Propaganda: Muslims

One group being subjected to some nasty propaganda these days is the Muslims. So I feel the need to say something in their defence.

I am not nor have I ever been a Muslim, although I taught for three years in a Madrassa. Of course, I'm kidding. Barack Obama was accused of attending a madrassa from kindergarten through grade 2. Well, if he attended a madrassa, then I taught in a madrassa from 1969 to 1972 (starting the same year that Obama entered Kindergarten half a world away.) My school was also a government run school in a Muslim country. I taught high school physics, math, and a bit of French. There was also one teacher on staff who taught Arabic. The language of the school was English, and the curriculum was similar to the U.K. Although our school was all boys (at first) there was an equivalent girls' school about 4 miles away. The most common name in the boys' school was probably Mohammed, except I never kept count, so I could be wrong on that. Apparently one of the more popular names in the country today would be Barack or Obama or both.

In the USA the anti-Muslim propaganda comes from so many sources that it's not worth counting. In Canada, it comes primarily from MacLean's magazine, the National Post, the TV show "24", movies, "Reader's Digest" and possibly from the most extreme Jewish or Christian groups. All these sources put out a stereotype of Muslims that is pretty frightening. I would mention in particular the columnist Mark Steyn as an anti-Muslim propagandist who used to write for the National Post, and now writes most of the anti-Muslim articles in MacLean's magazine. Plus he writes his own books like "America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It". Hey Mark, lovely title! In his book he mentions culling Muslims. There is an entry in Wikipedia for Mark Steyn.

The picture at the top is me riding my motorcycle in Sierra Leone. Yes, that's the Muslim country I was referring to. So now to get on with debunking the propaganda. Unfortunately, Sierra Leone may not even count as Muslim, because it's in Africa, and the people are black. Well, if by Muslim, you mean "an Arab or somebody from the same part of the world", then the prejudice is not really about Muslims, it is more about race. "Same part of the world" is the key propaganda phrase needed to shape a racist stereotype.

So I don't know if my argument is going to hold up any more, if Muslim really means "Arab and Muslim". A lot of people also get confused between "Black" and "African". Egyptians are also African, but they are not generally black. I can assure you, in Sierra Leone nobody got confused about black vs. African vs. Muslim vs. Arab. Not the way people in Canada and the USA get it all mixed up. There are also some other countries that are mostly black and Muslim: Somalia, Mauretania, and Sudan, and several more which I can't think of right now. Sorry if this is so confusing, it's just the facts. Ever notice how propaganda is usually so simple and exciting while facts are so complicated and boring?

When I was teaching at that school I was never once deported for naming my teddy bear Mohammed. I was never arrested for drinking alcohol, no girls had acid thrown in their face. There was no reward of going to heaven for any Muslim who killed a Christian. I was never called an infidel, never heard anyone say "Death to America". Israel was on the school maps (though, strangely these countries were not: South Africa, Angola, Rhodesia, and a couple of other I can't remember.) Apparently it is a pretty common Muslim thing to not mark countries if there are human rights issues between the races. - this was back in 1971 when South Africa had Apartheid. So when Ahmedinajad says "wipe Israel off the map" he could be referring to school maps, and not nuclear warfare. If that is even what he actually said.

I did not like everything about the Muslims, in case you are thinking "he is nothing but a Muslim-lover". One issue was the multiple wives. Another was the call-to-prayer which if you lived near a mosque, you would know what I mean. And those Fatwas, I have objected to ever since Salman Rushdie. I even boycotted Cat Steven's music when he joined that Fatwa to kill Rushdie. Also the Muslim religious music sucked, although I'll admit my preference is for guitars and rock and roll, so maybe that's just me. Anyhow they never played Muslim music at parties, dances or concerts that I attended. I could not imagine a Black country without music and dance. Yes, I'm using the word Black not African, because there is a distinct difference in attitudes toward music and dance once you get north of the Sahara in Africa.

My last point, once again from Sierra Leone, is the civil war that was fought during the 1990's, which had as it's main horrific feature the chopping off of hands of innocent civilians - men, women, children, even toddlers. You may think "Of course - they are Muslims, that's what they always do". But it turns out it was not a Muslim thing. Here is my case.

1. The rebels in that war carried out the amputations.
2. The rebels were funded by Charles Taylor, the president of neighboring Liberia.
3. Taylor was a self-proclaimed "Born Again Christian", and claimed to be doing the Lord's work in fighting Muslims.
4. Charles Taylor is currently being tried for war crimes in the Hague.
5. Charles Taylor was supported publicly by well know Christian TV evangelist Pat Robertson. First a seven million dollar partnership with Pat Robertson personally in a joint venture. And a public appeal by Pat that Charles Taylor should be allowed to continue as President even after the US government had called for him to step down based on mounting evidence of his atrocities.

You can refer to this CBS news web page. Note that Sierra Leone and Liberia are neighbouring countries, Sierra Leone is majority Muslim, with rebels supported by Charles Taylor. And the rebels in Liberia are mostly Muslim and were originally ousted by Charles Taylor's rebellion.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/11/national/main562915.shtml

And for more facts, you can also look up Liberia in Wikipedia for the story of Charles Taylor, and find out Taylor was also supported by Ghaddafi from Lybia. So just to make everything more complicated, it turns out Muslims were also involved in the amputations after all.

The people of Sierra Leone were about as friendly and happy as you could find anywhere on earth. And just so you don't think I'm prejudiced against Christians, I support a Catholic-run war amputee centre. And to show goodwill, I would encourage you to read a blog by a recent CAUSE volunteer in Sierra Leone. (Christian Aid for Under-assisted Societies Everywhere) (link below)

http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Sierra-Leone/Freetown/blog-219921.html