|
Due
in part to the dissemination of anti-Arab and
anti-Moslem propaganda by certain right-wing U.S.
broadcasters and columnists, Americans are increasingly
suspicious of Moslems as evidenced by the results of a
recent nationwide poll conducted by Cornell University.
Can you believe that in the
“land of the free”, a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic,
pluralistic nation, almost half the population believes
the civil liberties of American-Moslems should be
restricted? The poll also discovered that those who
sought to enthusiastically single out Moslems were
religious Republicans and frequent watchers of
television news networks.
Excitedly
rubbing his hands together at the poll’s outcome is
author, syndicated columnist and controversial Bush
appointee to the Board of the United States Institute
for Peace. He says the poll reflects his own beliefs
that “government authorities should direct special
attention toward Moslems living in the U.S. either by
registering their whereabouts, profiling them,
monitoring their mosques, or infiltrating their
organizations.”
Hate
Hurts
America
The
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is so
concerned about the disturbing trend it has launched a
campaign titled “Hate Hurts America”. CAIR points a
finger at elements of the media, which seek to incite
racial and religious passions and urges its members to
contact those broadcasters and newspapers so as to make
their feelings known.
On its website
CAIR says Daniel Pipes is considered by many Moslems as
the number one Islamophobe and has asked the Bush
administration to repudiate his published views, which
include support for the mass round-up of
Japanese-Americans during World War II.
The subsequent
herding of Americans into internment camps or open-air
prisons simply due to their ethnicity resulted from
“legitimate national security concerns” says Pipes. This
is at variance with the views of the U.S. government,
which has since apologized to its Japanese community.
According to
CAIR, Pipes seems “to suggest that violence against
foreign nationals in Iraq could be curbed by attacks on
Moslems in the home countries of the victims”, and he
has suggested: “Israel ‘raze’ Palestinian villages.”
Furthermore,
states CAIR, Pipes has “decried positive portrayals of
Islamic history and beliefs in public schools and has
claimed 10 to 15 per cent of all Moslems are “potential
killers”.
Pipes is
also responsible for the launch of ‘Campus Watch’, a web
site with dossiers on professors and institutions
considered critical of Israel or sympathetic to Moslems.
Racial Profiling
But
Pipes is far from being the only one of that xenophobic
ilk. Columnist Michelle Malkin, and regular guest on Fox
News, takes a similar position to Pipes on internment
and has written a book titled “In Defense of Internment:
The Case for Racial Profiling in World War II and the
War on Terror”. Malkin says: “targeted
intelligence-gathering at mosques and in local Moslem
communities, for example, makes perfect sense.”
Malkin is
following in the footsteps of her fellow right-wing
pundit, another Fox favorite, Ann Coulter. When it comes
to Moslems, Coulter has urged the U.S. to “invade their
countries, kill their leaders and convert them to
Christianity.”
Coulter’s
gung-ho call to war was evident during her appearance on
Fox’s Hannity & Colmes when she told anti-war Canadians
to hope the U.S. “doesn’t roll over one night and crush
them”, adding, “they are lucky we allow them on the same
continent.”
The Fox
television network, owned by the ultra conservative,
pro-Zionist Rupert Murdoch, was in February taken to
task by CAIR over its new drama series.
The series
titled “24” and starring Kiefer Sutherland depicts a
Moslem family at the heart of a terror plot. CAIR was
concerned “that the portrayal of the family as a
terrorist sleeper cell” might “cast a shadow of
suspicion over ordinary American Moslems and could
increase Islamophobic stereotyping and bias.” After a
meeting between CAIR and representatives of Fox, the
network issued a public disclaimer. This consists of an
announcement by Sutherland thus:
“Hi! My name is
Kiefer Sutherland. And I play counter-terrorist agent
Jack Bauer on Fox’s 24. I would like to take a moment to
talk to you about something that I think is very
important. Now while terrorism is obviously one of the
most critical challenges facing our nation and the
world, it is important to recognize that the American
Moslem community stands firmly behind their fellow
Americans in denouncing and resisting all forms of
terrorism. So, in watching 24, please, bear that in
mind.”
While CAIR was
right to be concerned about the public reaction to the
series, the very fact that such a disclaimer was
necessary is surely a sad indictment as to U.S. public
opinion and inclinations to lump the world’s 1.4 billion
Moslems together under a nonsensical terrorist banner.
Indeed, more
than any religious group today, Moslems are victims of
terrorism. One only has to count the daily casualties in
Iraq to come to that conclusion. Bear in mind, too, the
more than 3,000 Palestinians killed over the past
three-and-a-half years, as well as the victims of
bombings in Morocco, Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
The various
portly worn-out former generals rolled out regularly by
Fox News love to bash Saudi Arabia as a terrorist
exporting state, yet in February Riyadh hosted a major
counter-terrorism international conference so that ways
of combating terrorism could be discussed. During the
conference Crown Prince Abdullah called for nations
around the world to create an international
anti-terrorism center that would facilitate a greater
exchange of information.
But Murdoch’s
mouthpieces aren’t the only ones using vile rhetoric in
an attempt to shape the perceptions of Americans against
Moslems. MSNBC’s “Imus in the Morning” program is doing
its bit too. During a November segment, the killing of a
wounded Iraqi insurgent, referred to as a “booby-trapped
rag-head cadaver” was justified and described as an “Al
Jazeera moment” prompting the “Moslem masses to respond
with their routine pack of rabid sheep mentality.”
During one of the earlier shows, Don Imus referred to
Palestinians as “stinking animals” with a suggestion
they should all be killed.
Last year, while
referring to the crash of an Iranian aircraft when 43
passengers lost their lives, Imus shamefully commented:
“When I hear stories like that, I think ‘who cares… too
bad it wasn’t full of Saudi Arabians’.”
Another radio
show host with knives out for the Palestinians is Joseph
Farah, an Evangelical Arab-American born of Lebanese
parents. Farah is the founder of the website
worldnetdaily, which frames his regular column, and the
host a three-hour long weekday radio program. Farah, who
described the late President Arafat as “pro-Nazi scum”,
insists the Palestinians are not a people and do not
deserve their own state.
In one of his
latest columns, he says: “the demands on Israel right
now are demands or the nation to commit political,
military and cultural suicide. Do you know what the new
borders of Israel would be under the plans being drawn
up now for a “viable, contiguous Palestine? I call them
Auschwitz borders. I don’t know why the Jews don’t see
it. They are willingly helping to build a national
concentration camp of half the world’s Jewry surrounded
by hostile maniacs, who want to eradicate them. Israel’s
new borders under a Rice plan will be indefensible.”
Farah’s callers
are even more poisonous than the man himself regularly
suggesting the nuking of Mecca and all Arab capitals
between showing their support for torture. One advocated
cutting the fingers off terrorist suspects one by one
until they talked.
Farah has said
that the practices at Abu Ghraib were regular events at
U.S. college fraternity parties. In that case, one of
the chief Abu Ghraib perpetrators Lynndie England is
assured of the kind of social life she obviously
relishes.
Sadly, it isn’t
only media hawks responsible for stirring up anti-Moslem
feeling. Statements by politicians, such as Lt. Gen.
William Boykin, Deputy Under-Secretary for Defense for
Intelligence, who told evangelical congregations that
“Satan wants to destroy us as a Christian army” with
reference to U.S. troops in Iraq, and Bush is in the
White House “because God put him there,” add toxic fuel
to the embers of a sectarian divide.
Let’s be clear,
all decent right-thinking individuals regardless of
their religion or nationality should abhor such
anti-Arab, anti-Moslem sentiments. Just imagine the
outrage if the statements made by the above-mentioned
individuals were directed at Jews or Christians. They
wouldn’t last two minutes in their jobs.
Surely, in the
same way the American government attempts to dampen down
the rhetoric of Al Jazeera or certain Arabic newspapers,
Arab and Moslem governments should formally complain to
the Bush administration about comments from pundits and
politicians designed to incite the masses against their
people.
At the same
time, Arab and Moslem governments should work at putting
across their points of view to the West using the medium
of cultural exchanges, movies portraying Moslems in a
positive light, and English language media outlets.
Bombed, Banned and
Lambasted
For
years, the Arab League has been promising a joint
English language satellite network to no avail. And for
just as many years Al Jazeera has been promising to
set-up a similar service. Instead, the network is on the
point of being sold off due to U.S. condemnation and
pressure. Given that Al Jazeera has been bombed, banned
and lambasted, its correspondents jailed for terrorist
links, who can blame the Qatari ruler for wanting the
heat off his tiny country?
Slowly but
surely, as the voices against Arabs increase, the Arab
voice in defense is being silenced. Palestine television
was a frontrunner in English-language current affairs
programming with its nightly program “Your message to
the world”. Accused of inciting anti-Israeli sentiments,
the show was closed down.
Other Arab
networks have replaced their strident chief editors with
those possessing safe pro-American leanings. In their
place come Al-Hurra and Al-Sawa funded by the U.S.
taxpayer to sculpture Arab minds. Luckily, they have
been largely ignored for the U.S.-government propaganda
arms they actually are. All well and good, but for how
long will that remain the case?
In the same way
that Jews were demonized in Nazi Germany prior to the
Holocaust so are Arabs and Moslems being today. This
vicious trend needs to be stopped before it gets out of
hand. Arab leaders should work with the U.S. government
and its European allies to do just that before it’s too
late.
| 
