The Terror Of Mass Propaganda

The Terror Of Mass Propaganda

Abdul A. Alliu

"Our message is clear: you will not be safe until you withdraw from our land, stop stealing our oil and wealth and stop supporting the corrupt rulers," Ayman al-Zawahri.

The above statement is from Ayman al-Zawahri, the supposed number two man to Osama bin Laden in a video broadcast on Al Jazeera and extensively quoted by the western media on August 4, 2005. I don't see any mention in this paragraph or the whole statement, of Islam or any quotation from the Quran to explain or justify why he and his group are fighting the United States and Britain. A few days back, I saw on TV some Muslim clerics and their followers demonstrating on the street against terrorism. This was followed by a statement from a group of clerics calling themselves the "Grand Ulama of North America" supposedly enacting a "fatwa" on any Muslim who is involved in or assist those who are engaged in suicide bombings. All these were obviously in reaction to the July 7 bombings in London, England that killed 56 people, including the alleged four attackers.

It is absolutely a good thing to see people of all faiths, be they Muslims, Christians, etc coming together to demonstrate against terrorism and violence as a means of solving a problem. But what is appalling to me is the way these so-called Muslim leaders has allowed themselves to be taken in and pushed to a defensive line by nothing other than an orchestrated propaganda by the western media and right-wing evangelist-politicians that are bent on portraying Islam as the cause of their problem rather than looking at their own world-wide policies.

For example, the statement by the group that claimed responsibility for the London bombings listed the continued killing of Iraqi people by the US/UK forces as their sole reason for the bombing. This was widely reported by the media in the UK and US, supposedly quoting from the group's website. This has also been supported by the above statement from al-Zawahri on the same issue. But somehow, the British prime minister, Mr Tony Blair, has continued to blame the bombings on "Islamic extremism". Maybe the PM can claim to know more than ordinary mortals like us does, but I don't think he can claim to know about the motivation for the bombing more than the alleged bombers themselves! If the group that claims responsibility for the bombing (UK government has not denied the group's claim) is insisting that the war on Iraq is their sole reason for the bombing, then how does the PM came about his claim of "Islamic extremism" as the cause? Maybe the PM, or the members of the "superpower alliance" to which he faithfully belongs, are suggesting that if the majority of Iraqis (or middle easterners generally) were to be of any faith other than Islam (maybe Christianity, Judaism or Hinduism), they would not have reacted in whatever way they can to fight the unprovoked occupation and destruction of their country of birth by foreign powers whom they can not match militarily. And, since the PM has decided to "religionize" the whole problem to get a propaganda advantage over Islam, we might as well go the whole length, thus: If PM Blair insists that "Islamic extremism" is the reason for the London bombings, then what is his reason for the invasion of Iraq? Christian extremism? Or are we to believe that it is only Islam that has extremists and Christianity doesn't? And, how come no Christian leader has been pressured to defend Christianity and apologise to the world on behalf of the invasion as the Muslim leaders are now doing? How come no Christian leader so far, is blaming the invasion of Iraq on Bush's and Blair's misguided understanding of the Bible and the teachings of "extremist Christian preachers"? How come when a rag-tag Muslim with home-made crude utensils bombs a town in England, it is "evil terrorism" taught to him by no other than the Quran, but when a rich Christian "super-power" with nuclear bombs on his hand, pummels a poor country back to stone age, it is in the name of "democracy" and for the "good" of the world! For over a decade, these same people (the US government and media called them the "mujaheddins" then) were being paid and given free arms to fight the occupation of their native Afganistan by the Soviet Union. They were invited to the White House and hailed as "heros" and compared to America's founding fathers who fought for the freedom of their people from oppression. That was in their fight against the Soviet Union. Now, when those same people realised that all they have achieved in driving away the Soviet Union is trading one oppressor for the other, they continued their stuggle for freedom. This time against the United States. That's when the title changed. All of a sudden, they methamorphised from "heros" and "freedom-fighters" to "Islamic terrorists" and "Islamic extremists". Maybe we need a new definition for hypocrisy!

For 35 years, the IRA bombed, killed over 1700 people and maimed thousands in that same London on an issue that has its roots on the religious divide between the Catholics and protestants in Ireland. Nobody, not the western media nor their politicians, has ever blamed those IRA bombings on "Catholic extremism". In fact, no media or politician has ever publicly linked the IRA with Christianity as they are doing with Islam now. Maybe Christianity and Christians, unlike Islam and Muslims, is just too pure to be "linked" to terrorism!

The way Bush/Blair/Sharon has portrayed Islam in the last few years since they got to power, you will think that all the evils that have ever been committed in the world were committed by Muslims. Thank God that Adolf Hitler was not a Muslim. If he had been, all the Muslims in the world would have been roasted by now. When the KKK members were bombing and roasting black people in America, they were carrying their Bible in their pockets. In fact, many of them were church preachers who go "negro-lynching" in their hoods immediately after church service on Sundays. Nobody ever blamed Christianity for their actions. Aparthied was carried out for decades in Africa by Bible-totting Christians who opened parliament every week day by rabidly quoting the Bible to justify their claim that black people were meant to be "hewers of wood and carriers of water" for the white race. Nobody ever blamed aparthied on Christianity. Muslims did not start the World War I or World War II. If a Muslim had been involved in the issues that led to the start of those wars, the propagandists would have re-named those wars "Islamic or Jihadist's War I and II" by now. Thank God that it was not a Muslim that dropped the only nuclear bomb ever unleashed on human beings in 1945. It was a "Christian" nation that holds that nuclear record. But all of a sudden now, no "Muslim" nation should be allowed near an iron rod, just in case they may decide to make nuclear bombs with it and bomb Hiroshima! In order words, the destroyers of Hiroshima have all of a sudden become the grand protectors of Hiroshima! Talk of hypocrisy again. In that same WWII, the Japanese made use of their pilots in suicide missions in what is infamously know as "kamikaze" operations. Nobody ever blamed their war actions on their religion (I am sure the Japs are as religious as everyone else!).

Timothy McVeigh who was convicted for the 1995 Oklahoma city bombing was a "born-again" Christian. No media ever give us a scoop of which church he attended nor was his old church ever raided by security forces to question his preacher on what he preaches about every sunday at church. While in jail, he was receiving as gifts, and reading the Bible everyday. There was never any account of his jailors taking his Bible away from him or flushing it down the toilet! Maybe his crime is less of a terrorism because he was American, or Caucasian, or blue-eyed. Maybe his crime is less heinous because he was a Christian. Dawn every Muslim in America (and worldwide!) if McVeigh had been a Muslim or even claimed to have ever met or shook any Muslim's hand anywhere!

The London bombings of July 7 was horrible. But so are the daily bombings in the cities of Iraq. London was bombed one day, but the cities of Iraq have been under daily bombardment for the last twelve years. Unfortunately, while fresh flowers were being laid at the scene in London and the doors of the British embassy in Washington DC, I have never seen anyone on TV placing any flower (even a torn one!) at any Iraqi embassy anywhere in memory of the innocent people being killed there everyday by US/UK forces. While the name and face of every US soldier ever killed in Iraq has graced the front-page of major newspapers and TV screens, those of the thousand Iraqis massacred right inside their own homes are presumed faceless and nameless! They are not worth anything. Maybe, the life of an Iraqi is worthless compared to that of a Briton or an American. Or, maybe, it is the life of a Muslim everywhere that is not worth anything compared to that of a Christian. Maybe it is all these and other numerous cases of injustices and hypocrisy being perpetuated by the "super-power alliance" against the "wretcheds" of the world that is the root cause of terrorism. Maybe it is time to stop making Islam a scapegoat of a failed foreign policy and face the reality that every action has its reaction or consequences. Maybe these are the things that the so-called Islamic clerics and Ulamas need to say to Messrs Bush and Blair rather than offering some apology on something they have nothing to do with or control over. Maybe they need to tell PM Blair that what the world needs today is not a conference on "Islamic extremism" as the PM is demanding of them, but a conference on the consequences of military invasion, occupation and oppression by the super-powers. Maybe if Bush and Blair, both of whom claim to be ardent or "born-again" Christians, will take seriously the Biblical injunction that says "Do unto others as you would others do unto you", maybe the world will some day see some peace.

As has been demonstrated over and over through the course of human history, from the earliest days of military conquest, through slavery, colonialism, KKKism, apartheid and now military occupation and oppression, it is NOT the poor and powerless that are the sole "terrorists" of the world. In fact, terrorism and oppression is the creation and hall-mark of the rich and powerful; maybe that is how they acquired their wealth and power in the first instance. Maybe that is why terrorism will continue to be their weapon of mass dominance and oppression. Maybe that is why terrorism may never end. For the west to continue to blame Islam for the consequences of their (western powers') foreign policies abroad (and for the so-called Islamic leaders and Ulamas to be defensive and apologetic about that accusation) is akin to telling the world that American forces went to kill two million Vietnamese for "freedom" or that they are in Iraq killing and being killed right now looking for "weapons of mass destruction" or "defending freedom". We were all thought (brain-washed?) in our younger days that these kind of lies and propaganda are the hallmarks of the "communist", "God-less" and "evil empire" called the Soviet Union. Now we all know better!!!