How timely it is that today, being Remembrance Day, and in the wake of the 20 year celebration of the destruction of the Berlin Wall, the holy ascension and triumph of the United States and democracy that the media is flooded with images of Nidal Malik Hasan, the gunmen who shot 13 fellow soldiers at an army base in Fort Hood.
Initially I was disinclined to actually express an opinion due to lack of real evidence; unlike some of our beloved journos who seem to think that they have a creative license on these matters. However, I thought it fitting that Alan Howe (Herald Sun Nov 9th Pg 24) and Andrew Bolt (Herald Sun Wednesday Nov 11th Pg 34), ever the informed immediately leapt into action in condemning the “jihadist”.
Andrew Bolt even had the gall to suggest that lo and behold! “he’d given away copies of the Koran on the morning of the shootings”. I know I was disgusted as well! Fancy a man of faith trying to spread his beliefs to those around him!
Wait, but now that I come to think of it, I’m sure that there would be many servicemen in the Australian and American armies that would be more than welcomed in spreading their Christian message to others. It is ignorant in the absolute extreme to claim that a spreading the Koran, (which contrary to popular belief is in fact not a “Jihad for Dummies” book) was a seedy act of terror. Not only this but there has been no conclusive evidence that I have seen at least confirming that this man had any real connections to terrorist organisations apart from some flimsy claims.
Now please, don’t get me wrong I am not validating this man’s actions in ANY way, I am not saying that what he did was anything short of despicable. I just think it would be prudent to perhaps turn the light back onto our own culture and perhaps see the more than visible contrasts between our own mentality and that of the “jihadists” we are so quick to denigrate.
I read the article “Sheik wants Wiggle Power” (Herald Sun Nov 11th p7) and was gobsmacked at the way the Sheik Haron was portrayed as “stupid” and “heartless” for the “preaching” of “his own kind of peace”. The guy was literally asking for the Wiggles to put on a show for Afghani, Iraqi and Australian children who had lost their parents in war. However this peaceful message which could give a sliver of hope to young children who are victims of war was blatantly overshadowed by his sending of “offensive letters” to the families of soldiers killed in war. This could seem hypocritical at first but think about it, children killed in bomb blasts during both the Iraqi and Afghani wars are seen as “collateral” to a much greater cause; however when children are killed in bomb blasts in the western world, it is a worldwide disgrace. Moreover, the “soldiers” who kill innocents in the western world are portrayed as gutless murderers, whilst the soldiers who kill innocents in the east; in Iraq and Afghanistan are portrayed as heroes. The unending hypocrisy of the western media summed it up for me. Page 15 of the Herald Sun on Nov 11th praised the new game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 illustrating the “ultra-realistic graphics” that bring gun fighting against terrorists in Afghanistan “to life”. Now every young man and boy can be a hero and kill some terrorists in the comfort of their own home, and hey maybe even those young children who will probably be denied the opportunity to meet the wiggles can re enact the way their parents died in “ultra-realistic” mode again, and again, and again.
I hope once again that this was frankly less than amusing.
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Excellelllent. HERALD SUN HYPOCRCY is, as you know, one of my more unhealthy obsessions. I agree with pretty much all of this. You're very much right about Haron. Teh Hun would be disappointed that he's not really a militant fundamentalist must be quite frustrating for them... it's becoming clear that he's really just eccentric. If he'd ever said anything else ridiculous we would have heard aboout by now. The fact that they keep calling him "self-styled Sheik" means that he isn't necessarily one, they wouldn't ignore an opportunity to villify teh EVIL MUSLIMS COMMUNITY if it was possible.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm going to play that awful role of advocatus diaBOLTli, (lulz did you see what i did there?) for arguments sake. Now I might be being a little culturally insensitive, but maybe innocently and generously trying to spread around your beliefs MIGHT take on a teensy weensy bit of a sinister connotation if if you do it a couple of hours before literally screaming "ALLAH AKBAR!!" and brutally shooting 11 of your innocent colleagues? Had it been a christian handing around bibles (as I'm sure has happened, there have been a lot of nutjob "I am the angel of death" proud christian solider in american) then I, and possibly say you would have been significantly more outraged. Are we hypocrites? Thoughts?
AHHHH yes, I would be anything that a little research would reveal that that game had been partially developed or funded by the American Defence force.