Islamic Media is in Error

By: Ibrahim Xeliki

Feb 26, 2006

I browsed Islamic media in Turkey for the last few days (Yeniasya, Zaman, Yenisafak, Vakit, etc).  Without an exception, each places the blame directly on US for the bombing Shiite shrine. They bluntly declare this as a US stratagem to stir up sectarian war. Thus, they unequivocally sympathize with terrorists in Iraq.  Unfortunately, this disingenuous headlines cost our poor Muslim population a lot. It does not provide any solution to current problems in Islamic societies. On the other hand, it increases the ignorance and preserves status quo: they are number one and number two enemies of the Islam. I will not go in detail criticizing each of these newspapers. Nonetheless, I will focus on one of them as an example of how Muslim population is misled by the local media. I will dissect the headlines in Yeniasya, "Isgalcinin Oyununa Gelmeyin".

Translation means, "Be aware of Occupier's plot". This is a newspaper which is supposed to operate on principle of Bediuzzaman who was the biggest scholar of the past century.  Bediuzzaman in his famous Damascus Sermon in early twenty century diagnosed six dire sicknesses that arrested Muslim and kept Islamic world the Middle Ages while Europeans flew towards the future on progress. The sicknesses are these:

1) That the despair and hopelessness found a life in us.
2) The death of truthfulness in political life.
3) Love of enmity.
4) Not knowing the bonds that bind the believers to one another.
5) Despotism, which spreads like various contagious diseases.
6) Self interest.

In addition to killing thousands of Muslims in Iraq, these terrorists did nothing but worsened these sicknesses. It is not US who committed genocide in Halapca against Kurds. It is not US who massacred thousands of Shiite in the south. Surely, it is not US who blew off the dome of important shrine. For a Muslim newspaper in the name of Islam to feel sympathy with these terrorists is inexplicable. Every Muslim should condemn this heinous crime and should turn against these butchers. I came to believe that the despotic regimes are behind this misinformation to maintain the status quo. If not, why on the earth a newspaper like Yeniasya would go against all principles and teachings of Bediuzzaman to misinform Muslims?

Anybody with little common sense will quickly notice that these six diseases are more prevalent today in Islamic countries than 95 years ago when Bediuzzaman gave the Damascus Sermon. Particularly, the despotism that stifles Islamic development is in every Islamic country.  A person that is not bigot, racist and without darkened heart, will realize that US intervention in Iraq is turning point for the region. It is sending a strong message to neighboring countries that freedom is must for their citizens if these countries want to survive. The dictator military regime in Turkey surely will not like this signal.  Surely, despotic Egyptian, Saudis, Iranian and Syrian regimes will not welcome it at all.  Let shed little light on one of this countries, Turkey.

Turkey is with majority Muslim country. However, it is the most despotic regime against the Islam on the face of the earth. It is the only country in the world that banned Islamic dress. It is the only country that you have to officially worship its dictator, Ataturk along with God, Allah. As such, it is not fathomable for an Islamic newspaper to support despotic regimes and the machinery behind it. One would think that a Muslim-supported newspaper will do anything helping to get rid off this deadly sickness, despotism. One would think that they would be grateful to US intervention and help them in anyway to succeed in Iraq with hope that the freedom in Iraq might spread some seeds across borders.  Anything short of this is insult to Islamic intellect and helping to propagate this deadly sickness of despotism.

Is Yeniasya doing this because they are acting with Islamic principle of helping oppressed and fighting oppressor? Not by any means!  There are 25 million Kurds in Turkey that are being oppressed for 95 years. Again, Turkey is the only country that bans the language of 25 million people, Kurdish. I have never seen in Yeniasya the following headlines: "25 Million of Kurdish brother/sisters should be able to educate their kids in their own language." I f one would survey the countries of the world would find out that Turkey is the only country that has such ban on a native language.  Unless Muslim media inform the mass truthfully, the destruction of many countries is imminent not because of US or Westerners, it is because of despotism.  Once this established, we could say that what so-called Islamic media circulating about US is a big lie to maintain the status quo. This is an opportunity Muslims to realize that the media in their countries is the machinery of the despotic regimes as well.

Similar or harsher things can be said about other newspapers. If Iraq becomes a failure, it is because people in the region made it to fail. Not because US had bad administrative planning or intentions. If that happens, we will see Islam will be arrested at the dungeon of despotic regimes for a long time. If it succeeds, it will spread the seed of freedom to every single Muslim country. Islam will then flourish as it did 1400 years ago. As a bonus, we will have a friend, United States of America.