Downtown Manhattan, five minutes after the collapse of the North Tower at the World Trade Center
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I share here a random potpourri of passages that I marked while reading James Zogby,\u00a0Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why It Matters<\/em> (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). \u00a0Jim Zogby (and his famous pollster brother, John) grew up as first-generation Americans in an Arab Catholic family:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
. . . as my mother would say, \u201clesser men display what they don\u2019t know at the tops of their voices.\u201d \u00a0(7)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
He tells of the hate mail and death threats that he received after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some were personal: \u00a0\u201cJim, you towel head. \u00a0Death to every Arab. \u00a0We\u2019ll slit your throat and kill your children.\u201d \u00a0(15)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Each day after the attack, as I read new reports detailing the activities of the hijackers leading up to 9\/11, I was struck by how sinister it was that these men, armed with such hideous intent, were able to take advantage of the opportunities and the almost na\u00efve goodwill of so many Americans. \u00a0The hijackers had found homes in which to live and schools to train them, and they had moved about without question \u2014 all the while planning their deadly mission.<\/span><\/p>\nHow was it, I wondered, that as these hijackers prepared to kill thousands, they weren\u2019t moved to question their intended evil by the good they saw around them every day? \u00a0The answer lies in the perverse logic of closed ears. \u00a0Fundamental to terrorism is a willful abstraction, a dehumanizing of victims, and a blunt refusal to understand. \u00a0The terrorist\u2019s mind-set relies on an active denial of reality. \u00a0(16)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Summarizing the results of the huge eight-country survey that he and his brother had carried out via Zogby International:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
What did we find in this in-depth examination of Arab attitudes? \u00a0For one, we learned that Arabs are largely focused on issues close to home. \u00a0When we asked our respondents what mattered most to them in their lives, they identified \u201cthe quality of [their] work,\u201d \u201cfamily,\u201d \u201creligion,\u201d and \u201cjob security.\u201d \u00a0Similarly, when we asked those surveyed to rank their top political concerns in order of priority, the overall focus once again appeared to be on their personal and family life, with an interesting twist: \u00a0ranking number three, just after \u201cprotecting civil and personal rights\u201d and \u201chealth care,\u201d and just ahead of \u201cpersonal economic security,\u201d was \u201cthe rights of the Palestinian people.\u201d \u00a0(26)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I hope that, when it\u2019s finally finished, those who read my book will be able to answer the questions implied in the first four items below more accurately, and that it will have increased their interest in learning more:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n- Americans who incorrectly identify Iran as an Arab country: 65%<\/span><\/li>\n
- Americans who know that Iraq shares a border with Syria: 23%<\/span><\/li>\n
- Americans who can identify 1948 as the year of Israel\u2019s War of Independence: 37%<\/span><\/li>\n
- Americans who believe that Muslims tend to be religious fanatics: 42%<\/span><\/li>\n
- Americans who say they would like to know more about Arab countries and people: 59%<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Zogby International Poll of American Opinion \u2013 December 2009 \u00a0(29)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I share here a random potpourri of passages that I marked while reading James Zogby,\u00a0Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why It Matters (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). \u00a0Jim Zogby (and his famous pollster brother, John) grew up as first-generation Americans in an Arab Catholic family: \u00a0 . . . […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"5](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2016\/09\/Downtown_Manhattan_at_10.34_a.m.jpg\")
<\/a>