Poll reveals Arab ignorance about U.S (no surprise)

Ok so it’s supposed to be a sign of "great ignorance" that many Arabs think Jews have a ten percent ethnic representation as opposed to a two percent ethnic representation over Congress.
I never knew the Jews were so important!!!

But how powerful are the Jews? Well if we're talking about Jews then the 2 percent figure we are talking about could well be right.
But if we're talking about Israelis (and it’s mostly because of Israel that Arabs have a problem with Jews) then to my mind measuring Jewish population representation is no way to measure Israeli power in America.

For a start there is an organisation known as "Friends of Israel" (formally known as the Zionist movement before it succeeded in aiding the creation of Israel in 1948).
This organisation is both backed by the Israeli government, as well as certain American Jews as well as Jews worldwide. It lobbies (and to my mind "lobby" is lawfully corrupt) American politicians. Something in the order of 20 percent of Congress men and woman are a member of this organisation although i have heard figures as high as 40 percent. In ether case many of the people who are members of friends of Israel are also very powerful figures in U.S politics. I think Rumsfeld may be one of them.

It just shows how stupid so many people are when they dismiss the Arabs perception of Jewish power in America when they do so because they are ignorant of America’s population census statistics (I dare say many Americans are too). The power of the Jews who own many businesses worldwide (much to their credit of course) and the power of Israel is quite another question, and for fair answers to that we should look a bit more deeply than American ethnic population concentration.

The US has a rep for being high on itself, which is very popular globally, whether they are the greatest nation or not. They don't have to brag about it if so. Graceful leadership is much more appealing. Also, The US is known to be very ignorant about any foreign countries, even their friends, like Canada, and England. In Canada, we memorized the 50 states in school. How many US kids learn our 10 provinces, or know our leaders name?
1 to 1.4 Billion Muslims now exist, and when you compare that to the number of terrorists, they are pretty peaceful overall.
The Falwells, and Robertsons are no better than the above quoted Islamic extremists. And the conception that all Muslims are radicals is very common, yet ridiculous in its erroneousness. Most are very wonderful folk, and by most I mean almost all of them.

I thought there were 13 Canadien Provinces

Nevermind...3 Territories....DOH!!!

Edited: For Stupidity!!

[edit on 27-9-2005 by Ohio_Ron]

I wonder if they had a poll in the US asking questions like, "what percentage of the arab world is Sunni?" we'd probably show some of our own ignorance.

Regardless, what did people expect? Palestinians get shot with shiny new American hardware, as they have been for the past 20 years. I'm not denying Isreal's right to defend itself, but in terms of PR, having it do so with our apparent full backing does not help portray the US as an unbiased country.

-koji K.

Give the Arabs, no, Persians too, no, I guess Muslims worldwide that I've met or read material from is that they would feel right at home on ATS.

I have listened to and read conspiracy theories from the region that make alien encounter stuff seem tame.

When the inconsistancy of one duplicitious plot runs square up against another, a wave of the hand and a "That's what the Jews want you to think" is the response I've heard. More than once.

Originally posted by NWguy83
Opinion surveys in the Arab world reveal great dislike, even hatred, for the United States.

What "Arab" countries participated in this survey, and who conducted same?

I think the ignorance is least on the part of the “Arabs," and more so by the author of this news piece and his/her head-nodders.

Having said that, I don’t see how the composer of this news piece could not see that s/he was in fact justifying the Arab belief, to wit:

Jews account for only 2% of the US, yet controls its congress by 6%-a ratio 3:1 of its population representation.

As for most of the American economy, without the percentage which for all else was so gallantly thrown out, it would depend on what that percentage is and what “economy” entails. Much like which people the term "Arabs" is intended portray.

Originally posted by skippytjc
This is a great find. All we hear about is "American" ignorance, racism, etc, but we never hear about these things from other places. I would not be surprised if most of the world has skewed or out right total ignorance of what America and Americans are really about.

Actually Skippy it works both ways. I have friends from the States and from Muslim backgrounds, and from what i have gathered both sides of the utter BOLLOCKS that is the War On Terror are guilty of ignorance.

Maybe yes, there is an awful amount of people in the Middle East who havent the slightest idea about the average American. But, my right winged friend you can bet your bollocks to a barndance that we in the west dont have the full picture of the typical Arab.

All they know is from biased news and Hollywood. (Which is all bunk)

LOL yes i agree about Hollywood, but i should also point out that the US media is not known for its total unbiased reporting

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why the USA is the immigration capitol of the world...

errrr...... peanut butter M&Ms? man i should import them to the UK... they rock

Originally posted by Souljah
This article shows also another thing: just how Ignorant some Westerns are...

Nuff Said

Good find, intesting information.

It's good to see the facts, as opposed to opinions.

I get confused when I read that Americans want to export their "culture" around the world. Then lambast the the not so privileged 3rd world people about "America not being anything like hollywood".

Other than both being full of s*** at times, I couldn't agree more.