Unrequited Muslim Outreach

Foreign Policy: A new international poll shows the folly of Washington's strategy of winning Muslim "hearts and minds." Despite all our help, Muslims still hate us.

Titled "The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other," the new Pew study reveals that Muslim countries generally view Westerners as violent and immoral. Large majorities of even British Muslims think Westerners are "selfish" and "arrogant."

Above all, foreign Muslims hate American foreign policy, which in a disturbingly large share of their minds justifies terrorism. Fully 57% of Jordanians think it's OK to attack civilians in jihad. A simple majority of Egyptians agree.

Even so-called moderate leaders are against us. "Yes, Muslims are against the West," responded Adnan Abu Odeh, 73, former political adviser to Jordan's King Hussein. "Why? Western foreign policies, especially on two issues: the Palestinian issue and now Iraq.

"These are the issues people talk about day and night. And which the news focuses on day and night. And they come to the eyes and ears of the Muslims who have been surveyed, daily in the bloodiest way — it's killing, women screaming and yelling, and soldiers frowning. So what they hate is American foreign policy."

Muslims also blame us for their lack of prosperity. Nearly half of Turks, among the better educated of Mideast Muslims, say Western policies rob them of wealth. This Jordanian pharmacist is typical of respondents:

"There is no prosperity because the United States has seized all our products, all our oil and all our wealth. All of it goes to the United States and the West," Hassan Omar Abdel Rahman said. "It is not about the internal politics. Look at Saddam, you see what happened to him — did he come out with anything?"

Agreed Mohsen Hamed Hassan, a Cairo doctor: "I believe the American foreign policy is responsible for the greedy image. They support dictatorships because they want their oil."

A majority of Americans more accurately blame Muslim government corruption and a lack of education for chronic Muslim poverty.

Though they are beneficiaries of $10 billion in direct U.S. aid since 9/11, Pakistanis still hold us in contempt. Pew found that most think we are "selfish, immoral and greedy." "The West has an expansionist policy and they want to get hold of this portion of the world," said Sadia Omar, a 34-year-old housewife from Rawalpindi. "They will never be friends with us."

Laughably, majorities of Muslims in Pakistan and the Mideast think we are less "respectful" of women than they are. But perhaps the biggest divide comes over who's responsible for 9/11.

Americans overwhelmingly blame Arab Muslims, while Muslims abroad, including 56% of British Muslims, insist someone else carried out the attacks. Denial, as they say, is not just a river in Egypt.

We suspect Pew would find similar hostility among the American Muslim community if it had included it in its survey. A recent Gallup poll of U.S. Muslims found that, despite herculean outreach efforts and remarkable tolerance toward them, "Muslims are the most likely group to report feeling anger compared with the overall population."

America has gone trillions in debt and sacrificed thousands of its sons and daughters saving Muslims from tyrants and terrorists in Kosovo, Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan. And this is the thanks we get?