Sharia Law is NOT Closer to America than it Appears... Part II

Adam L. Silverman, PhD*

I was all set to write something to not only highlight, but rebut the absolute wrongness that is reported in this NY Times article on one of the key individuals behind the anti-Sharia movement in the US (hat tip to Steve Benen).  Fortunately I saw this very interesting article about the most recent Gallup Polling, and the report based on it, pertaining to both Muslim American attitudes and the attitudes towards Muslims by other religious groups.  The full report can be found here:  (Download MAR_Report_ADGC_Bilingual_072011_sa_LR_web).  Among other things it indicates that Muslim Americans are the most likely of any religious adherents in the US to oppose attacks on civilians, either by the military or other actors, that Muslim Americans identify as strongly with America as they do with their religion, and as a direct antidote to what the NY Times article reports, Jewish Americans are even more likely than Muslim Americans to recongize and indicate that Muslim Americans face prejudice in the US.

* Adam L. Silverman is the Culture and Foreign Language Advisor at the US Army War College.  The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Army War College or the US Army.

Comments

[Arun]

It took a beheading, but finally Indonesians have woken up about Saudi Arabia.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/saudi-beheading-fuels-backlash-in-indonesia/2011/07/17/gIQAc7OU3I_story.html

“Saudi Arabia is the holy land, so people always used to make excuses for it,” said Wahyu Susilo, a policy analyst for Migrant Care. “They now realize that Saudi Islam is not the right image of Islam.”

[Arun]

Byron Raum - that 94% is a bit disingenuous. E.g., animal rights activists/terrorists typically do not have a goal of taking life. Once you pare all such out, the numbers will look quite different.

-Arun

[Arun]

Funny in the last day or so, a lot of criticism of Saudi Arabia is emerging from the Muslim world. Not at the fundamental level; but still, perhaps the beginning of a great awakening.

This is from Pakistan:
http://dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011/08/11/story_11-8-2011_pg3_1

"Saudi Arabia may have stressed Pakistan’s crucial role in the region given the new developments but maybe the Saudis have forgotten their own role in pushing this region into a quagmire.

Even before the Afghan jihad, Saudi Arabia was able to influence the Pakistani leadership due to the power of petro-dollars. By dazzling our leadership with its wealth and dangling the ‘Kadhimain-Haramain-Sharifain’ title in front of the Pakistani public, the Saudi monarchy was able to get what it wanted from Pakistan. Be it exporting terrorism to Iran, Saudi Arabia’s nemesis, by funding sectarian madrassas that are actually terror factories, fanning sectarian conflict inside Pakistan through these same madrassas, buying land in Pakistan to ensure food security in the barren kingdom, or hunting endangered animals and birds with their UAE brethren on Pakistani soil, the Arab sheikhs have lorded it in and over Pakistan. This, however, could not have happened unless our leaders allowed it, dazzled as they have been by the lure of money. The seeds of Arabisation of Pakistan germinated in Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s time and bore plentiful fruit under General Ziaul Haq’s regime. None of our leaders, be they civilian or military, thought much about the consequences of getting too close to the Arab overlords. The poison that the Saudiisation of Pakistan produced has now spread countrywide. King Abdullah’s words during Prime Minister Gilani’s visit are of significance. The monarch said, “Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are one country; they are more than friends and more than brothers.” Instead of sending shockwaves down our leadership’s spine, Prime Minister Gilani welcomed his statement and went a step further by saying, “Pakistan’s security was Saudi Arabia’s security and Saudi Arabia’s security was Pakistan’s security.”

[Babak Makkinejad]

Arun:

My understanding has been that throughout the 1980s, the United Stated and her allies prompoted the Saudi Islam as the True Islam to combat the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the Communists in Afghanistan.

Now, perhaps, it is too late.