View Point                                                                         Abid Ullah Jan

Weapons of Muslims' Mass Destruction

The Fallujah incident exposed the American weapons of Muslims’ destruction — the lies about Islam, selective use of Islamic principles and ways for promoting divisions among Muslims.
Remember an official statement from Paul Bremer just six weeks before the Fallujah incident. He declared that US will “veto Islamic law in Iraq.”[1] The world remained silent. Why? Simply because it is duped into believing that Islamic Law is uncivilised, barbaric and against human rights.
Earlier, the New York Times editorial called “not invoking Shari’ah” in Afghan constitution as “promising aspirations,” and its reference to the Qur’an as “the troubling aspect.”[2] Again the world silently endorsed the lies that Islamic law is unfit for “modern” times.
Now look at the post-Fallujah attempts at hiding behind Islam. Those who are bent upon eliminating the practice of Islam and any reference to its laws now look for protection against their crimes in selective application of Islamic principles.
Los Angeles Times writes in its April 02 editorial: “The barbaric treatment of the corpses runs counter to Islamic law.” Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times reported that a team of American officials met with Fallujah's top clerics for issuing “a fatwa, or religious edict, at Friday prayers to condemn the ambush and the grisly aftermath. One of the gravest sins in Islam is desecrating the dead.”[3]
These are strange complaints in the sense that neither Fallujah nor Iraq is run according to Islamic Law which they consider inhuman in the first place. Fallujah is not situated in some ‘repressive” Islamic state. It is part of the newly “liberated” Iraq, which should have welcomed its liberators and accepted their version of freedom and democracy by now.
As a modern norm, Muslims are ostracized for living by Islam, not for their “minimalist” application of its principles. Is it not strange then that the US media suddenly developed respect for Islamic law and principles?
It is not strange. It only looks strange because we witnessed negation of Islamic law and quick references to its benevolence in quick succession. In fact, it has been one of the main weapons for dividing Muslims and promoting selective principles of Islam through “moderate,” “progressive” and “liberal” Muslims to further the agenda of global tyrants.
Campaigns are in full swing to create differences and doubts about the basic principles of Islam. Even papers, such as the Guardian, suggest establishing phony madrassa for training munafiqeen (hypocrites).[4] The culprits, however, have just started finding it hard to exploit the same distorted message of Islam in their favour.
When there is a talk of living by Islam, the same analysts waste no time to sarcastically ask: Which Islam?
The same attitude has started haunting these Islam bashers as they are now asked: "Which Islamic principles do you want to invoke for defending the aggressors — the principles espoused by the collaborators on CIA’s payroll, the accomplices in consolidation of occupation, or those who resist occupation? Which Islamic justice do you demand when you have not delivered it?"
The lead lies network (CNN) claims that some specific brands of Islam are responsible for the resistance to occupation,[5] as if there would have been no resistance if there were no Islam. However, when the going gets tough, the media instantly blames un-Islamic attitude for it.
Was anyone respecting Islamic principles when the genocidal sanctions were reviewed and renewed several times for 12 years without any interruption?
Did anyone care about Islam when Iraqis were bombed to death during Ramadan with the bombs specifically marked “Here's a Ramadan present?”
Did anyone think about Islamic principles before invading and killing no less than 20,000 civilians on the basis of lies upon lies?
Does anyone care about Islamic principles now that a murderous and dehumanising occupation force is deciding what law will govern the country in the future?
It takes us to two conclusions:
1. The same selective approach to Islam is used as a foundation for promoting “moderate” Islam. The principles that suite the global tyrants are picked and promoted, while those which hurt their global agenda are delegitimized.
2. Irrespective of Islam, the US and its allies are destined to reap Fallujah like fruits for the seeds they continue to plant every minute through their horrific, illegal colonial war.
To blame resistance to the US criminal enterprise on Islam or to put the blame of a people crossing limits in just retaliation on moral inferiority of Muslims is absurd.
Was not the US government’s well planned release of video clips of bullet-riddled bodies of Saddam’s sons a gruesome spectacle? It was “justified” because the occupation authorities needed it to intimidate and demoralize Iraqi resistance.
There is nothing gruesome or un-Islamic in killing, terrorizing and incarceration of Iraqis as long as it is for completing the solemn task of pacifying Iraqis ­— a task which Israel could not do in the last 37 years on a much smaller scale.
Not many Americans are aware of what happened in Fallujah before the much publicized event. Jonathan Steele of the Guardian gives details of the brutality of US marines in the days preceded Fallujah event. “Rockets from helicopter gunships had punctured bedroom walls. Patio floors and front gates were pockmarked by shrapnel. Car doors looked like sieves. In the mayhem 18 Iraqis lay dead…It was the worst period of violence Fallujah has seen during a year of occupation.”
No one cared about Islam and Muslim culture when Steele described “the chaos the marines left after sleeping in [a Fallujah resident’s] house. Cupboards were ransacked, a computer had gone, and empty brown bags which once contained army rations littered every room. He was particularly upset at finding them in his teenage sister’s bedroom.”
Expecting victims of such inhumanity to respect Islamic principles — and that too after their living under a US supported secular Baathist regime for decades — is ridiculous.
Steele concludes that the people putting resistance are neither “former Baathist loyalists, as the Americans say, nor have the Americans produced evidence of large numbers of foreign ‘jihadists.’ They are ordinary families, driven by nationalist pride, and increasingly by a desire to retaliate when their homes and neighborhoods are violated and their relatives and friends killed.”
When the neo-cons eyes are set on Afghanistan, an effective utilization of the weapons of Muslims destruction make the world believe that Muslims cannot live a civilized life as long as they are not helped in saying good bye to Shari’ah and eliminating all those who want to establish an Islamic state.
To the contrary when the US and its allies are bogged down in another adventure in Iraq, Muslims are not good Muslims because they do not respect Islamic law.
With the intensified use of the weapons of Muslims’ destruction, the prospect is for years, if not decades, of such bloodletting. The implications for Muslims and well beyond—not least, the American people—are incalculable and ultimately catastrophic.
The recent events underscore the necessity for an independent movement against American weapons of Muslims’ destruction. The basic ammunition of these weapons is lies far more serious and pervasive than the lies against Saddam’s WMD. The basic objective is to keep people away from understanding Islam in its real sense because it could become a challenge to the status quo of the imperialist system.
End Notes:
[1] “U.S. May Veto Islamic Law in Iraq: Top U.S. Administrator in Iraq, Touting Women's Rights, Threatens Veto of Islamic Law Measure,” The Associated Press, February 16, 2003.
[2] The New York Times, Editorial, November 14, 2003
[3] Jeffrey Gettleman, “In Falluja, residents defend killings but not aftermath,” New York Times, Friday, April 2, 2004.
[4] “Towards a British Islam,” Leader, The Guardian, Thursday April 1, 2004
[5] See: CNN Report: “Religious Fallujah a hotbed of resistance,” Wednesday, March 31, 2004 Posted: 7:55 PM EST (0055 GMT) Wednesday, March 31, 2004 Posted: 7:55 PM EST (0055 GMT).