Monday, November 30, 2009

Tom Friedman: America vs. The anti-American Middle East Narrative



Half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world, propagated by mosque preachers, Arab intellectuals, satellite news stations— and tacitly endorsed by some Arab regimes --Thomas Friedman


America vs. The Narrative
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN New York Times Op Ed, November 29, 2009

What should we make of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who apparently killed 13 innocent people at Fort Hood?

Here’s my take: Major Hasan may have been mentally unbalanced — I assume anyone who shoots up innocent people is. But the more you read about his support for Muslim suicide bombers, about how he showed up at a public-health seminar with a PowerPoint presentation titled “Why the War on Terror Is a War on Islam,” and about his contacts with Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni cleric famous for using the Web to support jihadist violence against America — the more it seems that Major Hasan was just another angry jihadist spurred to action by “The Narrative.”

What is scary is that even though he was born, raised and educated in America, The Narrative still got to him.

The Narrative is the cocktail of half-truths, propaganda and outright lies about America that have taken hold in the Arab-Muslim world since 9/11. Propagated by jihadist Web sites, mosque preachers, Arab intellectuals, satellite news stations and books — and tacitly endorsed by some Arab regimes — this narrative posits that America has declared war on Islam, as part of a grand “American-Crusader-Zionist conspiracy” to keep Muslims down.

Yes, after two decades in which U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying to help free them from tyranny — in Bosnia, Darfur, Kuwait, Somalia, Lebanon, Kurdistan, post-earthquake Pakistan, post-tsunami Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan — a narrative that says America is dedicated to keeping Muslims down is thriving.

Although most of the Muslims being killed today are being killed by jihadist suicide bombers in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Indonesia, you’d never know it from listening to their world. The dominant narrative there is that 9/11 was a kind of fraud: America’s unprovoked onslaught on Islam is the real story, and the Muslims are the real victims — of U.S. perfidy.

Have no doubt: we punched a fist into the Arab/Muslim world after 9/11, partly to send a message of deterrence, but primarily to destroy two tyrannical regimes — the Taliban and the Baathists — and to work with Afghans and Iraqis to build a different kind of politics. In the process, we did some stupid and bad things. But for every Abu Ghraib, our soldiers and diplomats perpetrated a million acts of kindness aimed at giving Arabs and Muslims a better chance to succeed with modernity and to elect their own leaders.

The Narrative was concocted by jihadists to obscure that.

It’s working. As a Jordanian-born counterterrorism expert, who asked to remain anonymous, said to me: “This narrative is now omnipresent in Arab and Muslim communities in the region and in migrant communities around the world. These communities are bombarded with this narrative in huge doses and on a daily basis. [It says] the West, and right now mostly the U.S. and Israel, is single-handedly and completely responsible for all the grievances of the Arab and the Muslim worlds. Ironically, the vast majority of the media outlets targeting these communities are Arab-government owned — mostly from the Gulf.”

This narrative suits Arab governments. It allows them to deflect onto America all of their people’s grievances over why their countries are falling behind. And it suits Al Qaeda, which doesn’t need much organization anymore — just push out The Narrative over the Web and satellite TV, let it heat up humiliated, frustrated or socially alienated Muslim males, and one or two will open fire on their own. See: Major Hasan.

“Liberal Arabs like me are as angry as a terrorist and as determined to change the status quo,” said my Jordanian friend. The only difference “is that while we choose education, knowledge and success to bring about change, a terrorist, having bought into the narrative, has a sense of powerlessness and helplessness, which are inculcated in us from childhood, that lead him to believe that there is only one way, and that is violence.”

What to do? Many Arab Muslims know that what ails their societies is more than the West, and that The Narrative is just an escape from looking honestly at themselves. But none of their leaders dare or care to open that discussion. In his Cairo speech last June, President Obama effectively built a connection with the Muslim mainstream. Maybe he could spark the debate by asking that same audience this question:

“Whenever something like Fort Hood happens you say, ‘This is not Islam.’ I believe that. But you keep telling us what Islam isn’t. You need to tell us what it is and show us how its positive interpretations are being promoted in your schools and mosques. If this is not Islam, then why is it that a million Muslims will pour into the streets to protest Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, but not one will take to the streets to protest Muslim suicide bombers who blow up other Muslims, real people, created in the image of God? You need to explain that to us — and to yourselves.”

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Hitchon, leave that wall alone!
*
Jose Assouline
Guest Opinion*

Walls are necessary and useful.

In fact, we all have walls around our home, our institutions and commercial
entities. They create a form of comfort and keep noxious elements out.

We are all impressed that Patrick Hitchon remembers the litany of numerical
identifiers of the U.N. resolutions pertaining to the wall separating Israel
from its neighbors of the West Bank ("We should enforce U.N. resolutions in
Middle East," Nov. 22). However, he conveniently seems to have difficulty
remembering the simple reasons for which it was built.

Here are some numbers to remember:

. More than 1,000 Israelis, as well as 64 foreign nationals, were
slaughtered by suicide bombers and other assaults.

. Women taking their children to school and others going to the supermarket
with grandma were shredded to pieces---all dead.

. Many innocent died in buses that exploded because suicide terrorists came
from across the border for no other reasons but to kill.

. Beginning in September 2000, 17,405 attacks in Israel and territories were
recorded.

. Shots were fired at passing vehicles 2,199 times, roadside bombs were
detonated 1,091 times, 64 Israelis were killed, and another 657 bombs were
found and disarmed before they exploded.

Since its completion, Israel's Gaza/West bank security fence has proven to
be extremely effective in preventing aggressive infiltrations. Scientists
like numbers and objective data: Before the wall was erected: hundreds of
casualties; after: none (not for the lack of trying).

How is this for a good outcome?

Walls separate people, this one helps people on both sides survive.

Hitchon frequently projects to our community his revisionist views of
selective memory of historical facts. He ought to keep in mind that we are
at an age of technology that allows for rapid and accurate verification of
facts and events. He is not fooling anyone.

He is correct only in that many U.N. Security Council resolutions on the
subject have not taken hold. But who is to blame? Who did not abide to the
terms of the resolutions and preferred the lobbing of Qassam rockets
directed at school yards?

Who sent suicide bombers into buses? In his article, he asks the U.S. to
pressure Israel to remove the protective wall. Americans still harbor the
poignant memory of thousands of innocent people killed at the hand of
cowardly terrorist acts because of unprotected borders.

So, I say: Mr. Hitchon, leave that wall alone! At least until terrorism is
eradicated in the region and people of all creeds and religions can finally
live in just and equitable peace.
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