Arabs, Muslims and Americans Have Too Much in Common

What message should the Arab and Muslim world get from the recent declaration by an obscure and angry Florida priest who announced plans to burn a Quran?

It's not tolerated by Americans.

But that's not what they will hear. The fact that leaders from across America and even across the political spectrum have uniformly denounced the Rev. Terry Jones, pastor of the 50-member Dove World Outreach Center, will not be what the Arab and Muslim worlds hear.

They won't understand that just because some fanatic in America says something stupid and racist, that doesn't mean that every American endorses it.

Of course, they won't understand that because Americans are not really much different. When Osama bin Laden's disciples crashed their hijacked planes in to the World Trade Center's Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans were quick to blame all Muslims.

The anger is so deep that most Americans speak from both sides of their mouth, saying they support religious freedom and oppose censorship - but they also oppose plans by Muslims to renovate a building blocks from ground zero that includes space where Muslims can worship and pray.

Can you blame the Arab and Muslim World for being angry?

Americans might argue that Arabs and Muslims live in worlds oppressed by dictatorships, places where free speech is practically nonexistent. But Arabs and Muslims might counter to Americans that free speech is also limited in America, where American Arabs and Muslims continue to complain of increased incidents of bigotry and glass walls that prevent them from entering many of the nation's greatest institutions, including the mainstream news media.

Let me just correct my readers here who will point to Fareed Zakaria and tell me (for the millionth time) that he is an example of how Arabs and Muslims can rise to the heights of American journalism.

Fareed Zakaria is NOT an Arab. He is an Indian Muslim, and that is where a major part of the problem lies. Muslims and Arabs are different. There are 4.5 million Arabs in America, and only 45 percent of them are actually Muslim. And there are 7 million Muslims in America, and only 22 percent of them are Arab.

We don't really know the precise count because the U.S. Census refuses to include "Arab" as a category on forms that do list 29 other ethnic and racial groups that include three listings for African Americans, five for Hispanics, and many for Native Americans and Asians, too.

In fact, in the debate about the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, there was much focus on "Muslims" and very little focus on "Arabs."

Many Americans tell me often how much they hate me, not because I am Arab but because they think I am Muslim. That I am Orthodox Christian raised Lutheran doesn't seem to matter. Of course, that President Barack Obama is not Muslim doesn't seem to bother 20 percent of Americans who think he is and 46 percent of Americans who say they don't know what he is.

I remember one woman after Sept. 11 coming up to me and saying, "I can't believe you abandoned your Christian faith to become an Arab."

Americans who defend Jones claim that Muslims burn Bibles, too. I don't recall any such incidents. But is claiming that someone else does bad things a good defense?

What the Arab and Muslim world should recognize is that America is no different than they are. Both regions suffer censorship issues of different sorts. Both sides have extremists who spew venomous hatred and use violence to achieve political goals.

I don't expect either side to recognize these facts. But it is something we can hope for.

To find out more about Ray Hanania, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.

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