April 30 2004

KurdishMedia.com - By Aram Azez

Since the US-led operation that led to the toppling of the Saddam regime, the Arab media has played a significant role in providing a one sided perception of the news. This biased reporting has had a considerable impact on opinions around the globe; therefore, there are varying views regarding the situation in Iraq. Some feel sympathy for the civilians who suffered at the hands of the Saddam regime as well as endured the harsh international economic sanctions that severely affected living standards for more than a decade. However, in the eyes of the Arab media, the recent riotous uprising of some Shias in the South and the widespread bloodshed in the so-called Sunni-Triangle are a result of the suffering brought on by the US occupation. Indeed, recent images from the explosive violence in Iraq are so disturbing and heart breaking that Western viewers find themselves terribly shocked. As usual, the Arab media have presented a distorted view, which has resulted in divided opinions. This has led to severe doubt as to whether the US-led coalition has any right to use force to subdue the Shia uprising or expose the innocent citizens of Fallujah to a military assault to root out the insurgents that have taken shelter in their city.

As the unrest and instability in Iraq continues, it appears many citizens of the West do not view the Iraqi civilians as victims. This lack of sympathy can be attributed to the influence of the Arab media. Media agencies such as Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya have a documented history of obscuring the real picture. Indeed, many experts and politicians in the region disapprove of the viewpoint taken by the Arab media regarding Iraq. According to Addustour Newspaper, the National Security Chancellor, Muwafaq al-Rubaii has recently threatened to close some Arab media outlets and stop their work in Iraq for misleading the masses, pushing sectarian conflict and distorting the truth. In fact, the Iraqi Governing Council has several times banned Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya for twisting the news and provoking trouble in Iraq. The Arab media has always been cheap, and never really dealt with the reality. They have always tried to promote death, killing, and violence but have never been fair about other nations; therefore, others have never looked at the Arab media with respect either, said Nizamaddin Glee, former Governor of Kerkuk City. However, according to these media outlets, the demands of the Arab-Islamic cause are clear: the end of the US occupation and immediate control of the country to be placed into the hands of the Iraqis themselves. The coalition forces are seen as conquerors and nonbelievers by the Arab-Muslim cause and are the root of their distress. They are seen as no longer possessing the right to stay in a country they liberated from tyranny. Fair enough. Kurds also agree with both the civilized Western view and, naturally, with the Arabs legal and religious convictions. However, the Kurds also have their own opinion regarding the current situation in Iraq.

From the Kurds point of view, the Americans and their allies rid the region of its worst tyrant. The US-led coalition did cause some damage and destruction during the course of the war but is now in the process of rebuilding and bringing not only democracy but freedom, knowledge, and technology to a country that had never witnessed such progress over the past 83 years of Arabic rule. During this period, instead of democracy, the regimes of Iraq and Syria conquered Kurdistan, stolen its prosperity, destroyed its inhabited sites, and left its people in poverty. These two Arab governments sold Kurdish oil and used its revenues to oppress and terrorize the Kurds. During the late 80s and early 90s, the Iraqi regime destroyed 4500 Kurdish villages, gassed civilians, and buried tens of thousands of Kurdish men, women, and children alive. The Iraqi regime even burned mosques and the Koran (the Muslim holy book) but not a single Arab media outlet, or a Western one for that matter, reported these events. It would appear that unless they had an interest in the situation, mentioning the atrocities and suffering of the Kurdish people at the hands of the Iraqis and Syrians was not deemed newsworthy.

As for the current unrest in Iraq, Kurds sympathize wholeheartedly with the children and innocents of Fallujah who have been under attack by US forces for the past several weeks. As a people who have had first hand experiences with such situations as a result of unmerciful military attacks for decades, Kurds empathize on a level that most cannot. The images of the brutal assault of Fallujah by US troops, the malicious killing of four American civilian contractors whose corpses were then mutilated, and the terrifying video of three Japanese civilians kidnapped by a mob in the South. These images reflect the horrifying Kurdish history for the last 83 years in Iraq. In stark contrast to the disturbing events and images the Arab media are now over saturating the airwaves with in order to validate the Arab-Islam cause, they virtually ignored each and every Kurdish massacre. If any coverage was given it was of indistinct vision and dimmed reality.

While watching the news a couple of weeks ago, tears rolled down my cheeks as memories took me back to the terrifying days of my childhood when I witnessed the suffering of the Kurds at the hands of Iraqi soldiers and secret police. The frenzied chants of Allah-u-Akbar (God the Greatest) from the mob that had burned and mutilated the bodies of the American contractors in Fallujah reminded me of the Iraqi soldiers who, for decades, slit the throats of innocent Kurds and dragged their lifeless bodies behind Iraqi tanks in the most humiliating way. After wiping my tears, I changed the channel from Al-Jazeera to CNN, which was also covering the disturbing event in Fallujah. After watching the Western point of view I once again changed stations, this time to a Kurdish channel that gave me a greater perspective. It made me wish to ask Al-Jazzera Are you proud of the distorted news you have presented? News that is geared towards convincing your Arab viewers what a brave nation they have? Sending the message to the world that any occupying force will face the same humiliation? But has any Arab even bothered to think of how viciously the people of Kurdistan were treated by Syria and Iraq? Is it not obvious to those Arabs that while Syrian and Iraqi troops were in Kurdistan they themselves were occupiers in a region where not only the language and culture are different but the mountainous geography is in stark contrast to the desert climate in which they live? To CNN, I wished to ask Is your agenda to only expose this material to the so-called civilized West as a way to validate a stereotype that Arabs and Muslims are crazed fanatics? Where were the outraged Western media reports for the past 83 years when the now defunct Arab Baath Socialist Party of imprisoned Saddam, gassed, tortured, and massacred countless Kurds and grossly violated human rights in Iraq? Just a few weeks ago the Syrian Baath Party massacred dozens of Kurds, filled its prisons to capacity with peaceful Kurdish protesters, tortured and murdered many of them while in custody, and with the exception of Amnesty International neither Al-Jazeera nor CNN focused their cameras on these events.

The Arab and Islamic worldview is that the US Forces are occupiers and thus the riotous Islamic fundamentalist mobs of the South and the Baath elements near the governorate of Al-Ramadi have a right to fight the enemy. The US Forces may indeed have a legitimate reason for attacking the Sunni Triangle for the area itself has become a vicious place inhabited by those who had, until the fall of Saddam’s regime, terrorized the citizens of Iraq. But now, in the eyes of the Arab media, they have become freedom fighters. These rebels have now created a safe haven for Arabic and Islamic terrorist organizations in Fallujah and have frequently attacked coalition forces and, in some cases, even civilians. Arab media outlets are trying to obscure the reality of the situation in order to perpetuate the misconception to their viewers that their Arab brethren are under immense pressure from the US-led occupation. For their part, Western media reporting from such stations as CNN present the recent images from Iraq as validation that Arabs and Muslims are barbarians, further polarizing the so-called civilized world from the Middle East. However, Kurds have their own unique opinion and possess the right to ask both the Arab-Muslim and Western media: How have the Kurds lived under this sort of occupation for the past 83 years?

Aram Azezl

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