Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why It Matters. By James
Zogby. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. 248 pp.
I couldn’t resist making a cynical comment about U.S. public diplomacy
when I testified before the U.S. Congress in 2004. As the George W. Bush administration
launched wars in Afghanistan and then in Iraq, the State Department undertook
aggressive efforts to improve America’s image among Arabs and Muslims. Hired at
one stage to lead the effort was Charlotte Beers, a successful Madison
Avenue marketing executive. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had
quipped that she had convinced him to buy Uncle Ben’s rice. “We are selling a
product,” Powell explained. “We need someone who can rebrand American foreign
policy, rebrand diplomacy.” Invited by a congressional subcommittee as the Al
Jazeera bureau chief in Washington to comment on U.S. public diplomacy, I
retorted in kind: “Marketing Uncle Ben’s rice is different from marketing the
policies of Uncle Sam’s Rice”—an allusion to Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s national
security advisor at the time.
That is the same message in Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and
Why It Matters, by James Zogby, who also happened to testify in that Capitol
Hill hearing. The first part of the book deals with what Zogby calls “hearing
problems,” in which he emphasizes the need for the West to listen to Arabs
themselves through public opinion surveys rather than stereotypes and
anecdotes. Then, Zogby proceeds to detail and refute five “super myths” about
Arabs, which he believes have been propagated by influential writers like
Thomas Friedman, the “Foreign Affairs” columnist of The New York Times, and the
late author Raphael Patai, author of The Arab Mind. According to Zogby, these
myths are that Arabs “are all the same;” that they are disunited, driven by
anger and religion, and immutable.
In making his case, Zogby, founder and president of the Arab American
Institute in Washington, relies on his own personal observations in decades of
visits to Arab countries. More importantly, he cites the findings of extensive
surveys conducted throughout the region since 2002 by Zogby International, run
by his brother John. Contrary to the claims of some pundits who emphasized Arab
hatred, he writes, the poll data showed that majorities in all countries
surveyed were favorably inclined toward American democracy, freedom, education,
science, technology, films, television, and consumer products. “It wasn’t
American values or people that had caused the image of the United States to
crater,” Zogby explains. “America’s overall ranking sank because of the
incredibly low marks Arabs gave to U.S. policy toward Arab nations generally
and Palestinians specifically.”
In his final section, Zogby offers a blueprint for improving the hearing
problems. His checklist includes: reaching out to Arabs in an honest dialogue;
greater domestic transparency about the Middle East; progress toward resolving
the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; demand-driven economic aid; more cultural
exchanges; and utilizing Arab Americans in bridge building efforts.
No doubt that Zogby’s stories, anecdotes, and polls reflect genuine Arab
grievances toward the U.S. and other Western governments. Unfortunately, the
book neglects to say much about the voices, either on the ‘Arab street’ or
among Arab Americans, speaking out against undemocratic Arab governments. To
what extent could we rely on public opinion in countries where most people
didn't dare to speak their mind? Whatever their good intentions, the pollsters
may only be able to tell us half-truths.
Hafez Al Mirazi is director of the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism
Training and Research at the American University in Cairo. He is also host of
Studio Cairo, a weekly program about Egyptian politics featured on the Al-Arabiya satellite channel. Prior to returning to his native Egypt, Al Mirazi
worked as a correspondent in the United States for nearly twenty-five years. He
served as Washington bureau chief for Al-Jazeera, and hosted the channel’s
weekly show From Washington.