CAIRO: “Why do they hate us?” Last September, this question reverberated through US society and media as they pondered horrific terrorist attacks attributed to radical Muslims.

In this ancient city, Arabs and Muslims ask the same question - only here, “they” refers to the West.There is no lack of evidence, they say, that it is the West that hates Muslims, Arabs and Middle Easterners rather than the other way around.

Salman Rushdie, whose book “Satanic Verses” was deemed offensive to Muslim feelings in different parts of the world, was hailed for his literary conquest. Likewise, Taslima Nasreen of Bangladesh and Egyptian writer Nasr Hamid Abuzeid questioned the divinity of the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

Commentators here also recall V.S. Naipaul’s “Among the Believers”, with its description - considered contentious here - of travels through Muslim societies, was praised by the rightwing US publication The New Republic, notorious here for its anti-Arab stances, as “the most notable work on contemporary Islam to have appeared in a very long time.”

Dozens of publications and statements issued since Sept 11 have led many writers here to conclude that Western hostility to Muslims is now bare-faced and on the increase.

Internet sites that originate in the West routinely make fun of the Quran, much to the dismay of even non-religious Muslims.

In one recent example, a site swapped words from the Quran with swear words and presented itself as the true version of the 14-century-old book.

Among incidents that are driving the message home that the West “harbours animosity to Muslims” is the recent decision by Malaysia and Bangladesh, among others, to ban an edition of Newsweek that displayed a picture of the Prophet Mohammed.

Even at their most well-meant, depictions of prophets are considered idolatry and therefore unacceptable.

Adding insult to injury, many media commentators here have said, US media, in particular, are showing insensitivity to Islam and Arabs even as they shirk their duty to participate in a debate at home over the future of the US administration’s self-proclaimed “war against terrorism”.

Numerous individuals say daily they now perceive the hatred as emanating not only from Western media but also from ordinary people there.—Dawn/InterPress Service.