Last Laugh

Arab world, to display an extraordinary form of loyalty.

Opportunists across the world who thrive on Islamophobia seem to have crawled out of the woodwork.

These self-styled “terror experts” are deployed across media platforms to pontificate and confuse without any regard to the causes of the attacks. Their narrative is not any different to Israel’s. This is to be expected, given that many of the so-called “think tanks” that flourish across Europe and the US are directly linked to Israel.

It’s an industry that thrives on superficial information on the “evil Islamist ideology”, which unfortunately and inevitably resonates among an uninformed public.

Voices of reason thus have difficulty in finding space in an atmosphere of fear, suspicion and uncertainty.

But these voices do exist. One of them is Alain Gresh of Le Monde Diplomatique, who correctly insists that despite heightened emotions, one has to analyse.

His analysis finds that France (along with the US) is the country most engaged militarily abroad – from Mali to Syria, from Central African Republic to Iraq.

“But its policy is incoherent and often aggravates conflict, resulting in fuelling the phenomenon it says it is fighting.”

He goes on to argue the need for additional assessment to be made of the discredited “war on terror” which was launched after 9/11 and the pertinent fact that attacks have been concentrated in Muslim countries.

Is it not unexpected therefore that people, whether linked to al-Qaeda or IS, would be convinced that they are taking part in a resistance against international aggression against Muslims, he notes.

In the final analysis, I fully concur with him that it’s time to end the occupation of Palestine and for France to drop the option of bombs.

Iqbal Jassat is an executive member of the Media Review Network, Joburg. A father was watching an international rugby match on television with his five-year-old son.

At one stage the dad leapt up and shouted furiously: “Look at that idiot! That’s the third time he’s fumbled the ball. I don’t know why they keep him in the team.”

His little son looked up sympathetically and said: “Maybe it’s his ball.”

FRANCE’S POLICY IN AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST IS INCOHERENT AND OFTEN AGGRAVATES CONFLICT, RESULTING IN FUELLING THE PHENOMENON IT SAYS IT IS FIGHTING