the Arab world who share my views. More effort should be made to show America in a better light and avoid creating an irreparable rift between the Muslim world and America. We should also facilitate and encourage visits of Arab youth to America as denying them entry to America will only widen the gap!
Naguib Sawiris is chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding, a private telecommunications firm based in Egypt.
