Prosecution of Muslims in the Western Media

After the 9/11 incident, it seems that the world powers and especially the western media have been utilizing their energies to prove that Islam is a religion of terrorism and Muslims are some inferior species not at all capable of living in the “civilized west”.

Muslims are routinely charged with terrorism, it has become a normal thing, but perhaps only a few in the West know that many of them in fact thousands of them have been innocent. But for the media, Muslims make sensational headlines.

Like other American allies the North American nation of Canada is also not lagging behind. Many innocent Muslims are declared as terrorists by a well-organized media campaign.
Mr. Mehboob Khawaja is also one of those unlucky people. Mr. Khawaja is a Pakistani Canadian whose family has been “identified” as terrorists. Those sentenced also include his son Momin, a software engineer by profession.

Dr. Khawaja is an academic who specializes in Strategic Studies with special focus on Western-Islamic Civilizations. He has written several books one of them is “Muslims and the West: Quest for Change and Conflict Resolution”. His latest book is titled as “Fallacy of the War on Terrorism”. Perhaps that book was the catalyst for his arrest?

Dr Khawaja gave an account of how his family was persecuted. He said that his arrest was a combined production of Canada, UK, and the USA. His wife and children were arrested at gunpoint in Ottawa while he was working at a university in Saudi Arabia.

He said further that his home was attacked by almost 50 to 60 armed (Royal Canadian Mounted Police – RCMP). The policemen lacked any formal search warrant.

The masked RCMP ordered Khaja’s family to lie on the floor and then asked where the explosives were. At the same time Mr. Khawaja was arrested in Saudi Arabia and then jailed for two weeks.
The Saudi authorities showed him a formal request by Canada, but the Government of Canada denied it. According to Mr. Khawaja the documentary evidence proves this stance that the Canadian government as publicly capable of lying.

Khawaja’s arrest was supported by a well-organized media campaign, in the western media which totally destroyed his reputation and profession as a professor in global politics. Ads and media reports that were supported by the government portrayed him and his family as terrorist.

Mr Qamar Masood, president of the regional Canada-Pakistan association and also a family friend of the Khawaja family said that the case of Mr. Khawaja was of a mistaken identity. The family had to face the ordeal and suspicious eyes from all around their neighborhood.

The plight didn’t remain confined to Mr. Khwaja but his son Momin a software engineer by profession was accused falsely of a bomb plot in the UK. When the police arrested Momin and accused him of a terror activity in Canada and England.
According to a report by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) Momin was the first person who was charged under Canada’s (2001 Anti-Terrorism Act on March 30).
Moimn was held for four years without trial and was convicted on October 29, 2008. He was sentenced on March 12, 2009. He was sentenced for ten and a half year on charges of donating $859 to an Afghan refugee charity.

The two other charges were making an explosive device that was aimed at stopping the signals of cell phone in academic institutions, mosques and hospitals and other facilities from being identified.
He was also accused of attending some alleged unknown training camp in Pakistan. It is noteworthy that this is a favorite charge of the west to prosecute Muslims. Thousands of innocent Muslims have been arrested and tortured under this bogus charged which is never proved.

Not only this, but according to the CBC the Canadian government appealed for a longer sentence. The judge Douglas Rutherford said that though no evidence was found against him, but still he labeled him as a willing and eager participant in a terror plot.
After six years Momin is still in prison and neither the international media nor the human rights organizations have given due attention to him or his plight. The BBC once reported about him, but the headline was “Khawaja: The Canadian Connection”.

It appears that the western media has reached a consensus that every Muslim who practices his faith and has unluckily traveled to Pakistan after 9/11 is for sure a terrorist and should be prosecuted no matter whether any evidence is found against him.
This perhaps strengthens one fact that is quite frequently propagated by the proponents of conspiracy theories, that the “war on terror” is a way to expand the imperialist designs of the US, UK, Canada, and Israel.

For this the threat of terrorism has been exaggerated so much despite the fact that it was the Muslims who have been affected the most after the 9/11 attacks.
The western media also must pay attention to the neo-cons who are spreading hatred in the world in order to achieve their agenda. www.starcitynews.com

Posted in: global