AL JAZEERA: FROM ‘TERRORISTS’ TO ‘COOL KIDS IS THE US REALLY LOSING THE INFORMATION WAR, AS HILLARY CLINTON CLAIMS, AND HOW CAN IT FIGHT BACK?

Photo by Getty

“I log onto Al Jazeera every morning – you guys rock!” This was no news junkie; this was Christopher, a fantastic salesman at a clothes store in central Washington. He tells me Al Jazeera is the first thing he reads on his Blackberry, and it is his first source for news. He loves us. And so do all his friends.

What a change from when I came here three years ago! Back then virtually nobody had heard of us. Out of those who did, one tried to bomb our offices several years ago. George W Bush and his gang suspected we were propagators of anti-American propaganda. And the other, a taxi driver, said: “You were them guys Bush tried to take out; I know about you!” He was dead impressed there was a representative of a ‘terror network’ in his cab.

Before I felt like people here really thought I was Osama bin Laden’s mouthpiece. Now I feel like I work for the cool kids! Even US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is a fan. “You might not agree with it, but you are getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials,” she said of Al Jazeera in a Washington Post article.

Almost everyone I speak to – ordering my breakfast, buying a local sim card and booking to see Lady Gaga – knows who we are. A group of Americans I get chatting to in a phone shop recognise me from my reporting in Cairo during the Egypt uprising and want to know every minute detail of our time there and how we functioned, and of Qatar and what it is like to work for the “amazing Al Jazeera”. When they left, they thanked me for the impact our work has had on the world.

Three years ago it was hard to book a politician to come to our studios. Now everyone wants to talk to us. Senators – current and former – and top military men all want their views known. Republicans, Democrats, even Tea Partiers, are all keen to have us as their mouthpiece now.

Just the other day, the Libyan ambassador to the US was very emotional when he broke from the Libyan regime live on air. With any luck the momentum will get us more carriage in the United States. Hostility, fear and the Jewish lobby restricted us to a few outlets brave enough to show us, but nearly half our followers on line are from Stateside. We know that Barack Obama had his telly tuned to Al Jazeera to watch our coverage of Egypt (alongside CNN).

And clearly there is an appetite – as big and hearty as a full American breakfast – for us. As Hillary Clinton said: “Like it or hate it, it really is effective.”

Abdul Rashid Agwan

Islam and Muslims have almost become synonyms of terrorism since 9/11. The fundamentalist Christians led by the Bush administration, rightist organizations in Europe, India and elsewhere and the media, all united to generally dub Muslims as ‘terrorists’ or at least spawn suspicion thereof. Even many Muslim intellectuals, liberal thinkers, community leaders, policymakers have accepted the pretext seriously and have put on apologetic postures in response. Almost like an archaic proverb the myth got circulated around the world that ‘“All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims”. However, the facts that are slowly coming to light say a different story.

Danio, an independent researcher and blogger of www.loonwatch.com, gathered extensive data on terrorist events in the USA and derived from the store of the facts that “only 6% of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 1980 to 2005 were carried out by Islamic extremists. The remaining 94% were from other groups (42% from Latinos, 24% from extreme left wing groups, 7% from extremist Jews, 5% from communists, and 16% from all other groups).”

He also collated data regarding terrorist events in Europe while relying on EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report for 2007, 2008 and 2009. He concludes, “The results are stark, and prove decisively that not all terrorists are Muslims. In fact, a whopping 99.6% of terrorist attacks in Europe were by non-Muslim groups; a good 84.8% of attacks were from separatist groups completely unrelated to Islam. Leftist groups accounted for over sixteen times as much terrorism as radical Islamic groups. Only a measly 0.4% of terrorist attacks from 2007 to 2009 could be attributed to extremist Muslims.”

The report of 2006 includes total 498 events; of which, only one in Germany could be alleged as ‘Islamist’, the major blame went to the European separatist groups who were found involved in as many as 424 terrorist incidents. In 2007, the number of total such events recorded in the report to be 583 of which one in Denmark could be labeled as ‘Islamist’. The following year there was only one ‘Islamist attack’ in the UK in 2008 which is almost negligible among the total 515 incidents in the continent.

Photo by Getty

“I log onto Al Jazeera every morning – you guys rock!” This was no news junkie; this was Christopher, a fantastic salesman at a clothes store in central Washington. He tells me Al Jazeera is the first thing he reads on his Blackberry, and it is his first source for news. He loves us. And so do all his friends.

What a change from when I came here three years ago! Back then virtually nobody had heard of us. Out of those who did, one tried to bomb our offices several years ago. George W Bush and his gang suspected we were propagators of anti-American propaganda. And the other, a taxi driver, said: “You were them guys Bush tried to take out; I know about you!” He was dead impressed there was a representative of a ‘terror network’ in his cab.

Before I felt like people here really thought I was Osama bin Laden’s mouthpiece. Now I feel like I work for the cool kids! Even US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is a fan. “You might not agree with it, but you are getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials,” she said of Al Jazeera in a Washington Post article.

Almost everyone I speak to – ordering my breakfast, buying a local sim card and booking to see Lady Gaga – knows who we are. A group of Americans I get chatting to in a phone shop recognise me from my reporting in Cairo during the Egypt uprising and want to know every minute detail of our time there and how we functioned, and of Qatar and what it is like to work for the “amazing Al Jazeera”. When they left, they thanked me for the impact our work has had on the world.

Three years ago it was hard to book a politician to come to our studios. Now everyone wants to talk to us. Senators – current and former – and top military men all want their views known. Republicans, Democrats, even Tea Partiers, are all keen to have us as their mouthpiece now.

Just the other day, the Libyan ambassador to the US was very emotional when he broke from the Libyan regime live on air. With any luck the momentum will get us more carriage in the United States. Hostility, fear and the Jewish lobby restricted us to a few outlets brave enough to show us, but nearly half our followers on line are from Stateside. We know that Barack Obama had his telly tuned to Al Jazeera to watch our coverage of Egypt (alongside CNN).

And clearly there is an appetite – as big and hearty as a full American breakfast – for us. As Hillary Clinton said: “Like it or hate it, it really is effective.”

Abdul Rashid Agwan

Islam and Muslims have almost become synonyms of terrorism since 9/11. The fundamentalist Christians led by the Bush administration, rightist organizations in Europe, India and elsewhere and the media, all united to generally dub Muslims as ‘terrorists’ or at least spawn suspicion thereof. Even many Muslim intellectuals, liberal thinkers, community leaders, policymakers have accepted the pretext seriously and have put on apologetic postures in response. Almost like an archaic proverb the myth got circulated around the world that ‘“All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims”. However, the facts that are slowly coming to light say a different story.

Danio, an independent researcher and blogger of www.loonwatch.com, gathered extensive data on terrorist events in the USA and derived from the store of the facts that “only 6% of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 1980 to 2005 were carried out by Islamic extremists. The remaining 94% were from other groups (42% from Latinos, 24% from extreme left wing groups, 7% from extremist Jews, 5% from communists, and 16% from all other groups).”

He also collated data regarding terrorist events in Europe while relying on EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report for 2007, 2008 and 2009. He concludes, “The results are stark, and prove decisively that not all terrorists are Muslims. In fact, a whopping 99.6% of terrorist attacks in Europe were by non-Muslim groups; a good 84.8% of attacks were from separatist groups completely unrelated to Islam. Leftist groups accounted for over sixteen times as much terrorism as radical Islamic groups. Only a measly 0.4% of terrorist attacks from 2007 to 2009 could be attributed to extremist Muslims.”

The report of 2006 includes total 498 events; of which, only one in Germany could be alleged as ‘Islamist’, the major blame went to the European separatist groups who were found involved in as many as 424 terrorist incidents. In 2007, the number of total such events recorded in the report to be 583 of which one in Denmark could be labeled as ‘Islamist’. The following year there was only one ‘Islamist attack’ in the UK in 2008 which is almost negligible among the total 515 incidents in the continent.

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AL JAZEERA: FROM ‘TERRORISTS’ TO ‘COOL KIDS IS THE US REALLY LOSING THE INFORMATION WAR, AS HILLARY CLINTON CLAIMS, AND HOW CAN IT FIGHT BACK?

Photo by Getty

“I log onto Al Jazeera every morning – you guys rock!” This was no news junkie; this was Christopher, a fantastic salesman at a clothes store in central Washington. He tells me Al Jazeera is the first thing he reads on his Blackberry, and it is his first source for news. He loves us. And so do all his friends.

What a change from when I came here three years ago! Back then virtually nobody had heard of us. Out of those who did, one tried to bomb our offices several years ago. George W Bush and his gang suspected we were propagators of anti-American propaganda. And the other, a taxi driver, said: “You were them guys Bush tried to take out; I know about you!” He was dead impressed there was a representative of a ‘terror network’ in his cab.

Before I felt like people here really thought I was Osama bin Laden’s mouthpiece. Now I feel like I work for the cool kids! Even US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is a fan. “You might not agree with it, but you are getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials,” she said of Al Jazeera in a Washington Post article.

Almost everyone I speak to – ordering my breakfast, buying a local sim card and booking to see Lady Gaga – knows who we are. A group of Americans I get chatting to in a phone shop recognise me from my reporting in Cairo during the Egypt uprising and want to know every minute detail of our time there and how we functioned, and of Qatar and what it is like to work for the “amazing Al Jazeera”. When they left, they thanked me for the impact our work has had on the world.

Three years ago it was hard to book a politician to come to our studios. Now everyone wants to talk to us. Senators – current and former – and top military men all want their views known. Republicans, Democrats, even Tea Partiers, are all keen to have us as their mouthpiece now.

Just the other day, the Libyan ambassador to the US was very emotional when he broke from the Libyan regime live on air. With any luck the momentum will get us more carriage in the United States. Hostility, fear and the Jewish lobby restricted us to a few outlets brave enough to show us, but nearly half our followers on line are from Stateside. We know that Barack Obama had his telly tuned to Al Jazeera to watch our coverage of Egypt (alongside CNN).

And clearly there is an appetite – as big and hearty as a full American breakfast – for us. As Hillary Clinton said: “Like it or hate it, it really is effective.”

Abdul Rashid Agwan

Islam and Muslims have almost become synonyms of terrorism since 9/11. The fundamentalist Christians led by the Bush administration, rightist organizations in Europe, India and elsewhere and the media, all united to generally dub Muslims as ‘terrorists’ or at least spawn suspicion thereof. Even many Muslim intellectuals, liberal thinkers, community leaders, policymakers have accepted the pretext seriously and have put on apologetic postures in response. Almost like an archaic proverb the myth got circulated around the world that ‘“All Muslims are not terrorists but all terrorists are Muslims”. However, the facts that are slowly coming to light say a different story.

Danio, an independent researcher and blogger of www.loonwatch.com, gathered extensive data on terrorist events in the USA and derived from the store of the facts that “only 6% of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 1980 to 2005 were carried out by Islamic extremists. The remaining 94% were from other groups (42% from Latinos, 24% from extreme left wing groups, 7% from extremist Jews, 5% from communists, and 16% from all other groups).”

He also collated data regarding terrorist events in Europe while relying on EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report for 2007, 2008 and 2009. He concludes, “The results are stark, and prove decisively that not all terrorists are Muslims. In fact, a whopping 99.6% of terrorist attacks in Europe were by non-Muslim groups; a good 84.8% of attacks were from separatist groups completely unrelated to Islam. Leftist groups accounted for over sixteen times as much terrorism as radical Islamic groups. Only a measly 0.4% of terrorist attacks from 2007 to 2009 could be attributed to extremist Muslims.”

The report of 2006 includes total 498 events; of which, only one in Germany could be alleged as ‘Islamist’, the major blame went to the European separatist groups who were found involved in as many as 424 terrorist incidents. In 2007, the number of total such events recorded in the report to be 583 of which one in Denmark could be labeled as ‘Islamist’. The following year there was only one ‘Islamist attack’ in the UK in 2008 which is almost negligible among the total 515 incidents in the continent.

READMORE  Al Jazeera: From ‘terrorists’ to ‘cool kids Is the US really losing the information war, as Hillary Clinton claims, and how can it fight back?