ENEMY HUNT, THE PERENNIAL QUEST OF THE WEST

Appeared in ‘Ceylon Today’ Sunday 25 December 2011

Enemy Hunt, the Perennial Quest of the West

Hameed Abdul Karim

The western powers have always needed enemies to force their agenda down the throats of different nations at various times in history. With the end of colonialism, however, the U.S. spurred by its imperial mindset, has taken over the role of ‘civilising’ the former colonies with the full backing of France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK which now are, for all intents and purposes, US satellite states.

Enemy number one has always been Islam. The war on Islam was reduced to a low intensity conflict while the west was involved in the ‘Cold War’. When the Soviet Union eventually caved in due to western pressures, not without the crucial role played by the Afghan mujahidin though, it trained its guns back on Islam.

Islam has always been a thorn in the west’s side. Despite centuries of colonialism the west has not been able to subdue the faith or the spirit of millions of its adherents.

War on terror or crusades

Muslims see the west’s ‘war on terror’ as yet another campaign to crush Islam and think it’s a continuation of the crusades despite pious pontifications to the contrary. This raises the question – why does the empire see Islam and Muslins as enemies? This is largely because Muslims have never surrendered their passionate loyalty to their faith or their traditions in return for cars, coca-cola and in general the ‘good life’ which is fast crumbling under its own contradictions as we speak. Muslims had fought for their independence with ferocity as one insurrection followed another during colonial occupation clearly demonstrates. Bear in mind that virtually all Muslim countries were under occupation of one western colonial power or another for centuries but hardly any Muslim exchanged his or her faith for material gains. Even the likes of Salman Rushdie or Taslima Nazreen have not been able to make a dent in the mindsets of Muslims despite the west’s heavy funding and political support to bring Islam and Muslims into the ‘enlightened era’ and to fit in cozily with America’s PNAC.

Islamic Banking – Islamic Fundamentalism?’

The west’s media has marched in lockstep with its leaders in their spiteful attacks on Islam and the Muslims without even pausing for reflection as is expected of media personnel. The media ‘experts’ have never seen a need for a deeper look or an understanding of what makes the Muslim tick. The once valiant Afghan Mujahidin who fought the Russian occupation of Afghanistan are now being described as ‘Muslim terrorists’ or ‘Muslim fundamentalists’ because this time around they are fighting the US led NATO occupation of their land. Islam, we are told repeatedly, is a ‘backward ideology’ or a throwback to ‘medieval times’. Yet there is a glaring inconsistency to this charge. Today we see what called ‘Islamic Banking’ (a misnomer) is flourishing the world over, while what is called ‘conventional banking’ is going belly up all over all the U.S. and Europe. There are many non-Muslims who are in the business of running ‘Islamic banks’ around the world, but nobody has the imagination or the temerity to call them ‘Muslim fundamentalists’ or the system as a throwback to ‘medieval times’!. Karen Armstrong in her biography of the Prophet Muhammad states it was Islam’s obsession with social and economic justice that led to its success as a world religion. Her book, though, has a lot of shortcomings.

Western media brainwashing

Over the years the west’s media (sometimes copied verbatim from media of nonwestern countries) in tandem with their respective governments’ pernicious imperialist designs, has shaped the minds of its viewers, readers and listeners with negative images of Islam. They want the world to believe their version of Islam instead of the Islam Muslims believe in. Take for example the recent riots in the UK. Three Muslims were killed when a car driven by a rioter ran over them. The western media referred to them as ‘Asian immigrants’. Had a Muslim committed this crime he would have been depicted as a ‘Muslim extremist’ or an ‘Islamic terrorist’. Nobody pointed a finger at the faith of the non-Muslim rioter; and that’s acceptable because his faith cannot be held accountable for his crime.

It’s not uncommon to hear such clichés as the ‘green peril’ or the ‘crescent of crisis’ to describe Taliban’s resistance to the U.S. led NATO occupation of Afghanistan. This is not to say the Taliban is lily white but just to emphasise the news we are getting about them is from their enemy.

Popular magazines like ‘TIME’ or ‘NEWSWEEK’ do not think it unfair or unethical to run cover stories describing American Muslims as the ‘Jihadi Next Door’ or the ‘Return of Islam with a cover picture of a Muezzin in a minaret calling the faithful to prayer to illustrate the roles of Islamic parties in North Africa or the Middle East. Hollywood follows the same line of propaganda.

Wasps

While Muslims are being projected as some kind of barbarians from the Middle Ages, the western media (that preeminently includes Hollywood) presents the actual fundamentalists in Washington DC who dictate terms to the world, as saviours of the world when they are anything but that. The U.S. ruling elite comprise the White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPS), and the Christian and Jewish lobbies on the ‘principles’ enshrined in America’s ‘Manifest Destiny’ which articulates America’s self proclaimed ‘divine’ right to rule the world. Any other creed or faith that challenges or refuses to submit to ‘Manifest Destiny’ is an obstacle and an outrage and has to be destroyed by any means possible. Islam is seen as an ideology standing in the way of the empire and hence the assault.

When we had President George Bush senior claiming he was doing the ‘Lord’s work’ when he bombed Iraq in what is now called the 1^st Gulf war, nobody in the world called him a fundamentalist or challenged his secular claims. Ronald Reagan was yet another ‘born again’ fundamentalist who believed he had the Holy Spirit in him. George Bush junior claimed he was on talking terms with God and yet nobody dared called him a born again fundamentalist though he said he was one. If a ‘fundamentalist’ Muslim were to make a similar claim, Muslims would put him in the nut house. The Americans put George Bush in the White House.

You can be sure Islam will continue to be in the news and be projected as civilisation’s enemy as the Arab Spring goes about bringing in change to improve the wretched lives of their people who were at the mercy of U.S. multinational corporations and the bankers. Happily the Arab Spring has inspired American’s and Israelis to rise up against the ruling elites in their respective countries and produced the ‘Occupy” movement. The 99% in the belly and the heart of the U.S. have woken up and can now connect with the Arab Spring. In the meantime spy agencies like the CIA, Mossad and MI5 will not rest until they bring back the Arabs and the Iranians and the Turks back to the fold of obedience to the American empire and obeisance to Israel.