Bush's Continuing Crusade Against Islam: Anger Growing Against the U.S.
By Sam Hamod
Al-Jazeerah, September 8, 2004
Bush's "crusade" against Islam, was not a verbal slip, it was a Freudian slip that showed his true battle plan. The continuing attacks on Fallujah and in Sadr City show that there is no let-up in his plan to destroy Iraq and the Islamic will of its people. This did not work in Najaf, and it won't work elsewhere. Unfortunately, the ethnocentric U.S. military and Rumsfeld have their plans and they continue their attacks, most often killing women and children. This will not achieve victory for America, it will create a stronger will of resistance and in a typical Middle Eastern way, it will create a desire for revenge so that no American or American ally will be safe in Iraq or elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim world. Bush's crusade is doomed to failure, but with many more Iraqis and Americans being killed in the process--all for naught.
There are some terrible parallels between the American action in Iraq and the Israeli actions in Palestine. Our country and Israel are condemned by religious and moral leaders throughout the world, as it should be. As one UN expert said in his condemnation of Israeli shelling of homes in Palestine, "These attacks are to terrorize the people, hoping to destroy their will. Over time, it may work, but in these several years, it has led to more return violence, not a loss of will by the Palestinian people." I think the same is occurring in Iraq. General Tommy Franks showed his ignorance at the Republican Convention when he said, "I prefer to keep the war over there." Little does he realize that "over there" will also be "over here" in time, and in all other places that America has interests. Mr. Franks is living in the pre-WWII era; he has lost touch with reality; in the modern world, everyone is everywhere, it is only a matter of time before we suffer that lesson.
As an example, we have word this morning from the BBC, Al Jazeera and other sources in the Muslim world that over a dozen people were killed, many of them women and children in their homes and many more injured in a massive U.S. bombing raid on Fallujah. Hundreds of people were injured in U.S. raids on Sadr City, dozens of Iraqis killed--for what? Is our government so ignorant to think that the people of Iraq will forget these things. By these immoral and unjustified raids, the American military is making more enemies in Fallujah, among the Sunni Muslims in Iraq, the Shi'a in Najaf and Sadr City, and this radiates to the rest of the Muslim world. Our killing of Iraqis has angered the Christian minority in Fallujah and Baghdad who have spoken out against it. Independent media observers in the area allege only homes were hit, men in groups were shot at by tanks and helicopters, with no apparent military connections. In the homes, women and children were killed in Fallujah by rockets from Apaches and F16s. This is a massacre, not a war on terrorism. We are the terrorists--not just in the eyes of the Muslims, but in the eyes of the world. In fact, a friend of mine just returned from a month in Europe where he performed in several countries. He told me the hatred toward America is much worse than it was last year, and Europeans are now getting angry at the American people as well as Bush because of American support for Bush and the war. This war against Islam that Bush has started is outraging Muslims the world over. They want to know why it is o.k. to kill Muslims at will, without reason and to keep justifying it with lies. The same thing happened yesterday and again today in Afghanistan--the bombing of villages is like the bombings in Iraq--based on mere "suspicions" and without any credible proof. The Muslim people did not hate America in the past, but this is bringing them to hatred of us, and if this continues, the anger will become an enormously overpowering hatred that may take centuries to mollify.
According to last week's hospital report from Fallujah by Dr. Seifeddin Taha, from the Fallujah General Hospital, "We have received 17 dead people and six wounded, several in serious condition. All the wounded are families. Among the dead, there could be two or three children but the bodies are torn to pieces and it's difficult to tell," according to a local news agency. There were similar medical reports and independent news reports from similar attacks in Afghanistan. I know that we in America would feel anger if these attacks took place against us by an outside power. Why is it so hard then for our American people to understand why others are getting angry at our brutal air attacks against defenseless people who have no anti-aircraft or planes to defend themselves. Imagine yourself as a victim of continuous air attacks by supersonic jets with rockets and 500 lb. bombs.
Muslims throughout the world look for this news everyday. According to reports I have received from leading Egyptian, Saudi, Syrian, Malaysian, Pakistani and Indonesian newspapers, there is more interest in the American behavior in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Israeli behavior in Palestine than other more local and regional news. It is as if GW Bush and his allies in Iraq and Israel have created a new crusader image that the Muslim world is becoming enraged at. The bombings in Fallujah, the killings at the Shrine of Ali in Najaf and then the attacks on the poor in Sadr City in Baghdad, the daily bombings in Afghanistan and Palestine have all been seen and commented upon by the people of these Muslim countries. Our attacks and those of the Israelis have been condemned by the leaders of these nations at the UN and in various media outlets overseas--but rarely, if ever, seen in the U.S. or even in the usually fair-minded UK on BBC, except on the internet.
The attacks on the Shi'a in Najaf garnered more news lately because of the importance of Najaf, a kind of Vatican, for the Shi'a Muslims. The continuing attacks on the important Sunni city of Fallujah is angering Sunnis all over the world in the same way. One must remember, that of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, the majority are Sunnis. The continuing destruction of Palestine and Aghanistan are two more focal points of Arab and Muslim upset with America.
Until recently, most Muslims have not been that militant toward the West, but at this point, their anger is boiling over. This will create more problems for our country, not only overseas, but in time, as I said earlier, I'm sure the war will spill over into America. Somehow, Bush and his neo-con advisors haven't grasped how the Palestinians have taken their battles into Israel, taking more lives. The same will most likely happen here over time. It is a lose/lose situation that must be stopped before it sets fire to the entire world.
In the cases of Najaf and of Fallujah, they are good examples of how wrong-minded and immoral our policies are in Iraq and toward Muslims in general. Recall, if you will, the American and world outcry when the Taliban tragically destroyed the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan. But there was no such outrcy when an even more important and revered shrine to Ali in Najaf was attacked and damaged. If American military men had their way, along with the puppet PM, Allawi, the shrine could have been destroyed were it not for the intervention of Al Sistani and the thousands of Shi'a who joined him on his march to save Najaf and the shrine.
Rarely do you hear the American media show outrage or condemnation for the killings of Muslims in Iraqi cities, destruction of villages in Afghanistan and Palestine.It's almost as if the Muslims are sub-human. Weighing the way our media treats the deaths of Muslims and Arabs, they are not equal to an American or an Israeli death. Notice the enormous hue and cry that goes up every time there is an Israeli killed--but not when Palestinians and other Muslims are killed everyday at the hands of the U.S. and Israel. This is a sad situation for all concerned. It seems our media and our government have lost their humanity.
Though the U.S. military keeps saying it is attacking Fallujah to kill Al Zarqawi and his allies, Fallujhans have made clear that he is not there nor was he ever there. The American video that was issued as "proof" that Zarqawi was there showed a man who spoke with a non-Jordanian accent. Experts on Arabic all agreed, that this could not possibly have been Al Zarqawi because actual Al Zarqawi spoke with a decided Jordanian accent. The American government and military have never offered any credible proof that Al Zarqawi or any allies were ever in Fallujah.
Somehow the U.S. military believes that if it asserts something, without proof, that it is true and that people will believe them. This simply does not fly; in fact, it has angered so many Iraqis that nothing the Americans or the Allawi government says is believed. At this point, according to polls in Africa, Asia and Europe, most in the world no longer believe the U.S. either.
This indiscriminate bombing, with 500 lb. bombs, rockets and Apache air strikes will do no good; it is simply punishing the people of Fallujah for their fierce resistance to unsuccessful American attempts to occupy their city. The American assaults failed--shortly thereafter, the punishing bombing started. Any sane person can see this is revenge for the U.S. military failure in Fallujah.
At this point, it would be good for the UN to step in and ask the U.S. to stop this brutal and illegal behavior by the U.S. military. The Geneva Conventions forbid the bombing of civilians if they are not combatants. America's behavior has become terrorism incarnate. Sadly, it seems as if GW Bush is following the Israeli style of Sharon--trying to terrorize and punish the inhabitants of a city, destroying their infrastructure in hopes that this terrrorism will force them to fall into line. This has not worked in Palestine, even after years of Israeli brutality; yet the U.S. military has followed the advice of its newly hired Mossad and Israeli trainers and followed the same brutal, unsuccessful pattern in Fallujah and in Sadr City of Baghdad.
None of this will work. The will of the Muslims is too great to break. In time, we shall reap the evil we have sown.
It is time to put a stop to this.
The best we can hope for is that Bush is turned out of office; this does not mean that Kerry will be much better. But Kerry may be intelligent enough to see that these wars Bush has launched will cost us more than we can possibly gain.
If this war on Islam continues, we will have only ourselves to blame for not stopping this president from this illegal and immoral warfare. Woe unto us when the chickens come home to roost.
Professor Sam Hamod is an expert on the Middle East and Islam; he is a former advisor to the U.S. State Department; Director of The Islamic Center in Washington, DC (retired). Look for his new books: ESSAYS IN TIMES OF WAR and ISLAM: A VISION. He may be reached at shamod@cox.net |
