Why Do Europeans Dislike Americans So Much?

May 31, 2023

Please note that this video has been made by an American. It is not a reflection of my own, personal views on America: so it should therefore not be misconstrued as such. This video is posted for interest only. – © Mark Alexander

How Americans Got Sold on Cigarettes

The Trump Administration – What If This IS Who We Are?

In opposition to Donald Trump, many Americans are saying "This is not who we are" one caller asks Jefferson Smith filling in for Thom Hartmann, to consider that the vilest and most corrupt of Donald Trump's policies are in line with U.S. policy historically. Should progressives widen our criticism of the Donald Trump Administration to include the past and present policy of the United States?

Nikki Haley: "This Vote Will Make a Difference on How Americans Look at the UN"

O’Reilly on Election Outcome: ‘The American People Have Had Enough of Hillary Clinton’

Americans Are 'Back-stabbers' and 'Tricksters' Says Iran's Leader after Senate Letter

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Republic-ans are unrepentant over the letter warning that a future president might revoke a nuclear deal with Iran. But Ayatollah Khamenei did not condemn the talks and experts say agreement remains possible

Iran’s Supreme Leader accused “back-stabbing” America of “tricks and deceptions” on Thursday as the clock ticked towards a deadline for a final agreement on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a caustic response to an open letter from 47 Republican senators, warning that a future US president might revoke any nuclear deal with Iran.

This message – furiously denounced by President Barack Obama – raised the possibility of Iran walking away from an agreement while deflecting the blame on to America.

"Of course I am worried, because the other side is known for opacity, deceit and back-stabbing,” said Ayatollah Khamenei in a speech to the Assembly of Experts, Iran’s most senior body.

"Every time we reach a stage where the end of the negotiations is in sight, the tone of the other side, specifically the Americans, becomes harsher, coarser and tougher. This is the nature of their tricks and deceptions.” » | David Blair, and Peter Foster in Washington | Thursday, March 12, 2015

Muslim Cleric Says Islam Sees No Distinction Between Combatants and Civilians, So Killing American Women and Children Is Fine

THE BLAZE: A radical Muslim cleric in Sudan with a history of incendiary statements against the U.S. now says that under Islam there is no distinction between combatant and civilian and thus American women and children are fair game for militant attacks.

“In its war with the infidels, Islam recognizes no distinction between regular armies and civilians,” said Sudanese cleric Muhammad Al-Jazouli at his Friday sermon, citing a fatwa, or religious ruling.

The Middle East Media Research Institute found video of the sermon and posted translated excerpts online.

In the sermon, Al-Jazouli said he had been “overjoyed” to hear of one particular hadith, that is, a tradition related to the prophet Mohammed.

Al-Jazouli quoted a statement once conveyed to the prophet Mohammed that when Muslims would attack “the polytheists at night, women and children would be harmed.” » | Sharona Schwartz | Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Warsi: Britons More Worldly Than Americans

Baroness Warsi, Minister for Faith

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: America is not as “sophisticated” as Britain in understanding international relations, Baroness Warsi says

America is not as “sophisticated” as Britain in understanding international relations, Baroness Warsi said today.

The minister for faith, on a visit to America, also said the conservative Fox News channel needed training on “religious literacy”.

The blunt remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington DC caused a flutter on social media networks after being picked up by the liberal Huffington Post website.

“I think Britain is quite uniquely sophisticated in its understanding of the world in a way the US is not,” she said.

“That comes from much of our own history and much of our connection.” » | Peter Foster, in Washington | Friday, November 15, 2013

What Do Americans Think of Islam?

In Times Square, protestors counter an anti Islamic speech by pastor Terry Jones.....by singing The Beatles. (December 2012)

Prince Charles Tells America to Cut Down on Steaks ... for the Sake of the World
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: America's appetite for beef is jeopardising the world's water supply, the Prince of Wales said during a visit to the US.

In a speech in Washington, the Prince said that the need for vast amounts of irrigation in industrialised food production was threatening to deplete reserves of the "magical substance we have taken for granted for so long".

"For every pound of beef produced in the industrial system, it takes two thousand gallons of water," he told the Future of Food conference at Georgetown University.

"That is a lot of water and there is plenty of evidence that the Earth cannot keep up with the demand." » | Jon Swaine, in Washington | Thursday, May 05, 2011

Al-Qaeda Magazine Teaches How to Kill Americans
THE TELEGRAPH: Al-Qaeda has published a series of articles in its magazine giving would-be militants tips on how to kill Americans, including a section on how to mow people down with a pickup truck.

The 74-page online, English-language magazine, titled Inspire, which has a foreword by Osama bin Laden, encourages "individual jihad" to kill Americans and westerners.

It is an indication that the terrorist network is signalling a move away from terror "spectaculars", which are easier for intelligence agencies to foil, towards one-man operations.

In a graphic feature called The Ultimate Mowing Machine, it gives ideas for one-man operations, such as attaching blades to the front of a pickup truck which can then be used to "mow down" passers-by.

"To achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control of your vehicle," it advises. "The ideal location is a place where there are a maximum number of pedestrians and the least number of vehicles." >>> Richard Spencer, Middle East correspondent | Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Why Can't Barack Obama Tell The World About American Tolerance?
Barack Hussein Obama. Photo: The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH – EXTRACTS: The controversy over the 'Ground Zero mosque' has portrayed the United States as a land of bigots. Toby Harnden wonders why the US President has helped fuel this myth.


Obama's ill-judged intervention, and the shrill outrage of his allies in the intelligentsia, has damaged America's standing in the world by fuelling anti-American stereotypes.

…


Many Americans are incensed by the way that legitimate protest and questioning of Obama's policies is routinely branded as racist or ignorant. They are tired of being told what to think and when to think it.

During the 2008 campaign, for instance, you were a bigot if you mentioned Obama's middle name or his Muslim background. Yet once he was elected, he went to Ankara and Cairo to proclaim that his full name was "Barack Hussein Obama".

Ahmed Sharif, a victim of real anti-Muslim bigotry, stated that the attack on him was an aberration and that America is a land of tolerance and opportunity. What a shame that Obama, despite his much-vaunted gift with words, appears unable to speak about such things with similar eloquence. Read the whole article >>> Toby Harnden's American Way | Saturday, August 28, 2010

Europeans Back Burka Ban, Americans Oppose Outlawing Muslim Veil
THE TELEGRAPH: While most Americans oppose banning face-covering Islamic veils, most western Europeans are in favour of outlawing the burka, a new survey has found.

Several European countries have been considering bans on such veils.

France, home to western Europe's largest Muslim community, is expected to see its lower house approve a divisive bill on Tuesday that would make it illegal to wear full-face veils in public.

The government says such veils oppress women.

Only a very small minority of French Muslim women wear veils such as the niqab or burka, and many French Muslims fear a ban would stigmatise the whole Islamic community.

A survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that an overwhelming 82 per cent of French respondents supported a ban. The poll found 71 per cent support in Germany, 62 per cent in Britain and 59 per cent in Spain.

In the United States, just 28 per cent of those questioned said they would approve a ban. >>> | Friday, July 09, 2010

Jesus Will Return by 2050*, Say 40pc of Americans
THE TELEGRAPH: More than 40 per cent of Americans believe Jesus Christ will return to Earth by 2050, according to a poll.

Photo: The Telegraph
Americans are largely optimistic about the future, according to the poll from the Pew Research Center For The People and The Press/Smithsonian Magazine.

By mid century, 71 per cent believe cancer will be cured, 66 per cent say artificial limbs will work better than real ones and 81 per cent believe computers will be able to converse like humans.

But Americans are also braced for a major energy crisis and a warming planet, according to the survey. More than half, or 58 per cent, fear another world war in the next 40 years and 53 per cent expect a terrorist attack against the United States using a nuclear weapon. >>> | Tuesday, June 22, 2010

*So what! They also thought that Barack Hussein Obama was the Messiah! Look what happened! – Mark

For the Love of Islam: A Second American Woman Is Arrested in Cartoonist Case
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Last Easter, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a 31-year-old mom with a $30,000-a-year job as a medical assistant, announced to her family that she had converted to Islam. A few months later, she began posting to Facebook forums whose headings included "STOP caLLing MUSLIMS TERRORISTS!"

On Sept. 11, she suddenly left Leadville, Colo., a small town in the Rocky Mountains, for Denver, then for New York, to meet and marry a Muslim man she connected with online, her family says. Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, who is 5-foot-11 and blonde, phoned her mother and stepfather in Leadville, providing them with an address in Waterford, Ireland, they say.

Now, she is in the custody of the Irish police, along with six other individuals, arrested as part of an investigation into a conspiracy to commit murder, according to officials familiar with the case. The nature of the authorities' suspicions about Ms. Paulin-Ramirez couldn't be determined on Friday.

Ms. Paulin-Ramirez's interest in Islam "came out of left field," said her mother, Christine Holcomb-Mott, in an interview at her home Friday, wearing a blue sweatsuit with a silver cross around her neck.

"I'm angry with her right now," Ms. Holcomb-Mott said. "I'd like to just choke her. But I'm worried about her, too. I love my daughter."

Nearby was a stack of photos of Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, with a sparkling smile, and her son, who has brown hair and eyes. Her mother looked at the images over and over, as college basketball played on the TV.

Ms. Paulin-Ramirez had been in contact by phone and email with her mother, stepfather and an aunt, her relatives said. But none of them has heard from Ms. Paulin-Ramirez in recent days, they said.

Ms. Paulin-Ramirez is the second American woman to be linked to an alleged plot to kill a Swedish cartoonist who made fun of the Prophet Mohammed. An indictment was unsealed this week against Colleen R. LaRose, 46, a suburban Philadelphia woman who authorities said used the Web alias "JihadJane." >>> Vanessa O’Connell in New York, Stephanie Simon in Colorado and Evan Perez in Washington | Friday, March 12, 2010

It’s Not Independent to Cosy Up to the Colonel
TIMES ONLINE: Lockerbie was a plot against American lives. Of course the US has every right to be outraged by the bomber’s release

Yesterday the Bishop of Musselburgh somehow tricked his way into the Scottish Parliament in the guise of Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary. How else to account for the transcendent moral tone of the statement made concerning the release of the convicted bomber of Pan Am Flight 103?

Scotland was, the Right Rev MacAskill implied, a superior place where “we define ourselves by our humanity”, a humanity obliging the Justice Secretary to show compassion to Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, in the form of letting him fly home, the occasion being the supposed proximity of the prisoner’s death.

And nothing else, note. The utterly unrepentant al-Megrahi, according to Mr MacAskill, who had by now switched to high sanctimony, was facing a “sentence imposed by another power ... He is going to die.” The word “soon” was of course implied.

So these are the new “laws and values of Scotland” — if you’re going to snuff it within a reasonably short time (let’s say months, or a year or so) you are thought to have been transferred into the custody of God and you get let out. How could one not agree with that?

Easily. One wonders how widely Mr MacAskill would like to see this form of humanity applied. Let us imagine that Robert Black, the Scottish serial killer of young girls, or Ian Brady, the Scottish-born Moors Murderer, were discovered to be on their last knockings. Like al-Megrahi, they, too, have shown a resilience in their refusal to help the authorities to uncover the full extent of their crimes, and have thus made matters worse for the victims’ families.

But surely they will soon be beyond the capacity to inflict harm, their maker’s finger beckoning to them, so wouldn’t it be best to return them from England to Grangemouth and Glasgow respectively, to die in the bosom of whatever families they can discover there? >>> David Aaronovitch | Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Why Are We Dealing with These People? Let them Go Their Way!
THE NEW YORK TIMES: KARACHI, Pakistan — Judith A. McHale was expecting a contentious session with Ansar Abbasi, a Pakistani journalist known for his harsh criticism of American foreign policy, when she sat down for a one-on-one meeting with him in a hotel conference room in Islamabad on Monday. She got that, and a little bit more.

After Ms. McHale, the Obama administration’s new under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs, gave her initial polite presentation about building bridges between America and the Muslim world, Mr. Abbasi thanked her politely for meeting with him. Then he told her that he hated her.

“ ‘You should know that we hate all Americans,’ ” Ms. McHale said Mr. Abbasi told her. “ ‘From the bottom of our souls, we hate you.’ ”

Beyond the continuation of the battle against militants along the Pakistani-Afghan border, a big part of President Obama’s strategy for the region involves trying to broaden America’s involvement in the country to include nonmilitary areas like infrastructure development, trade, energy, schools and jobs — all aimed at convincing the Pakistani people that the United States is their friend. But as Ms. McHale and other American officials discovered this week, during a visit by Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan, making that case was not going to be easy.

“We have made a major turn with our relationship with Pakistan under President Obama,” Mr. Holbrooke told reporters at a news conference in Karachi on Wednesday. Time and again, Mr. Holbrooke tried to delineate the differences between the Obama administration and the Bush era, painting the new administration as one that wants to see a better life and more business opportunities for Pakistanis.

He said his very presence in Karachi — Pakistan’s largest city and its commercial capital — demonstrated that drone attacks and the hunt for Al Qaeda were not the only American foreign policy activities in the country.

To polite applause, Mr. Holbrooke told local officials at the Governor’s House that the United States Consulate in Karachi would start granting business visas —100 a week — instead of making would-be business travelers to the United States go to Islamabad for the visas, as has been the case.

He stopped at a shantytown in the city to chat with schoolboys crowded into three classrooms, and even visited the home of a local resident, to get a feel for how people in Karachi live. On Tuesday, he met with opposition leaders in Islamabad, including Liaqat Baloch, the secretary general of the anti-American political party Jamaat-e-Islami, and Fazlur Rehman, the leader of another anti-American party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, who is sometimes referred to as the spiritual founder of the Taliban.

In Karachi on Wednesday, Mr. Holbrooke kept bringing up a trade bill that just passed the House, which would set up so-called reconstruction opportunity zones so that textiles and other goods made in Pakistan’s tribal areas could get preferential access to the United States market. And Ms. McHale, whose job is, in part, to try to repair America’s relations with the Muslim world, strayed from his side only when she ventured out on fence-mending missions of her own, meeting with 17 Pakistani journalists, 8 officials of nongovernmental organizations and members of several political parties, all in an effort to deliver one message: America cares about Pakistan.

But Mr. Abbasi’s reaction — a response that, Ms. McHale acknowledged, apparently reflects the feelings of about 25 percent of the population, according to a recent poll — demonstrated just how tough the job is. For all of the administration’s efforts to call attention to the nonmilitary ties that would bind the two countries, America is still being judged by many Pakistanis as an uncaring behemoth whose sole concern is finding Osama bin Laden, no matter the cost in civilian Pakistani lives. U.S. Officials Get a Taste of Pakistanis’ Anger at America >>> Helene Cooper | Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Americans Fall Out of Love with Obama
THE SUNDAY TIMES: The uproar over healthcare reforms is a symptom of how Americans are falling out of love with the new president

Arriving in Montana to join battle with his critics on Friday, President Barack Obama stepped from Air Force One, stripped off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Little more than six months after he swept into office with some of the highest approval ratings recorded, he is fighting to save his historic presidency from turning into a one-term wonder.

Obama was ready for a vigorous defence of the healthcare reforms that have spawned verbal fisticuffs at public meetings across the country. In the event, the Montana meeting unfolded with a subdued politeness that left some White House aides wishing it had been a little more feisty, so their champion could have shown off his sparring skills.

Yet for all the heat that has recently been generated by the healthcare debate, amid wild accusations about euthanising granny and manipulating mobs, it became clear last week that medicine is far from the president’s only problem, and there may be no early cure for the economic ills that are crippling his promises of change and hope.

Speaking in an aircraft hangar moments after a hailstorm had passed over Bel-grade, Montana, the 48-year-old president attempted to calm the confrontational climate that has soured debate about his attempts to overhaul an expensive and inefficient US healthcare establishment.

Sticking to time-honoured presidential tradition, he blamed the media for getting his message wrong, and for focusing on a minority of angry protesters. “TV loves a ruckus,” he added. “What you haven’t seen on TV . . . are the many constructive meetings going on all over the country.”

Yet in one sense that ruckus has spared the White House closer scrutiny of a stuttering economy that may yet prove Obama’s ruin. Recent optimism that the worst of the recession may be over has failed to make an impact on key areas of American life, and Obama last week endured one of the toughest weeks of his presidency in terms of bad economic news.

“The rapid deterioration of the economy has slowed down,” said Alice Rivlin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. “But if you have lost your job, the worst may not be over for a long time. If you have a job, you may still lose it.”

The main problem for the president is that economic data suggesting improvements in growth and productivity are not yet translating into benefits for victims of recession. Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo bank, last week summed up future prospects as “a recovery only a statistician can love”.

Obama insisted earlier this month that “actions we’ve taken in the first six months have helped stop our economic freefall . . . we’re losing jobs at half the rate we were at the beginning of the year”.

That boast was promptly undermined when a barrage of negative reports was released last week, showing that personal bankruptcies surged 34% in June compared with last year; the number of homes subjected to foreclosure proceedings rose 32% as against a year ago; the number of people out of work for 27 weeks or longer reached a record 5m; and retail sales dipped in July despite a big boost from a popular secondhand car trade-in programme. Barack Obama catches cold as economic virus spreads >>> Tony Allen-Mills | Sunday, August 16, 2009

Comedy: What Do Americans Think of Muslims?

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>

Barack Obama Tells Muslims 'Americans Are Not Your Enemy'
THE TELEGRAPH: US President Barack Obama has told the Muslim world that "Americans are not your enemy" and renewed his pledge to travel to make an address in the capital of a major Muslim nation.


Mr Obama noted that he had lived in Indonesia for several years while growing up, and said his travels through Muslim nations had convinced him that regardless of faith, people had certain common hopes and dreams.

"My job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy - we sometimes make mistakes - we have not been perfect," Mr Obama said in an interview with the Al-Arabiya satellite television network.

"But if you look at the track record ... America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago, there's no reason why we can't restore that."

During the 2008 election campaign, Mr Obama vowed to improve US ties with the Muslim world and said he would travel to a major Islamic forum abroad to send that message. >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | Tuesday, January 27, 2009

AL ARABIYA:
Obama’s Interview with Al Arabiya – Transcript

BERLINER ZEITUNG: Obama will muslimische Welt als Partner gewinnen

Washington - In seinem ersten Interview nach seiner Amtsübernahme hat sich US-Präsident Barack Obama an die muslimische Welt gewandt und eine «neue Partnerschaft in gegenseitigem Respekt» in Aussicht gestellt.

Er wolle kommunizieren, «dass die Amerikaner nicht Ihre Feinde sind», sagte Obama dem arabischsprachigen Sender Al-Arabija. Das Interview wurde kurz nach der Entsendung von Obamas Nahost-Beauftragten George Mitchell in die Nahost-Krisenregion aufgezeichnet und in Auszügen von US-Medien veröffentlicht. Mitchell wird unter anderem mit der israelischen und der palästinensischen Führung zusammentreffen. >>> © dpa | Dienstag, 27. Januar 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback (US) Barnes & Noble >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Hardcover (US) Barnes & Noble >>>