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Manufacturing consent for another Islamophobic war and the sectarian fifth column

Iqbal Suleman

The Western media has blood on its hands. It lies consciously and calculatedly in order to manufacture consent for wars. Rewind to September 11 in the year 2001. It beat the drums to the “War on Terror” and then it shamelessly peddled the weapons of mass destruction lie and Saddam Hussein/Al Qaeda alliance to give legitimacy to the American Invasion of Iraq.  The Lancet reports an estimated six hundred thousand Iraqi people were killed as a result of this unlawful war. Further there was another 48719 Iraqi military forces killed. This barbaric American war on the Muslim people of Iraq created 1.9 million Iraqi refugees.

The U.S intelligence agencies manufactured these lies with the sole purpose of creating a “reason” for the war in Iraq. In law and in fact, there was no reason to justify the U.S invasion of Iraq.  Today it is an established fact that there were no weapons of mass destruction that were found in Iraq. It is also an established fact that there was no alliance between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.  By repeating these lies and flooding the public mind with these lies they succeeded in manufacturing consent for war. A war that killed at least six hundred thousand Muslims. In two short sentences, Malcolm X describes the power of the media.

“The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent look guilty and to make the guilty look innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”

How apt and accurate are the words of Malcolm X. The media presented the Iraqis as the guilty, dirty, Arab Savages and they presented America and the Coalition of the willing as democrats, enlightened benevolent, civilized and refined. But the world witnessed what happened in Abu Ghraib. Today the mainstream media presents the Palestinians as guilty terrorists, savages, cruel, backward and full of hate. It presents Israeli Zionist Jews as innocent victims, democrats, civilized and modern. Today, the world is bearing witness to a viral video that shows Israelis torturing and raping Palestinian prisoners. The world is witnessing the footage of Israeli Knesset members arguing for the rights of Israeli soldiers to rape Palestinian prisoners.

After the 911 attacks in the U.S, the mainstream media went into overdrive in pushing the narrative of the Muslim terrorist and “War on terror”. This “War on terror” was used as a means to advance the Islamophobia project. The language and the imagery used by the media was powerful and repetitive until the construct of Muslim terrorist was firmly entrenched in the public mind. The medieval mideasterner, primitive, dirty and bloodthirsty Arab seeking to impose “Sharia law” in the West and wanting to slaughter all westerners. There was no mistaking as to who the terrorist was. He wore a beard. She wore a headscarf. He was Muhammad and she was Fathima.

The media succeeded in exclusively equating Terrorism with Muslims and Islam.  Have you ever observed the media even once referring to Israeli Zionist Terrorism even though there is abundant footage showing the IDF deliberately targeting and killing civilians. Take the U.S in the post October 7 period where a degenerate Zionist stabbed a Muslim kid to death, the killer was never referred to as a terrorist. In Durban South Africa, another crazed Zionist supporter of Israel stabbed an innocent Muslim women to death. He has never been called a Zionist terrorist.

The public mind was conned into believing this Islamophobic trope and bought into the justification of Imperialist wars.  Mainstream establishments like the New York Times, the BBC and CNN showed that they lacked the basic journalistic methods that a student learns in Journalism 101.  Instead of questioning the lies that were being advanced for the Iraq war, the western media blindly promoted it. The intelligence agencies like the CIA which helped prop up Al Qaeda knew as a matter of fact that Saddam Hussein did not support Al Qaeda. They also knew that Saddam Hussein was a CIA agent and an asset of the U.S and they put him into power in Iraq. It was the western powers that provided Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons and instigated Saddam to use the same chemical weapons against the people of Iran. The West orchestrated and financed Saddam’s war against Islamic Iran from September 1980 to August 1988. Estimates of the number of people killed range between 1.3 million to 2 million. The entire Western world supported Iraq against Islamic Iran. Iran was only supported by Syria and Libya.

The mainstream media, the U.S and U.K government and their intelligence agencies consciously and collectively acted in collusion to manufacture consent for the U.S war on Iraq. There was no moral nor legal justification for the war.  It was a war that scarred a generation of Iraqis for life. These war criminals like Tony Blair, George Bush, Collin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld have not even seen the inside of a court let alone the inside of a jail cell. Powell and Rumsfeld are hopefully frying in fire and waiting for Blair and Bush to join them. But what about justice in this world? What about the profiteers of that unlawful war? The war cost approximately 3 trillion dollars. What about International Law?  When if ever will the war criminals be prosecuted? The fact that they have not been held to account has set the stage for another Islamophobic war. Why do we as citizens of the world allow the media which is controlled by elites to have such unfettered power and influence over our lives?

Is the public mind being conditioned for another war against the people of Lebanon and the people of Iran? Will the public be fooled into accepting another atrocious Islamophobic war? Surely after the Imperialist wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, the public should never believe anything that comes out of the mouth of Western Leaders, their media apparatus and their intelligence agencies. The media in the West is not independent, nor cultivated by democratic values. Millions of us as ordinary citizens from all over the world took to the streets to oppose the American war on Iraq but the media was not listening to the democratic voices of the people. The corporate media always gravitates towards power and rather than deepening democracy, it impedes democracy.

Some argue that it’s very different today with the advent of social media. It is however naïve to presume that the social media space is a democratic space.  Social media is owned and controlled by a few elites, some might say despots. There is no democratic governance nor is their public participation in the governance of social media. It is well established that the owners of these social media platforms have played an active role in supressing content that supports the Palestinian struggle for self -determination. There is censorship of content that exposes the crimes and human rights violations of Israel. This imperialist and Zionist inspired censorship takes extreme expressions like Meta that recently blocked out Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s condolences for Palestinian leader Ismail Haniyeh after he was assassinated by Israel.

There is one angle that virtually no-one is talking about and that is the role that intelligence agencies and the media, particularly social media is playing in attempting to manufacture consent for a war against Iran and Lebanon. This should shake us to the core when we look back at the role that intelligence agencies and the media played in creating the Islamophobic war against the people of Iraq and the dirty war in Syria.

Why is the public mind so relaxed on this issue after at least six hundred thousand Muslims were slaughtered in Iraq in a war that was completely unjustified? Why aren’t serious questions being asked today about false flag operations and the dirty hand of intelligence agencies?

Divide and rule has always been a policy of Imperialism and Zionism. It knows how to exploit fault lines to pursue its interests. The one thing that makes Zionists and Imperialist really sore is to see oppressed people unite.  In the resistance to Genocide, both Shia and Sunni formations from Hezbollah to Hamas are resisting Israeli genocide. Justice seekers who are committed to the liberation of Palestine have liberated themselves from sectarian prejudices and coalesced around the axis of resistance.

The Muslim Street (the masses) can see things for what they are. What does the Muslim Street see? After ten months of Genocide they see more than fifty thousand Palestinians killed, all of Gaza reduced to rubble, Palestinian captives raped and tortured to death in Israeli detention centres, children starving to death, babies burned alive, graveyards desecrated, dead Palestinian bodies exhumed and returned after months to Gaza, decomposed and unrecognisable. They see Palestinians living without dignity and receiving no dignity after death.

Who are the heroes of the Muslim Street? The people of Gaza. Every one of them, who continue living, day in and day out, in the middle of the bombs, the blood, the tears, the horrors and the torture. The doctors, the nurses, the paramedics, the journalist, the first responders and all the people of Gaza who are all in the line of Israeli fire.

And of course the Resistance. The fighter who defends Gaza against the Zionist Occupation forces. The Axis of Resistance. The ones who join in the fight in solidarity with the Resistance, who sacrifice their lives for Gaza, who are martyrs in the resistance to Genocide, who sacrifice their blood and their lives for the liberation of Palestine.  They see the weapons of the enemy attack all formations of the Axis of Resistance.

Who does the Muslim street see as the enemy?  The Israeli Zionist Occupation. The American Empire that provided Israel with 18 million dollars in aid and weapons that are used to visit the Genocide on the poor people of Palestine. They see Germany, the United Kingdom and all the other European countries who provide unqualified military and financial support for Israel.

The Muslim Street also sees another enemy, much closer to home. The Arabs and Muslims who collaborate with Zionism and Imperialism. The countries that have not attacked Israel and whom Israel has not attacked. The listen cogently to a medieval brilliant Islamic scholar who devised a simple dictum to determine friend from foe in times of War “Look at the spears of your enemy and see who it is directed against, those are your friends”. Quite simply, the Muslim Street see’s Israeli and American weaponry “Spears” directed towards Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Iran. The Muslim Street sees Sunni (Hamas) and Shia (Hezbollah) standing together in bonds of pure brotherhood liberated from the poison of sectarianism. This unity among the oppressed is a real problem for Imperialism and Zionism who have been propagating sectarianism to divide Muslims.

Do you expect Imperialism and Zionism to be relaxed when they see the oppressed united?

In the Muslim world, the critical fault line is sectarianism. There are Muslims today who describe themselves according to their Imperial Masters. These are the sectarian absolutists. This is also true in South Africa. Muslims don’t describe themselves as Muslims. They define themselves as Sunni and Shia. We should not be surprised at the recent overkill of sectarian posts on social media that are exclusively Anti Shia. This is because Imperialism and Zionism is seeking a war with Hezbollah and Iran who are predominantly Shia and also because almost of the solidarity militarized resistance to Zionism is coming from the Shiite Resistance Movements. The Muslim street is against sectarianism. Thus the pushback from Imperialism and Zionism to divide the Muslims.

The barrage of these social media anti-Shia sectarian posts are bizarre and bewildering. You really got to be permanently stoned out of your mind to believe such nonsense. However because it is repeated and produced at such an accelerating pace, some people are buying into this war mongering sectarian idiocy. Here are some of the sectarian propaganda churned out to manufacture consent for war against the Palestinian national liberation struggle and the Axis of Resistance.

Iran is an ally of Israel. According to the Sectarians, Zionism and Shi”ism are the same and Israel and Iran are best pals. The fact though is that Islamic Iran supplies weapons to the resistance formations like Hamas and Hezbollah and the same weapons are used to attack Israel. Israel sees Iran as its primary enemy and has recently attacked an Iranian consulate in Syria and has assassinated Iran’s leading officials such as Hassan Mahdavi. Israel has also assassinated many Iranian nuclear scientists in Iran itself. From 2010 to 2020 Israel assassinated at least five Iranian nuclear scientists, the most prominent of them being Mohsen Fakrazahdeh, assassinated on the 27 November 2020. According to NBC, U.S officials confirmed that Iranian counter revolutionary group MEK was financed, trained and armed by Israel to kill Iranian Nuclear Scientists.

Israel supports Hamas and Hamas is a front for Iran. This is an attempt by the sectarians to delegitimise the Palestinian National Liberation movements in much the same way that the national liberation movements in South Africa was delegitimised because of being supported by Communist Russia. You can only consider believing the sectarian line if you spent the last ten months in Mars and returned to planet earth today. Who has been fighting Israel in Gaza in the last ten months? If Israel supports Hamas, why will it then kill forty thousand of their followers in Gaza and their leaders such as Ismail Haniyeh and Saleh al Arouri? South Africans in particular who are aware of the national liberation struggle should know better as similar aspersions were made against the national liberation movements resisting Apartheid.

Iran killed Ismail Haniyeh or Iran deliberately allowed Ismail Haniyeh to be killed by Israel.  This is what the sectarians will have us believe even though not a single person from the Palestinian Resistance thinks in this way or will even entertain such a thought. Does this sectarian rationale mean then that Iran attacked its own embassy in Syria and killed its own leading military commanders like Hassan Mahdavi?  Does it mean that Iran also killed its own nuclear scientists? Do you see how this sectarian narrative compliments the Israeli narrative as it seeks to extricate the Zionist regime from all of its crimes and seeks to blame the colonized people of Palestine and the Resistance. How will these sectarians explain the deep bond between the people of Palestine and the people of Iran?  Hundreds of thousands of Iranians came onto the streets crying and mourning the martyrdom of Ismail Haniyeh whilst most of the leading Arab heads of state did not attend his funeral prayer nor even muster the courage condemn his assassination.  This is the extent of these Arab regimes brown nosing Imperial America and Zionist Israel. Of course in relation to the assassination of Haniyeh, there is the most likely scenario that Mossad agents had infiltrated the Iranian Security and Intelligence apparatus and were involved in the assassination of Haniye.  But to think that Iran will kill Haniyeh is outrageous and outlandish.

 Ismail Haniyeh had very close relations with the Iranians as did Saleh al Arouri.  Haniyeh and Arouri were sharp enough to formalize solidarity across sectarian lines to empower the Palestinian Resistance. They were both very close to the Iranians.  Arouri was working tirelessly towards unity amongst the Palestinian Factions. He had a very good relationship with Fatah as well as the Hezbollah. The martyrdom of Haniyeh and Al Arouris is a deathly blow to the Palestinian Liberation Struggle in particular and the Axis of resistance in general. Israel is the only one who benefits by the killing of Haniyeh and Al Arouri.

Shias are not Muslims. The Sectarians in their holier than thou mentality attempt to emotionally inflame the hearts of the believers so that they do not think rationally and will excommunicate their own brothers. Shias perform the Haj and are allowed to perform the Haj. Both Shias and Sunnis believe in the same Kalima which attests to the oneness of God and the Prophethood of Muhammad (p.b.u.h). The founder of the Shia Jafari Madhab (School of thought) and the founder of the Sunni Hanfi Madhab (School of Thought) were contemporaries, students and teachers of each other.

So what’s the reason for the anti-shia narrative that has flooded social media?  Why are Shias being othered?  The only reason is that the resistance to Israeli genocide and solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance is coming from Shia resistance movements like Ansarallah and Hezbollah and because Iran whose population is majority Shia supports and finances all of these resistance movements.  This is why Shias are being demonized and dehumanized. Shias and Sunnis have peacefully co-existed for centuries. Living together, praying together and sharing the bonds of brotherhood. Why it is that now suddenly we are told that Shias are not Muslim? Why is it that the Resistance movement is suddenly described as the followers of the devil Hezbozshaytaan?  Israeli Zionism and American Imperialism is seeking an all-out war with Islamic Iran and Hezbollah who are mainly Shia.  If there is an all- out war on Lebanon and Iran which will result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people who are Shia, the sectarian mind will rejoice and say “Rather all of these devils die, even the little kids so that they don’t grow up to be Shias” The same way that Israelis and Western racists think about Palestinians “Rather all of these evil barbarians die even if they are kids so that they don’t grow up to be terrorist”.  Sectarianism and Zionism are both sides of the same coin in that both are reactionary currents that advocate religious exclusivism and demean and denigrate people who are not from the same tribe. It’s the most primitive form of reactionary tribalism that serves and advances the interests of Zionism and Imperialism.

This anti Shia sectarian agenda serves the genocidal war machine of Zionism. The one thing that the Zionists and the sectarians have in common is their hatred for Axis of resistance. The sectarian narrative is only against the axis of resistance. Like their Zionist role models, they do not express anger at governments like the United Arab Emirates who have cosy economic relations with Israel and as recent media reports have suggested, have requested that Haniyeh and other Resistance leaders be eliminated. The Sectarians don’t say anything about Jordan allowing weapons to go through its territory to Israel and who shoot down Iranian missiles directed at Israel. They are not critical of Egypt which has maintained the siege and starvation of Gaza. They are all fine with Turkey and Saudi Arabia who used their armies to fight against Syria but have not fired a bullet towards Israel. To the sectarians only the members of the Axis of Resistance who have spilled their own blood in solidarity with resistance in Gaza are the enemy.

The social media sectarian posts are almost exclusively posted by anonymous individuals and those with pseudonyms. This alludes to a dirty agenda. Is there a dirty intelligence hand that seeks to turn oppressed people against each other?

The street is guided by the battle field. The battle field produces martyrs. The masses on the street will not be conned by the sectarians. They know that when it comes to resisting genocide and fighting the Occupation, the Axis of Resistance is the only game in town.

The sectarians are well financed and resourced but are increasingly becoming a lonely crew who are perfecting the art of delusion. The sectarians should tell us what they are smoking.  A potent ZioTakfiri joint.  In these troubled times perhaps we can all do with a smoke, a laugh, a fantasy and a delusion or two.

 

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