Kourosh Ziabari

As the Western governments add fuel to the fire of Islamophobic sentiments in their societies with inflammatory and rabble-rousing actions and statements, the Western media mischievously try their best to portray a lopsided, biased and prejudiced image of Muslims in an attempt which should be interpreted as an incontestable crusade against more than 25% of the world population.

Although it is arguable that the 9/11 attacks played in the hands of the United States and its European cronies to spread an all-encompassing wave of Islamophobic sentiments in the world and introduce the Muslims as the number one threat to the global peace and security, one should bear in mind that Muslims have been conventionally considered as the villains of the fables of the Western governments and despite their unquestionable and treasured services to the world, they never received a fair, justifiable and humane treatment by the superpowers, either from the deceitful, fraudulent and warmonger Russia that massacred some 50,000 innocent Muslims in Chechnya, or from the arrogant, bullying United States that incarcerated scores of innocent Muslims in its illegal, underground detention centers in Guantanamo bay and Abu Ghraib following the 9/11 attacks.

Corporate mainstream media have been the most effectual and trenchant wing of the Western governments in their crusade against the Muslims and the Islamic world. When it was needed to conceal the most conspicuous realities which would attest to the righteousness of the Muslims, the mainstream media did their best: Marwa El-Sherbini was flagrantly murdered in a courtroom in Germany, and the Western media outlets unanimously kept silent, turning a blind eye against one of the most heartrending instances of the violation of human rights before the eyes of a judge and his colleagues. When it was needed to sabotage the reality, the Western media showed off perfectly: the Freedom Flotilla was brutally attacked by the commandos of Israel Defense Forces and 9 of its passengers were massacred viciously; the massacre was justified as an act of self defense. Nobody asked the Western media that how it would be possible to justify the killing of defenseless civilians as an act of self defense while they even lacked a knife to defend their lives against the rifles of the Israeli commandos. When it was needed to downgrade the depth of the truth, the mainstream media scored the best goal: 3,500 guiltless Gazans were massacred in a short period of less than 3 weeks, and the Western media acted so indifferently that one might have felt as if nothing had really taken place!

Western media have demonstrated their unequivocal and unambiguous animosity with the Muslims. Their antagonism emanates from the hostility of the Western governments with Muslims. But what's behind this hostility? What drives the Western governments to adopt such inhumane and unfair policies against the Muslims that constitute one forth of the world population and have always lived a peaceful and friendly life with the followers of other religions all around the world? What takes the Western governments, and consequently the Western media to enmity with the Muslims?

The answers can be different. One simple answer might be that the empowerment of Muslims may potentially endanger the interests of the Western world. There are 57 Islamic countries in the world and if these countries turn from impoverished, underprivileged and underdeveloped nations into major superpowers, then who may take care of the Western hegemony? The first example which pops into mind is Turkey; a developing, flourishing and promising Muslim nation that is traversing the path of progress and improvement in all fields of science, technology, culture and economy. They don't give Turkey accession to EU because they know that the addition of a Muslim nation to the non-Muslim members of European Union may punctuate the commencement of an Islamic upheaval which has already indicated signs of dynamicity in European nations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Albania.

There can be alternative answers to this question; however, the overall conclusion is that the West doesn't tolerate the progress and achievement of the Muslim world. A simple instance is the obstacles which it puts on the way of Iran's nuclear program. Although the European and American politicians and statesmen have undisputedly admitted that Israel is the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, they have never made any effort to investigate Israel's nuclear arsenal which contains up to 200 atomic warheads; however, they have lethally put an ever-increasing pressure on Iran to relinquish its nuclear rights and put an end to its nuclear program which the International Atomic Energy Agency has affirmed as peaceful and unthreatening.

In line with their antagonistic policies with regards to the Islamic world, the Western governments push their affiliated media to portray a lopsided and biased image of Islam and propagate this fallacious belief that Muslims are dangerous creatures which pose a serious danger to the peace and security of the Europeans and Americans.

They intentionally introduce Muslims as terrorists and try to institutionalize the belief that Muslims are always inclined to carry out extreme actions such as killing the other people or persecuting the followers of other religions and forcing them to convert to Islam. They misuse some pillars and principals of Islam to portray their desired image of this religion and its followers and hence spread fear and awe among the Europeans and Americans.

The Western media outlets never show the real image of Islam to their audiences and tell them that the essence of this religion is based on mutual respect, benevolence, peace, love and human dignity. They never allude to the fact that the Prophet of Islam Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) was one of the pioneers of human rights in his time and emphasized on preserving and respecting the human dignity immensely. They never reveal the verses of Holy Quran in which it is declared that killing one person is tantamount to killing all of the persons in the view of Islam. They never tell their audiences that in the view of Prophet Muhammad, it was even unlawful to kill a sparrow for the sake of entertainment.

Unfortunately, the public opinion in the West is unaware of the realities of Islam and Muslims. It's my responsibility to invite you to take a deeper look into the realities of Islam, and if you want to figure out the realities, it's your responsibility to research and devote your time to a quest of truth.

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- Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist. He has interviewed political commentator and linguist Noam Chomsky, member of New Zealand parliament Keith Locke, Australian politician Ian Cohen, member of German Parliament Ruprecht Polenz, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, former U.S. National Security Council advisor Peter D. Feaver, Nobel Prize laureate in Physics Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel Prize laureate in Chemistry Kurt Wüthrich, Nobel Prize laureate in biology Robin Warren, famous German political prisoner Ernst Zündel, Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff, American author Stephen Kinzer, syndicated journalist Eric Margolis, former aSiddiqiistant of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Paul Craig Roberts, American-Palestinian journalist Ramzy Baroud, former President of the American Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sid Ganis, American international relations scholar Stephen Zunes, American singer and songwriter David Rovics, American political scientist and anthropologist William Beeman, British journalist Andy Worthington, Australian author and blogger Antony Loewenstein, Iranian geopolitics expert Pirouz Mojtahedzadeh, American historian and author Michael A. Hoffman II and Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon.