EFL Whereâs the Arab Mediaâs Sense of Outrage?
By Mamoun Fandy
The apparent executions in Iraq last week of U.S. soldier Keith Maupin and U.S. Marine Wassef Ali Hassoun, and the confirmed beheadings a week earlier of South Korean Kim Sun Il in Iraq and of American Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia, left the media the world over horrified and uncertain about how much should be shown. Except in much of the Arab world, that is. As I scanned Arab satellite channels and Arabic newspapers, I found a lot of reporting on the brutal attacks, but very little condemnation and a widespread willingness to run the stomach-turning video and photos again and again...
In an article entitled "Blood of Martyrs," published last September in Tishreen, a major state-owned Syrian newspaper, she wrote in response to a Palestinian suicide bombing: "The blood of martyrs inscribes a scroll that can be read only by those with faith in their peoples and in the future of the [Arab] nation, who are convinced that however great their [personal] accomplishments, they are but a single link in the life of the homelands and the peoples. Therefore, they are ready for giving, the utmost of all kinds of giving, so that the scattered drops [of blood] join together to form a stream, then a river, then a gushing torrent." Articles like this, which glorify death and urge young people to be suicidal, are part of the steady diet that Arab youths are exposed to every day....
I traveled to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Lebanon and saw for myself the effect on the young of the Arab mediaâs tendency, particularly on satellite television, to portray terrorists as resistance fighters and to broadcast in their entirety the videotaped messages of al Qaeda. One Egyptian student told me the Americans "deserve [killing] for their support to Israel and their occupation of Iraq." A Kuwaiti who recently graduated from a Pennsylvania university said of Americans, "Donât believe them when they say it is al Qaeda that is slaying Americans. It is Americans who are killing Americans to justify their presence in the Arab world and to control Arab oil." In each country, I was struck that al Qaeda and its ideas are no longer perceived as extreme. Indeed, al Qaeda has become mainstream and being part of the movement is "cool" in the eyes of young people. Why? Arab culture is being corrupted by the media that glorify violence, but also by schoolbooks that present only one role model for Arab children: the Jihadists and those who excelled at battling non-Muslims.
He later complains that western media are unwitting tools of Arab terrorists without realizing that many in the media are willing tools.
Unlike Jim Jones and his Kool-Aid...every Muslim must consume a giant STUPID pill before they become a "True Believer". That is the only thing that would explain the mass delusional state of Muslims.
#5
What a perfect illustration of theocracy inbreeding itself into a sterile monoculture that is obsessed with delusions of ascendancy yet totally void of any legitimate game plan for obtaining it.
Unlike Jim Jones and his Kool-Aid...
I would argue that this is exactly like Jim Jones and his suicidal paranoia. Anyone or anything that threatens to topple Islam's teetering house of cards is assailed with a vigor that far exceeds all internal attempts at reform or peaceful coexistence with other cultures.
So convinced of its own supremacy is this highly introverted mindset that it cannot be bothered with such scruples as reliance upon peaceful conversion or not seeking retribution for apostasy.
Islam's focus is so narrowed as to lose sight of its own best interests. This will be its ultimate downfall and deservedly so. The unbelievable degree of wholesale slaughter that jihadists evince in the spreading of Islamic doctrine is its simultaneous refutation.
The human spirit does not respond well to coercion. While violence is effective, it is most definitely not efficient. Threats made to forcibly align people's thought produce only superficial cooperation at best. Only the harmonious forms of liberty and freedom engender authentic good will within the masses.
Islam will die by its own sword. Whether this happens sooner or later depends upon secular nations gaining clear insight into the implacable nature of jihad and the need for its extermination. Such Philistine notions of theocratic domination and conversion by force are exactly the sort of tainted principles that now poison Islam's spiritual well.
Hideous mutations like Wahabbist, Taleban and other Neanderthal mindsets are all fatal fruit of the same stunted and twisted tree. Unable to straighten its limbs by dint of their own desire to peaceably coexist, secular cultures will necessarily take an ax to the very trunk of Islam and shear it from all roots it once had. If it withers and dies, that will only be the fault of Islam itself and no one else.
#6
And you thought mainstream Christians were nuts.
Posted by: big dave ||
07/04/2004 18:51 Comments ||
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#7
They,(muslims), MUST ALL be vaporized. Every man, woman and child must be destroyed......Everything that moves MUST be destroyed.
Posted by: Halfass Pete ||
07/04/2004 18:56 Comments ||
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#8
ummm Pete? Even I think that's wrong, certain sign you've stepped WAY past civilized behavior
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/04/2004 19:02 Comments ||
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#9
you know what really kills me?
its all the muslims here in america. how awful for them. they cannot be a good muslim AND a good american at the same time. the two are complete opposites. so they have two choices really; to either keep there heads down, as most of them are doing, or to choose between being a good muslim, or a good american. instead of getting away from all this crap when they fled there home country, they have an even tougher choise to make here. i feel bad for them.
Posted by: big dave ||
07/04/2004 19:03 Comments ||
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#10
ummm Pete? Even I think that's wrong, certain sign you've stepped WAY past civilized behavior
Gotta go with you on this one, Frank G. Take a stress pill and a few deep breaths, Pete. The Middle East terror states are rapidly bringing about your dream without help from any outsiders. If they don't all kill each other soon, they will invite nuclear annihilation through their terror attacks.
Let their sort of butchering and savagery die with them.
instead of getting away from all this crap when they fled there home country, they have an even tougher choise to make here. i feel bad for them.
I used to, but not any more, big dave. America has so much to offer anybody who is willing to live within its laws that for someone to feel torn between a Neanderthal religion and the freedoms our nation offers is merely a result of their own stupidity.
Its not neccesarily stupidity. After all, in Islam, the penalty for apostacy is death. Nevertheless, there are apostates from Islam. Fred used to have a hotlink to http://www.faithfreedom.org/ - a site where the content is mostly created by apostates. There are other such sites such as http://www.secularislam.org/ and
http://www.geocities.com/freethoughtmecca/home.htm
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