Friday, November 30, 2012

PCI m - Condemn US Cultural Imperialism Hurting Religious Sentiments of the Muslims Worldwide



COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)
CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Press Release
September 20, 2012
Condemn US Cultural Imperialism Hurting
Religious Sentiments of the Muslims Worldwide

A video film named ‘Innocence of Muslims’ made in the USA by a team of anti-Muslim reactionary Christian religious jingoists and made available on various video-sharing sites in the Web hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslims worldwide by insulting the Prophet. This led to massive protests by Muslims all over the world cutting across regions starting from Libya, Tunisia and spreading to Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir to India, and particularly in North Africa, West Asia and the Arab World. The CC, CPI (Maoist) is strongly condemning this cultural onslaught of the US imperialists on the religious sentiments of the Muslims and demands unconditional apology from the US government and makers of the film to the Muslims all over the world.
Since 9/11, the US imperialism has been increasingly targeting the Muslims all over the world in the name of so-called ‘War on Terror’ and this offensive has not only been in the political, military and economic spheres but also in social and cultural spheres. This cultural imperialism of the US and its allies ranges from rabid Christian religious chauvinism and the horrors of the Abu Ghraib type tortures to insulting the Prophet and the Quran and other religious symbols of Muslims in cartoons and films in the name of freedom of expression. This cultural onslaught is aimed at maiming the psyche of the Muslims and making them feel inferior so that they would not resist the imperialist aggression and raise against the atrocities committed on them as part of the so-called ‘War on Terror’. But the US imperialists gravely miscalculated. Every insult that is being intended to break the Muslims is boomeranging into a massive protest. Accordingly, the above film has given rise to the biggest protests the world has ever witnessed over a cultural issue ranging from huge demonstrations, protest marches, destruction and burning US flags, property and other symbols to attacks on US embassies and killing of their diplomats.
One must understand that this unprecedented pouring of anger is not just in response to the insulting of the Prophet, but is also part of the pent up hatred against all kinds of atrocities committed by the US imperialists on the Muslim population, particularly in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and its blatant support to the atrocities on Palestinians by the Zionist Israel. These protests should be seen in a broad sense as part of the anti-imperialist struggles being waged by the people all over the world in all spheres including culture and not just as protests by a religious community concerning an exclusively religious issue. The wars of aggression US and NATO waged to occupy the countries and grab oil resources in the gulf region and the neo-colonial exploitation and plunder of the resource rich Arab and North African countries are the main reason behind the hatred for the US. This assumed religious tones chiefly due to the premeditated and deliberate anti-Islam propaganda and measures taken by the US to break the resistance of the overwhelmingly Muslim majority population in these countries.
The comprador ruling classes in power in the countries where these protests are raging, true to their character, are trying to suppress the protestors with bullets, tear gas, lathi charges, and arrests. Since decades these ruling classes have been running dogs of the imperialists on the one hand and on the other die-hard dictators over their own people. Even as US drones are pounding the Afghan villages and killings innocent people on a daily basis and the entire Muslim world is erupting in protest against the US cultural onslaught in the form of this film, Karzai is issuing statements that the ‘War on Terror’ must go on and pleading with Obama not to wage this war in Afghan villages. Such puppets are equally responsible for the innumerable atrocities being committed on the Muslims all over the world by the imperialists. They will never uphold the dignity of the Muslim people in the face of such cultural onslaughts and would instead suppress them. It is for the people to expose the true faces of these collaborators.
Stunned by the scale of protests the US government belatedly spent more than 70,000 dollars on advertisements featuring Obama and Hillary Clinton giving messages that US had always respected all religious faiths in a futile attempt to stem the torrent of anger. In the first place, the film was not made by some individual due to his whims and fancies. It is but an integral part of the entire gamut of anti-Islam propaganda that the US government and its allies have sponsored, supported and encouraged overtly and covertly as part of the ‘War on Terror’. It is but the current instance of a series of intentional acts to insult like the burning of the Quran in Afghanistan by US soldiers. If not for this backdrop, such films would not have been so easily made nor found their way to release.
Taking into consideration the huge surveillance system of the US government, believing that the US government was ignorant about the making of this film or its release would at best be innocence and at worst pure deception of self. Even after massive protests the US government has still not taken any steps to arrest the filmmakers, to stop its release or cared to issue an apology to the Muslims. It is trying to buy time and deceive people by issuing namesake and vague condemnations and statements about respecting all religious faiths. History bears witness to the opposite. Moreover it is sending its troops directly into countries like Libya violating their sovereignty on the pretext of protecting its citizens from the protestors.
The Muslim population is not so inexperienced with the malicious tricks of the US imperialism so as not to see through the ruse and that is why with each passing day peaceful as well as violent protests are erupting all over the world against the US and its Western allies. The irresponsible and callous attitude of the Western imperialists, the imperialist era Neros, towards Muslim religious sentiments can be gauged from the fact that even as the world is burning over the film, a magazine published 20 cartoons insulting the Prophet in France and it close down its embassies in 20 countries as a forewarning. With leaders like Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon with a reputation for having successfully resisted a US-backed Israeli invasion of Lebanon and having anti-imperialist credentials calling for fresh and wide protests against the insulting of the Prophet, the world is witnessing fresh waves of protests.
Every secular-minded person and democrat must participate in these protests and condemn the cultural imperialism of the US and the European imperialists particularly targeting the followers of Islam. Hurting religious sentiments is but one part of this cultural imperialism. The various other tentacles of this cultural imperialist octopus that is trying to strangle the native culture (languages, dialects, eating habits, attire, housing – what not?) in Asia, Africa and Latin American countries must be exposed as part of the protests. Along with demanding an unconditional apology from the US government and the film makers, these protests must turn into broad anti-imperialist struggles, particularly against the US imperialism that is targeting the Muslims in the third world to further its geo-political interests and to grab the oil and other natural resources of those countries.
(Abhay)
Spokesperson,
Central Committee, CPI (Maoist)

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