When the smoke began to lift after the deadliest terrorist attack in history, Americans were left wondering what would lead people to kill thousands of innocent civilians and destroy U.S. symbols of economic prosperity and military power.
In President GeorgeBush's adress to Americans Sept. 20, he said, "Americans are asking 'Why do they hate us?'" Although we can never find out why from the hijackers, there are a number of reasons that extremist groups despise American culture and its influence on international politics.
"It's not about territory or resources. It's a war about people who hate America for what it is. It is a war of ideas," said best-selling author Dinesh D'Souza, who will speak about why Americans are hated tonight in Gilmer Hall at 7:30.
Though there is no clear justification in the Koran, the Islamic holy book, for terrorism, murder or suicide, terrorists like Osama bin Laden and his international terrorist network al Qaeda use religious rhetoric to frame their anti-American attacks.
But according to William B. Quandt, a University government and foreign affairs professor, the reasons behind the attacks are most likely political and ideological, rather than religious.
These groups have "political grievances that express themselves in religious terms," Quandt said.
A culture war
D'Souza said he believes the assault was as much an intellectual attack on American culture as it was a terrorist attack.
American culture, which has spread rapidly to all corners of the globe, angers many fundamentalist Islamic groups.
"In the most unlikely places, you will see the 'M' for McDonald's," D'Souza said. "There is pressure to accept American ideals around the world and this creates outposts of resistance."
The fiercest resistance to cultural imperialism is found in the Islamic world, D'Souza said.
Aspects of U.S. culture conflict with the beliefs of terrorist groups, who in turn wage war on innocent civilians.
"Some of the terrorists hate the U.S. for what it symbolizes: capitalism, modernity and secularization," said Ted Carpenter, the vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute in Washington "Others hate us for what we do in the Middle East and the Persian Gulf."
Terrorists see American society as materialistic and pornographic, and Western globalization as moral degradation, D'Souza said.
Middle Eastern entanglements
Hatred of Americans and American culture by extreme Muslim groups has been growing for at least the last 10 years, escalating when the United States became involved in the Persian Gulf War, Carpenter said.
Islamic fundamentalists saw the U.S. involvement in the war as an intrusion on their region. America's continued presence in Saudi Arabia especially is infuriating for bin Laden and his followers.
Similarly, the regular bombing of Iraq and U.S. economic sanctions there have angered many anti-U.S. organizations.
Some groups argue that unnecessary intervention in the struggles of other countries makes the U.S. a target for terrorists.
"There's no justification of the deliberate murder of innocent people," said James W. Lark, chairman of the National Libertarian Party and an assistant professor of systems engineering at the University. But "the foreign policy that we have pursued over the last 100 years has involved the U.S. in struggles of people and we are seen as combatants. It would be naive to ignore the fact that our foreign policy has caused people to look at us as targets."
The bin Laden example
Bin Laden, the Saudi Arabian fugitive the Bush administration has said is responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks, has cited numerous reasons for his hatred of the United States.
Though bin Laden denies involvement in the recent attacks on America, he has been linked to the suicide bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen and the bombings of two American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Other reasons for his terrorist activities include U.S. support for Israel, U.S. backing for the royal family of Saudi Arabia and the pro-Western Egyptian government, and the presence of U.S. military forces in Saudi Arabia since the end of the Gulf War.
In an edict issued in 1998 calling for attacks on all Americans, bin Laden wrote, "For over seven years, the United States has been occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places, the Arabian Peninsula, plundering its riches, dictating to its rulers, humiliating its people, terrorizing its neighbors, and turning its bases in the Peninsula into a spearhead through which to fight the neighboring Muslim peoples."
Bin Laden and other fundamentalist groups also believe U.S. culture, and Western culture in general, is a threat to their extremist faith and traditional way of life.
Solutions?
Lark said he hopes that in the wake of the tragedy, "people will rethink the role of American foreign policy."
D'Souza said he too hopes the tragic events will allow Americans to see how U.S. culture and foreign policy are viewed by other cultures. Whether accurate or inaccurate, these are the perceptions fundamentalist groups have of America.
"We have to think hard about the principles that underlie our society and ask whether and why these principles are good," D'Souza said.
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