Iran is a hugely ‘friendly’ country despite propagandas, New Zealander professor says

TEHRAN - David Robie, a New Zealander author, journalist, media educator and retired university professor believes that Iran is a hugely friendly country despite propagandas by Western media.

Robie has spent several weeks traveling in the country on sabbatical and finds that the media negativity far from the reality of the “most friendly” country he has ever visited.

“Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved?” the senior journalist wrote in an article released by Asia Pacific Report on Friday.

“Given the rising geopolitical tensions, as I was about to visit the country for several weeks as a visitor on sabbatical, I was keen to see the realities on the ground in Iran behind the sabre-rattling.”

“The headlines were chilling as we flew into Turkey and then Iran. ‘All out war’, trumpeted The New Zealand Herald, as being an imminent response to last month’s surprise drone attack knocking out almost 50 percent of Saudi Arabia’s oil production, blaming the attack on the Islamic Republic without convincing evidence,” he explained.

“The next day the Herald belatedly ran the other side of the story, quoting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s response denying the allegations and warning that Iran would defend itself in the case of a U.S.-Saudi attack while offering the ‘hand of friendship and brotherhood’ for overseeing security in the Persian Gulf.”

During the journey Robie held talks with some Iranian academics, including Professor Reza Ebrahimzadeh of the Islamic Azad University at Isfahan, who argues that foreign news organizations need to do a far better job in providing “context and history” about Iran to promote global understanding.

Robie, who covered the Asia-Pacific region for international media for more than two decades and was an associate professor in Auckland University of Technology School of Communication Studies in 2005 and a professor in 2011, concludes that “more journalists from New Zealand need to go to Iran to see for themselves.”

Where does the wrong perception come from?

Many visitors to Iran believe that certain Western media often portray Iran negatively, saying there is a widespread misunderstanding about the true nature and safety of the country, which is tainted by the reputation of some of its more politically unstable neighbors.

In this regard, Skift Inc., a New York City headquartered media company that provides news, research, and marketing services for the travel industry, in a July article noticed a hint of a “perception problem” deemed to be fueled by the Trump administration’s rhetoric toward Iran.

Official answers to the query comes from the U.S. State Department, which has had a travel advisory against Iran since 1979, citing “the risk of kidnapping, arrest and detention of U.S. citizens.”

 “It is a country that is often portrayed as unwelcoming, but the reality is quite the opposite,” said Jenny Gray, the global product and operations manager of the Australia-based Intrepid Travel.

“Iranians are warm, friendly and eager to show off their country to foreigners. The feedback from our travelers is a testament to this.”

The 2019 Travel Risk Map, which shows the risk level around the world, puts Iran among countries with “insignificant risk”, a category where the UK, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway, and Finland are placed in.

10 reasons why tourists must visit Iran

By David Robie

I stumbled on the scene by chance. Our host family in Iran’s second city Mashhad, a modern and beautiful metropolis that would comfortably fit in New Zealand’s entire population, was taking us on a drive to the outskirts to visit the tomb of the famous poet and chronicler Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi.

It just so happened that this was the very day that a new section of the surrounding gardens was being opened and the red carpet was being rolled out for a visiting cultural affairs minister.

Shortly after we arrived, the political scrum began – a mass of photographers, press people and ceremonial guards pressing.

Bodyguards whisked the minister, Ali-Asghar Mounesan, head of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism, into the cavernous tomb among the sculptured friezes of mythical hero Rostam fighting off dragons and monsters in defense of ancient Persia.

The hero’s exploits are featured in the 10th century epic Shahnameh: The Book of Kings, penned by Ferdowsi and comprising some 50,000 couplets.

Ferdowsi is the hometown literary giant and one of Iran’s best universities and medical schools is in the city and named after him. It was opened in 1949.

Modern day Iran is steeped in massive historical and intriguing cultural icons, and also a swathe of mosques and other religious shrines, dating back to the Achaemenian empire founded by Cyrus the Great five centuries before Christ and ancient pre-Islam Zoroastrianism (fire-worshipping), one of the world’s oldest continuously practiced religions  believed to have its roots some 4000 years ago.

Impressive attractions

Some critics say that Iranian authorities since the 1979 Islamic Revolution spend far more and devote greater attention to the religious artefacts and buildings of Islam to the neglect of some historical sites. However, whatever the truth about that Iran boasts a never-ending range of impressive and attractive places to visit.

The tragedy is that not enough is known about the country’s cultural and historical wonders in the West and the refusal of many mainstream travel companies to run regular tours.

Some homegrown Iranian tour operators, worried about the downturn in tourist numbers – a fall in spite of Iran’s plans to boost tourism and visitors by fivefold to 20 million a year by 2025 (blame Donald Trump for the fall) – have now recruited social media “influencers” to tour the country and blog about the attributes.

One group of 12 Instagram global posters with about 16 million combined followers are this month visiting Iran on a familiarization trip organized by Iranian traveler Hoda Rostami and social media “influencer” who is trying encourage foreign tourists to “discover” Iran’s fascinations.

Iran embarked last year on ambitious plans to boost tourism. Neighboring Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey have been added to the list of countries whose nationals can get visas on arrival. Getting an e-visa for New Zealanders is now far more straight forward than it used to be – thank goodness for us not being American or British.

Iran also has plans to revive passenger sea lines, including routes between the country and Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – or at least that was the idea before the recent tensions over the Persian Gulf and sanctions-busting for vital Iranian oil exports.

Also there have been reports on plans to build a railway from Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, travelling west through Iraq and ends at the Syrian port city of Latakia. This is expected to boost religious tourism, including the massive annual pilgrimage to Karbala.

Having just toured Iran myself while on sabbatical, I highly recommend the country as an absolute must visit.

My bucketlist

Here is my bucket list of 10 reasons why you should go to Iran – but there are also many other reasons.

Imam Reza (AS) shrine, Mashhad

The incredibly impressive Haram-e Razavi, the Imam Reza (AS) shrine in Mashhad, is widely regarded as the ‘heart of Shia Iran’. More than 20 million religious tourists visit this vast shrine each year. Affluent Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city with a population comfortably equivalent to New Zealand’s total, thrives on “religious tourism”. The city is in north with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.”

Tomb of Ferdowsi, Mashhad

Abul-Qasem Ferdowsi, Iran’s greatest and one of the world’s most renowned poets. He penned the epic mythical and historical Shahnameh: The Book of Kings, the world’s longest poem in the 10th century. With some 50,000 couplets, the original book weighs 75 kilos and chronicles the saga of the early Persian empires until the seventh century Arab invasion and conquest. Ferdowsi’s tomb and museum at Tus are today one of Mashhad’s inspiring attractions.

Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Isfahan

Isfahan’s impressive and peaceful Naksh-e Jahan Square is the world’s largest after Tiananmen. It is indeed a spectacle. Once a vast polo field, the hewn stone goalposts are still at one end. Designed and laid out in 1602 under the reign of Shah Abbas (Safavid epoch) when Isfahan was capital of Iran, it is today a popular place of family picnics and horse-drawn carriage rides. The square is ringed by a maze of fascinating shops and traditional Sheikh Lotfallah bazaar.

Khaju Bridge, Isfahan

The 133m Khaju Bridge and weir is one of several historical bridges across the Zayandeh river, which has started flowing again after being dry for several years. Built about 1650 by Shah Abbas II, the bridge has 23 arches and a place in the middle for a throne for the shah to admire the water flowing by.

Azadi Tower, Tehran

Iran’s impressive Tehran Milad Tower, is at 435m the 6th tallest TV tower in the world. It also has the world’s biggest head structure of any telecommunications tower. The top floor of the 12-level head structure can be reached by high speed lifts within 50sec.

Persepolis, near Shiraz

One of the seven great wonders of the ancient world, Persepolis was the extraordinary capital of Darius the Great in 520 BC, conceived and established following the vast Persian Empire forged by Cyrus the Great. The ruins near Shiraz are still very impressive from the Gate of all Nations onwards.

Karim Khan Citadel, Shiraz

The 18th century Karim Khan Citadel was once a political prison for 40 years. It has a strange “leaning tower” where the impressive bathhouse outflows eroded the foundations over a couple of centuries. The nearby Bazar-e Vakil traditional bazaar network and Hammam-e Vakil bathhouse, which has a display of traditional ablutions, are also fascinating and worth visits.

Tombs of Hafez and Sa’adi, Shiraz

Tombs of Hafez and Sa’adi in Shiraz are major sites for Iranians, and they ought to be for Westerners too.

Golestan Palace, Tehran

An elegant complex standing as a reminder of the glories and opulence of Iran’s Qajar dynasty in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is where the coronation of Reza Shah took place on a Marble Throne on display and where his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was also crowned in the Museum Hall before being deposed in the 1979 Revolution.

Sa’ad Abad Museum Complex, Tehran

The Mellat, or White Palace, is the largest mansion in the Sa’ad Abad forest museum complex in north Tehran. This was built in the 1930s and has bullet proof windows. It was used by Mohammad Reza Shah (Pahlavi dynasty), and empress Farah, as a summer palace before he was deposed in the 1979 Revolution. Among the more interesting museums in this complex are one devoted to the exploits of the Iranian adventurer brothers Omidvar and the brilliant contemporary artist Mahmoud Farschian.  

This is a mere introduction to places in Iran to visit, and thanks to Zahra Ebrahimzadeh (our former homestay student), her family and friends for such a wonderful start. I haven’t even mentioned the amazing United Nations heritage old mudwalled town of Yazd on the edge of a desert, or the northwestern mountain city of Tabriz with one of the finest bazaars, and a host of other fascinating places.

When I return, I would love to go to the north of the country and around the Caspian Sea.

Visit Iran and enjoy.

Dr David Robie traveled independently and with no political “minders”. (The text has slightly been edited by the Tehran Times for clarity).

The Obligation to Discredit Colonial ‘Regret’

Ramona WADI

To mark the 250th anniversary since Captain James Cook invaded New Zealand, the British Ambassador Laura Clarke issued a private statement of “regret” to the indigenous groups, for the killing of Maori people upon landing.

“What we did today, really acknowledged, perhaps properly for the first time, that nine people and nine ancestors were killed in those first meetings between Captain Cook and New Zealand Maori, and that is not how any of us would have wanted those first encounters to have happened,” Clarke stated.

British colonialism, however, is replete with the genocide of indigenous populations to maintain the fabrication of terra nullis, or barren land, which justified and normalised colonial settlement. Cook’s first endeavours in New Zealand were followed by the systematic killing of the Aboriginal people in Tasmania and Australia. Clarke’s acknowledgement is nothing but a perfunctory statement which fails to even acknowledge indigenous collective memory.

The commemorations, which are state-funded and will be attended by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Arden, included the welcoming of a replica of the HMS Endeavour which brought bloodshed to New Zealand. The government’s approach to the commemoration sparked protest among the Maori groups for keeping in line with the colonial narrative. Maori leaders have rallied against the colonial narratives of Cook “discovering” New Zealand, rightly describing the landing as an invasion and Cook as part of the imperialist expansion endeavours which massacred the indigenous populations.

Tuia – Encounters 250 describes the commemoration activities as “an opportunity to hold honest conversations about the past, the present and how we navigate our shared future.” Yet the marginalisation of Maori voices, including the New Zealand’s government’s refusal to engage with Maori protestors, are clear indication that the “shared future” rhetoric is being used to eliminate the importance of indigenous narratives and memory. One main objection was the use of “euphemisms like encounters and meetings to disguise what were actually invasions.”

The government spent $13.5 million promoting the colonial narrative and held little consultation with the Maoris regarding the planned events. New Zealand’s Ministry for Culture said the flotilla would only stop “where a welcome is clear”. This specification indicates the government’s knowledge of indigenous disapproval and opposition, as well as its failure to mark the 250th anniversary of the invasion from an indigenous perspective.

In this regard, the New Zealand government’s stance is closer to the British statement excusing the colonial crimes against the Maori.

To mark the 250th anniversary, New Zealand could have embarked upon a different path – one that creates space for indigenous narratives to thrive and take precedence. It could also have demanded that Britain acknowledges its colonial theft and violence, instead of forcing equivalence between the coloniser and the colonised.

Speaking at the UN earlier this year, indigenous rights activist Tima Ngata declared with reference to the invasion, “to call that an ‘encounter’ is egregious in the extreme and a complete purposeful minimisation.”

Giving in to the colonial narrative as the New Zealand government has done legitimises colonial conquest and the massacre of the indigenous, besides outlining a tacit complicity in ensuring that colonialism remains cloistered as a historical topic. The truth is that colonialism is preventing indigenous narratives from taking their rightful place. Hence the massacres are being purposely overlooked to maintain the fictional narratives of exploration and discovery.

Understanding the colonial project is not tantamount to endorsement. What the British Ambassador and the New Zealand Prime Minister have achieved as a prelude to the 250th anniversary is a dilution of indigenous rights, narratives and memory. Regret is not an acknowledgement of colonial violence, especially when it refuses to acknowledge the victims murdered by the British Empire. Likewise, the New Zealand’s government’s dismissal of the Maori as “groups of people who have strong feelings” and who are expected to participate in an event that prioritises the glorification of Cook’s invasion is an aberration. The obligation, in New Zealand and elsewhere, is to discredit colonial ‘regret’.

Ramona WADI

Ramona Wadi is an independent researcher, freelance journalist, book reviewer and blogger. Her writing covers a range of themes in relation to Palestine, Chile and Latin America.

Reproduction of racism in the West

By Rooholamin Saeidi 

TEHRAN - The terrorist attack which took place in New Zealand was a tragedy that unfortunately has been epidemic in the world and we witness different examples of it all over the globe occasionally. But once again it revealed the hypocritical, discriminatory and unfair Western governments’ treatment of other nations.

 Without a doubt, if such an attack had happened in a Western country or if the lifeless bodies in those two mosques had belonged to the Europeans or the Christians, Western politicians would have reacted more firmly and decisively. But since those innocent people who were killed in Christchurch were Muslims, Western politicians and western media just expressed cold condolences and tried to ignore the incident.

 They even intentionally refrained from referring to it as a terrorist attack because from their viewpoints, terrorism is only associated with Islam and Muslim Jihadists. No one will forget that many of world leaders participated side by side in the Rally for unity against terrorism in Paris after those bloody terrorist attacks in 2015 among them was Netanyahu whose government is a real perpetrator of State terrorism.

Taking the Christchurch tragedy into consideration, we should admit regretfully that even in the 21st century the life of people who live in developed western countries seem more valuable and more precious than those of others. For example, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi was represented as a catastrophe by western media so public opinions all over the world, especially in western countries, paid remarkable attention to it.

 But no one sympathizes with Yemeni people who have been killed innocently since Saudi Arabia attacked their homeland and those children who are starving to death! So it seems that the public conscience in the West awakens selectively and it is indicative to the fact that the West still tends to marginalize the poor people of the global south and disregard them. Perhaps what the suffering of the Yemeni people illustrates more than anything is that humanitarian action is always overshadowed by power politics and political interests.

This arrogant attitude stems from colonial period which has long-lasting implications for post-colonial era. In a post-colonial era that we are experiencing nowadays, great powers try to continue and justify the military and economic subordination of the global south by powerful western interests and global hierarchies of domination and subordination, past and present, are made possible through the social construction of racial, gendered and class differences.

 We can make sense of Islamophobia clearly in this framework. In the post-colonial era we are witnessing the continuity and persistence of colonial forms of power and control. So although the era of formal colonial imposition by force of arms is largely over, the systematic inequality still persist on a global scale.

 Such terrorist attacks as we saw in New Zealand done by western extremists, prove that modern school of thoughts like liberalism have failed miserably to eradicate racism, extremism, violence, and religious intolerance although they have claimed to do so. Western governments by adopting contradictory policies and double standards not only pave the way for creating, nurturing and arming terrorist groups like ISIS but also spread the sense of hatred, violence and racial supremacy in their own societies.

 We should bear in mind that the cruel terrorist who invaded the two mosques and killed more than 50 innocent Muslims cold-bloodedly, has been raised in western societies where citizens are constantly deluged with messages against Islam and Muslims. So when the old policy of spreading “phobia” and hatred has targeted Islam and Muslims with unprecedented intensity, it is not strange that we witness such barbaric killings. It seems that as long as power politics dominates international system, perpetual peace and security will be unachievable. 

In contrast to western schools of thoughts, Islam preaches equality, justice, unity and brotherhood. The Quran says: O’ mankind we created you from a single pare of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each other. It says let there be no compulsion in religion.

It is exactly on the basis of such inclusive Islamic rules and norms that we see in Arba'een Pilgrimage millions of people gather annually from all over the world with different races, religions, colors, gender or social class and they practice living in a transnational society. Another example was the war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq where many Muslim fighters from different nations gathered and stood shoulder to shoulder to establish a transnational army which defeated ISIS and could release the two occupied countries. 

That is why western politicians or extremists and racists fear Islam so much as the fastest growing religion in the world because the allure of Islam is attracting many people all over the world even in secular European countries. For example France, the E.U.’s most stridently secular state facing Western Europe’s largest Muslim population, has proved to be the most difficult national case. It is interesting that bobby Said pays attention to this fear in his book “A Fundamental Fear: Eurocentrism and Emergence of Islamism” and writes:
The idea that the Islamic resurgence represents a return of the repressed does not take only a political form. At a more diffuse level, the Islamic revival signals cultural anxiety in the West. The West sees in Islam the distorted mirror of its own past. It marks the rebirth of the God they had killed so that Man could live. The Islamic resurgence marks the revenge of God; it signals the return of faith, the return of all that puts into questions the idea of the progressive liberation of humanity. 

As a conclusion, the return and resurgence of political Islam is an undeniable reality and the Christchurch attack can be conceived as a response to it. But the resurgence of Islam and its growth can be considered as a menace and threat only to power-hungry politicians and racists because of invite and embrace warmly all open-minded people with different ideas from all over the world.

New Zealand Terrorist Attack Proves White Nationalism Is A Growing Threat

Two Mosques were hit in a deadly terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand on Friday, March 15, leaving 50 people dead and more than 40 injured.

One gunman has been charged and is said to have acted alone in the massacre. However, one other suspect has been charged with inciting racial hatred and another faces firearms charges. The name of the shooter has been released but I have decided not to include it in the article because to me, it does not matter. Instead, I would like to use this piece to highlight the growing threat of white nationalists.

A day before the attack, the suspected shooter posted a manifesto on a forum site and a link to his Facebook page where he would live stream the attack; there are people out there in this world that saw the post and knew what was going to happen. The manifesto includes anti-immigration and Islamophobic writings. According to the manifesto, the shooter had been planning the attack for two years, this man had two years to contemplate his actions. Despite what some on the mental health defence may think, the attack was not something that happened in the “spur of the moment”.

Many Canadians are horrified over the New Zealand attack, as the shooter had fellow mass murderer Alexandre Bissonnette’s name scribbled on his weapon. Bissonnette had opened fire at a Mosque in Quebec in 2017 before the incident he was seen as nothing more than an online troll with right-wing views, who often stood up for Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Bissonnette and the New Zealand shooter both used their presence online to express these right-wing ideologies, arguably, the New Zealand shooter glorified Bissonnette and was inspired by his actions.

Despite the gunman bearing white supremacist symbols and slogans on the firearms used to slaughter 50 people, American President Donald Trump has declared White Nationalists are not a growing threat to society. Donald Trump has refused time and time again to admit that the alt-right are dangerous individuals.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

The riots in Charlottesville a year ago resulted in senseless death and division. We must come together as a nation. I condemn all types of racism and acts of violence. Peace to ALL Americans!

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This tweet was from August 2018 after Unite the Right 2 in Charlottesville. Donald Trump seems to have a knack for ignoring white supremacy, even when it’s in his own backyard.

According to other sources, white supremacist groups are on the rise and are being fed by their growing internet platforms in countries all around the world, including Canada. In the United States alone there are 1,000 active hate groups.

In the documentary, Alt Right: Age of Rage we are shown that neo-Nazi groups such as the American Renaissance have been around since the 1990s.

This particular group started out as a magazine publication that held conventions, now they have moved to the medium of the internet and YouTube. If we have known about the existents of these groups for so long and have now seen the terror they incite, then why aren’t the governments stepping in on their operations?

In short, no matter how hard our government officials close their eyes, White Nationalist groups will not just go away. They aren’t neutral parties. They use YouTube and online forums to advocate the inferiority of other races and when people associated with them carry out violent acts, the groups themselves face no repercussions. After 9/11, the American government incited the war on terror and tightened airline security to an extent no one had ever seen before, now my question is, why can’t domestic terrorism spark this kind of reaction?

The names and pictures of the victims of the New Zealand attacks have now been published on social media and a LaunchGood project has been opened to help the victims and their families.

by Nadia Zywina

Islamophobia’s Deadly Consequences

Zafar Bangash

Islamophobia is real and it has frighteningly deadly consequences for its victims. The Christchurch masjid attacks may have been a surprise only because New Zealand is a relatively peaceful country. Anti-Muslim hatred resulting in terrorist attacks are all too real, and frequent. Most people were also surprised that a multicultural society like Canada witnessed a murderous attack on Muslims in their place of worship two years ago (Quebec City Masjid attack that resulted in six deaths).

For those following the rising tide of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric in the West closely, it was only a matter of time before some white terrorist individual or group struck. Politicians, security agencies, and the police were all chasing “Muslim terrorist” phantoms duly amplified by the right-wing media. True, there are Muslim extremists but they pale in significance with the right-wing white extremist groups. In any case, most Muslim extremists were already known to the intelligence and security agencies. In most instances, their murderous plots were instigated by intelligence agencies to impress their bosses and keep their hefty budgets flowing.

In almost every terrorist act blamed on Muslims — whether in the US, Canada, or Europe — the intelligence agencies have been deeply involved. Even the most spectacular attacks of 9/11 are considered by most experts to be an inside job. Canada’s Toronto-18 case of June 2006 was similarly instigated. It was RCMP agents that received obscene amounts of money to trap gullible Muslim youth into their diabolical plot. John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were fortunate to have their case thrown out by a BC judge in 2016 when she accepted that RCMP officers pushed the couple into the bomb plot. The British Columbia Supreme Court similarly dismissed the crown’s appeal against stay of charges of the earlier court verdict and upheld that the couple was manipulated into the plot.

Quite aside from these disturbing acts by intelligence and security agencies against Muslims, the threat of white supremacist groups in Western countries is real and growing. Even the intelligence agencies admit this threat but politicians do not want to take any action against such extremist groups. Is it because they target Muslims, people projected as the bad guys and, therefore, deserving of the punishment inflicted on them?

If politicians in Western countries are serious about addressing this growing threat — and it is bound to affect others as well, not just Muslims — then a number of steps are necessary. First, Islamophobia must be declared a hate crime. In several countries, anti-Semitism is already a hate crime under law. Second, the white supremacist groups and their enablers must be identified and banned. If groups like al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc. are banned as terrorist organizations — quite rightly — then white supremacist groups like Soldiers of Odin, Canada First and other such groups including the Jewish Defence League (JDL) must also face the full force of the law. In the US, the JDL has been banned since 2002 as a terrorist group; why is Canada so far behind in confronting this bunch of terrorists?

Third, political leaders must stop pandering to racist groups in the name of “freedom of speech.” Hatred against an identifiable, law-abiding group — the Muslims — that results in such horrific crimes cannot be accepted as “free speech.” Words do carry weight and lead people to violent acts. The murderous attacks in Quebec City and Christchurch provide ample proof, if proof indeed were needed, of the impact of hate speech against defenceless people.

Finally, we must come to the real point: the West’s endless wars on Muslim countries. Launched under the rubric of the war on terror, it is actually a war on Islam and Muslims. Since 9/11, the number of Muslim countries attacked is very long. Dirt-poor Afghanistan has been virtually destroyed. It had already been wracked by decades of warfare.

America’s attack in October 2001 made the situation much worse. While there is a glimmer of hope that Washington’s destructive war in Afghanistan may soon end, there are other areas that are still in the throes of externally instigated violence and bloodshed. These include Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. Venezuela has also now been added to the list. The Palestinian and Kashmiri people have suffered decades of oppression at the hands of alien invaders. Islamic Iran is also constantly demonized.

With the exception of Venezuela, all other countries are predominantly Muslim, hence their demonization and dehumanization. This leads to riling up racists and bigots in Western societies that go on rampages killing innocent Muslims in their places of worship.

The West’s history of violence against others is long and gory. The Crusades were launched from Europe but the Inquisitions were carried out in Europe. The slave trade and genocide of Native peoples in North America, Australia, and New Zealand followed. Then came the internment of Japanese and Italians during the Second World War. Jews and Catholics were also targeted. Why should this pattern of oppression and humiliation continue?

Isn’t it time to end this shameful conduct, this time targeting Muslims?

Zafar Bangash is Director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT).

Terrorism, Mass Murders, and Islamophobia

Right-wing crazies following a script written in Israel

Zafar Bangash

The horrific murder of 50 Muslim worshippers in two Christchurch masjids on March 15 has evoked global condemnation except for some hardcore Islamophobes and racists. Those slaughtered in cold blood included women and children. Some of the wounded are in critical condition.

The mass murderer, a 28-year-old white supremacist terrorist from Australia, Brenton Tarrant, was arrested shortly after his deadly rampage. He appeared in court on March 16 and is scheduled to reappear on April 5.

Beyond the condemnations and the sympathetic manner in which New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has handled the situation, there are deeply troubling aspects to the alarming rise in Islamophobia. There are a number of factors and individuals that inspired the terrorist’s demonic ideology. These include US President Donald Trump, the Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik, the Quebec City terrorist Alexandre Bissonnette, and Serbian mass murderer Radovan Karadic. This emerged both from the names he had written on the semi-automatic weapons he used to murder innocent worshippers as well as the 74-page manifesto he uploaded to the internet.

There is little doubt that he was consumed by intense hatred of Muslims. He not only set out to “cleanse” New Zealand and his native Australia of immigrants and refugees but also to avenge the defeat of Christians at the hands of Muslims (the Turks’ historic battles in Europe) as well as glorify Christian victories over them. In his demonic rage he slaughtered 50 innocent Muslims.

Let us get some facts straight. Muslims constitute less than 1% of New Zealand’s population. But for a man consumed by hatred, even one Muslim is one too many. This racist and bigot conveniently ignored the fact that immigrants, primarily from Britain, populate both New Zealand and Australia. Such details, however, are inconsequential for him and his fellow racist Fraser Anning because the early immigrant settlers are white and their victims are non-white.

There are many dimensions to this latest tragedy. Unfortunately, it won’t be the last. The wars that the Western imperialist regimes are waging against Muslim countries necessitate painting Muslims — all 1.8 billion of them — as evil and violent extremists that must be eliminated. This campaign of vilification, however, came up against the fact that millions of Muslims live quite peacefully in Western societies. The image of Muslims as violent extremists did not fit this description. Thus, they had to be demonized as well. The Zionists were happy to oblige; indeed they are the principal instigators together with evangelical Christians in stoking anti-Muslim hatred.

The corporate-owned media has eagerly amplified anti-Muslim venom spouted by right-wing politicians. Again, the Zionists have been in the forefront of this campaign of demonization. The West’s wars of aggression have resulted in turning millions of people into refugees who are forced to seek shelter elsewhere.

In a gesture of commiseration, fealty, and solidarity with the be-reaved Muslim community of New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern — a Mormon by birth and an agnostic by choice since 2005 — dons the Hijab as she attends funeral services for those who were killed in the massacre. In addition to vowing to change the country’s gun laws and to never publicly mention the name of the right-wing murderer-terrorist as a way of impersonalizing him altogether, she also instructed her government to cover all the funeral expenses for the deceased, to provide welfare and other services to those families dependent on wage earners who lost their lives, to cover repatriation expenses for those who wanted to return to their countries of origin, to cover the travel expenses of those foreign relatives who wanted to participate in the funeral processions of their own, and to provide counseling and hotlines for as long as necessary for all those affected by the tragedy, Muslim and non-Muslim alike.

Fascist politicians, right-wing media outlets and the Zionists have all played on the insecurities of people in Western countries to whip up hysteria against Muslims. “Brown Muslims are coming to swamp your land and take your fair ladies turning them into sex slaves” seems to be the constant message.

“They want to impose Shari‘ah law here” is another frequently heard refrain. This is a misnomer; there is no such thing as “Shari‘ah law.” Most politicians and media outlets have no clue what Shari‘ah stands for but it is enough to frighten the ignorant masses and whip up hysteria.

It is, however, Tarrant’s mentors — and also his financiers — who need a closer scrutiny. In his so-called manifesto, Tarrant expresses great admiration for Trump, Bissonnette, and Breivik. The Norwegian terrorist in turn has admitted to being inspired by the arch-Zionist Robert Spencer, a self-proclaimed “expert” on Islam who has not studied the Arabic language, much less the Qur’an, to get a clear grasp of the Muslim holy book. According to the Daily Beast, Zionist operative David Horowitz pays Spencer $167,000 a year for his Islam-bashing services. This is no small beer!

The Southern Poverty Law Center has said Horowitz’s organization specializes in “giving anti-Muslim voices and radical ideologies a platform to project hate and misinformation.”

The Zionist connection runs deeper. Tarrant visited Israel in 2016 and spent some time there. Further, Zionists are the principal promoters and instigators of Islamophobia.

While there is a general perception that Islamophobia intensified in the aftermath of 9/11, this is only partly true. Long before the 9/11 false-flag operation that most informed observers believe were an inside job, Zionists were busy peddling Islamophobia.

Tommy Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon), right, founder of the English Defence League (EDL), which is financially underwritten by billionaire Zionists from the US and elsewhere, was sentenced to 13 months in jail for contempt of court on 5-25-2018. According to the EDL and a nexus of right-wing fascist websites, such as Britain First (whose videos were forwarded by US President Trump), Britain is portrayed as a police state that is overrun with Muslims. Even though he and his acolytes routinely characterize Muslims as lawbreakers, Robinson himself was jailed in 2005 for assault, and was sentenced to 10 months in jail after he used a friend’s passport to fly to New York and fled from secondary inspection at JFK airport.

The first foreign visitor to the US after Bill Clinton became president in late-1992 was Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The Zionist regime was then facing the first Palestinian intifadah (Rabin had vowed to break the bones of Palestinians!). Since the intifadah drew inspiration from Islamic values, Rabin urged Clinton during his visit in March 1993 to confront what he termed “Islamic terrorism.” The low intensity war on Islam went into high gear.

Clinton needed little prodding. The US had already suffered defeat with the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1978–1979. Hizbullah delivered further blows to both US imperialism and Zionism in Lebanon. Led by the Islamic movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the intifadah eclipsed the secular Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its corrupt leaders.

Given this context, we can begin to see why the most virulently anti-Muslim voices are those of pro-Israeli Zionist individuals and groups. They have made common cause with white supremacists against Muslims.

In an investigative report in the Guardian (December 7, 2018), the London daily found “The British far-right activist Tommy Robinson is receiving financial, political, and moral support from a broad array of non-British groups and individuals, including US think tanks, right-wing Australians and Russian trolls…” Describing Robinson as “an anti-Islam campaigner” the Guardian names individuals and organizations that fund his anti-Islam activities: Daniel Pipes and his Middle East Forum (MEF) have contributed $60,000 to Robinson, the American “billionaire Robert Shillman financed a fellowship that helped pay for Robinson to be employed in 2017 by a right-wing Canadian media website, Rebel Media, on a salary of about £5,000 [approx. $7,500] a month.” Ezra Levant of Rebel Media lost a lawsuit last year when he was forced to pay $80,000 to Khurram Awan, a law student whom he falsely accused of being an anti-Semite.

A racist anti-Muslim group in Australia, the Australian Liberty Alliance, also admitted to funding Robinson, but refused to disclose the amount when asked by Guardian reporters. Is it far-fetched to surmise that the same Australian group has also funded Tarrant and that he has received funding from well-healed Zionists in the US as well?

Consider the coverage of similar rampage events — one blamed on a Muslim, right, and the other on a right-wing terrorist — in a British tabloid with the fifth largest circulation in the country, which is a reflection of the way the mainstream media shapes public perceptions and then manufactures consent for the imperial ambitions of its crusading politicians. Note that the New Zealand terrorist is not even presented as one, rather he is just called a “mass killer” who started off life as an angelic boy who happened to take an aberrational wrong turn in life. By contrast, Omar Mateen, the alleged Florida nightclub shooter, is basically staged as narcissistic evil incarnate from birth, and his shooting of innocents harkens back to the mother of all terrorist attacks, the 9/11 false flag. Insofar as the Aussie terrorist is concerned, the media here does not offer up any precedent; to get that, one would have to dig into the story on the inside so as to become acquainted with the murderer’s manifesto and those who inspired him.

Robinson’s other backers include the New York City-based think tank, the Gatestone Institute that has published a series of articles supporting Robinson’s anti-Islamic crusade. The David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC), a California-based think tank that describes itself as a “school for political warfare” — yes the same Horowitz who is financing Spencer — is also active in Robinson’s defence.

It gets murkier. MEF, Gatestone, and the DHFC are well funded by influential Zionist donors. In the two-year period (2014–2016), the Guardian found that their returns showed they received a total of almost $5 million from several millionaire donors.

“MEF received $792,000 from a foundation led by Nina Rosenwald, the co-chair of American Securities Management, once dubbed “the sugar mama of anti-Muslim hate.” Rosenwald is a self-described “ardent Zionist” who funds Israeli institutions on a regular basis.

“The DHFC received $1,638,290 from five wealthy benefactors, one of whom is believed to be among the biggest-ever donors to the Republican Party.

“Gatestone has received more than $2m in donations, including $250,000 from the Mercer Family Foundation, which is funded by Donald Trump’s top donor, Robert Mercer, and run by the billionaire’s daughter Rebekah.

“All three think tanks have been repeatedly accused of stoking anti-Islam sentiment in the West and spreading false information about Muslim refugees in Europe…” according to the Guardian investigation.

The Guardian’s piece of last December so alarmed the Times of Israel — yes an Israeli newspaper — that it wrote its own piece on January 24, 2019 authored by Eric Cortellessa decrying, “Why are US ‘pro-Israel’ groups boosting a far-right, anti-Muslim UK extremist?” While Pipes, Horowitz, and others of their ilk peddle their anti-Muslim rhetoric under the rubric of “free speech,” for the Times of Israel, “the support Robinson has received from a web of Israel-backing groups may be about more than just protecting ‘free speech.’ As at least Pipes and Horowitz have made clear, it’s also about advancing his ideas.”

Robinson has more than one million Facebook followers, most of them in Australia, the US, Canada, Sweden, and Norway. It does not take rocket science to figure out that Tarrant is one of them. And he has acted out what Robinson has been peddling: anti-Muslim bigotry and violence.

The role of right-wing media in stoking Islamophobia cannot be ignored either. For instance, the Daily Mirror, a British tabloid carried this headline after Tarrant’s murderous attack on two masjids, “Angelic boy who grew up into an evil far-right mass killer.” A childhood photograph of Tarrant in the arms of his father appeared alongside the headline. Contrast this with the way the same Mirror newspaper reported the Orlando nightclub shooting by one Omar Mateen in June 2016, “ISIS maniac kills 50 in gay bar.” There are reports that Mateen was also gay and had a fight with one of the patrons leading to the shooting and not for political reasons.

Let us also identify some politicians that are actively promoting anti-Muslim hatred. In Canada these include Maxime Bernier of the newly-formed right-wing Peoples Party, Andrew Scheer of the Conservative Party of Canada, and Quebec Premier Francois Legault.

It is not surprising that there have been numerous attacks on masjids in Canada, most notably in Quebec where six worshippers were murdered and 29 injured when Alexandre Bissonnette attacked the Quebec City Masjid on January 29, 2017.

Other cities have not escaped either. For instance, the small town of Peterborough in Ontario was subjected to arson attack in December 2015 while a couple of months ago, members of the racist outfit, Soldiers of Odin, appeared at an Edmonton masjid taking photographs and intimidating Muslims. The provinces of Quebec, Manitoba, and Alberta seem to have the largest number of right-wing fascist groups.

Britain is also a hotbed of anti-Muslim terror with several groups operating freely. On March 18, Britain’s Security Secretary Ben Wallace admitted in parliament that Christchurch type attacks are possible, indeed likely in Britain. Four days later (in the early morning of March 22), five masjids in Birmingham had their windows smashed. Other attacks are likely to follow as racist groups have started intimidating Muslims near their places of work and worship.

It is little better elsewhere in Europe. France seems to be leading the way in anti-Muslim bigotry but it is not the only one. Germany, Sweden, Norway, Hungary, and a host of others are embracing racist ideologues.

In the aftermath of the Christchurch masjid attacks, there have been expressions of sympathy offered by many politicians. What is needed is to take action on two fronts: first, ban the right-wing fascist groups that actively promote hatred, especially against Muslims. Second, declare Islamophobia a hate crime and confront those indulging in it with the full force of the law.

Failing these two steps, all expressions of sympathy and support are meaningless. Muslims will face other murderous attacks with each group and institution hoping that it won’t be them. These are dangerous times for Muslims.