Neo-Crusades?
Aug 13th, 2011 | By Saad Lakhani | Category: Latest, World
Call him an assailant, an attacker, a gunman, a guy with a bad temperament; anything but a terrorist. After all, does he look like a terrorist? No, not at all! He has blond hair and white skin. He’s not Muzzlim. Well he did kill above ninety people, and yes he should not have done that; especially in front of kids. Kids should be kept away from violence; video games being the exception. It was an act of violence, as stated by the U.S. State department. This type of violence is fine to promote on popular media, but we should try not imitating it in real life. And besides, he’s a lone wolf; an exception. Terrorism is such a strong word, and should be used with responsibility.
If he is a Muzzlim, you are allowed, with all blessings of thy democracy, to be xenophobic, racist, and completely indifferent. You should hate Muzzlims, because they have beards and their women cover themselves. Yes, Jesus had a beard, and Nuns do wear similar outfits; but when Muzzlims do it, they are on to something. They might just explode in front of you, and kill everybody in sight, and especially those who are white, innocent… and white! They are not even humans; in fact, they are alien monsters out to chop off your heads and chew your flesh, slowly. Izzlaam teaches hate; it’s full of Jeehad, and to kill Christians and Jews.
And the lameness goes on and on.
How many times have you not heard the statement “Every Muslim may not be a terrorist, but every terrorist is a Muslim”. And this idea of absolute indifference is propounded not only by foreign neoconservative fascists, but even more so by local “liberal” apologetics.
The Norway incident is just one slip that got things exposed. So easy was it to condemn the event as an act of terror; absolute terror conducted by the likes of Al-Qaeeda. The Global media couldn’t wait till the actual story unfolded, and had got its accusations running in advance. Little does anyone care of the consequences, the Muslim communities have to go through.
But then things turned out different than what Islamophobes predicted. The guy was actually a Christian fundamentalist and an ethnic Norwegian. Yet the lameness continued.
The New York Times, for example, was quick to say “Even if the authorities ruled out Islamic terrorism as the cause of Friday’s assaults, other kinds of groups or individuals were mimicking Al Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks.”
So basically when Muslims have nothing to do with it; they still do. The guy was motivated by his hate for Muslims; hate that these media groups had helped fuel. And yet these propagandists have the nerve to bring Al-Qaeda into the equation somehow.
Further still, the term “terrorism” almost completely disappeared to describe this act from popular media discourse. As though the very definition of the word implies, that it must be an act carried out by a Muslim.
So, what about the “lone wolf” thing? Well, statistics tend to differ. According to FBI reports, from the years 1980 till 2005, terrorist activities conducted by Islamist Groups on U.S soil only make about 6 percent of the total. In fact, activities of such nature conducted by Jews, motivated by religion, amount to 7 percent; more than those by Muslims. The greatest perpetuators of such acts happen to be Latino groups.
Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Soil by Group, From 1980 to 2005, According to FBI Database
In Europe, according to Europol, from the years 2007 till 2009, terrorist attacks conducted by groups with Islamist motivations make only 0.15 percent of the total. Separatist groups are the main conductors of terrorism in Europe, and yet all Muslims carry the label.
These statistics do not include the massive state terrorism, conducted by western powers, which we often wrongly term “Bad foreign policy”. Killing thousands of people, genocide, is not foreign policy; it’s organized terrorism, period.
So where does Islamophobia come from? It comes from hate, pure and simple. Some people just want a clash of civilizations. It should not come as a surprise that the Norwegian terrorist described himself as a modern day crusader.
So much does this aspect reveal. The Original Crusades was also a period of Anti-Muslim Propaganda. The message of Islam and the image of the Prophet were distorted and demonized. Muslims were depicted as Satanic Barbarians, off to destroy the Judo-Christian traditions. And the whole of Christian Europe was united on a one point agenda; destroying and stopping Muslims and their faith. The “danger” of creeping otherness took over the minds of the masses, and so begun the bloody crusades.
Let may be very clear on this, Anders Breivik, the Norwegian terrorist is not the only crusader here. The global (or Western, or Eurocentric) media plays its part equally; they just don’t say it out loud. Many western intellectuals have rested not the least, in distorting and demonizing Muslims and Islam, and, by so doing, giving intellectual space to Islamophobia. The United States and her Allies have pretty well acted as Crusaders by bombarding Muslim lands at will, fostering Anti-Muslim sentiment, ridiculing Muslim sensitivities through public policy and in countless other ways.
So it should not be seen as that strange now that George Bush mentioned about launching a crusade in one of his pre-unleashing-of-terror speeches. He called it a slip of the tongue; and sure was it a slip of the tongue, indeed.
Couldn’t agree more.
JAZAK ALLAH KHAIR BROTHER
ur article presents the real TRUTH that needs to b seen over the media but u know the worst dilemna that v face is that OUR OWN hv joined hands very willfully in malining n degrading islam. top of the list is the most of pakistani media which never lets go any chance at ridiculing islam n muslims. as u hv mentioned the threat is serious as the western media is brainwashing the masses n imprinting anti islamism beleif over their minds
may ALLAH reward u brother INSHALLAH
Blaming Anders Breivik won’t purify muslims of their own sins. Millions of Christians, Hindus and others people of other religions were brutally killed and converted by muslims in Asia(Middle East, India, Bangladesh) and Africa(Sudan, Algeria, Libya, Egypt) and this genocide is continuing. Muslims weren’t able to to same kind of genocide in Europe because europeans were strong and more advanced and the same jihaad they have committed against fellow Asians would fall upon muslims themselves. There is an old saying – You reap what you sow. Since muslims has begun their mass migrations in Europe, Anders is only trying to wakeup the sleeping authorities of European nations towards this comming danger.
Actually Muslims have proven to have produced the most tolerant societies in history. Andulusia, or Muslim Spain, for example had a seizable amount of Christians and Jews who were let to gain prominent position in society with respect and freedom. Sorry to say this but when Christians took over they didn’t leave one Muslim alive, they were the ones who converted on force. In jerusalem, Christian byzantians had exiled and banned Jews and it was not until Muslim arrival that they were allowed to return. In fact anti-semitism is a purely western product, having no precedent in the Muslim tradition. The far east saw no battle, yet indonasia and Malaysia host the largest number of Muslims. In India Muslims have ruled for a thousand years and yet could not even gain a majority population. In Egypt the presence of a seizable number of Coptic Christians is witness to the fact that they were let to remain. In fact, in Egypt it took about 500 years for Muslims to gain numbers on patterns of those of today. This shows that the process of conversion was slow and gradual, and such can not be so by force. Islam also eliminated the race problem, which still prevails in the unislamic world, unfortunately. Now We Muslims celebrate Jesus Christ as a prophet of God. Prophets in our tradition may be human, but abide by the zenith of human character. We respect him and his mother, probably even more so than Christians. But sorry to say Pauline and Constantine Christianity is not the same. But yet our scriptures tell us to treat you as ahl-kitab (people of the book), with a distinct profundity of dignity and respect. Even in war we are not allowed to hurt Women and children, and trees and cathedrals and monasteries and priests of other religions. So tolerant is Islam. Wars by early Muslims were a strategic and defensive necessity, Arabia was surrounded by two hostile super powers. It was a matter of survival from a strategic point of view. Jesus’s message was peace and love, and people like breveik are not motivated by his teachings, but on their tendencies to be racists and bigots.
he is the biggest terrorist in the world….did you know? He is not a muslim and he is a terrorist. So muslims are not terrorists …they have faith in love not in war….
Beautifully articulated! We need more of Dr. Allama Iqbal like scholars to thwart the propaganda who can propagate the ideology of Islam with conviction and authority.
an arty one! FBI report is the proof of minor role of Muslims in terrorism but the propaganda is so make it only muslims to be terrorist! We do not have a powerful voice to nullify this concept. But keeping in mind, that since advent of Islam, they are threatened by these false perceptions. we have to promote our ideology more vigorously! jzak Allah for paying your duty!
After killing around 80 people, admitting it and being declared mentally healthy; he got just 21 years jail. That is pathetic. Would it be the same if he were a Muslim?