Posted on 09/10/2001 12:43:18 PM PDT by stabtheheartmake$$$
A Clash of Civilizations? By Ameena A. Saeed
How did Pakistanis living in America view the Pakistan-India conflict and the media hyped summit?
Though Pakistanis have more in common with expatriate Indians in the US, yet they continue to emphasize the differences - “we are different, therefore we are separate”. This is the usual refrain in the face of the Indian ‘allegation’ that “we” are one, which is seen as a negation of Pakistan.
The weeks following India’s nuclear explosion and before Pakistan’s equalizer, the American Pakistanis were stunned by humiliation. “They are going to kick us and chuckle as we bite the dust,” said an old lady.
A few weeks later, as a shaky mountain in Pakistan was captured on an unsteady camera, they went around with the same self-indulgent smile that Indians sported after Pokhran. At least they had acquired parity in bad video recording technology. For the American Pakistanis, the bogey of Islamic fundamentalism has been on the rise. Even though there are six million Muslims in the US, their political power base is negligible as opposed to the Jews - their arch rivals - who are merely 3 per cent but have a media representation of a whopping 50 per cent. The Jews have unleashed a disinformation campaign targeting all Muslims, a synonym for ‘Arabs’ who are all supposed to be ‘fundamentalists’ (a term earlier invented to describe Christians), and thereby, ‘terrorists.’
For Pakistanis in the US, besides Pakistan, there are other issues they are forced to grapple with. Occupied Palestine is one such issue, which keeps the US tied to only one point of view, the pro-Israeli obsession. Early this year, 300 US Congress members condemned the slaughter of the Palestinians by the Israelis. In a letter to Bush they urged him to reassess US relations with Palestine. Not less than 87 Senators (87 per cent of the US Senate) and 209 members of the House (48 per cent) signed the letters. In response, the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for international monitors in Palestinian territories.
Edward Said, a Palestinian-American, and an eminent intellectual in the US, has this to say about the Zionist (pro-Israel) media: “The writers have been former US military as well as civilian officials, Israeli apologists and officials, think tank specialists and experts, officials of pro-Israeli lobbies and organizations. This is simply without precedent in the annals of US journalism, and is a direct reflection of a Zionist mindset that makes Israel the norm in human behavior, thereby excluding from equal consideration the existence of 300 million Arabs and 1.2 billion Muslims.”
The slow genocide in Iraq, due to US-sponsored sanctions, is ignored by the US media because the victims are of Islamic faith. In Iraq, children are stunted, every third person is at the risk of cancer, more than 2,000 babies die every week because of lack of baby food, surgeries are performed without anesthesia and there is enough uranium in the soil (as a result of US bombing) to last two billion years.
According to human rights reports, during the five-year Bosnian war, 200,000 Bosnian Muslims were butchered, women raped, thousands were put inside concentration camps. Mass graves of innocent civilians killed by the Serbs were discovered.
Muslims all over the world watched these images with shock and terror. It could happen to them also. They realize they have no power in the US and the media has been shamelessly biased. Nixon wrote in his unfinished book that if these people (Bosnians) were Christians or Jews, the West would have reacted within weeks.
As some American Muslims make small gains in the US, the anti-Muslim lobby has increased its hounding tactics. During the 2000 presidential elections, the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), an organization dedicated to empowering six million Muslims, and led by a Pakistani American, Agha K. Saeed, strategised a Muslim bloc vote for Bush, since Al Gore refused to even meet any Muslim representative. In the New York senatorial race, the same organization galvanized the Muslim bloc vote for Hillary Clinton. The first lady’s opponent, Rick Lazio, started a smear campaign against her implying that she has received ‘blood money’ from a Muslim group, which implies a terrorist group. A nervous Hillary, afraid of the Jewish media and her mainly Jewish constituents, denounced AMA and returned their check for $ 50,000.
After the infamous bombing in Oklahoma city in which 168 people died and before the arrest of Timothy McVeigh, every expert, talk show host, media mogul, editorial in print, radio and TV, speculated ‘confidently’ of fingerprints of a ‘Muslim’ alias ‘terrorist’ group in the bombing. If there is a bombing incident or an airline crash, the US media is quick to speculate the shadow of some Muslim group behind it. But when the real perpetrators are arrested, their ‘Christian ‘ or ‘Jewish’ faith becomes inconsequential.
After the Oklahoma bombing, the US Congress passed the ill-conceived 1996 Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows deportations based on secret evidence. The law has targeted Muslims, with many held under the law being Muslims or Arabs. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service recently issued its report showing grave concern about Pakistan being a volatile region. The reasons being the Kashmir conflict and the growing linkage to the Taleban in the north. The report concludes that Islamic terrorism is “one of the prime sources of terrorism today”, hence Pakistan’s indictment. Canada is doubly concerned because it is experiencing the largest visa request and exodus of Pakistanis since the army takeover.
How does Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kashmir have anything to do with Pakistani Americans when they are not even remotely connected to these regions? Because the pro-Israeli media wants to stem the tide of rising Islam in the US, the Americans are lusting for Indian markets, and the Pakistani army has tasted blood and needs an issue to stay in power. And the American Pakistanis nervously watch this nexus, between their rival India, global rival Israel and the US. (The writer teaches Sociology at California State University, USA)
http://www.toogoodreports.com/column/general/narrett/091001.htm
Dr. Narrett reveals the real Islamic attitude towards the rest of us.
So many questions....and the usual hypocritical response.
Pretty bad timing on this one, Saeed.
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