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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GWOT Year 4 - 2005
Karen Hughes fights back by M. Zuhdi Jasser Karen Hughes fights back  #
Mar. 15, 2005 12:00 AM AMERICA IS YOUR FRIEND M. Zuhdi Jasser Phoenix physician; Chairman, American Islamic Forum for Democracy President Bush's appointment of Karen Hughes to the post of undersecretary of state for public diplomacy could not have come at a better time. As we see nothing short of revolution beginning to sweep the Muslim and Arab world, it still defies logic that America, which has been an unequaled advocate of liberation, moderation and reform in the Middle East is tagged with such negative opinion polls in the Arab street. If we are to see in the Middle East what we saw in Eastern Europe, we need a galvanized media campaign to stimulate the moderates. We need to promote a better understanding of the truth regarding American ideals and intentions in spreading freedom and independence for the people of the Middle East. As a proud American Muslim working feverishly for Muslim reform and against the theocrats, I have always wondered how it is that our nation, which has the world's most skilled campaigners and communicators could not mount a more concerted and effective effort to counter the radical propaganda of freedom-hating Islamist militants. From the secular Arab despots to the militant Islamists who lead with hate, America has allowed the Islamic world to swallow the Jihadist propaganda of Al Jazeera and its ilk with hardly a concerted rebuttal. This is not a new effort. We have tried our Arabic, Al Hurra in Iraq. And our program of public diplomacy is already well underway with the grand efforts of those at USAID and those within the State Department. But this has been but a drop in the sea of Islamist and Arab state-run media hate well publicized by IMRA , Bringing in a high-powered, respected campaigner and close presidential confidant like Karen Hughes demonstrates a significant elevation of priority for public diplomacy. This will finally begin to bring us into the right ballpark in the primary front of this war on terror from which we have been relatively absent. The media and brainwashing engine of Middle Eastern despots and political Islam has had a 50-year- and two-generation head start. Its about time we took off the gloves and began fighting on the international airwaves and in the diplomatic ground against the autocrats, monarchs, and Islamists against their conspiracy theories, their intolerance, their hate, and their anti-Americanism. Additionally, hopefully with the aid of moderate secular American Muslims and with the leadership of the new undersecretary we can also begin to systematically derail the Islamists efforts at hijacking Islam for political and religious oppression. We cannot afford to stimulate change and allow the fall of dictatorships to give way to the failed ideology of theocracy. In the end, as we are seeing in Lebanon, the majority in the Middle East need at least a fair shake at choosing liberty and freedom over theocracy. Without the energies of skilled campaigners like Karen Hughes we will lose the war of ideas and leave the Muslim world starving for open societies with nothing but the trough of theocracy from which to feed. For those of us who enjoy and cherish the freedoms of America as Muslims, we know that there is nothing more Islamic than American democracy. It's about time to turn up the heat on the war of ideas in this war on terror. |