[THS] Chossudovsky: America`s Holy Crusade against the Muslim World.

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

In a succinct and chilling precis, Michel Chossudovsky draws attention to the
troubling coalescence of religious ideology and US military doctrine that he defines as
"America's Holy Crusade against the Muslim world."  Chossudovsky reports that the
pace of this insidious coalescence is accelerating at an alarming rate.  Not only has
the US government launched a global assassination program targeting "radicals," but
also the American people are being subjected to a campaign of mind control directed
by the extreme right-wing of the American religious-political spectrum.

Last Saturday, Glenn Beck co-opted the site and the anniversary of Dr. King's "I have
a dream" speech to deliver a patriotic rally drenched in overt political symbolism far
more reminiscent of Hitler than King.

In less than 2 weeks time on September 11th, the American right will stage 2
potentially explosive political rallies deliberately designed to provoke violent acts of
Islamist extremism.  At Ground Zero, Newt Gingrich, John Bolton and Andrew
Breitbart will attempt to enflame Americans as well as Islamist radicals about the
construction of a Muslim Community Center on Park Place.  On the same pregnant
date in Gainesville, Florida, Dr. Terry Jones will immolate a stack of Qurans at his rally
billed as, "International Burn a Koran Day."  It would not be surprising if these rallies
succeed in their objective of triggering an Islamist backlash that could result in violent
acts of terrorism anywhere on the planet.

Throughout this right-wing campaign that is designed to seize the reins of American
religion from the hands of moderates, the American clergy has been curiously silent.
Except for a few insipid resolutions supporting the constitutional rights of Muslims to
practice their religion that received virtually zero publicity, the American Clergy has
failed utterly to condemn the excesses of religious and political intolerance by
authorities who are openly conducting what Chossudovsky rightly terms, "an
American Inquisition."

The de facto banning of mosque building and the calculated targeting of Islamic
radicals for summary execution/assassination clearly do constitute an Inquisition and
could prefigure what historians of the future may label 'a second Holocaust.'  It is
now clear that this militant religious trend in American history has already cost the
lives of more than one million Muslims, but with a global population of 1.5 billion, the
scope far exceeds anything that mankind has perpetrated to date.

Last week, the arch-fundamentalist Franklin Graham made inflammatory comments
on CNN followed up by even more incendiary statements in Time.  Pseudo-
intellectuals including Christopher Hitchens, Jeffrey Goldberg and others are now
inciting Islamophobic conspiracy theories via their free and open access to the
mainstream media.  This politico-religious trend of Islamophobic zealotry is no longer
limited to the fringes of American culture -- it is now expanding into the mainstream
virtually unopposed and definitely unabated.

Planetary is monitoring these trends and deploying strategies to rally a non-violent
political counterforce to the latest escalation of militant religious extremism.

Michael Carmichael
Planetary/USA
1818 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard
Suite 111
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514
USA

www.planetarymovement.org


____________________________________________________________________

America's Holy Crusade against the Muslim World.

By Michel Chossudovsky

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20818

Global Research, August 30, 2010




We have reached a decisive transition in the evolution of US military doctrine. The
"Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT) directed against Al Qaeda launched in the wake
of 9/11 is evolving towards a full-fledged "war of religion", a "holy crusade" directed
against the Muslim World.

US military dogma and war propaganda under the Bush administration, was
predicated on combating Islamic fundamentalism rather than targeting Muslims.
"This is not a war between the West and Islam, but .. a war against terrorism." So-
called "Good Muslims" are to be distinguished from "Bad Muslims":

"The dust from the collapse of the twin towers had hardly settled on 11 September
2001 when the febrile search began for "moderate Muslims", people who would
provide answers, who would distance themselves from this outrage and condemn the
violent acts of "Muslim extremists", "Islamic fundamentalists" and "Islamists". Two
distinct categories of Muslims rapidly emerged: the "good" and the "bad"; the
"moderates", "liberals" and "secularists" versus the "fundamentalists", the
"extremists" and the "Islamists"." (Tariq Ramadan, Good Muslim, bad Muslim, New
Statesman, February 12, 2010)

In the wake of 9/11, the Muslim community in most Western countries was markedly
on the defensive. The "Good Muslim" "Bad Muslim" divide was broadly accepted. The
9/11 terrorist attacks allegedly perpetrated by Muslims were not only condemned,
Muslim communities also supported the US-NATO invasion and occupation of
Afghanistan, as part of a campaign directed against Islamic fundamentalism.

The fact that the 9/11 attacks were not instigated by Muslims has rarely been
acknowledged by the Muslim community. Al Qaeda's ongoing relationship to the CIA,
its role as a US sponsored "intelligence asset" going back to to the Soviet-Afghan war
is not mentioned. (Michel Chossudovsky, America's "War on Terrorism"  Global
Research, Montreal, 2005)

Since the early 1980s, Washington has covertly supported the most conservative and
fundamentalist factions of Islam, largely with a view to weakening secular, nationalist
and progressive movements in the Middle East and Central Asia. Known and
documented, the fundamentalist Wahhabi and Salafi missions from Saudi Arabia,
dispatched not only to Afghanistan but also to the Balkans and to the Muslim
republics of the former Soviet republics were covertly supported by US intelligence.
(Ibid) What is often referred to as "Political Islam" is in large part a creation of the US
intelligence apparatus (with the support of Britain's MI6 and Israel's Mossad).

The Ground Zero Mosque

Recent developments suggest a breaking point, a transition from "the war on
terrorism" to the outright demonization of Muslims. While underscoring the freedom
of religion, the Obama administration is "beating the drums" of a broader war against
Islam:

“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice
their religion as anyone else in this country... This is America, and our commitment to
religious freedom must be unshakable." (quoted in Obama Backs Ground Zero
Mosque; Iranian Link Questioned, Israel National News, August 15, 2010)

Beneath the political smokescreen, the distinction between "Good Muslims" and "Bad
Muslims" is being scrapped. The proposed Ground Zero mosque is allegedly being
funding by "the radical rogue Islamic state of Iran ... as the United States is stepping
up sanctions on the regime in retaliation for its support of terrorism and what is
feared to be an illegal nuclear-weapons development program." ( Ground Zero
mosque developers refuse to outright reject funding from Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - NYPOST.com, August 19, 2010)





The rising tide of xenophobia, sparked by the proposed Ground Zero mosque and
community center, has all the appearances of  a PSYOP (Psychological Operation)
which contributes to fomenting hatred against Muslims throughout the Western
World.

The objective is to instil fear, rouse and harness citizens' unbending support for the
next stage of America's "long war", which consists in waging "humanitarian" aerial
attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran, portrayed by the media as endorsing the
terrorists.

While "all Muslim are not terrorists", all terrorist attacks (planned or realized) are
reported by the media as being perpetrated by Muslims.

In America, the Muslim community as a whole is being targeted. Islam is described
as a "religion of war". The proposed mosque and community center are being
heralded as "violating the sanctity of Ground Zero".

"..opening a mosque at Ground Zero is offensive and disrespectful to the city and the
people who died in the attacks. The project is “spitting in the face of everyone
murdered on 9/11.” (Plan to build mosque at Ground Zero angers New Yorkers
,National Post, May 17, 2010)

"Homegrown Terrorists"

The arrests on trumped up charges, as well as the show trials of alleged
"homegrown" Islamic terrorists, perform an important function. They sustain the
illusion, in the inner consciousness of Americans, that "Islamic terrorists" not only
constitute a real threat but that the Muslim community to which they belong is
broadly supportive of their actions:

"[T]he threat increasingly comes not from strangers with rough English and dubious
passports. Instead, it resides much closer to home: in urban townhouses, darkened
basements -- anywhere with an Internet connection. Homegrown terrorism is the
latest incarnation of the al-Qaeda threat." How terror came home to roost, Ottawa
Citizen, August 27, 2010, report on an alleged homegrown terrorist attack in Canada)

>From a process of selective targeting of Muslims with radical tendencies (or allegedly
associated with "terrorist organizations"), what is now unfolding is a generalized
process of demonization of an entire population group.

Muslims are increasingly the object of routine discrimination and ethnic profiling.
They are considered a potential threat to national security. The threat is said to be
"much closer to home", "within your neighborhood", in other words what is unfolding
is an all out witch-hunt reminiscent of the Spanish inquisition.

In turn,  Al Qaeda is described as a powerful multinational terrorist organization
(possessing WMDs) with subsidiaries in a number of Muslim countries: Al Qaeda is
present (with corresponding acronyms) in various geopolitical hotspots and war
theaters:

-Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) (comprised of Al
Qaeda in Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Jihad of Yemen), Al Qaeda in Southeast Asia
(Jamaah Islamiyah), Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, Harakat al-
Shabaab Mujahideen in Somalia, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, etc.

At no moment is the issue of atrocities committed against several million Muslims in
Iraq and Afghanistan considered a terrorist act by the occupation forces.

The American Inquisition

A "war of religion" is unfolding, with a view to justifying a global military crusade. In
the inner consciousness of many Americans, the "holy crusade" against Muslims is
justified. While President Obama may uphold freedom of religion, the US inquisitorial
social order has institutionalized patterns of discrimination, prejudice and xenophobia
directed against Muslims. Ethnic profiling applies to travel, the job market, access to
social services and more generally to socila mobility.

The American Inquisition as an ideological construct, which is, in many regards, is
similar to the inquisitorial social order prevailing in France and Spain during the
Middle Ages. The inquisition, which started in France in the 12th century, was used
as a justification for conquest and military intervention. (See Michel Chossudovsky,
9/11 and the "American Inquisition", Global Research, September 11, 2008).

The arrests, trials and sentences of so-called "homegrown" terrorists" (from within
America's Muslim community) on trumped up charges sustain the legitimacy of the
Homeland Security State and its inquisitorial legal and law enforcement apparatus.

An inquisitorial doctrine turns realities upside down. It is a social order based on lies
and fabrications. But because these lies emanate from the highest political authority
and are part of a widely held "consensus", they invariably remain unchallenged. And
those who challenge the inquisitorial order or in any way oppose America's military or
national security agenda are themselves branded as "conspiracy theorists" or outright
terrorists.

Beyond the process of inquisitorial arrests and prosecution, which outdwarfs the
Spanish inquisition, an expedient extrajudicial assassination program sanctioned by
the White House has been launched. This program allows US special forces to kill
American citizens and suspected homegrown terrorists:: "A shortlist of U.S. citizens
specifically targeted for killing"? (See Chuck Norris, Obama's US Assassination
Program? "A Shortlist of U.S. Citizens specifically Targeted for Killing"?,. Global
Research, August 26, 2010)

The objective is to sustain the illusion that "America is under attack" and that Muslims
across the land are complicit and supportive of "Islamic terrorism".

The demonization of Muslims sustains a global military agenda. Under the American
inquisition, Washington has a self-proclaimed holy mandate to extirpate Islam and
"spread democracy" throughout the world.

What we are dealing with is an outright and blind acceptance of the structures of
power and political authority. America's holy crusade against the Muslim World is an
outright criminal act directed against millions of people.