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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA AND THE GLOBAL 'WAR' ON TERROR (GWOT) Years 1 and 2, ie 9/11-2003

Britain's quest to win the propaganda war by Sajjad Khan


http://www.khilafah.com/home/category.php?DocumentID=5786&TagID=24#

Below is an Islamic perspective about western claims that they are not waging a war against Muslims by suggesting that they are....




Britain's quest to win the propaganda war
uploaded 13 Dec 2002

Since the events of September 11th 2001, it is abundantly clear that the Western governments have been conducting a ruthless campaign against Islam and Muslims under the disguise of a "War on Terror". We have witnessed with immense sadness the events that have taken place in the name of the "War on Terror" such as the killing of the Muslims of Afghanistan, the continued aggression against the Muslims of Iraq and the butchering of the Muslims of Palestine. In addition we have all seen the execution of Muslims in Chechnya, the arrest and torture of Da'wa carriers in Uzbekistan aimed at shattering their resolve, and the onslaught against the Muslims of India at the hands of Hindu mobs. All of this was orchestrated and sanctioned by the head of Kufr, America, and supported slavishly by Britain and the other Western governments.

This campaign of the West aims to destroy Islam but simultaneously portray to the Muslims that they are not attacking Islam. In recent months, in order to propel forward their campaign, politicians, commentators, journalists and prominent personalities have all engaged in this message with the Muslim community in Britain. It has now reached the stage where volumes have been written in the print media and hours of airtime have been devoted to the subject on talk shows. The campaign is now coming to a head and in an news article on November 27th 2002 in the 'Guardian' it was said:

"A day after warning MP's that some Islamic fundamentalists regard moderate Muslims as worse enemies than Christians and Jews. Mr Straw told the annual awards ceremony of the Foreign Press Association that ministers will continue to resist voices which portray the government's stance as 'anti-Muslim'."

Mike O'Brien the Junior British Minister in his speech to a recent seminar titled 'Militant Islam in Asia' on the 21 November 2002 also mentioned how the West and Muslims should work together, he said;

"The challenge today is to remove the ignorance on both sides. The West can start to address some of this by working with the grain of Islamic belief - and with willing partners. We will fail if we dictate to others. The colonial days are over, and no one wants them back."

Also Tony Blair writing in the 'Daily Jang' newspaper a few days ago said talking about the Iraq question

"It is nothing to do with religion. We must not allow Saddam to wear the cloak of religion to hide his evil intentions"

So it is clear that there is a concerted attempt to portray the 'War on Terror' as not a 'War against Islam'. Many including the British Foreign Secretary recently apologised for the bad old colonial days. These comments are obviously designed to present British foreign policy as altruistic, benign and not against Islam. However it not helpful to speak of British and Western foreign policy as one of friendship to the Muslims, or a collection of benign policies which do not target Islam, rather a detailed study of the West's strategic and commercial interests throughout the world is much more useful. Britain and America are Capitalist nations whose foreign policy is exclusively driven by what is in their benefit. If it is in their benefit to help the Muslims in one situation as it was in Kosovo, then they will engage in actions to help the Muslims even if the other party are Christians. However the fact that the West were helping Muslims in Kosovo was incidental to the problem as the main objective was to ensure strategic stability returned in the Balkans and Southern Europe through the defeat of Milosovic. Indeed if the West's policy is simply to help Muslims, why does the West warmly embrace the Butcher of Chechnya Putin as Tony Blair recently did on his visit to Moscow. If supporting Muslims is the policy, why does the West allow the Butcher of Palestine Sharon to engage in his wanton acts of violence against the Muslims of Palestine without even so much of a condemnation?

Western foreign policy is therefore not concerned with Muslims engaging in their personal worships, however Western foreign policy is obsessed with stopping Islam manifesting itself politically. This is because an Islamic political entity is diametrically opposite to colonialism and its worldview, whereas capitalism and colonialism are inextricably linked, indeed colonialism is the method by which capitalism is spread. Consequently the planners and politicians from amongst the West have clearly identified an Islamic State as a clear obstacle in achieving their imperialistic designs, as can be seen from a statement made by a previous British Foreign Secretary just before World War Two:

"We must put an end to anything which brings about any Islamic unity between the sons of the Muslims. As we have already succeeded in finishing off the Khilafah, so we must ensure that there will never arise again unity for the Muslims, whether it be intellectual or cultural unity."

It is clear throughout the 20th century and now in the millennium, that we are seeing a concerted campaign to discredit Islam as a political force. Western Leaders may condemn Huntington's 'Clash of Civilisations' theory but they certainly apply it in their foreign policy. British colonialism oppressed the Muslims of India; it massacred its citizens and usurped its wealth. The British Mandate via the Balfour declaration promised the Palestinians their own homeland while simultaneously promising the Jews the same land. The British were instrumental in working night and day to destroy the Othmani Khilafah so that Islam as a political entity would never again challenge their imperialistic ambitions. However apologists claim these were events that took place in the past and that present policies have changed. However looking at some of the present political realities indicates that despite its desire for 'modernisation' in all domestic spheres, the West's foreign policy still follows the traditional method of deception, political control and double standards. As Robert Cooper, Tony Blair's foreign policy adviser admitted;

"But when dealing with more old-fashioned kinds of states outside the post-modern continent of Europe, we need to revert to the rougher methods of an earlier era - force, pre-emptive attack, deception whatever is necessary to deal with those who still live in the 19th century of every state for itself"

To therefore illustrate this let us examine the record of the 'War on Terror', purportedly not a 'War against Islam'. It is clear to any aware observer that the only people that have been targeted as part of the West's 'War on Terror' have been the Muslims. The only countries that have been attacked have been Muslim countries. The only people that have been arrested and sent to places like Guantanomo Bay or kept in British jails without facing charges are Muslims. The only groups that have been investigated maligned and harassed have been Muslims. The only countries that the West wants to impose UN resolutions on are Muslim countries, despite violations by other countries like India and Israel. The West threatens Iraq a Muslim country with war on unsubstantiated allegations of the latter's possession of weapons of mass destruction, but is content with following diplomatic channels with respect to North Korea who have actually admitted owning such weapons. The West talks about the sanctity of freedom of speech when it suits her policy, but then keeps quiet when sincere Muslims are imprisoned for accounting their unsavoury allies in Egypt, Pakistan and Jordan. The West talks about human rights violations in Iraq while turning a blind eye to the torture and imprisonment of Muslims in Guantanomo Bay, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Yet despite all this incontrovertible evidence the Western Establishment continues to maintain that the 'War on Terror' has nothing to do with Islam.

We should not get bitten again from the same colonialists who promised our forefathers a Khilafah in the Arab world that would provide us with protection, while secretly plotting to usurp the land for themselves. We should not get bitten again from the nation who promised under the guise of the East India Company that they were simply enhancing trade yet were in reality seeking political control. We should not get bitten again from the colonialists who today say we have no problem with Islam but who via loans are seeking to rid Islam from the educational curriculum in countries like Pakistan. We should not get bitten again from the same colonialists who claim they are sorry about the days of occupation under the British Empire yet as we speak are planning to occupy Iraq and its abundance of oil reserves.

It has become obvious for anyone to see that the West still has the 'crusader' mentality burning through their hearts. They realise that only the Islamic ideology after the demise of communism seriously threatens their colonialist worldview. However they are also aware that the Aqeedah of the Muslims burns brightly and therefore they seek to attack Islam by portraying that they are not really attacking Islam. But do the Western governments really think that this Ummah including the Muslims in Britain are naive, will we ever forget the attacks on the Muslims of Afghanistan, the blood from which is yet to dry? Do they really think that the sons and daughters of this Ummah will not stand shoulder with shoulder with the Muslims of Iraq if a war breaks out? Do they not realise that the Muslims of Britain will never abandon their brothers and sisters in Palestine to the fate that awaits them under the falseness of international law?

Today's Crusade launched against Islam and the Muslims aims to subvert Islam by making Muslims doubt the actions and intention of the Colonialist. The colonialists themselves have long ago sacrificed all noble values for their endless pursuit of materialistic goals, they now want to keep Islam completely away from the political life, such that nothing remains of it but spiritualistic rituals conducted in the places of worship and a few pages in books of history. We ask you not to be fooled by those who claim that they have no issue with you whilst simultaneously making plans to occupy our lands and usurp our resources. We ask you to also act as ambassadors of Islam in this society to expose the false basis behind the Western system not to be pacified by putting on the West's integrationist straitjacket. We ask you to demonstrate the callousness of the Western system, which is prepared to kill thousands of Iraqis to pursue their strategic goals. We ask you to expose the Capitalist system, which is prepared to send its best sons to die in the hot sands of the desert so that oil companies and defence contractors can enhance their corporate profits. We ask you to point out the injustices of the fact that hundreds of thousands of people sleep on the streets of London, Paris and New York, while corporations that bankroll politicians to declare war, make billions in profits. We ask you to condemn the barbarism of western societies who claim they should be role models for the people of Iraq yet cannot even secure their own people from epidemic levels of muggings, burglary or child molestation. We ask you to stand up for the oppression of women in this society by saying that it is unacceptable that over 60% of women in prison are kept in prison, even though they suffer from neurotic disorders and this despite 2002 being a record year for suicides of female inmates in British prisons.

He (Subhanahu wa ta'ala) said:


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'O you who believe! Answer Allah and His Messenger when he (the Messenger) calls you to that which will give you life, and know that Allah comes in between a person and his heart. And verily to Him you shall (all) be gathered. And fear the fitna (affliction, trial) which affects not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong, and know that Allah is Severe in punishment' [8:24-25]


Sajjad Khan

Source: Khilafah Magazine December 2002 Edition



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