Why do Muslim extremists hate Americans?

Question

In this season surrounding 9/11, I'm trying to make some sort of sense of how something like this can happen. I keep coming back to "why?". I'm an American. I consider myself a peace-loving human being. I don't hate anybody. I have a hard time understanding why anyone would hate me - and not just hate me, but to hate me enough to be willing to die in order to see harm come to me.

Why?

Answer 1

Muslims hate anyone who is not Muslim and in their religious book , the Koran, it says to kill anyone who is not Muslim.

Answer 2

There are two main reasons they hate americans:
1. Most americans are christians, which the muslims consider infidels. The Koran states that anyone who dies fighting the infidels will be immediately transported to Heaven, no questions asked.
2. Many muslim extremists believe that the United States has committed horrible crimes and injustices towards muslims (which they have, to some extent). They think killing americans in general is a good way to take revenge for this.

Answer 3

There are many, many reasons: religious, political, cultural.

Take religion. Like Christians, Muslims believe that the "other guys" (Christians and Jews) are wrong, that they have a corrupt religion. (Remember that Americans and Christians think that Islam is a corrupt religion, so this is straight "you too.") It is the duty of the true believers (in Christianity the true believers are the evangelicals and the fundamentalists; in Islam, it's mainly the Shiites) to either convert or destroy infidels or unbelievers. Just last week, someone urged Bush to convert to Islam. The more peaceloving, modernistic Muslims (the Sunnis) don't think you need to kill infidels, just persuade them. At any rate, this desire to convert the world or kill them has been around since Islam began (1300 years ago). The current "terrorism" and Jihad (Holy war) is just the latest version of an ongoing war between religions.

Culturally, Islam looks at the West (Europe, America, and others) and sees a godless (even if they are nominally Christian), purely materialistic, self-centered culture of greed and destruction. They see a culture of rampant sexual promiscuity and illegitimate children. They see a culture completely given over to business and money. This offends them immensely. For Muslims, life is a gift of god and is meant to serve some purpose other than just pleasing oneself and making money. Life means community and brotherhood--not selfish individualism. Hence the Muslims oppose the West's culture, its shallow and ultimately meaningless existence, where people willingly exploit the poor for the sake of profit.

Politically, they look at the West and see an America filled with arrogance and pride because of its military might. They see a hypocritical country that preaches peace but is always at war (even war against its own people); a country that preaches human rights and yet is perfectly willing to kill, to murder men, women and children to protect their oil supplies; a country that talks about human ideals and yet is a base, venal, rabid animal. They see a country that invades defenseless countries based on lies. They see a country that will not respect the culture of other countries--that takes what it wants.

Given these (and there are many other) vast cultural, religious, and political differences, Muslims see it as their duty (to god) to destroy the West. Since true believers who die in battle (like the suicide bombers) go directly to heaven, they have no fear of death and willingly die to serve their cause.

When we look at these reasons, we can easily understand their hatred and terrorism. The West is indeed a materialistic culture, it is indeed a warlike culture, it is indeed a greedy and selfish culture. Very likely, the Muslims will win in the long run (thankfully I will not be around) because their culture and religion is stronger than the West's. The only way to win over the Muslims would be for the West to come up with a culture of greatness, a politics of humanity, and a religion of real peace, but don't hold your breath. The West is probably finished and is now in its death throes.

Answer 4

Do you really have time for a complete answer or a short answer? I'll give a short answer: United States International policy and CIA! that should cover about 95% of your question and the rest is lack of economic development. While the richest oil countries export it all, the people on those countries live in total poverty. It would be like you working for McDonals and make only .10 cents an hour and McDonals profit increase about 200% quarterly and you never get a raise. Now! a standar of living is about $150.00 per month. Do you think you can make it?

Answer 5

lemme answer this question as nicely as i can... i dont understand why ppl call them extremists. they are wrong in every sense. suicide bombing is wrong in islam, killing innocents is wrong in islam. the ppl who do this call themselves muslims and fighting for the cause of Allah but they are not!
there is NO jihad at the moment and there is no HOLY WAR!
and the thing that gets me is that the MAJORITY of the muslims dnt agree either yet every1 thinks they do cuz of the stupid media and government!
i am a muslim and disagree with all thats goin on. but i also disagree with BUSH!
Many yung muslims r getting the rong end of the stik nowadays cuz of innocents dying... its all the governments fault. they SAY they are doing it 4 the gr8a good but they are causing hatred everywhere for POWER!
and PLEASE dnt tel me that they CANT catch Bin Laden cuz theyt can! the only reason y they aint is cuz everything will b ova and America will hav nothing at the end if it! they need POWER, OIL, hatred for muslims, MONEY!! btw, i dont mean the citizens. i believe most ppl r brainwashed anyways. no1 is willin 2 sit 4 a few minutes and actually THINK abt everything or THINK abt all the evidence. whatever happened ti Innocent until proiven guilty!

Answer 6

Have you ever believed in something very strongly? Morals? "they" say that you can only do what you know. Well in their religion, or lives i think they were raised to hate us. The same reason that the kkk are racist. People dont just wake up and decide to hate one day. They are raised with their parents re-enforcing hateful thoughts. Its years long of brainwashing. They were instructed to do so. Like our army going over there "because its the american thing to do" Well in a sick way it was their "muslim thing to do"

Hope this helps you

Answer 7

America is the 600 pound gorilla in the world today. We bully and trample the rest of the world to get our way. We are the biggest kid on the block and militarily we can stomp anyone we wish.
Whether that is good or bad is irrelevant, simply the nature of empire.
Extremists need a cause and the "great satan" is as good a cause as any.

Answer 8

To me, religion isn't a logical excuse to do something so hateful. If God told me to kill 5 buddah worshipers, i'd say hell no, WHAT sense does that make? Nothing can be gained.....only lost....creating more confusion.....causing wars.....eventually possibly causing the end of all humanity. I am not against wars though, because you are sticking up for yourself, you must defend yourself........but to attack for some religious belief? It's a state of mind! And something like that makes NO sense...

Answer 9

You're making it personal.

Islam is the only "way" ... it's in everything they do.
Muslims literally eat, sleep, and drink Islam.

It's in their schools, their government, as well as their legal system.

If you don't believe in Allah through his prophet Mohammad...then you are filth.
(Not making this personal...just...explaining why they are so...bizarre)

You see the way Christians treat atheists on this sight...
Muslims feel the same way about anyone that does NOT believe.
there was a book written in the late 70 (referance recent CNN report - about Osama) where a radical decided to kill all non-believers - Bin laden being one of this nut cases pupils.

This author redefined "Jihad" and through Quran quotes proved that one would be saved (ALONG with family) in this life and the next by taking up arms against heathens...like us.

This is tantamount to using the bible Old Testament to validate Nuking Iran, Iraq, and any other islamic nation...
and sometimes I wish we would.

But ours is a fair and just country...
we don't rule with the bible...we rule with laws that can be challenged and changed.

Extremists wish to kill you - as an unpure, non-believer - and anyone you know...but in order to be "saved" - they must martyr themselves.

But it's not about you personally...it's about being saved from sins...and saving your family from sins...so family members can actually live a sinful life on Earth and still go to heaven...

Each and every suicide bomber is yet another Jesus - in their eyes.

How sick is that?

Answer 10

study the history of how christians from europe and the USA abused the rest of the world for the last several hundred years. study colonialism, imperialism, slavery, religious crusades and persecution of non-christians, oppression of women and minorities, and then you'll understand why much of the world has little respect for europe and the US.