Muslims Don’t Need a Badly Made Film Mocking Mohammed to be Incensed at the USA
Western governments and the Western media would love for the entire world to believe that the recent (and ongoing) attacks on US embassies in the Middle East, and the killing of the US ambassador and 3 CIA agents in Libya, are motivated solely by the publication of a poorly made ‘film’ that had been doctored to ‘insult’ Islam and Mohammed. This narrative pitches Muslims in general as simple-minded fanatical barbarians, ungrateful for all that Western governments have done for them, and attempts to convince the average Westerner that the only thing Muslims understand is force.
Yet simple logic, and an understanding of the Western imperial agenda, exposes this argument as puerile and deceptive in the extreme. To listen to the media whores and government sock puppet experts, you could be mistaken for thinking that Muslims have never protested against the US and Western governments except in cases where a film mocking Mohammed was published.
Which is more likely; that Muslims across the Middle East would be incensed at a badly dubbed film that mocks Islam, or Muslims across the Middle East would be incensed at the fact that:
The US and NATO countries last year bombed Libya, killed 40,000 civilians, and installed a pro-Western government that is entirely unrepresentative of the Libya people.
That the US government has been using drones to massacre civilians in Yemen and Afghanistan on a regular basis of for the past 5 years
That for the past 18 months the US government has been financing and arming mercenaries in Syria that have murdered at least 20,000 civilians and destroyed much of the infrastructure of the country.
That for several decades the US and Western governments supported (and continue to support) corrupt and brutal regimes in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain Qatar, Tunisia, Egypt, and several other Middle Eastern countries, regimes that regularly brutally suppressed (and continue to brutally suppress) any popular protest movements.
That almost ten years ago the US military invaded Iraq, a sovereign nation, without justification or cause, and proceeded to murder over 1.5 million Iraqis and completely destroy Iraqi society.
That for several decades the US and Western governments have been making it possible for the Israeli government to create an apartheid state in Israel/Palestine and to regularly murder Palestinian civilians.
That for at least 20 years, the US and Western governments have sought to demonise and physically attack Lebanon’s Hizb’allah, a political party that stands against Western and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East and represents a large percentage of the Lebanese population.
In the end, it comes down to a choice; to believe Western and Israeli government propaganda that all Muslims are little more than animals and potential terrorists, or that they, like all normal human beings, can only stand so much oppression and brutality before they decide to fight back.
What we are dealing with here is an unconscionable double standard that not only incenses Muslims, but should incense all right-thinking, decent people the world over. Obama recently declared that the ‘U.S. won’t tolerate efforts to harm Americans‘, yet the right to not tolerate efforts by the US to not only harm them but overthrow their governments and destroy their societies and cultures is denied to the citizens of Middle Eastern countries.
Good summary of the US and Western "government" relationship to this most important part of the world. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US was looked upon as having achieved "absolute power"… and, as you know.. having absolute power corrupts absolutely. Look around… how much more clearly does this need to be demonstrated?
yep
If you read your writing itsound very convincing but their are a lot of facts that you have left out. Yes their are factions within the united sttates that have imperialistic views, but that in no way gives thepeople the right to take a life. The profit never taught that. These people have been taken advantage of for so long and now they are being used again.
It's not about the "right to take life" anymore abdul, it's about pushing people to the point where they can't help but react violently. But I agree that there is always manipulation of the people going on too.
1. Muslims have a history of violent reaction to criticism of their religion. "The Satanic Verses", a book satirising Islam released in the UK in 1988, led to the author Salman Rushdie having to go into hiding and he still lives under threat of death from a fatwa prounounced by Ayatollah Khomeini. And Danish cartoons of Muhammad?
2. Qaddafi had normalised relations with the west by 2003, ending his WMD and terrorism programmes. There is far more chance of anti-western elements gaining power now. Note the growing influence of Islamist groups in nearly every Muslim country that has had a recent revolution
3. The Syrian revolution was instigated by the people. Even if the west is arming the rebels, this is to prevent a massacre and again it is more likely anti-western elements will gain influence now than they would under the secular Assad. Also, you complain about the US supporting repressive regimes, yet also criticise it for supporting Syrian rebels?
4. "proceeded to murder over 1.5 million Iraqis". This is a nonsensical, grotesque exaggeration. Can you reference your statistics? The highest estimates I have encountered are around 600,000 (Lancet Journal 2006), with most of these casualties attributed to Iraqis and militants from other countries killing each other.
1) Muslims have a much longer and stronger history of violent reaction to foreign meddling and invasion of their countries.
2) Growing influence of Islamist groups is the result of the US and other governments directly supporting such groups.
3) The Syrian revolution was NOT instigated by the majority of Syrians, and certainly the type of open warfare we are seeing from the US-supported mercenaries was never desired, naturally. Yes, I criticize the US for supporting the "Syrian rebels" because the "Syrian rebels" are also being supported by the repressive regimes that the US supports.
4) 1.5 million is not a grotesque exaggeration, well, maybe it is if you're only news source is the Western press. See here for details: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq
That 1.5 million people have been murdered over the course of a 10 year aggressive military occupation of a country of 26 million people is in keeping with figures from other similar invasions and military occupations, such as Vietnam. Apparently you don't know your history.