A rchive Date
[ 13-10-2001 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Mass Media ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/coren.html
Separating fact from fiction
By MICHAEL COREN -- Sun Media
October 13, 2001
There are lies, there are damned lies and then there are comments about Sept. 11, Islam and the Arab world. Here are a few of them, with responses.
"The western world does not care about Muslims."
Untrue. The United States, Britain and the other western powers poured their all into the Balkans to rescue and protect the overwhelmingly Muslim population of Kosovo from the Serbs, an Orthodox Christian people. The initiative was taken not by Muslim or Arab states but by those countries now being labelled by some as enemies of Islam.
"The Christian west colonized the Arab world and its neighbours, and this has left a legacy of decay and poverty."
Nonsense. The Middle East had been killing itself, committing mass suicide by brutal tribal warfare, for centuries before any European came to the area. It was in fact the Turks, fellow Muslims, who did most of the colonizing of Araby, and they were harsh masters.
As for poverty, the only governments pumping money into the region are those of the west. That Syria, Iran, Libya and so many others are hateful of such governments is for them, not us, to explain.
"The Crusades showed that Christians hated Islam."
Again, not quite the case. These campaigns took place seven centuries ago, and have been roundly condemned by Christian leaders for a very long time. They were indeed awful, and were really the fault of French, Norman and German warlords, provoked by a corrupt Pope, who slaughtered not only Muslims but eastern Christians and Jews.
"Israel is a product of western imperialism."
Not according to the greatest enemies of the west, the former Soviet Union. They and their allies voted for the creation of the Jewish state, and armed it in its early wars against the Arabs. The persecution of the Jews produced Israel, not any sinister, imperialist design. Israel's existence allows numerous Arab leaders to hide behind rhetoric and ignore the suffering of their people. The Palestinians have a right to be angry; but at Arabs as well as Israelis.
"Islam has never been an aggressive force."
Hardly. Persia, North Africa, Spain, the Balkans and many more regions were conquered by Muslim armies, with people often forcibly converted and terrible atrocities taking place. Islamic forces reached the gates of Vienna, to be turned away by a besieged Christian world.
"That was the past. Today Islam is tolerant."
Actually today Islam is not. In Sudan, black Christians are murdered and enslaved by Muslims from the north; in Pakistan a blasphemy law leads to the persecution and death of many Christians; in large parts of the Muslim world Christians and other minorities are treated appallingly.
"The Americans trained bin Laden so it's all their own fault."
They probably did aid and support some of the people close to bin Laden when the Soviets were in Afghanistan, but so what? Soviet Marxism was one of the most amoral and oppressive regimes ever conceived. It locked millions of people away in gulags, wiped out entire cultures, slaughtered whole populations. Washington opposed Moscow, and hence backed the enemies of the Soviets. That some of these people later bit the hand that fed them is regrettable but irrelevant.
"The media has been unfair in attacking the Muslim faith."
Sorry, can't see it. What I have seen is the most extraordinary attempts by the west to distance Islam from the terror carried out by people who were, yes, devout Muslims. There are myriad Christians who have fled Muslim nations who argue that the media in the west is being far too kind to Islam. Compare this to the way evangelical Christianity or faithful Roman Catholicism is covered in Canada. Abuse and insults to both denominations are routine these days. No, Islam has been well treated in media.
"Terror is carried out in the name of all faiths, not just Islam. Look at Northern Ireland."
This is simply wrong. Republican and Loyalist terror gangs in Ireland do what they do in spite of, not because of, Christianity. No IRA or UVF man brandishes a Bible as he bombs or quotes from the scriptures when he shoots.
Truth in all things, please. And no more misplaced guilt or doubletalk. It just won't do. Not now.
Coren, host of Michael Coren Live on CTS, weekdays at 10 p.m., appears Saturdays
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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