ABSTRACT
Is it surprlsmg to find an Indian Muslim journalist, a young Palestinian in Jerusalem, a Guardian editorial in the UK and a right-wing American conservative Christian all agreeing in recent months that the State of Israel is a major reason for the anger that many Muslims feel against the West? We may want to argue about whether it is 'the main source of tension' , one major source of tension or one source of tension among many. We may also want to distinguish between the mere existence of Israel, its actions since 1948 and Western support for Israel. But we can hardly escape the fact that, in the eyes of most Muslims all over the world, Israel today is closely associated with the West and totally identified with the US, and that we are dealing here with one of the most important and the most bitter of all the complaints that Muslims direct towards the West.
