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Iranophobia and Islamophobia of the Western Media

By Iqbal Suleiman

Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu claimed a few weeks ago that they need to go to war against Iran to bring “Freedom” and “Democracy” to the Iranian people. The Western media pushed this narrative. The people of the world weren’t buying this.

The Islamic Government came into existence on the 1st February 1979 after the popular Islamic Revolution. A referendum on creating an Islamic Republic was held in Iran on the 30th and 31 March 1979 and 98.2% of eligible citizens voted in the referendum with 99.3 percent voting in favour of an Islamic Government.

Iran held its last presidential election in 20024 and the voter turnout in this election run off was 49.6%, among the lowest voter turnout since the Revolution but even so, approximately 30 million Iranians voted in these elections. Iran is arguably the most independent and representative country in the Muslim World which is why its actions resonate with the Muslim Street specifically its support for the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

In the last few days, the reasons for war are changing. Trump now claims that he wants to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Was it not Trump who told the World after he ordered the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities during the 12 day war last year that Iran’s nuclear capabilities were destroyed?

The record shows that Benjamin Netanyahu is a chronic liar but the Western Media continue to peddle his lies.   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.”

Let us go back to the U.S invasion of Iraq and the shameful conduct of the mainstream western media preceding the Iraq war.

War, War, War, War is all you need. Remember the song by the five piece band WAR CRIMINALS. The songwriter was Bibi Netanyahu, on vocals and lead guitar George Bush, on rhythm guitar and vocals Tony Blair, on drums and vocals Donald Rumsfeld, on backing vocals and harmony Collin Powell.  They sounded awful. They were always out of tune (truth).  But the mainstream media promoted their lies as though it was the gospel truth and in the process manufactured consent for the unjustified and unlawful war on Iraq.

After the 911 attacks in the U.S, the mainstream media went into overdrive in pushing the narrative of the Muslim terrorist and “The War on terror”. This was used as a means to create wars and profit the military industrial complex. The language and the imagery used was powerful and repetitive until the construct of Muslim terrorist was firmly entrenched in the public mind.  The picture perfectly painted the medieval Middle Easterner, Muslim, primitive, dirty and bloodthirsty seeking to impose “Sharia law” in the West and wanting to slaughter all westerners. There was no mistaking who the terrorist was. He wore a beard. She wore a headscarf. He was Muhammad and she was Fatima.

The public mind was conned into believing this Islamophobia. Some fell for this nonsense and bought into the justification of the unlawful war.  Mainstream establishments like the New York Times, BBC and CNN showed that they lacked the basic journalistic methods that a student learns in Journalism 101.

This was in 2003 when the American led invasion and occupation of Iraq took place. An atrocious illegal war that according to the medical journal Lancet killed approximately six hundred thousand Arab Muslims. The war created 3.9 million Iraqi refugees. The stated reason for the war was that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and was about to produce nuclear weapons. The other stated reason was that the Iraqi government of Sadaam Hussein had an operational relationship with Al Qaeda and was linked with the September 11th attacks on the U.S.

No weapons of mass destruction were found and Iraq was nowhere close to making a nuclear weapon. A U.S bipartisan commission found that there was no evidence of an operational relationship between the Iraqi government and Saddam Hussein. The illegal war was based on lies. By repeating these lies, the mainstream media succeeded in manufacturing consent for an unlawful and barbaric war against Muslims.

The prime mover orchestrating the war against Iraq is the most virulent Islamophobe on planet earth today, the Israeli Zionist Benjamin Milaikowsky Netanyahu who in 2002 stated that “There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking, is wanting, and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons”.

The same Islamophobe, Benjamin Netanyahu is the prime mover pushing for a war with Iran. His lies are repeated like mantra in mainstream media. Netanyahu has been telling the world for the last three decades that Iran is on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon!

What are the facts pertaining to Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon? The leader of Iran, Imam Ali Khamenei has pronounced that it is immoral, unlawful and un-Islamic to produce a nuclear weapon. Iran insists that its nuclear programme is for civilian use only. Iran abided by the terms of the JCPOA (Joint comprehensive plan of Action) which was signed in 2015 by the five permanent members of the U.N Security Council including the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, and Frances as well as the European Union. Hence the reference of the P5 plus one.  It was however the United States under Trump that unilaterally tore up the agreement that it was a signatory to. Under the JCPOA, the inspectors from the IAEA had unfettered access to all of Iran’s nuclear facilities and there was transparency on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Even according to U.S intelligence agencies, Iran was not on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon prior to the 12 day war. Israel however has nuclear weapons. Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. It has invaded its neighbours in Lebanon and Syria. It unlawfully occupies and steals land from Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. The current Israeli government has publicly stated that it is opposed to a Palestinian State and is committed to the colonial project of Greater Israel. Why do Western powers and media seem fine with a Genocidal Nuclear Israel behaving the way it currently does and simultaneously advocate for war against Iran when they know that Iran does not have a nuclear weapon and is not in the process of producing a nuclear weapon?

We would have expected the mainstream media to question the narrative presented by the U.S and Israeli governments particularly after the Imperialist wars against Afghanistan and Iraq and the current Israeli Genocide in Palestine.

Given this tradition as the record has shown, the mainstream media has consistently manufactured consent for Islamophobic wars including the recent 12 day war on Iran. Right now it is driving the narrative for another war with Iran to achieve regime change.

Journalists and commentators with integrity should never manufacture consent for war. To do so is to be complicit in war crimes. Sadly many journalists and media pundits in the West have their fingers drenched in the blood of the babies in Gaza. Have they learnt? If we assess them by their history, they haven’t. They spin the same lies for every war, over and over again. They should never be forgiven because they know exactly what they are doing.

Iqbal Suleiman

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