Muslim world through the US press

by William Fisher

Many US newspapers published Amnesty International's call on Syria to "cease the ongoing harassment, arrests, unfair trials, imprisonment and prevention from travelling of human rights defenders and human rights activists".

Reported in the Seattle (Washington) Times and many other newspapers across America: Al Qaeda and radical Islamists are winning the propaganda war against the United States, according to a new report by the Defence Science Board, a high-level Pentagon panel. "American direct intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of and support for radical Islamists, while diminishing support for the United States to single-digits in some Arab societies," the report states.

"Muslims do not `hate our freedom', but rather, they hate our policies. ... the critical problem in American public diplomacy directed towards the Muslim world is not one of `dissemination of information', or even one of crafting and delivering the `right' message. Rather, it is a fundamental problem of credibility. Simply, there is none; the United States today is without a working channel of communication to the world of Muslims and of Islam."

On the same subject, Thomas L. Friedman writes in The New York Times: "Who's in charge of US policy in Iraq? George W. Bush? Donald Rumsfeld? Porter Goss? Dick Cheney? Condi Rice? Steve Hadley? Colin Powell? General Casey? Karl Rove? Bono? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Tommy Franks? It has never been clear to me who is America's chief strategist for Iraq - who is really orchestrating the intelligence and public affairs, with the politics, diplomacy and military operations, around a coherent plan that is being communicated to Iraqis and the world. Indeed, I have never understood how an administration that wanted a war so badly and will be judged on it by history so profoundly could manage it so sloppily. America is losing a public relations war in the Muslim world to people sawing the heads off other Muslims. But this is only one dimension of a larger problem, which cannot be allowed to continue."

Maxwell A. Fenig writes in the Providence (Rhode Island) Journal: "This nation is at war with radical Islam. Our brave soldiers are carrying this fight to the enemy in Iraq. Radical Muslims are said to number about 100 million worldwide (10 per cent of the total Muslim population), though I believe the number could be much larger. The `religion of peace' calls for the death of all infidels (that is, you and me) and the Koran tells us that it is permissible for any Muslim to lie to the infidels. This should be our framework as we analyse the Nov. 23 commentary piece written by Sheikh Abu Hakim Abdullah. First, I wonder if this Muslim remembers the events of Sept. 11? I have never heard a word from this sheikh, or any other Islamic cleric, denouncing this act, but I am sure that he has his own `lies and hearsay', spinning Sept. 11 away from Islam. He states that Al Qaeda was not in Iraq. Does he believe that Al Qaeda was operating in almost every Western nation and in many of our states, but not in Iraq?"

Nat Hentoff recalls in The Village Voice (New York City): "I once suggested to the American Civil Liberties Union that it award (Attorney General) John Ashcroft its Medal of Liberty because he has done more - however inadvertently - than any American since Sept. 11 to educate the public on how fragile our constitutional liberties are, and why it's so essential to never let up on the agents of government who strive to strip them away."

In Dearborn, Michigan, the first Arab American National Museum in the country will open its doors in January, 2005. It "will mark a unique moment in history for Arab Americans", according to Access, a Michigan-based Arab-American community group. The museum will be dedicated to showcasing the rich cultural heritage of the Arab American community and the contributions it has made, and will continue to make to this country. The museum will be the first of its kind in the country, and will function as an educational facility, an institution of preservation, and a community centre, focusing on Arab American immigration, employment, religion, history, arts and culture.

Sam Harris writes in The Washington (DC) Times: "Perhaps it is time we thought the unthinkable about Iraq. Perhaps it is time we considered the possibility that we will break everything we touch in that country - or everything we touch will break itself. However mixed or misguided our intentions were in launching this war, we are attempting, at considerable cost to ourselves, to improve life for the Iraqi people. Despite the numbers of Iraqi dead and the travesty of Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi insurgents know that we did not come to their country to rape their women or to kill innocent civilians. Every thinking person in the Muslim world understands that if our goal had been to kill Iraqis and steal their oil, millions of Iraqis would now be dead and their oil would be flowing."

American Muslims get a TV network of their own, reports the Buffalo (New York) News. "One show features a Muslim newspaper reporter named Jinnah who solves whodunits. A soap opera explores the melodrama of a Muslim father confronted with his daughter's desire to marry a non-Muslim."

"Allah Made Me Funny" chronicles a Muslim comedy tour. Islamic television, "Bridges TV", beamed from Buffalo, will reach Muslims across the country and in Canada. "Bridges TV" weaves news coverage with music videos, animated children's shows, classic movies and programmes about food, travel and culture - all with an underlying theme appealing to American Muslims.

The new cable television network is the first in English to be aimed at this demographic, one of the fastest-growing in the country. Its founder and chief executive officer, Muzzammil S. Hassan, 40, hopes the network will help balance negative portrayals of Muslims that have dominated American media since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

This article was published in the Monday, December 13, 2004 edition of the Jordan Times. It is used here with permission.