{"id":131738,"date":"2014-10-14T12:17:32","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T06:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=131738"},"modified":"2014-10-31T16:01:56","modified_gmt":"2014-10-31T10:31:56","slug":"islamophobia-and-the-sri-lankan-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/islamophobia-and-the-sri-lankan-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamophobia And The Sri Lankan Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Hameed Abdul Karim<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hameed<\/a>

Hameed Abdul Karim<\/p><\/div>\n

In recent times there have been a string of articles in the Sri Lanka print media ranging from claims that terrorist groups like Al Qaeda<\/span><\/a> are firmly entrenched in Sri Lanka to ISIL cells straining at the leash just to wreak havoc in the country at the drop of the hat. All they need is an order from their \u2018caliph\u2019. That\u2019s the impression that has been created in the minds of \u2018news\u2019 consumers.<\/p>\n

In a TV interview, not long ago, a BBS<\/span><\/a> demagogue said he had seen Al Qaeda cadres training in the east of Sri Lanka with his \u2018own eyes\u2019.\u00a0 The military rejected this \u2018eye witness account\u2019 out of hand.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s this all about?<\/p>\n

The cheap and unsubstantiated anti Islam and anti Muslim propaganda is about fostering a fear psychosis among non-Muslims in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. It certainly seems like there is some agenda somewhere in the higher echelons of world powers to create fear and animosity against Muslims and Islam amongst non-Muslims all over the world and the savagery of terror groups like ISIL help the propagandists in no small measure. Any propagandist or spin doctor will tell you that hate follows fear and that\u2019s when all hell breaks loose.<\/p>\n

\"Muslim<\/a>Two of the foreign spy agencies that are forever claiming Pakistan\u2019s ISI is behind the training of \u2018Islamic Terrorists\u2019 in Sri Lanka are India\u2019s RAW and IB. This issue even cropped up when President Mahinda Rajapaksa met with India\u2019s Premier Narendra Modi, who is no stranger to conspiracy theories about Pakistani involvement in terrorism. He is also well known for orchestrating racial violence and is quite adept at rousing communal passions against Indian Muslims in his Hindutva rhetoric. It was he, and not any foreign agency, who orchestrated anti Muslim riots in his Gujarat that left nearly 2000 Muslims dead and thousands homeless. The objective was to hit at the Muslim economy. A copy book event took place in Aluthgama and Beruwala, though mercifully the BBS inspired mobs did not target human life to the extent that Modi did.<\/p>\n

Up until today Indian spy agencies have not provided any evidence for their claims that Pakistan is training \u2018terrorists\u2019 in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Rahul Gandhi had said he feared Hindutva terrorism and not the so called \u2018Muslim terrorism\u2019.<\/p>\n

Besides, Indian spy agencies like RAW should be the last to talk about terrorism knowing only too well what they did in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The latest in a series of such stories in the Sri Lanka print media comes from the Sunday edition of Ceylon T0day (Ceylon Today 12 October 2014) where we have Sulochana Ramiah Mohan reporting an interview she had with a certain Dr. Robert B. Lloyd of the virtually unheard of Pepperdine University of California. Though nowhere in the said article Dr. Lloyd had said the ISIS or Al Qaeda are directly involved in terror activities in Sri Lanka he nevertheless pursues the American agenda on Islamophobia hinting there is a possibility of terror groups entering Sri Lanka in the very same way US \u2018scholars\u2019 went after \u2018reds under your beds\u2019 during the McCarthy inspired terror against alleged communists in the US. Any US citizen who didn\u2019t toe the establishment line created by the White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPS) was dubbed a \u2018commie\u2019.<\/p>\n

Dr. Robert Lloyd\u2019s purpose in the article was to create a fear psychosis against Muslims and quite naturally in such strategies facts do not matter. Take for example his assertion the \u2018ISIS members are mainly Shias\u2026.\u2019. The ISIS is anything but Shia. But then truth is irrelevant when quasi scholars go on a scare mongering spree. After all Islamophobia is a multimillion dollar industry in the US where Dr. Lloyd lives and does business.<\/p>\n

Patrick O. Strickland had noted in a study how \u2018anti-Muslim bigotry had become a profitable business for a number of groups and individuals on the right\u2019. Heading the groups is neo-conservative Zionist Daniel Pipes \u2018who has a long history of issuing sweeping condemnations of all Muslims and is a key financer in the Islamophobia industry\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Islamophobia<\/span><\/a> industry has succeeded immensely in generating fear of Islam and Muslims among those who are of other persuasions. As a result Muslims have been targeted here in Sri Lanka and elsewhere in the world. Recently in Australia the extreme right wing media empire of the disgraced Rupert Murdoch had generated so much enmity against Muslims that violence against Muslims is becoming more frequent.\u00a0 An Australian paper \u2018The Age\u2019 (Victoria) reported that attacks on Muslims had spiked after Australia decided to join the US led \u2018Coalition of the Willing\u2019 (COW) against ISIL. The article was titled \u2018Attacks on Muslim Mothers Mount\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan media, and especially journalists like Sulochana Ramiah Mohan, should skip the trite pages of Islamophobia and takes a dekho at the other side of the narrative instead of following the agenda of the hate hawkers.<\/p>\n

Still I\u2019ll bet my bottom petro dollar this will not be the last \u2018hate Islam and Muslims\u2019 story you will see in your media.\u00a0 That\u2019s because the Islamophobia industry is a tremendous money spinner. So stay alert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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