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Muslims
Against Terrorism (MAT)- struggling for justice
Date: October 20, 2001
By:
Syed Soharwardy
The unfair treatment of
western media towards Islam and Muslims is not new to many people. The biased
reporting, stereotype stories and hidden hate towards Muslims of the world are
facts of western journalism. These champions of the free world who claim that
their reporting standards are very high, they are honest and feel responsible
to provide correct information to their audiences are in fact, have dual
standards of reporting. They intentionally dramatize a situation in order to
market their programs and increase their market share at any cost. They are not
honest when a news item or a story involves a practicing Muslim or religion of
Islam.
The Muslims of North
America, Europe and Australia
have been under a constant threat from these media organizations. These media
organizations including all TV network, most of the Radio stations and
all-major newspapers of North America, Europe and Australia have been controlled /
influenced by special interest groups. These special interest groups through
the western media are not only misleading the people of North America, Europe
and Australia
but also trying to build walls between Islam and the people of other faiths
such as Christians and Jews.
These media organizations
are purposely creating a very wrong image of Islam and Muslims. The main
objective of these media organizations is to create, through their own
judgments, such a horrible image of Islamic teachings that the people in the
west not only consider Islam as a threat towards western cultures but also feel
threatened by the Muslims. A common person who is very
busy to fulfill his / her economic and social needs and does not have time to
investigate the situation, heavily depends upon the media reporting. If TV,
Radio and the Newspapers are not honest in their reporting then the listeners
or the readers of western media will not be able to get the truth. Rather, it
creates misunderstanding among the various religious and ethnic groups, which
creates animosity, hate and intolerance for each other. The Muslim minority of
North America, Europe and Australia
has been suffering from this unfair and very biased treatment of the media for
a long time.
Every time when an incident
of terrorism happens anywhere in the world the Muslims living in Western World specially in North America
gets terrorized by the horrors of the news media. The way newscasters on radio
and TV broadcast and print media prints the news, it's always very clear that
all these newscasters and reporters not only try very hard to find a Muslim
name to be associated with the incident. These journalists who portray
themselves as the champions of humanity and professionalism become so
unprofessional and inhuman that sometime they do not realize the outcome of
their hurried and rushed reporting. You may be asking what proof do I have to
support my arguments? Let me give you some examples
from the recent memories.
- April 19, 1995, when the Murrah
Federal building in downtown Oklahoma
City, was bombed. The entire media organizations
in USA and Canada
declared the Islamic connection in the destruction of the building. The
media speculated and blamed Muslims for the destruction and killings of
innocent civilians. The way TV networks including CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, CBC projected and propagated Muslims as terrorists and
Islam as the religion of intolerance, the majority of the people in USA and Canada believed these false
reports of the media. The majority of the people not only tried to isolate
Muslim minority but many Muslims became victims of this malicious
propaganda. As we all know that these reports were completely false. There
was no Muslim connection in this bombardment. Two fundamentalist
Christians were convicted in this case. But no media organizations
identified 27-year-old Timothy McVeigh and his ex-Army buddy, Terry
Nichols as Christian terrorists.
- July 17, 1996 the crash of TWA 800 flight off New York's Long Island
in which 230 people aboard the Paris-bound Boeing 747 died was initially
blamed upon Muslim organizations. The media was very irresponsible in
reporting this incident. They not only provided the false information to
the audiences but also forcefully tried to involve Muslims in this
destruction. Later, the investigators did not find any Muslim connections
to the crash. But media had done its damage and once again created bad
feelings among the people of the United States for Islam and
Muslims.
- October 31, 1999 EgyptAir
flight 990 crashed off the coast of Massachusetts.
All 217 passenger died in the crash. Because of
the previous lessons learned on TWA 800 flight; the media did not jump to
the Muslim connection quickly. But as soon as media reporters found out
from the flight voice recorder that the Captain has said some prayers
before the crash, they made astonishing and very ignorant remarks about
these religious supplications. They assumed that the Captain said these
prayers because he was going to commit suicide and destroy the entire
plane with him. This shows how knowledgeable these investigators are? And
how knowledgeable these media reporters are? A Muslim makes such prayers /
supplications everyday when he / she starts the
journey OR when he / she is in danger of an accident. We seek God's help
in these types of situations by making such supplications. No doubt, a
Muslims relies on his or her judgment, training and technology but
ultimately he / she relies on God as a final authority for all outcomes.
These supplications do not indicate that the pilot was committing suicide.
These supplications prove that he was seeking God's help. By the way,
these supplications also prove that the pilot was knowledgeable about the
teachings of Islam and he must have known that suicide is a major sin in
Islam. But media took these supplications as an opportunity to once again
misguide the people about the Islamic beliefs and project Muslims as
killers.
We can quote several
similar incidents where no Muslim was involved in the incident but media used
its twisting techniques and told the wrong information. Media always tried to
portray Islam as a religion of terror and all the Muslims as terrorists. The
way talk-show programs and news are produced and presented, it seems that the
media has already decided the guilty verdict regardless what would be the outcome
of an investigation.
Why the media would not
tell about the religious affiliation of a terrorist if he or she would not be a
Muslim? But when a Muslim individual is involved in any terrorist incident, his
/ her name is identified later but his / her religion is identified first. When
a news comes from Algeria about a killing incident,
the media is very quick in using the word "Muslim Terrorists",
"Muslim Extremists", "Muslim Fundamentalists",
"Islamic Rebels" etc. When the similar killings take place in Zimbabwe, Congo,
Rwanda,
media never identifies anyone as Christians. How about Serbia? When
Serbs were killing Muslims in Bosnia
and Kosovo, Media never said that these Serbs are killing Muslims in the name
of Christianity. These Serbs are Fundamentalist Christians and Christian
Terrorists. When Croats were killing Muslims in Bosnia
and Croatia,
no media identified them as Christian Terrorists. When in Kashmir,
if a Hindu person dies, the blame goes immediately on Islamic Militants but
when a Muslim dies no one identifies his / her killer as a Hindu. Does anyone
know why?
Why CNN and other network
TV stations identify a group of people who attack on Israel
from Lebanon
as Muslim extremists? Why the people who retaliate from Israeli side are not
identified with their religious affiliation regardless whether they are
defending Israel or
attacking the enemies of Israel?
If one group is identified with its religious affiliation and the other group
with its country affiliation, this proves how biased and unfair these reporters
are? Either both groups should be identified with their religious affiliation
or both should be identified with their country affiliation.
Recently, Pope Paul II
visited holy lands. During this visit, Larry King of CNN invited various distinguished
Christian and Jew guests in his show "Larry King Live" to talk about
religious harmony. But Larry was unable to find a single Muslim scholar for
this show. I do not think that Larry does not know that the largest population
of that region where Jesus (peace be upon him) was
born is Muslim. Pope was not only welcomed by Christians and Jews but the
majority of the people who attended his masses and gatherings were Muslims.
Pope visited the most sacred places of all three religions. But Larry King
invited only Christians and Jews not a Muslim? This may not be very important
but it shows how Larry King / CNN think. Producing a documentary on Hajj by CNN
may not be as important as involving Muslims of USA in social, economical and
political process and discussions on CNN.
Remember that Islam means
Peace and Muslim means a believer from whose hands and tongue the others are safe. It is not possible that a true Muslim can be a
terrorist. I am not trying to say that at present times, the entire Muslim
community is perfect. I am not saying that the Muslim community does not have
any bad element. What I am trying to convey is a request to the entire media
organization to be fair and honest in their reporting. Treat the Muslim
community as you treat the Christian and Jewish communities. In case of a
Christian or a Jew, you are able to separate an individual action from his /
her community action, why are you unable to do the same thing with Muslims?
Just like Christianity or Judaism, Islam forbids its followers to harm or kill
or make hostage anyone. while the media can understand
the teachings of Christianity and Judaism why they have difficulty in
understanding similar teachings of Islam? Is this intentional? Why media
organizations do not want to play a positive role in bringing the followers of
Islam, Christianity and Judaism together? Why these media organizations treat a
Christian or a Jew different than a Muslim? Why are these media organizations
afraid of Islam and Muslims? The problems of extremism do exist in Muslim
community just like in Christian and Jewish communities. Why the problem in
Muslim community is exploited more than the Christian or Jewish communities?
The extremism in very small
pockets of Muslim community is caused by;
- The oppression of Muslims and their counties by
the Western world in 1700, 1800 and early 1900 in the name of imperialism,
colonialism and communism.
- The continuation of this oppression by the West
in the name of secularism and capitalism.
- The following of some of the self claimed Muslim
scholars who practice and preach violence in the name of Islam to benefit
their own personal interests. These people have misused the concept of
Jihad and they have their own interpretation of Jihad. They have ignored
the interpretation of Jihad what last Messenger of Allah, Muhammad (Peace
be upon him) has given to the Muslims.
Muslims Against
Terrorism (M.A.T)
To help the governments and
the media organizations of the Western World in order to understand Islam and
Muslims beliefs, Muslims Against Terrorism (MAT) has
been established with the following objectives.
- To create awareness that Islam requires from its
followers to be peaceful and sincere with the all humans.
- To educate Muslims and non-Muslims that Islam
has no place for terrorism and racism.
- To educate Muslims and non-Muslims what Jihad
is? And it's various aspects.
- To create awareness about the teachings of
Qur'an and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) regarding the roles
and responsibilities of an individual, a government and a group of
Muslims in Muslim and non-Muslim countries.
- To help young Muslims in their social,
economical and educational affairs.
- To provide Muslim perspective to media when
needed.
- To use the justice system against those media
channels (radio, TV and newspapers etc..) which propagate false
information against Islam and Muslims
- To use justice system against those media
channels (radio, TV and newspapers etc.) which identify a terrorist based
upon his / her religion.
The Purpose of this
organization is to help media and the governments to separate someone's
individual action from being portrayed as a community action. A terrorist
should be identified and condemned as a terrorist but a terrorist should not be
identified with his / her religious affiliation. Why a terrorist who happens to
be a Muslim is identified as a Muslim terrorist? How about the terrorists of
other religions? Why aren't they identified and associated with their
religions? US installations and citizens are under more terrorist attacks from
South American terrorists than any other part of the world. Why aren't they
identified as Christian terrorists? The white Supremacist groups in the Western
world are fundamentalist Christians. Why their terrorist attacks on Blacks and
other ethnic groups aren't reported and associated with their religion. Unless,
the people who believe in justice for all are united to standup for their
rights, the media will continue to create a negative image of Muslims and Islam.
M.A.T. executives and
members will be happy to assist any media organization by providing them the
correct information. We urge the media to be careful in their reporting and do
not use the word such as "Muslim Terrorist", "Islamic Terrorist",
Muslim Extremist", Islamic Extremist", "Muslim
fundamentalist", "Islamic Fundamentalist", etc. Such things do
not exist. If an individual who happens to be a Muslim commits a crime, his /
her name should be identified not his / her religion. Like
media does for other non-Muslim criminals. The worldwide members of MAT monitor media reports very
closely. We also urge all the Muslims and non-Muslims to report us any media
reporting which they feel was a biased reporting against Islam or any other
religion.
Muslims are the most
law-abiding citizens of the Western World. The crime rate among Muslims in North America is the least among all ethnic groups. The
external threats to USA are
more from South America and Russian Mafia then Middle East
or any other Muslim country. Why media picks-up on Muslims whenever an incident
of terrorism occurs or about to occur? We may not know all the answers but we
are sure that this is happening because of ignorance about Islam, Muslim
beliefs, and prejudice and stereotype approach towards non-western cultures.
Its never too late. Let's work together
and join M.A.T or use services from M.A.T. for this noble cause of counter
terrorism. May God help us in making this world a peaceful place for everyone. Amen.
Please forward this message
to as many people as you can. Please print it and distribute in your area.
Following is the contact
information to reach M.A.T.
Address:
Muslims Against Terrorism (M.A.T.)
Syed B. Soharwardy
28 Crowfoot Terrace NW
P.O. Box 68142, Calgary
Alberta T3G 3N8,
Canada
Phone: (403)-208-7148
Email: Soharwardy@Home.com