The
Myth of the Muslim Terrorist: United States Into A
Caliphate - Media, Politicians
9 November 2009By T Obeidallah
According to the
majority of Americans, the “War on Terror” began
September 11, 2001 when 19 Muslims hijacked four
planes, crashing them into the World Trade Center,
Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. While this
official version of the story, fueled by policymakers
and mainstream media, ignores concrete evidence of
other—distinctly non-Muslim—fingerprints on the
tragedy, let us assume for the time being that these
men were Islamic radicals aiming to destroy prominent
American symbols and inflict mass casualties.
One of those killed in the World Trade Center was a
young man named James Gadiel whose hometown of Kent,
Connecticut wanted to commemorate a plaque in his
honor. Since Gadiel’s father demanded the words
“killed by Muslim terrorists” be engraved on the
plaque, it was rejected by town council members. Ruth
Epstein, one of the town leaders who voted it down,
correctly pointed out that such language is
disparaging, detrimental to the town’s image and
hurtful to its Muslim residents.
However, “killed by Muslim terrorists” is not so
offensive in that it is insensitive or promotes a
negative stereotype: it is just plain inaccurate. A
“Muslim terrorist,” is a myth, a fictional character
based in part on the hypocritical definition of
terrorism that Western policymakers and the media have
used to promote their own agenda and partly due to
territorial and political conflicts being erroneously
framed in a religious context. Most of the “terrorist
groups” and “state sponsors of terrorism,” so named by
the US State Department are reactive, formed as
organized resistance in the face of oppression.
During her recent visit to Pakistan, Secretary of
State Clinton condemned marketplace bombings as
terrorism, while stating in a town hall meeting that
US drone attacks on villages were not, even though
such attacks have resulted in civilian casualties and
the destruction of madrasas, religious schools for
children.
Throughout the world, Muslims have had no choice but
to form organized resistance to the myriad injustices
committed against their communities and institutions.
The 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran was a reaction to
the Shah’s bloody regime and the CIA’s now admitted
role in the coup which overthrew democratically
elected (and secular) Mossadegh to put him in power.
The Abu Sayyaf movement in the Philippines formed as a
result of the government’s policy to encourage
Catholic settlers to move from the north to Mindanao,
which was richer in natural resources. Poorer Muslim
communities were subsequently displaced and
marginalized. Abu Sayyaf’s desire for an independent
state in the southern Philippines has more to do with
historical injustice (along with Spanish and American
colonial influence) than religion.
The same false religious context is ascribed to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict as a fight between
Muslims and Jews. In reality, Zionism begin as a
secular movement, later establishing a state atop the
mass graves of Deir Yassin, Ramleh, Acre and countless
other villages decimated by the western-backed Irgun,
Stern and Israeli military. In the 61 years following
that disaster, the United States—founded on the
principles of religious equality and freedom—has
become the greatest ally of a state who has co-opted
religion to justify the wholesale slaughter of
Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian, while turning
survivors into the world’s largest refugee population.
Recent weeks have seen Islam’s third holiest shrine,
Al-Aqsa Mosque, fall under a siege by the Israeli
police, attacking worshippers therein with tear gas
grenades and rubber bullets. If we really lived in the
alternate universe of FOX News and AM talk radio,
Muslims would be carrying out daily spectacular
attacks to avenge this desecration; instead Al-Aqsa is
defended by a band of youths with rocks while there is
silence from Islamic countries, most of whom boast
corrupt western puppets as heads of government.
The assault on Al-Aqsa is the latest outrage Muslims
have endured; from genocide and strangulation by the
Israeli assault on Gaza to the humiliating
maltreatment suffered in Guantanamo Bay, Bagram and
elsewhere. According to Newsweek, tactics used in US
military prisons in Iraq include the use of loud music
during interrogations; one of the most frequently
played songs is entitled “F-k Your God” by Deicide,
attacking their very faith itself.
However, the persecution of Muslims does not just take
place overseas. On October 28, FBI agents shot Detroit
imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah during a botched arrest in
which they loosed a police canine on him. Abdullah
fired at the dog and was subsequently shot 18 times,
dying at the scene. The dog was airlifted to a medical
facility where it was pronounced dead. According to
the FBI, Abdullah was allegedly dealing in stolen
goods and was “anti-government.”
Now as the latest violent incident involving a Muslim
unfolds, Arab and Islamic advocacy groups are tripping
over each other to condemn the Ft. Hood shootings.
Koreans did not feel such urgency when Seung-Hui Cho
murdered 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007. The
difference is, Koreans have not been the victims of a
sustained media campaign to define alleged criminals
on the basis of their religion or nationality. Muslims
have.
For far too long, our politicians and the media have
preyed on an uneducated public, attempting to turn us
all into Islamophobes, fearing a Muslim takeover that
will turn the United States into a caliphate. For
those misguided individuals, rest easy: Muslims
worldwide are too busy fighting for their very
existence in a war the West declared long ago.
tammyewatts@hotmail.com
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