Islam and its Apparent Monopoly on Terror

Category: Americas, World Affairs Topics: Terrorism Channel: Opinion Views: 5614
5614

A double tragedy occurred this past Friday, one a physical tragedy unseen, unpredictable, and inhuman involving a right-wing extremist in Norway hell bent on causing apparent destruction. The full motives are yet to be disclosed but in the coming days it should be known what his motivation was, though it will not justify the killing of over 100 people most of them young adults on the cusps of life.

The second tragedy occurred thousands of miles away in the United States of America and it involved the usual suspects, CNN, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS. The minute this horrific attack on Oslo and the gun shooting on the Island of Utoya occurred the American media's fearsome threesome with the sidekicks of the Washington Post, New York Times, CBS NEWS and others joined forces in equally condemning Islamic Terrorist as the perpetrators. Questions such as "Why Norway" and "What did Norway do to them" began to arise. I too began to ponder, why Norway and began to pray please do not let this be Muslim Extremist! Then to everyone in the media worlds shock the perpetrator turned out to be a right-wing extremist with Christian fundamentalist ties. The Norwegian media and several other European media bases still called him a terrorist and a madman and began to pry into his right wing/Christian fundamentalist history, while the American media did something I honestly couldn't believe they stopped coverage of the incident and began to cover other stories such as a Casey Anthony. Example: Anderson Cooper at 9pm his main story: Casey Anthony. The American media which can be a bit dramatic sometimes seemed to turn off their drama machines and ignore the attacks and when mentioning the attacks never referring to the subjects ideological background or his religious affiliation and only calling him a lone madman. This "journalism" is sad and sickening. Over 100 people are dead and when the subject was believed to be Muslim the American media had an orgasmic field day with posts such as these:

Article on FoxNews.com, July 22, 2011, by James Jay Carafano, Director of The Heritage Foundation's Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies.

When the subject was cleared of Islamist ties the American media ignored the story, a tragedy in itself due to the magnitude of the horror the attacks caused.

The automatic assumption by our "trusted" media sources was that the attack was a terrorist attack....that is accurate.....therefore the attacker must be a Muslim.....that is the inaccurate part. The only reason to why the American media abandoned the story is due to the narrative of the American media. Since 9-11 occurred the narrative is that Islamic terrorism is the biggest threat to this world (I am not saying it is not a threat that would be foolish but it is not the only nor the biggest threat) so any other threat is not as extreme and therefore deserves little to no coverage. The minute the attacker turned out to be right-wing extremist the news story was dropped. If the news was not dropped then the attacker was identified as being non-Islamist, but the news story or the article covering the story went on to cover how Islamic terrorist can benefit from this or how Islamic Terrorist inspired this. The American media refused to drop the narrative at some point. Pitiful and irresponsible.

Article on NBCNews.com, July 22, 2011, By Robert Windrem, NBC News Investigative Producer for Special Projects

Another issue that arose is the apparent monopoly Islam has on terrorism. Now I am not defending "Islamic terrorist" I am defending Islam. If a Muslim carries out a terrorist attack he/she is doing it for their religious beliefs and are just being devout. When a non-Muslim carries out a terrorist attack he/she is seen as a crazy lone wolf who is obviously demented, their political/religious affiliation does not have anything to do with their actions and the action itself is not considered terrorism. This narrative makes it seem that terrorism and Islam are something that go hand-in-hand, that Muslims invented this idea of terrorism; this narrative being sold destroys cultures and causes rifts in society that can only lead to more violence. I am not saying that we need to educate the people that Christians are just as horrible as Muslims, I am saying we need to educate people in the fact that terrorism is not monopolized by Islam, that terrorist regardless of religion or political ideology are all demented fools who use their religion or ideology as a mechanism to justify their sick and twisted acts. We need to educate the people that being a Muslim, Christian, Jew, Atheist, a member of the political left or political right does not equate you to being a terrorist, but rather that those who are terrorist are trying to equate themselves with members of these faiths or ideologies and are causing catastrophic damage when they hijack (no pun intended) these faiths and ideologies for their own sick and twisted actions. Groups such as Al-Qaeda, the IRA, The Japanese Red Army, and many other groups do not represent the whole of the community they claim to represent, instead they are the exact opposite of what they claim to represent. Unless we start realizing this we will end up tearing innocent communities apart in an attempt to "weed" out the terrorist. 

*****

Ashraf Barakat is an undergrad at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. His majors are History and Education. He is currently getting his certificate in Middle Eastern history. His blog http://arabspring2011.blogspot.com.


  Category: Americas, World Affairs
  Topics: Terrorism  Channel: Opinion
Views: 5614

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Older Comments:
HILAL SHAH FROM USA said:
Br. Barakat you are too naive. You need to gorw up fast to understand the mind set of American media. Islam is the way of life chosen by Allah Almighty hmself for all of his creations. No one can harm Islam.The more negative propaganda about Islam is played by the media, the faster they going to loose and help propogate Islam. However, you should know that American media and her policies are run by Jews and Christian Zealots. When Islam dominates in the land, it benefits common people and bring distruction to those who are Satan's brothers and sisters. Please do not rely upon CNN, FOx, or any other American media outlets to talk nice about Islam, because they wont.


2011-07-28

YOHAN FROM BHUTAN said:
In regards to terrorism Christians' involvement is not doubted at a first glance because the message of Christ to non-Christians is not death threats in this life. We are not after changing the name of religion of the people that do not want to change their old nature. We have no need of people to take a stand for the defense of some cult or creed we profess and own, neither any promise of reward in the hereafter for the murders carried out against the non-Christians (unbelievers)! To Christians, there is a clear message from their Lord that murderers' part shall be in the lake of fire that burns for eternity.

That lone Christian in Norway's case as in any other similar event must have done it, not to fend his religion or its founder but to relieve himself from some other fears (national/social/communal/racial/political/ideological etc.). Media depending on some logic in reporting as such do not have any doctrine to blame the Christians for any acts of violence even if the acts were carried out by one professing the faith. If not, the history would blame Christianity for the crimes of Nazi etc. Only the individuals with special interest venturing out for the anticipated gain are implicated in this case instead of the religion they professed to belong. The founder of Christianity is never honored by the deeds of violence which are a departure from the elementary doctrines. Media is on right track.
2011-07-28

MAYA V FROM AK said:
Journalism has died in America long time back. What remain are the propoganda machines. I look in to American media only once in a while, that too to see how bogus they are.
2011-07-28

NADIRA FROM USA said:
Exceptional article and positively true. Thank you for telling the truth. There is a saying that a lie can travel around the world before the truth has a chance to put its shoes on. I can hope that intelligent/thinking people of any faith can see the truth for what it is.
2011-07-27

MOHAMMAD FROM USA said:
No surprise. American popular media rejoices in demonizing Islam and Muslims. I have observed media progression in labeling the terror to Islam and Muslims as follows: First, media attributed terrorism to Palestinians, then terror advanced to Arabs, then to Muslims, and finally to Islam itself. Media is not only biased, it's hell bent on demonizing Islam and Muslims. So, when the media found that the Norway terrorist was not a Muslim they fell silent. For these media types Quran says: "They intend to put out the light of Allah (the religion of Islam) with their mouths. But Allah will perfect Allah's light even though disbelievers hate it." Quran 61:8
2011-07-25

FAHAD ANSARI FROM PAKISTAN said:
Sufism is the best medicine for the problems of Islam today, i think!!
2011-07-24

FAHAD ANSARI FROM PAKISTAN said:
Unfortunately, we Muslims dont have any good attitudes to show of love and affection towards non-Muslims.

We are busy in the do's and don't's of our religion never trying to understand what the do's ad don't's of our rituals mean for our fellow human beings.

Our philosophies dont have any wise words for the non-muslims to hear.

These are the reasons why The governor of Punjab in Pakistan was killed.

Why dont we give some points to ponder from our religion to the non-muslims.

I seriously believe, had the Prophet Muhammad (may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and upon his people) been like the way we are told by our brother Muslims, the Prophet would have totally failed in his mission, and Islam would not have existed.

It was the charming personality of our Prophet that he won over his bitterest enemies.

2011-07-24

ASIF FROM USA said:
You are an undergrad and you have much to learn :)

What you said is totally rational; however, when it comes to Islam the West has never been rational. From the time of Crusades (read up on Pius XI (I think but it is some Pius) to now, the West/Christians have always twisted facts, spread lies. It is not the West that has to fear Islam but rather it is the Muslim that must be wary of the West. The West has always impinged democracy, development in the Muslim world and they have done this under the cover of UN or state sponsored sanctions and sometimes even resort to open war. Muslims too are guilty - don't get me wrong but we have never stopped the development of nations - a far greater crime.

Do you really think this Norwegian attack will cause them to change their ways. When attacks in future occur (i hope not but it is likely given the world today), will they look at the event and not resort to degrading Islam/prophet. No they will not. In the Western psyche, Islam is a negative force and cannot be allowed to gain a foot-hold.

Does this sound familiar - the arguments that the West uses to demonize Islam/prophet Muhammad/Muslims are no different than the ones Quraish used. The techniques are a bit different but the message of lies/twisting facts is the same,

So as a Muslim, we need to reinforce our faith in Allah and our love of the prophet and his teachings. And what a better time to do it in than in the upcoming month of mercy.

2011-07-24