"As the world goes, right is only in
question between equals in power, while the strong do what they
can and the weak suffer what they must."
Thucydides,
The Peloponnesian War
When Muslims die, Muslims are usually
SILENT. When Muslims die, it is Jewish and Christian
activists who fill western streets with protests against their
own government's warmongering policies against Muslims.
With the potential attack on Iraq, a nation
devastated by wars and sanctions for the last twenty years due
to the blood thirsty maniacal dictator, Saddam Hussein, one of
the many dictators plaguing the Muslim world; the Muslim and
Arab streets are SILENT while Muslim
governments are coordinating with America their post-Saddam
niche. In their silence Muslims have submitted to the reality
of American power and hegemony.
One can only imagine what if: what if
Muslims adopted democracies in their lands, what if Muslims
wisely spent and invested the trillions of dollars from oil
revenues on their people and institutions instead of investing
it in the west; what if Muslims learned the modern language of
influence: public relations; what if Muslims were truly united
as demanded by Islam into a brotherhood of mutual benefit and
defense, what if Muslims stopped spending the largest share of
their income on weapons meant for oppression and mutual
destruction(the Middle East is the largest importer of weapons
worldwide) and instead spent it on education and health; what
if they dissolved the impotent Arab League of Summits and Lies
and the irrelevant Islamic Conference of Organizations (I.O.C.); what
if Muslim nations had a better understanding of western politics
and culture; what if they coordinated their opposition to war
with western anti-war groups; what if they understood that civil
disobedience has a more powerful impact on world public opinion
than hyperbolic speeches, hollow threats, and suicide bombings;
what if they hired professional public relation firms to present
their case and issues to the west; what if Muslims used reason
as demanded by the Qur'an rather than emotionality re-electing
dictators with 100% of the votes; what if Muslim leaders would
trust their own people and do away with secret police and
intimidation tactics; what if Muslim nations were led by well
educated civilians rather than autocratic military regimes; what
if true moderate Islam was the ruling ideology in all Muslim
nations: WHAT IF, WHAT IF.....?
Yet, thank God for the millions of westerners
who are protesting around the world against Bush's Wars against
Iraq, then Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen as
dictated and outlined by Sharon. From the few hundred western
protestors in Iraq and Palestine serving as human shields, to
the hundred protestors in Antarctica of all places, to the
hundreds of thousands of protestors in several American and
European cities, to the one million protestors in Italy; western
voices are loudly opposing war in Iraq and Palestine with the
rallying cry: "NOT IN OUR NAME" will our governments wage war.
Meanwhile, Muslim streets are SILENT.
These western activists have developed grass
root protests on college campuses, on the internet, on
alternative media outlets and radio stations; raised money to
take out expensive ads in major papers demanding a stop to the
war on Iraq. Many have been arrested.
Tragically even American Muslims are
SILENT despite living in the "land of the free.' They
are disorganized, and fearful of any activism to protect their
brethren. Few are protesting, none have raised money for ads,
and even fewer have lobbied Congress or Bush. American Muslim
organizations are disorganized, disunited, underfunded, and
understaffed with very few donations or support from American
Muslims. The meek extent of protests of these organizations is
"Jihad by E-mail".
Contrast this impotence with the passion and
activism of such elderly Americans as Chicago activist Cliff
Kindy, 53, an organic farmer from Indiana, who figures he knows
how to force the Bush administration to think twice about
attacking or invading Iraq. "You get about 500 grandmas and
grandpas from around the world and you scatter them around Iraq
and dare the U.S. to bomb them," he said. "That would give them
a collective moral authority." Kindy is leading a delegation
to Iraq of about a dozen American and Canadian senior citizens
organized by Christian Peacemakers. "Our solidarity is with
the Iraqi people," said Kindy, 53. "They are the ones
suffering." The group includes Quinn Brisben, 68, a former
high school history teacher and peace activist. Even though he
is hobbled by frail health and walks with a cane, Brisben wants
to sway world opinion. Another member is an elderly nun who
once chained herself to an Israeli tank to prevent loss of
Palestinian lives.
Another group opposed to an attack on Iraq is
"Voices in the Wilderness" founded by Kathy Kelly,49, a former
Chicago English teacher who founded the Voices group and has
visited Iraq 16 times in the last decade. She is organizing
"Iraq Peace Teams" of young people who will live in Iraq for
months at a time as human shields. (as
reported by the Chicago Tribune and Rocky Mountain News;
November 2, 2002)
Ironically, the most active anti-war group in
America are Jewish Americans. They are journalists, historians,
academicians, actors, writers, businessmen, artists, peace
activists, mothers, fathers, and grandparents. Many took
time off from work and family to crisscross the country
organizing war opposition while spending their own money on
travel and expensive full page ads in major papers such as the
New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times
and Chicago Tribune.
Why are the Arab and Muslim streets
so SILENT?
Why are Muslims surrendering their fate to
America without even a protest such as the political gesture of
withdrawing their Ambassadors from Washington and London? Why
is Muslim money still in western banks? Why is oil as a weapon
not even on the table for discussion? Why are 56 Muslim
Ambassadors in Washington DC and in the United Nations avoiding
the media to counter the arguments for war? Why are Arab/Muslim
leaders, intellectuals, and religious scholars absent from
American television and the op-ed pages of the major papers?
Why are Arab/Muslim leaders cracking down on their own people's
protests against America's and Israel's war mongering policies
even to the extent of shooting them? Questions in need of
Muslim answers.
BUSH'S "PRE-EMPTIVE" DOCTRINE: A
GLOBAL UNABOMBER'S VISION
President Bush, a man selected to the
Presidency, began his term of "conservative compassion" and
"humility in foreign policy" with three priorities: tax cut for
the wealthy, education reform, and a massive increase in the
defense budget. Such humble and unimpressive beginnings were
shattered with the terrorism of 9-11. Suddenly Bush found his
voice, purpose, footing, and legacy for his Presidency. He
became the Happy Warrior of "dead or alive, with us or against
us" and against "evildoers, terrorists, and a people who hate
the west" for its freedom, civilization, materialism, and
liberated women. "War on Terrorism and Axis of Evil" became the
perpetual Presidential commercial and advertising for a foreign
policy long anticipated and pushed for by the Quartet of
M.I.C.E.--the few but powerful transnational
Media (5 U.S. Media Corporations own 80% of all
media outlets). The global media system is now dominated by a
first tier of nine giant firms. The five largest are Time
Warner, Disney, Bertelsmann, Viacom , and Rupert Murdoch's News
Corporation. Secondly, by Pro-Israel
supporters in the media, Hollywood, and Congress. The most
powerful Pro-Israel lobby in America is A.I.P.A.C.
(American Israeli Political Action Committee). A.I.PA.C. with
only 65,000 members is only one of many well funded, organized,
active, and highly connected Jewish lobbying groups (population
of Jewish Americans 5-6 million) with enormous influence on
Congress. An example of their influence: On May 2, 2002
Congress passed a resolution supporting Israel against the
Palestinians, that included $200 million for Israel's defense,
by a vote in the House of 352-21 and the Senate 94-2.
9-11 became Bush, Blair, and Sharon's
colonial justification to "Remake the World", establish a "New
World Order" via a more civilized re-occupation of the
Muslim world through "Pre-emptive Strikes" on any nation with
oil, other resources, strategic location, and an affinity to
"Islamic Fundamentalism"----translation---- an ideology opposed
to western domination
Rudyard Kipling's "The White Man's Burden" to
civilize the savages of the third world lives on. Historically
such "benign" occupation usually led to genocide, ethnic
cleansing, and a remake of educational and cultural systems.
Aldous Huxley observes that such graciousness
to the betterment of the human race usually ends in "universal
bullying."
According to the Center for Responsive
Politics, pro-Israeli donors, including PACs (Political Action
Committees) and individuals, gave $28.6 million to Democrats and
$12.7 million to Republicans in 2000. By comparison,
Arab-American and Muslim PAC contributions totaled $296,830
since 1990. Thirdly are the Corporations
(mainly Oil and Defense Contractors), Bush's friends and
contributors who are eager to for war and monopolizing "Muslim"
oil. Lastly are the Christian Evangelists
whose religious goal is to drive all Jews to Israel thus
hastening the world ending war, Armageddon, and the return of
Christ. Jews will then convert to Christianity or die.
THE MEDIA IS THE OPIUM OF THE
PEOPLE
How does such a confluence of powers or any
other interest group in America impose an agenda upon
governmental policy? BY USING THE MASS MEDIA,
ADVERTISING and PUBLIC RELATIONS.
In truth, the most powerful Weapon of Mass
Destruction in the world today is the Media. As Clare Booth
Luce observed: "Advertising has done more to cause the social
unrest of the 20th century than any other single factor."
In western societies: "The Media is
the Opium of the People."
Media Advertising can make or break a
political career, can sell ice to Eskimos, and can launch wars
or peace.
In 2001 alone, U.S. advertising expenditure
in the media was estimated at $233.7 billion, 2.4 percent of
GDP. (admedia.org). This is more than the combined GDP's of
all Arab countries combined.
Even Israel with its already enormous
influence on Congress realizes the importance of public
relations upon the American public and government. Israel's
Foreign Ministry hired the New York based Public Relations firms
Rubenstein Associates and Morris, Carrick & Guma to work
on improving Israel's IMAGE during the current
Intifadah, this in addition to using pollsters and think tanks.
Israel, since its founding has successfully used a two tier
strategy: 1. Military expansionism on Arabs and Palestinians,
while 2. Launching a massive public relations campaign in the
only nation that matters, the United States, to influence public
and political opinion in its favor. The Israeli lobby through
money, public relations, fear tactics and intimidations has
encircled the geography of America with a blood brain barrier
that for the most part only allows Pro-Israel stories to enter
the American psyche.
Israel understands that in America: "IMAGE
IS EVERYTHING." Something that
the Arabs/Muslims have never understood or deliberately
ignored. Since 1948, the Arab leaders have not launched a
single media campaign in the west to tell their story. To them,
the media is simply a political extension of their autocracy
ensuring that the Arab masses see no evil, hear no evil, and
speak no evil.
In a capitalistic society like the United
States with an affluent disconnected public from world
affairs, information is power, and thus Advertising becomes the
agenda and opinion setting power. In the West, he who controls
the news, controls the views.
"All of us who professionally use the mass
media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that
society. We can brutalize it. Or we can help lift it onto a
higher level."
--William Bernbach. (1989)
"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only
to those who own one," media critic."
--A.J. Liebling
The American media is sympathetic to Israel
and generally expresses anti-Arab and anti-Islamic views. It
censors viewpoints opposed to the American-Israeli view. Even
when journalists and Judeo-Christian leaders attack Allah (SWT),
the Holy Prophet, the Qur'an, and Islam generally, American
Muslims still remain SILENT. Muslims
worldwide must develop their own media and satellite outlets in
the west to tell their story. It is the power of the word, the
sound byte, not the gun that will liberate Muslim lands.
The American people are by nature kind and
peace loving but ignorant of the outside world. Yet they
understand there must be another side to the story of "Israel
First", they do change their minds when convinced. However,
Muslims are SILENT. There already is a
majority of support for a Palestinian state within Israel and
the United States but Muslims are SILENT,
unable to take advantage of such good will. It is the media
that made the Soviet Union, China, Germany, and Japan the "axis
of evil" after World War II. It is the same media that has made
these nations America's "friends" and "Islam" the new "Axis of
Evil".
The Muslim Governments and masses are
SILENT even in the face of death and destruction.
BUSH'S ELECTION WAR ON IRAQ IN
SEARCH OF A CAUSE:
Bush, Blair, and Sharon have tried their best
to invent a reason to invade Iraq despite world opposition,
primarily European and Russian. Bush intimidated Congress,
especially the Democrats, to pass a resolution supporting the
invasion of Iraq. He has pressured the "irrelevant" United
Nations to pass a similar resolution despite French and Russian
opposition. Bush has lied and exaggerated Iraq's threat to
America's security, even contradicting the CIA's and
the International Atomic Energy Agency reports that downplay
such an eminent threat Bush is a man on fire for Saddam's blood
and oil regardless of Iraqi "collateral damage." or loss of
American soldiers. Such lives are expendable on the highway to
wealth, glory, and re-election.
Bush should recall the valuable advice of
former President Theodore Roosevelt:
"No man is justified in doing evil on the
ground of expediency".
If Bush attacks Iraq he will win the short
term battle but eventually America will lose the long term war
with the Muslim world. "Muslim Rage" will ensure that no
American business, institution, or citizen will ever feel safe
or secure around the world, including in America itself. Such
is the price of a corrupt American political system where money
buys the life or death of weaker nations. Bush's irrational
"Pre-emptive" strike against terrorism and those nations
allegedly supporting it will ensure Bin Laden's ultimate
victory. Out of the ashes of Iraqi's, Palestinians, Iranians,
Chechens, Kashmiri's and other potential Muslim targets will
arise a new generation of angry Muslims willing to become the
new "weapons of mass destruction." Sharon has provided Bush
with a "hit list" ripe for "extrajudicial killings."
So who is standing up to Bush Jr.'s war of
vengeance against Saddam, "the man who tried to kill my daddy?"
Tragically, Shockingly, and Shamefully, NOT
the Arab/Muslim street, but western activists who show more
concern for the loss of innocent Muslims through the use of
western "smart bombs" by "dumb politicians".
Throughout the world, on any given
day, a man, woman, or child is likely to be displaced, tortured,
killed, or 'disappeared', at the hands of governments or armed
political groups. More often than not, the United States shares the blame.
-- Amnesty International, 1996
