U.S. CITY GRAPPLES WITH ANTI-ARABIC MOOD
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| Wed, 08-18-2004 - 8:21am |
UPI, 7/23/04
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040722-014826-8551r.htm
Dearborn Heights, MI, Jul. 22 (UPI) -- The suburban Detroit city of
Dearborn Heights is struggling to suppress anti-Arabic sentiment in a
community split geographically.
The city's dividing line is an east-west route called Ford Road,
south of which a steadily growing number of Arabic families live, the
Detroit News said Thursday.
In the suburb, the Arabic population has increased 400 percent since
1990, sparking some social discord.
Controversies in a local school district over a Muslim holiday and
the serving of halal, or Islamic-blessed food, to students helped
drive a huge voter turnout for the school board race in June.
Students of Arab descent make up 35 percent to 40 percent of the
3,300-student district and many stay home to observe the Eid al-Fitr
holiday, marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Nearby Dearborn has closed schools on Eid al-Fitr for several years,
but some parents and officials in Dearborn Heights openly vow their
city would not become "like Dearborn."
"Over there, north of Ford Road -- where there's just a few (Arab
Americans) -- they all look at us like we're strange people coming
in, trying to take over," one Arabic resident told the newspaper.
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POLL SHOWS GROWING ARAB RANCOR AT U.S.
Dafna Linzer, Washington Post, 7/23/04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7080-2004Jul22.html
Arab views of the United States, shaped largely by the Iraq war and a
post-Sept. 11 climate of fear, have worsened in the past two years to
such an extent that in Egypt -- an important ally in the region --
nearly 100 percent of the population now holds an unfavorable opinion
of the country, according to two polls due out today.
Both surveys were conducted in June by Zogby International and polled
Arab men and women in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco
and the United Arab Emirates.
The findings reflect the concerns raised in the Sept. 11 commission
report released yesterday, which emphasized a losing battle for
public opinion. "Support for the United States has plummeted," the
commissioners wrote.
"What we're seeing now is a disturbing sympathy with al Qaeda coupled
with resentment toward the United States, and we ought to be
extremely troubled by that," said Shibley Telhami, a University of
Maryland professor who commissioned one of the surveys.
The other survey, titled "Impressions of America," charts a dramatic
overall decline in positive views by comparing current attitudes with
those sampled in April 2002.
"In 2002, the single policy issue that drove opinion was the
Palestinians; now it's Iraq and America's treatment, here and abroad,
of Arabs and Muslims," said James Zogby, who commissioned the report
with the Arab American Institute.
In Zogby's 2002 survey, 76 percent of Egyptians had a negative
attitude toward the United States, compared with 98 percent this
year. In Morocco, 61 percent viewed the country unfavorably in 2002,
but in two years, that number has jumped to 88 percent. In Saudi
Arabia, such responses rose from 87 percent in 2002 to 94 percent in
June. Attitudes were virtually unchanged in Lebanon but improved
slightly in the UAE, from 87 percent who said in 2002 that they
disliked the United States to 73 percent this year.
Those polled said their opinions were shaped by U.S. policies, rather
than by values or culture. When asked: "What is the first thought
when you hear 'America'?" respondents overwhelmingly said: "Unfair
foreign policy."
And when asked what the United States could do to improve its image
in the Arab world, the most frequently provided answers were "Stop
supporting Israel" and "Change your Middle East policy."…
