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| Terror Networks & Islam |
| A Terrorist Appeal to the Left |
| 2005-04-08 |
| A recently released propaganda video by the Islamic extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir is quite revealing. Not only does the video demonstrate the group's growing effort to package arguments in a manner designed to appeal to Westerners on the political left, but it also serves as a barometer of radical Muslim groups' broader shift in rhetorical strategy. The video, "Iraq: Past and Present Colonialism," appears for the first twenty-seven minutes to be a standard leftist critique of the Iraq war, indistinguishable from Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. The slickly-produced video begins with the history of past colonialism in Iraq—including the Mongol conquest of the Middle East and British soldiers' triumphant march into Baghdad after World War I—and attempts to situate the current conflict within the same colonialist paradigm. In one scene, vivid footage of torture at the Abu Ghraib prison and Iraqi civilian casualties is interspersed with clips of George W. Bush and Tony Blair talking about how they will bring "freedom" to the Iraqi people. Another scene shows American soldiers roughly pushing Iraqi prisoners with bags draped over their heads down a nighttime street, the camera speed slowing down with each push to emphasize the excessive force. As if Michael Moore's influence on "Past and Present Colonialism" weren't readily apparent, the video even lifts directly from Fahrenheit 9/11 the famous footage of American soldiers talking about how war is the "ultimate rush," and how a good song can get you "real fired up" for battle. To demonstrate, one wild-eyed soldier sings a few off-key lines from the Bloodhound Gang's "Fire Water Burn" ("The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire / We don't need no water, let the motherf----- burn / Burn, motherf-----, burn"). |
| Posted by:ed |
| #1 Sure this wasn't produced by the DNC and their mascot Michael Moore? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-04-08 11:11:47 PM |