Friday, September 5, 2014

Fareed Zakaria, "Why they still hate us, 13 years later": Nonsense

Why The Washington Post continues to publish Fareed Zakaria's inane opinion pieces is beyond my ken. In his latest WaPo op-ed entitled "Why they still hate us, 13 years later," Zakaria declares:

"Barbarism is designed to provoke anger, and it succeeded. But in September 2001, it also made me ask, 'Why do they hate us?' I tried to answer that question in an essay for Newsweek that struck a chord with readers. I reread it to see what I got right and wrong and what I’ve learned in the past 13 years.

. . . .

It’s not an Islam problem but an Arab problem. In the early 2000s, Indonesia was our biggest concern because of a series of terrorist attacks there after 9/11. But over the past decade, jihad and even Islamic fundamentalism have not done well in Indonesia — the largest Muslim country in the world, larger in that sense than Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya and the Gulf states put together. Or look at India, which is right next door to Ayman al-Zawahiri’s headquarters in Pakistan, but very few of its 165 million Muslims are members of al-Qaeda. Zawahiri has announced a bold effort to recruit Indian Muslims, but I suspect it will fail."

It's just an Arab problem? Yeah, right.

As reported in a July 15, 2014 Pew Research Center article entitled "Which countries don’t like America and which do," 73 percent of Turkey's population of some 76 million (Turks are not Arabs) have an unfavorable view of the US. In addition, 59 percent of Pakistan's population of some 185 million (Pakistanis are not Arabs) have an unfavorable view of the US.

And back in 2009, 77 percent of Iran's population of some 78 million (Persians are not Arabs) had an unfavorable view of the US. This percentage cannot possibly have improved since that time, when Obama was at the height of his global popularity and actively engaged in an outreach program to Iran.

Yes, Islam's hatred for the US in not confined to Arabs.

Zakaria should go back to sleep.

2 comments:

  1. Ah Zakaria.
    I already have dealt with Powell and Brooks, and I have no energy left to deal with yet another scoundrel.

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  2. Now I know why WaPo rejected your recent opinion piece.
    Can't have someone, from Israel no less, confusing the issues with the facts!

    ReplyDelete