1 UNDERSTANDING THE MALAYSIAN PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS AMERICA IN THE POST 9/11 ERA: A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION Hasrina Mustafa, Ph.D Mohammad Zin Nordin, Ph.D Shanti Balraj, Ph.D Jamilah Ahmad, Ph.D School of Communication Universiti Sains Malaysia 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia BACKGROUND On Tuesday morning September 11,2001, three hijacked planes hit the World Trade Centre (WTC) Twin Tower in New York and the Pentagon building outside Washington. A fourth hijacked plane crashed into a field in Pennsylyania. The sudden attacks had ultimately destroyed the twin WTC towers and damaged the Pentagon building, killing 3000 people and more than US100 billion dollars in damage (Johannen, Smith and Gomaz, 2003). The September 11 attacks had clearly changed the world. The attacks are a water-shed, with far-reaching implications for the entire world (AbuKhalil, 2002). Immediately after the September 11 incident, the US has dramatically changed its foreign policies, particularly in relation to the Gulf countries i.e Iraq, Iran, Palestine and Lebanon. These countries are greatly affected by the sharp re-evaluation of the US foreign policies. After the attacks, the USA declared a war on terrorism by attacking the Islamic Taliban regime in Afghanistan that had been harbouring the Al-Qeada terrorist group headed by Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect of the attacks (Ramakrishna,2003). Subsequently, on 29 January 2002, Bush had characterized Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an `Axis of Evil’ because of their research programmes aimed at developing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Bush indicated that the overall objective now involves not merely disrupting Al-Qaeda cells worldwide, but also forestalling the danger of the terrorists; teaming up with a small group of nations seeking to develop nuclear and biological weapons (Ramakrishna, 2003). The issue of Iraq particularly was perceived differently after the September 11 incident. Iraq is now seen as a serious treat in the American war on terrorism. According to one source, the single most important factor in the decision to go to war was the change in President Bush's position towards Iraq after the September 11 incident, with a military objective of eliminating Iraq's weapons of