|
Militancy and terrorism are the direct result of unstinted US support for Israel and its continued occupation of Arab areas.
‘Islamic Terrorism’ is a term coined by the Western media. It does find an echo in the Indian media with inclination towards the Hindutva forces as currently the Hindutva interests converge with the Zionists world over. However, to say that Islam does not preach or promote terrorism would not be a sufficient rebuttal. Some terrorists do take shelter behind Islam and provide a handle to the US leaned media to equate jihad with terrorism. It is obvious due to the strong influence the Jewish and Zionist lobby exerts in the US media and the administration.
Israeli occupation of the Palestinian areas and continued violation of resolutions of the United Nations and the bloody mess the US is creating in the Middle East in pursuit of energy resources provide the motivation for some groups to take up arms. Western media indulges in double standards in reporting of the events from Middle East. Israeli occupation is treated with kid gloves while resistance against oppression is dubbed ‘Islamic terrorism’. Israel tried to kill late Yasser Arafat and in fact killed two of Hamas leaders, Sheikh Yaseen and Rantissi, no one ever had the cheek to dub these acts Israeli terrorism. All this, merely to show that the terms of discourse are not equal when it comes to media.
A sampling of the media headlines makes it apparent as to how Western propaganda machines link Islam and terrorism. When the US Navy shot down the Iranian jetliner in the Gulf killing 253 persons on board, the US free media carefully avoided the act being described ‘US terrorism’. Did the US hand over the navy men to Iran for trial? No. But the US insists that Libyans who bombed the American plane be tried in the West. The Union Carbide killed 2,500 persons (besides crippling thousands more) in Bhopal. Why did not the US hand over the Carbide chief Anderson to be tried in India? Why is it that India was forced to accept a paltry sum towards compensation for the dead and maimed men and women? The United Kingdom has declared several bodies as terrorists, but begged with India to release Peter Bleach, a confirmed British terrorist who was convicted for dropping lethal weapons in Purulia and helping the Anand Margis1. Prior to Bleach’s release, India was forced to release five Latvian terrorists involved in the same arms trafficking case.
It has also been widely documented in the Indian press that Tamil terrorists used the Indian territory to fight for Eelam in Sri Lanka. They bombed Chennai’s Meenambakkam airport and some groups eliminated other groups through mass murders in Tamil Nadu. Yet they were always referred as ‘Tamil militants’ (not ‘Hindu terrorists’) by the press. Similarly, the IRA bombers are never identified as Catholic terrorists. It all points to a special interest in prefixing terrorism with Islam or Muslims. With so much of doublespeak and double standards everywhere in matters of dealing with terrorism and terrorists, there must be some design, behind Islam and Muslims alone being held responsible for such acts. Individual acts of terrorism by Muslims need not be attributed to Islam just as Hinduism cannot be held responsible for acts of Hindu terrorists of Sri Lanka. But the media imbalance does empower some in the developed West to accuse the media have-nots with terrorism.
Now let us look at the profile of world terrorism in the light of the facts emanating from the Western sources alone and let us judge where Muslims or the Muslim world figures in this. According to the annual US State Department report Patterns of Global Terrorism 1997, among the reported incidents of terrorism from years 1992 to 1997, the largest number of terrorist incidents occurred in Europe (831); second largest (602) in Latin America; the Middle East ranked third with 422 incidents. For the same years there were 7,621 casualties in the European incidents and 2,692 casualties in Middle East incidents. These statistics cannot be taken at the face value. They are modified somewhat by Muslim implication in incidents in Europe. But even adjusting for this factor does not detract from the suggestion that terrorism is universal and is not the exclusive preserve of Muslims or the Muslim dominated Middle East. The State Department named 34 terrorist groups as of October 8, 1997. Fewer than half, 14 were related to the Middle East. The remaining 20 were associated with Asia (10), Europe (6) and Latin America (4). These statistics have made Ralph Braibanti of the Edmund A Walsh School of International Affairs in Washington to make the following comment: “The use of poison gas by the Buddhist Aum Shinrikyo, the Oklahoma Bombings by an American Christian, the long standing terrorism by Northern Irish Catholics, the violence of Indian Hindus (remember Babri Masjid and its bloody aftermath) and Buddhist against Muslims, the vicious ethnic cleansing by Christian Orthodox Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo, the violence of drug-related Catholic mobs in Latin America, and the terrorism of Hindu Tamils against the Sinhalese Buddhist government of Sri Lanka demonstrates the universality of terrorism and the cultural and religious diversity of its origins.”2
In Middle Eastern context, fundamentalism and terrorism feed upon the corruption of non-representative, undemocratic and unpopular regimes because of injustices being committed against the Palestinians by Israel and its occupation of Arab lands, the construction of the Apartheid Wall, the usurpation of farmlands, wells and refugee status of Palestinians. It is as much a protest against the unjust Western policies, henpecked UN and repressive regimes which look towards the US for support rather than their own people.
Militancy and terrorism are the direct result of unstinted US support for Israel and its continued occupation of Arab areas, occupation of Jerusalem and heavy subsidizing of Israeli state by the US. Several people and intellectuals have begun to take notice of it. Look at the following facts.
• Israel received $ 16 billion in aid from the United States during 2000-2004 while the US aid to Palestine totalled up to $ 400 million3.
• UN resolutions against rolling back Israeli occupation is never implemented, but US forces ingress into the Middle East for rolling back Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.
• America is jubilant when Berlin Wall comes down, but funds Israel when it constructs 370 km long wall to separate Palestinians from their irrigated lands, wells and the Jewish settlements.
• A lie is planted in the MNC owned media with effect to Iraq’s possession of the Weapons of Mass Destruction and a hype is generated to build a coalition of forces for occupation of oil rich Iraq against UN and the opinion of the world.
• No notice is taken of Israel developing nuclear capability. But Israel is allowed to bomb Iraq’s nuclear facility. Threats are issued against Iran. Iran is projected as a threat to US security while the US is the only country which has so far used an Atom Bomb on human habitations in Japan.
• Islam is being developed as a bugbear for the world security by American think tanks. Reasons cited are most Islamic countries are undemocratic, deficient in human rights and Governments are repressive. Seminars are held on ‘Islam versus the West’. But Americans feels no qualm in doing business with China and feel no need for engaging in dialogue between Confucianism and the West.
People naturally react and defend themselves wherever their rights are suppressed. The freedom struggles cannot be described as terrorism. And most freedom struggles emanate from the sense of nationalism, which is again a Western innovation. In the end, we all should think of a new World Order which can give us peace with justice, not the peace of the graveyard. But the mandarins of the US State Department are envisioning a unipolar world in which the US would be the global cop4.
Notes and References
1- Maqbool Ahmed Siraj, Islamic Voice, March 2004, ‘A terrorist released swiftly, subtly and stealthily’
Then Minister of State for Home I. D. Swami is on record (as reported by NDTV.com) having said ‘If Bleach’s release could further India’s interest and improve relations with a friendly nation, there was nothing wrong in re-examining the case’.
2-Ralph Braibanti, Islam and the West: Common Cause or Clash, Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., 2o057, Pages: 56
3-Richard H. Curtiss, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, quoting Frank Collins in the issues December 1991/January 1992 says : Israel has received $84.8 billion in grants, loans and commodities from the U.S. since 1949 which have cost the U.S. an additional $49,936,880,000 in interest.
Several commentators within Israel are of the opinion that this aid pushes Israel to callous intransigence.
Israeli satirist B. Michael refers to U.S. aid this way: “‘My master gives me food to eat and I bite those whom he tells me to bite. It’s called strategic cooperation.”
4-Refer to Project New Century America www.newamericancentury .org/
In the words of its chairman William Kristol, ‘It is based on the fundamental propositions: that American leadership is good both for America and for the world; and that such leadership requires military strength, diplomatic energy and commitment to moral principle’.
(The writer can be reached at maqbool_siraj@rediffmail.com and debunkmyth@yahoo.co.in)
|
|
