Muslims are followers of the religion of Islam. There are many Muslims who are not Arabs - there are Muslim Indonesians, Muslim Chinese, and Muslim Americans. Arabs are an ethic group- people who speak the Arabic language. Arabs follow different religions- many are Muslims, but some are also Christians.
Arabs live predominantly in the Middle Eastern nations. The Muslims live mostly in Asia (60%) the rest live in the Middle East, Africa, and other parts of the world. As of 20009 the Muslim population has grown to 1.5 billion worldwide where as the Arab population is only in the several millions.
President Obama during his first three days in office closed the prison at Guantanamo Bay, banned torture and named a special envoy to work toward a Middle East peace agreement. Yet one year later the Arab Muslim communities see little change in his policies.
Orientalism implies an attempt of the West to understand the East particularly Muslims and their faith. It is the knowledge and understanding of Eastern languages, lifestyle, art, culture, value, sciences and values. Some people may hate them just because some Arabs and Islamic people were behind the bombings, but just because some of the bombers were Muslims I don't think that the whole religion and people who are Muslims should be hated.
Prejudice will never be eliminated. As long as humans have a conscious thought, they will always be prejudice in one way or another. Nevertheless, it may be able to be reduced by a worldwide effort to understand, but its success is as impossible as the idea of a Utopian Society.
Reference
belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu › ... › Articles and Op-Eds › Op-Eds
"Respect and Hope in American-Arab/Islamic Relations"
Author: Rami Khouri, senior Fellow, The Dubai Imitative
February 18, 2009
