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)
)
)
No comments:
Post a Comment