Arab nonviolent revolutions mark the beginning of the end of the 9/11 era
by Matthew Taylor on February 28, 2011
In the wake of 9/11 and The Second Intifada, neoconservatives and
hard-right Zionists brainwashed the American people with dehumanizing
stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims. Our unsuspecting, historically
amnesiac, critically unaware public was led to believe garbage like
"they hate us because they hate our freedom," "all Muslims/Arabs are
violent religious fanatic terrorists," "all Palestinians are suicide
bombers," and so on. Note that "us" was collapsed with "Israelis" in
this discourse.
I believe that long dark period is beginning to end. The Middle
East/North Africa revolutions replace the old racist myth with a new
frame: Arab and Muslim peoples, just like Europeans and others with whom
we identify, demand freedom and are using largely nonviolent means to achieve
it. For the average American (I hope!), Arabs and Muslims look a lot more like
Filipinos from the People Power Movement
-- or any of the dozens of other nonviolent movements that have deposed
dictatorial regimes in the past 30 years (Poland, Czech Republic,
Serbia, and so on) -- than irrational, bloodthirsty killers.
The NYT notes this trend with a front page story on Al Qaeda's irrelevance in
the revolutions, the same Al Qaeda that the American right has for so long used
as a bogeyman to spread fear and hatred.
“Knocking off Mubarak has been [Al Qaeda leader] Zawahri’s goal for
more than 20 years, and he was unable to achieve it,” said Brian
Fishman, a terrorism expert at the New America Foundation. “Now a nonviolent,
nonreligious, pro-democracy movement got rid of him in a matter of weeks."
For a decade, the United States has been preoccupied with the Muslim world as a
source of terrorist violence...
“All of the givens,” Mr. Boucek said, “are gone.”
Let's hope that includes the given of unlimited military and diplomatic support
for Israeli war crimes and land theft.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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