ACEH, Indonesia, December 18, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The image of the US in tsunami-hit parts of Asia may have enjoyed a boost thanks to its aid donations, but its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, along with its pro-Israeli stance, continue to incense Muslims across the region.

"I don't like the leader of the American people. I don't mind the people, I just don't like their leader," Yan, a 35-year-old Acehnese dried fish trader who bears deep scars on each arm from injuries sustained in the tsunami, told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We saw how the US is an arrogant nation. They think they are a superpower and the international police, that they rule everything," added the merchant, who lost his parents, grandparents and three brothers in the catastrophe.

"We don't hate the people -- we just don't understand the way the American government thinks."

A recent Gallup poll, conducted in 10 nations that comprise 80 percent of the world's Muslim population, found that the majority of them strongly doubt the US is trying to establish democracy in the Middle East and many think the Iraq war has done more harm than good.

A similar poll released on December 1 showed that most Arabs doubted that spreading democracy was the real US objective.

Oil, protecting Israel, dominating the region and weakening the Muslim world were seen as US goals, according to the survey, which included interviews with 800 people in each of Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates.

John Danforth, a former US ambassador to the UN and a three-term senator, has charged that US President George W. Bush was bowing to the rightists.

Pundits have further said that appoints made by Bush after his reelection in 2004 demonstrated that his administration had drifted towards the neoconservatives, putting an end to the genial moderation presented by some politicians like former secretary of state Colin Powell.

Din Syamsuddin, the secretary general of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas -- the highest Islamic authority in the country -- said the US aid campaign had little changed attitudes in the country.

"I think the Muslim perception is very much dependent on American foreign policy in the Muslim world, not only in Aceh but also in Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan," he said.

"Foreign aid to Aceh was not only peculiar to America -- all countries supported Indonesia."

For Washington, Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, remains the key stumbling block in the region, a fact not lost on US officials, according to AFP.

Two weeks after the devastating Indian Ocean disaster, President Bush said US aid to tsunami victims would help defeat "Islamic extremists" who had convinced Muslims around the world that Washington was the enemy.

"People are seeing the concrete actions of a compassionate country," he told ABC television at the time.

A few months later, former US presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton -- appointed to head US private fundraising efforts after the tsunami -- insisted the aid was helping America's image in the countries hit by the massive waves.

Oxfam has said that aid pledges by some countries such as the US, France and Britain in the wake of a natural disaster usually seems politically motivated and only designed to hit the headlines.

The US had dramatically increased its tsunami aid pledges to $350 million, eclipsing the World Bank’s initial $250 million after scathing criticism for Bush’s slow response to the disaster.