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Sunday, May 09, 2004
Canadian Islamic Congress
I receive a ton of email whenever I write about the Mideast in the Globe and Mail; not all of it is edifying, but sometimes it's very revealing, such as this missive from Hassan Ahmed [[email protected]]
Stop your prpaganda against Muslims and Arabs. You are making our lives hell in Canada through you hate propaganda
======================================================================
WORTH REPEATING: THE ECHOS OF THE PAST
BY WAHIDA C.VALIANTE
===============================================================
Long before Jews were herded into concentration camps, a climate of
hatred against them had been methodically and relentlessly pursued
through the German media and the government ministry of propaganda.
Today, many people object to hearing comparisons drawn between racist
propaganda directed against Islam and Muslims and that which occurred
against Jews during the 1930s. After all, they point out, we live
under a democratic government and there are no concentration camps for
Muslims. In fact, to hear them tell it, there is nothing at all
threatening Muslims in North America.
But those same voices who argue against making the harsh parallel
between Nazi Germany and the present day have never sought to extend
them to the historical reality that the slaughter of Jews was only
possible because of the long and vitriolic propaganda campaign of
deadly misinformation.
In 1993, Samuel Huntington wrote "The Clash of Civilizations," in
which he articulated very clearly his anti-Islam position. He writes
in Clash. "The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic
fundamentalism," "It is Islam, a different civilization whose people
are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed
with the inferiority of their power." For nearly a decade now the
propaganda machine has been in full force to "solve the Islamic and
Muslim problem." The agenda is to manipulate public opinion so utterly
and thoroughly that Muslims would soon be universally viewed as no
more than expendable animals and their faith of Islam as a violent,
illegitimate religion.
The current blood-letting policy of America toward the Muslim world is
the culmination of a campaign so thorough in its viciousness that its
perpetrators feel morally justified in carpet-bombing Afghanistan and
Iraq. At the same time, they feel equally justified in imposing such
inhumane sanctions on Iraq that thousands of innocent children and
infants have died through preventable disease and neglect.
This same policy has also allowed America to support Israel both
militarily and politically, so that this client state of Washington
can freely commit its own atrocities, destruction, closures, economic
strangulation, and intimidation of Palestinian civilians in the
occupied territories. No amount of state-sanctioned terrorism against
Palestinians is condemned because the majority of those killed and
maimed are supposedly Muslim terrorists and not innocent Palestinian
women and children.
Russia, likewise, has continued to commit genocide against Chechens
without any fear of serious censure by the international community. On
the home front, American authorities were able to round up thousands
of Arab and Muslim citizens in the midst of a civilized nation after
the September 11 tragedies and incarcerate them without any due
process of law.
Samuel Huntington's co-religionists, Daniel Pipes (Middle East Policy
Advisor), Steve Emerson (Jihad in America), and Bernard Lewis (Roots
of Muslim Rage) have lead the sustained media assault on Muslims in
North America and on Islam as a religion. For more than a decade they
have pumped out denigrating and demonizing images of Muslims as "the
others," juxtaposing them with idealized images of "civilized"
Americans. It is no coincidence that Bernard Lewis, America's
foremost Islamophobic spokesperson, wrote his article "Roots of Muslim
Rage" immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union (Atlantic
Monthly, September 1990). Samuel Huntington followed in 1993 with his
infamous "The Clash of Civilizations" (Foreign Affairs): he obviously
modelled his title from missionary Basil Matthews' 1926 book "Young
Islam on Trek: A Study in the Clash of Civilizations."
Their obsession with Islam has caused them somehow to retard their
thinking processes to the point where they are compelled to repeat the
same formulas again and again. Regrettably, others have joined in on
the vitriol against Islam and its adherents. Novelist V.S. Naipaul,
who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his anti-Islam book, after September
11, 2001, reacted to that tragedy with his own hawkish diatribe on
clashing civilizations, in which he grandiosely affirmed Islam's
supposed calamitous effect on world "civilization."
In the ongoing effort to demonize Islam and Muslims, the media have
been joined by some Christian fundamentalists, many claiming to be
born-again believers whose religious energies are focused on the
eventual destruction of Islam's third holiest place "The Dome of the
Rock"-- Jerusalem -- in order to built a new temple so that their
Messiah can return. Imagine a prophet of Jesus' (peace be upon him)
stature needing a building as a landing-pad to bring message of peace
to this tortured world!
Another little-known fact is that the arrival of the Messiah also will
mark the end of all Jewish life. According to some interpretations of
Biblical prophecy, the Jews will either convert to Christianity at
Jesus' second coming, or will be killed if they refuse -- and all this
bloodletting supposedly will happen in the name of religion.
So far, the triumphalist campaign seems to have been very successful
in the United States, especially after September 11, 2001. Muslim and
Arab citizens have become the target of ethnic profiling, supposedly
as potential terrorists or supporting parties to it. And over just a
few months, a draconian slate of laws has been passed to squeeze
Muslims out of every aspect of American life -- government, education,
economy, etc. Even Muslim charities, which have been the backbone of
organizations providing financial help to victims of ethnic cleansing,
brutal occupation, and state-sanctioned terrorism, have been adversely
affected by the pall of suspicion thrown over all Muslims.
Steps to disenfranchise and disempower Canadian Muslims are also being
pursued just as relentlessly, on a scale of calculated and increasing
severity. According to a recent Toronto Star article, "the case of
Mohamed Mansour Jabarah should raise alarms here, not because of his
alleged role in an alleged terrorist plot, but because of the casual
way in which Canadian government authorities handed over a Canadian
citizen to be jailed -- without charge -- by a foreign power."
The National Post leads the Islamophobic pack, followed by various
self-proclaimed experts on Islam. Some spread their disinformation in
the public media or preach an ultra-conservative fundamentalist line
to evangelical Christians. Print and broadcast personality Michel
Coren is a popular name among this group. According to his latest
hypothesis, the world's 1.2 billion Muslims are no more than blood-
thirsty terrorists who simply hate our way of life and are out to
"get" the good folks of North America. This, he tells us, is a result
of Islamic teaching -- conveniently forgetting that a mere handful of
fanatic individuals caused the death of thousands of innocent
Americans. Coren would also prefer if Muslims did not mention, thank
you very much, the 800 years of peaceful co-existence in Spain among
the three leading monotheistic religions -- Judaism, Christianity, and
Islam -- under Muslim rule.
Remember how effectively German public opinion was manipulated by the
media? It was done so relentlessly that otherwise rational Germans saw
no crime in the vandalism and looting of "Kristallnacht," for example,
when numerous Jewish businesses and shops were destroyed. We must
never forget that when an ongoing, relentless atmosphere of hate has
been established against any one religion, it compromises and devalues
the religious and civil liberties of all citizens.
As people of good conscience and good will, we share in the
responsibility of ensuring that America never travels that terrible
road.
Wahida Chishti Valiante is a family counselor and the national vice-
president of Canadian Islamic Congress. She can be reached at
[email protected]
420 Erb St. West, Suite: 424
Waterloo, Ontario N2L 6K6
Tel: 519-746-1CIC (1242)
Fax: 519-746-2929
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: http://www.canadianislamiccongress.com
Posted by Norman Spector on May 9, 2004 in International Affairs | Permalink
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Comments
This repetition of Arab cliches is "revealing"? The lady says, "This same policy has also allowed America to support Israel both militarily and politically, so that this client state of Washington can freely commit its own atrocities, destruction, closures, economic strangulation, and intimidation of Palestinian civilians in the
occupied territories".
Aratrash and his PA are client of the EUrabians, just as Egypt and Jordan are US clients - and she has the temerity to call our sister-democrac, Israel, a "client"? That's revealing?
She wonders why the people of the US support Israel, and fogets that Israel is a democracy, one that shares OUR values, while the Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza have developed a blood-thirsty society, whose principal value is the cult of death. Her wonder is revealing?
Etc. What the lady wrote is a heap of junk.
Posted by: Joseph Alexander Norland | 2004-05-09 4:34:42 PM
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