PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Islamist Propaganda Is Intended Only To Breed Hate.
by Yassar Datsmibebe Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 at 2:27 PM

Islamist propaganda on al-Jazeera's English-language Web site is truly bizarre and quite humorous.

The story is headlined "The Picture Which Shames US Army," and here's the concluding paragraph:

"This is a shocking picture. We want Aljazeera.net to show the world what the Americans are doing in Afghanistan. It is a picture which will shame the US military," added Ansiri, spokesman for the centre which is a human rights organisation. http://travellingshoes.blogspot.com/2003_10_19_travellingshoes_archive.html#106686069954145033

So what atrocity does the picture show? Please sit down before I tell you, or else you may fall off your chair laughing:

�A secretly taken picture of an American soldier frisking an Afghan child has shocked human rights campaigners across the world. . . . Taken by a strategically placed camera, and using a telephoto lens, the undercover photographer snapped a four-year-old child having his clothing searched by a heavily armed US soldier.�

Oh no, not a frisking! Anything but that! Maj. Peter Mitchell tells al-Jazeera that "those children could have been carrying explosives," which, as Miller notes, is "not a bad assumption, since the Taliban were infamous for recruiting boys as young as 13 into their ranks." And, as Miller notes, al-Jazeera's "comic level of hyperbole" is emblematic: "Nearly all that the critics of American actions in Afghanistan have left is hyperbole and mock outrage."

Reading the al-Jazeera story, you should note some of the names of the players on this field. "Ansiri, spokesman for the centre which is a human rights organization"? That would be Yasser Ansiri, director of the London-based Islamic Observation Centre. http://www.ummah.org.uk/ioc/egindex.htm Ansiri--whose name is also transliterated al-Siri or al-Sirri--has been described as "the mouthpiece of al Qaeda in Britain." He sought asylum in Britain after fleeing Egypt, where he had been convicted and sentenced to death for a bomb attack that killed a 12-year-old girl. Scotland Yard arrested him in October 2001 on suspicion of involvement in the Sept. 9 assassination of Ahmad Shah Masood, a Northern Alliance leader, but a judge ordered his release in May 2002. Ansiri denies any involvement with any terrorist groups and describes himself as a journalist with good contacts in Afghanistan, the Times reports. "But his IOC website, which is decorated with missiles and dripping blood, carried the latest threat from one of bin Laden's closest aides, Muhammad Atef, who is al-Qaeda's military commander and is believed to be in hiding with his leader in the Afghan mountains." http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001350023-2001370660,00.html

Then there's the byline: Yvonne Ridley. Ridley was a reporter for London's Sunday Express who sneaked into Afghanistan in September 2001, before America had liberated it from the Taliban. The Taliban captured her and held her prisoner for 11 days. After her release, she made what the left-wing Independent called "the extraordinary claim that Western intelligence agencies tried to get her killed to bolster public support for the air strikes on Afghanistan." http://www.counterpunch.org/dillon1.html And then, in what appears to be a rather bizarre and extreme example of Stockholm Syndrome, she converted to Islam. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4473329,00.html

Offering a taste of Muslim culture in Britain, the New York Times visits a video store in Birmingham, England, owned by Imran Khan: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0912FC3F550C778EDDA90994D9404482
�The jihad videos on sale at Mr. Khan's store . . . depict Muslims as victims of oppression. The British authorities have not moved to ban them, although the videos specifically single out Jews and Christians as people to be shunned.

�The latest to be produced, "The State of the Ummah," or Islamic nation, is filled with Mr. bin Laden's exhortations to holy war against Israel, the United States and Arab leaders seen to be in league with the West.

�The tape was made at least six months before Sept. 11. It shows Mr. bin Laden celebrating the 1998 attacks on American Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and the subsequent attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen. Jews and Americans are referred to as "monkeys and pigs."

When the world faces up to the fact that the Islamist can not be allowed to continue to hide their hatred, racism and murderous intent behind a veil of religious freedom, only then can we move off of the senseless path of worldwide destruction that the Islamists and the world�s political left have taken us upon.

add your comments