136 MUSLIMS IN THE UNITED STATES
them not altogether very candid. However, American foreign policy with
respect to the Arab and the Muslim world in general has been attacked by
some of the prominent American talk show hosts, media personalities, and
journalists such as Chris Matthews, Phil Donahue, Robert Novak, and Patrick
Buchanan, just to name a few. Such support of the Muslim cause, especially
from the American media, was almost unthinkable only a few years ago.
As for the seemingly pro-Israeli policy of the Bush administration, no one
can deny that this administration, like so many administrations before, and per-
haps after, cannot whisk the Zionist pressure away even if it wants to. The
pro-Zionist elements in the United States as a pressure group are too strong to
be shaken off. They are becoming even more so with unexpected help coming
from the Southern Baptist leadership and their millions of followers. In part,
this allows Israel to continue to behave like a naughty boy, and the best an
American president can do is slap it on the wrist. Saddam Hussein was a bad
man, we were told, because, among other things, he broke at least a dozen
U.N. resolutions. How many U.N. resolutions did Israel choose to ignore dur-
ing the same period that the media did not care to discuss?
In short, from the Muslim point of view, the American president and, for that
matter any political hopeful in the United States, is a hostage to Zionist extrem-
ist elements. It does not make a difference who the president is, a Republican or
a Democrat, the American Muslim dream of American policy in Palestine
becoming even-handed may not be realized until Muslim Americans themselves
quickly learn the rules by which the American Zionists play their hand. Even if
there exists an inherent anti-Islamism fueling American policy toward Palestine
or the Middle East, at its core it is pure pragmatism fat political contribu-
tions leading the way. We maintain that if the growing Muslim American pop-
ulation is able to generate greater monetary resources and play the political
game skillfully, American democracy would shed the remaining vestiges of anti-
Islamism. Muslim Americans do not need any fanatics. They need an ability to
get together and in a calm, cool, businesslike manner, be able to find friends
and strengthen the hands of those who are ready to extend help.
CONCLUSION
Are Americans hopelessly anti-Islamists? Evidence so far suggests that this
is not really the case. America is a complex pluralistic society. American cul-
ture is a mosaic composed of several different subcultures based on class, reli-
gion, race, education, profession, income, and national origin, among others.
Americans, therefore, are not of one kind. They cannot be expected to be.
Because American law permits freedom of expression, there is a free flow of
opinion in the nation. In this climate, it must not be unexpected that if anti-
Islamic feelings exist and are expressed in the words and actions of multitudes
of people who were raised in subcultures used to anti-Islamic symbols,
upbringing, and experiences. Frequently, the publicity from incidents in the
Muslim world not compatible with American foreign policy (e.g., the Iranian