Will our image in the USA ever change? [Archives:2004/723/Letters to the Editor]

Saad Yehia Shajera
[email protected]
In these days during which the US elections are becoming the topic, there are a lot of questions surrounding us. One of the common questions we ask as Arab people is “what kind of policy will the next US President have toward the Middle East?”. This is the only question which has no particular answer at the moment. But in my opinion, the US policy of the coming President or any President towards us will stay the same as before.
Through this letter however, I hope that a person would come to me and say I am wrong. Honestly speaking, we in the Arab world hope from the bottom of our hearts that the government of the USA will have a new approach towards us concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I know that it could be impossible to have a change in US policy, but I am hopeful in that one day a new US Administration would work hard on changing the negative portrayal of Arabs in the USA.
I seize this opportunity to invite any American to come over and see with his own naked eyes how Islam is a religion of peace and harmony, and there should be no reason to fear us. What has been said about Islam and Muslims following the 9/11 incidents are so fake.
I hope Americans will accept my invitation in seeing the truth as at is in reality and know the facts through reading and reading a lot about the genuine and true meaning of our religion.
Finally, regardless of who wins the US elections at the end of this year, my hope lies in that the American people would one day realize that their country has been practicing a double-standard policy in the Middle East for so long, and it is about time that it stops.
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