CHARLIE HEBDO CASE REVEALS EVIDENTLY WESTERN DOUBLE STANDARDS ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
CHARLIE HEBDO CASE DEMONSTRATES LOUDLY AND NOISILY WESTERN DOUBLE STANDARDS ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
by Syarif Hidayat*
“Following Wednesday’s attack on Paris-based satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, many Muslims found themselves in the spotlight once again, forced to apologize for a crime they had nothing to do with. Such is typically not the case for acts of violence perpetrated by other religious groups.” – huffingtonpost.com
The unfair treatment of western countries regimes and 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.
The western Media circus’ biased news reporting are terrorizing people with unbalanced news and lies that create fear and xenophobia. Terror is the most dreaded weapon in modern age and the Western media is mercilessly using it against its own people. It can add fear and helplessness in the psyche of the people of Europe and the United States as well as Australia. It means that what the enemies of the Western countries cannot do, its media is doing that.
The Western mainstream media circus apply a policy of controlled news reporting on their domestic problems and at the same time they apply outright lies or biased news reporting on international affairs especially on Islam, the Muslim World, the Middle East Conflict and international terrorism.
These western media circus members that include electronic (TV Stations and Radios) and print media are the most powerful Hate Propaganda Machines Against Islam and the Muslim world!
Problems can be traced back 1400 years
In many cases, the media’s reports about Islam are incorrect due to ignorance. This is one of the reasons why the West often hates Islam. In contrast to what many Westerners think of Islam, Islam is a peaceful religion, which does not promote any injustice or crime. Stereotypes about Islam are not new to Western culture. Problems can be traced back 1400 years. At that time, Islam and Christianity were involved in the Crusades in the 1100’s and in the Ottoman and Moorish control in Europe. Islam spread quickly to the West, and started to threaten the position of the Christian Church and the ruling class.
The Western elites, mainly the governments and the churches, then became highly involved in seeing that negative images were presented about Islam. As a result, not only were battles fought against Islam, but also a war of words was initiated to make sure that Islam would not have any converts or sympathizers in the West. These kinds of actions and feelings that the West had long ago still seem to be the case in the West today.
Today, the West, with little or no understanding of Islamic history, has identified a new enemy, “a new demon that has replaced the Red menace of the Cold war, i.e., radical Islam”. This “radical Islam”, a stereotype common to Western thought, portrays Muslims as fundamentalists or potential terrorists. Some of these ideas that the Western people have about Islam are due to the mass media of the West. Reporters who cover the Muslim world often know very little details about it. The media then develops a distorted image of Islam that Western culture adopts.
A major factor which contributes to Islamic stereotyping in the West is due to the media’s ignorance of selecting their words that describe Muslims. Some common names heard or seen in the news about Muslims are “extremist” or “terrorist”. These words are misleading and are mainly anti-Islamic. The media rarely uses more neutral terms such as “revivalist” or “progressives”. The Western media also creates the idea that Muslims are “returning” to Islam. This is not true in most cases, because many Muslims have never left Islam in the first place. Islam has always been a big part of their lives.
The US-led western regimes and media double standards
If the terrorist attack anywhere on this planet was perpetrated by a Muslim, Fox News, CNN, BBC AND THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE WESTERN MEDIA CIRCUS would be working overtime with breaking news almost every minute, COMPLETE SILENT or SO LITTLE IS SAID in the western media circus news reporting when the terrorists are Christian, Zionist, Jewish fundamentalists or extremists …They simply call the perpetrators as Right-wing extremists or right-wing nuts, paranoid schizophrenic persons or a deranged persons.
The US-led western media circus double standards is very much the same as their governments double standards policies on Islam and Muslim world. Here are some of the Zionist-controlled Western media circus “BIASED” or “IDIOTIC” Interpretation Standards ON TERRORISM, REVOLUTION, REVOLUTIONARIES, DICTATOR, STATE TERRORISM and AGGRESSION:
If a terrorist suspect is a Muslim = Muslim terrorist.
If a terrorist suspect is a Christian = Right-wing nut.
Israeli state terrorism = Self defense.
Palestinian resistance and freedom fighting = Palestinian terrorism.
Palestinian Freedom Fighters=Palestinian Terrorists.
The US state terrorism = “War on terror.”
A dictator friendly to the US-led western regimes = A democratically elected leader.
A democratically elected president, but unfriendly to the US-led western regimes = A dictator.
The US aggression = Intervention to liberate local citizens from a dictator.
Revolutionaries (with US interests) = Freedom Fighters
Revolutionaries (against US interests) = Terrorists
When u attack White people, they call it Racism.
When u attack Jewish people, they call it Anti-semitism
When u attack ur country, they call it treason.
When u attack ur religious sect, they call it hate.
But, When u attack the Muslim countries, they call it “War on Terror.”
When u attack the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, they call it FREEDOM of SPEECH and When u produce a mocking caricature of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, they call it FREEDOM of EXPRESSION.
French Example: Charlie Hebdo case
This week’s special edition of the Charlie Hebdo magazine, which recently came under a shooting attack in Paris, will feature caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad PBUH, says a lawyer for the French satirical weekly.
Richard Malka announced on Monday, January 12, 2015, that this week’s issue of Charlie Hebdo, which will be out on Wednesday with a million-copy print run, will “naturally” include new cartoons of Islam’s holy Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him).
Charlie Hebdo’s Wednesday special edition, which also contains usual “jokes” on politics and religions, will reportedly be translated into 16 languages with many copies available outside France.
The French magazine has repeatedly provoked Muslim ire by publishing cartoons mocking holy Prophet Muhammad PBUH.
The announcement was made after a recent wave of terrorist attacks in France which began on January 7 when the office of Charlie Hebdo came under assault by two gunmen. Some 12 people were killed in the incident that left France in huge shock and fear. Two days later, two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, suspected of murdering the journalists, were killed after being cornered at a printing workshop in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele.
In a posthumous video released on Sunday, Amedy Coulibaly, a gunman who killed four hostages in another terror attack at a Paris supermarket on Friday before he was slain by police, claimed he was acting on behalf of the ISIL Takfiri group in coordination with the two brothers who attacked Charlie Hebdo. He said the two brothers were affiliated with the al-Qaeda terrorist group. The terror attacks have drawn widespread condemnations from Muslims in France and the entire world.
Chalie Hebdo’s repeated blasphemies against Prophet Muhammad PBUH have hurt Muslims throughout the world. In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. The God Almighty Allah says in Al-Qur’an: “The Prophet is closer to the believers than their ownselves, and his wives are their (believers’) mothers (as regards respect and marriage). And blood relations among each other have closer personal ties in the Decree of Allâh (regarding inheritance) than (the brotherhood of) the believers and the Muhajirûn (emigrants from Makkah), except that you do kindness to those brothers (when the Prophet SAW joined them in brotherhood ties). This has been written in the (Allâh’s Book of Divine) Decrees (Al¬Lauh Al¬Mahfûz).” (Al-Qur’an, Surah Surah Al-Ahzab, Verse: 6)
On January 9, French President Francois Hollande called on the nation to remain vigilant in the face of the shocking terror assaults in the country, saying the “fanatics” behind the violence “have nothing to do with Islam.”
Over 50 anti-Muslim attacks in France in less than a week
Over 50 attacks, including shootings, have been carried out against Muslims across France in less than a week since a fatal raid on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, the country’s Muslim community says. The 54 assaults comprised of 21 cases of gunfire and grenade throwing at Islamic buildings and 33 cases of threats, said Abdallah Zekri, a spokesman for the monitoring body at the Central Council of Muslims in France, on Monday,January 12, 2015.
The figures, which do not include raids in Paris and its suburbs, were provided by the French Interior Ministry, Zekri added. He also noted that the number of attacks in such a short time is unusually high, calling on security forces to better monitor Islamic sites as well as social media.
The figures were released following a recent wave of terrorist attacks in France which began on January 7 when the office of Charlie Hebdo came under assault by two gunmen. Some 12 people were killed in the incident.
Two days later, two brothers, Said and Cherif Kouachi, suspected of murdering the journalists, were killed after being cornered at a printing workshop in the town of Dammartin-en-Goele. In a posthumous video released on Sunday, January 11, 2015, Amedy Coulibaly, a gunman who killed four hostages in another terror attack at a Paris supermarket on Friday before he was slain by police, claimed he was acting on behalf of the ISIL Takfiri group in coordination with the two brothers who attacked Charlie Hebdo.
He also said the two brothers were affiliated with the al-Qaeda terrorist group. The terror attacks have drawn widespread condemnation from Muslims in France and the entire world.
Americans’ Double-Standard
Survey Reveals Americans’ Double-Standard When Evaluating Religious Violence.
Following Wednesday’s attack on Paris-based satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, many Muslims found themselves in the spotlight once again, forced to apologize for a crime they had nothing to do with. Such is typically not the case for acts of violence perpetrated by other religious groups, and a 2011 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey may offer a hint as to why the double-standard exists.
The PRRI survey showed evidence of contradictions in Americans’ attitudes toward religious violence. Most notably, 83 percent of Americans said that self-proclaimed Christians who commit acts of violence in the name of Christianity are not really Christians, while 48 percent of Americans said that self-proclaimed Muslims who commit acts of violence in the name of Islam are not really Muslims. Republican respondents (55 percent) were more likely than Democrat respondents (40 percent) to say a self-identified Muslim who commits acts of violence in the name of Islam is really Muslim.
The same report revealed that only 58 percent of American adults view Muslims favorably, and a 2014 Pew report showed that just 38 percent say they personally know someone who is Muslim. In an article published at the time of the study’s release, PRRI CEO Robert P. Jones relayed that the double standard was most prominently employed by those who identify as Christian but least likely to appear among millennials. Jones said at the time that the younger generation might “facilitate a resolution of the public’s current ambivalence about the place of American Muslims in society,” but offered less optimism in an email to HuffPost on Friday.
A September 2014 Pew report found that 50 percent of American adults say Islam is more likely than other religions to encourage violence among its followers — up from 40 percent in 2011, Jones said. “These recent increases in Americans’ concerns about the links between Islam and violence,” Jones argued, “suggest that, if anything, these findings about the American double standard on religious violence may understate the size of this gap today.”
Paris attack condemned across Muslim world
The deadly attack on the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo is drawing condemnation from Muslims around the world. But, many also are upset at what they see as the paper’s offensive cartoons. Mainstream Islamic leaders and organizations rushed to condemn the Wednesday (January 7, 2015) shooting as a horrific act of terror that goes against the principles of Islam. Al-Azhar, one of the most respected institutions of Sunni Islamic learning, called the attack “criminal” and “an offense committed against Muslim sentiments.”
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation also released a statement saying such acts of terror “only represent the criminal perpetrators,” and not Islam as a whole. Condemnations also poured in from the leaders of Muslim-majority nations, such as Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Even Iran’s foreign ministry denounced the attack. But it criticized what it said are “abuses of freedom of speech” and “character assassination of religious figures.” That response is in reference to the French magazine’s often mocking cartoon portrayal of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, among other religious figures.
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, says he was not necessarily “emotionally offended” by the cartoons, but he did find them to be “in poor taste.” “I think as a society, we ought not champion offending people’s sacred spaces and symbols in the name of freedom of speech, but when it happens, we ought not excuse penalizing such people with death or violence,” said Rehab. Other Muslims are offended at the notion that they should have to respond at all to acts of religious extremists they are not associated with.
Abdullah Al Athba, a Qatari journalist, urged that Muslims via Twitter “don’t apologize for a crime you didn’t commit.” Some extremists used Twitter to broadcast a more radical approach. On Twitter, the Arabic hashtags #revengefortheprophet and #parisburns were trending. On an Iraqi-based radio station run by the Islamic State group, a statement called the gunmen “heroes” who avenged the Prophet Muhammad. All suspects shooting in the shooting and other apparently related attacks which involved hostages have since been killed in raids to apprehend them. (T/P3/P2)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
*Senior Editor of Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) (He can be contacted via emails: [email protected] and [email protected])
Sources:
1.http://www.presstv.ir/
2.http://mondoweiss.net/
3.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/