- CAIRO -- The results of a
recent US nationwide poll, conducted by Cornell University, are shocking.
Can you believe that in the "land of the free" almost half believe
the civil liberties of American-Muslims should be restricted?
-
- Most enthusiastic to single out Muslims were religious
Republicans, and frequent watchers of television news channels. While more
than a quarter of all respondents thought Muslims should be required to
register their home addresses with the government, while almost one third
supported the covert infiltration of Muslim organizations within the US.
-
- Syndicated columnist, Fox News contributor and author
of "In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World
War II and the War on Terror" Michelle Malkin goes one step further,
saying "targeted intelligence-gathering at mosques and in local Muslim
communities, for example, makes perfect sense".
-
- The writer, who believes that the American government
was right to intern and expel America's ethnic Japanese population, for
which the US has apologized, recently told Fox & Friends of an open
season on Christians in Iraq, citing the ambush of four US clergymen near
Baghdad.
-
- When asked whether they were specifically targeted because
they were Christian, she insisted they were as though she was privy to
some insider knowledge, whereas it is far more likely that they were attacked
because they were Americans. Naturally, the program's jingoistic hosts
neglected to investigate further or point out that more Iraqis have been
killed by insurgents than anyone else.
-
- Malkin is following in the footsteps of her fellow right-wing
pundit Ann Coulter who urged the US to respond with full force to the 9-11
attacks, saying, "we should invade their countries, kill their leaders,
and convert them to Christianity".
-
- As though she didn't get enough attention following that
bloodthirsty tidbit, the hate-filled Coulter recently went on Fox's Hannity
& Colmes advising anti-war Canadians to hope the US "doesn't roll
over one night and crush them," adding, "they are lucky we allow
them to exist on the same continent." But Murdoch mouthpieces aren't
the only ones using vile rhetoric in an attempt to shape the perceptions
of Americans against Muslims. 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 "Muslim masses to respond with their routine pack of rabid sheep
mentality." During an earlier show, Palestinians were referred to
as "stinking animals" with suggestions they should all be killed.
-
- One wonders why MSNBC allows the shows host Don Imus
to continue his bigoted muckspreading when as early as 1985 he was forced
to apologize for defamatory anti-Arab statements.
-
- Earlier this year, with reference to the crash of an
Iranian aircraft responsible for the death of 43 passengers, he shamefully
commented: "When I hear stories like that, I think who cares... too
bad it wasn't full of Saudi Arabians".
-
- The Arab-American founder and editor of the right-wing
worldnetdaily.com Joseph Farah is another one wielding a poisoned pen.
When asked during an interview about the Palestine-Israel conflict, he
said: "There won't be peace without a military solution. Israel will
have to reoccupy the West Bank and the Gaza Strip".
-
- Farah, an evangelical Christian, who has described the
late President Arafat as "pro-Nazi scum", advises Israel to forcibly
transfer all Palestinians to neighboring Arab countries, warning, "population
transfers are not pretty and not without problems."
-
- "The Arabs - and I can say this as an Arab - are
great storytellers...the Arabian Nights and all these things. They lie
that the Jews threw the Arabs out of their homes. If you tell a big lie
often enough, people will believe it," he said, unwittingly parroting
the famous line of Hitler's propagandist Joseph Goebbles.
-
- Tragically, more and more Americans are falling for the
lies spread by Farah, Malkin, Coulter, Imus and their ilk as we can deduce
by the results of the Cornell University poll.
-
- Statements by politicians, such as Lt. Gen. William Boykin,
deputy under-secretary of defense for intelligence, who told evangelical
congregations that "Satan wants to destroy us as a Christian army"
with reference to American troops in Iraq, adding Bush is in the White
House "because God put him there" add toxic fuel to the embers.
-
- These purveyors of poison against Arabs and Muslims are
obviously agenda-led, and should be exposed and taken to task whenever
possible.
-
- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) asks
Muslims to do just that. Its ongoing campaign "Hate Hurts America"
is based on the premise that attacks by talk show hosts harm the US "by
creating a downward spiral of interfaith mistrust and hostility".
It asks listeners and viewers to report such incidents and make written
complaints to offending networks.
-
- America was, indeed, attacked by 19 criminals who purported
to espouse Islam, and Catholic members of the IRA launched terrorist attacks
on Britain. However, there is a difference: The British did not advocate
infiltrating Catholic churches or treating Catholics differently to other
groups as a result. Just imagine the international outcry were that to
have happened.
-
- The big lie in this case, spread by agenda-led elements
in the US media, paints Muslims as the aggressors.
-
- In truth, in Palestine and in Iraq, they are the victims
of American-made Apache gun-ships, F16s, and tanks. Tens of thousands are
dead. Tens of thousands more are maimed. Tens of thousands have been orphaned.
Many thousands languish in jails without charge or trial. Hundreds have
been tortured or humiliated.
-
- Faced with this onslaught, instead of inter-squabbling
it is time Muslim nations stuck together in defense of their own. If they
can't or won't, then who on earth will?
-
-
- - Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East
affairs. She welcomes feedback.
- Copyright: Arab News © 2004 All rights reserved.
-
- http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=56676&d=28&m
=12&y=2004&pix=opinion.jpg&category=Opinion
|
