Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times

Understanding Arabs: A Guide for Modern Times is a handbook, intended to be read easily and quickly, by people who are not specialists. Written by highly-esteemed Arabist and academic Margaret Nydell, Understanding Arabs will bring about understanding about modern-day Arabs for foreigners—especially Westerners in America and Europe—without pushing a political agenda. Updated to reflect the complex events that are playing out on the world stage, new chapters include: Islamic Fundamentalism—This political and social issue is not a part of the mainstream Islamic religion. The efforts to follow and understand evolving Islamic social/religious thought have been completely overwhelmed by the notorious emergence of fundamentalism. Anti-Americanism: It needs to be made clear that Middle Eastern Muslims and Arabs do not "hate" America. Nor do they hate American people. But they are very angry at America's government and a perceived unfairness with the American foreign policy. Between 1980 and 2001, the United States engaged in fifteen direct military operations in the Middle East, all of them directed at Muslims. There were an equal number of non-military actions such as imposing punitive embargoes, threats through military build-up, policies in support of some regional states against others, support of selected opposition groups, and providing weapons (sometimes secretly). What matters here is not the diplomatic issue of who we supported or why, the result has been that these actions are seen by local people as American interference in their region, and resentment has continued to build. Updated and expanded chapter on Arabs and Muslims in the West