If you ask the average American why America is hated by other countries, what you are most likely to hear is a veiled view of the truth — other nations are jealous of America’s wealth, freedom and position as a world power.
This type of response points to the perceived arrogance that cradles most countries’ discontent with the U.S., a nation that, as Egyptian-American activist Sherif Mansour frames it, “only values freedom within its borders.”
The most up-to-date research from 2013, with information gathered and analyzed by the U.S. Global Leadership Project, shows an improvement in America’s international approval ratings. However, many nations still dislike the only remaining superpower.
Here are six countries were anti-American sentiments run high.
Photo: advance-ta.com
Tunisia
(U.S.GLP) Disapproval rating: 54 percent.
Tunisia has historically maintained a friendly relationship with America dating as far back as 1809 when President Thomas Jefferson attended an iftar — the post-fast evening meal of Muslims — with the ambassador of Tunisia.
In later years, Tunisia opened the first Arab embassy in the U.S.
The recent discontent with America, which fueled the 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, stemmed from the production of a video that was considered to be denigrating to Islam’s prophet Muhammad. The 14-minute short titled “Innocence of Muslims” was created by Egyptian-born U.S. resident Nakoula Basseley Nakoula and was uploaded to YouTube.
Its anti-Islamic message quickly made the rounds on the Internet.
The film, which has sparked debates about freedom of speech, a founding American principle, “opens with scenes of Egyptian security forces standing idle as Muslims pillage and burn the homes of Egyptian Christians,” The New York Times reports. “Then it cuts to cartoonish scenes depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a child of uncertain parentage, a buffoon, a womanizer, a homosexual, a child molester and a greedy, bloodthirsty thug.”
These images fueled the U.S. Embassy attack.
