We’re in danger of setting up our own witch-hunt

SENSATIONAL headlines following the arrests of Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie, as well as Ebrahim and Fatima Patel, have dominated the media over the past few weeks.

The #TerrorArrests, as they have been dubbed on social media, came a month after the US embassy issued its umpteenth terror alert warning of imminent Islamic State attacks.

Even though there are still questions about the legality of the Thulsie arrests, the word “terror” has been used freely. The South African Jewish Report claims it dubbed the Thulsies the “Terror Twins”: “a name that has stuck like glue in all media reports on the case”, writes Jewish Report journalist Ant Katz.

It comes as no surprise that the court of public opinion has already found the accused – all of whom are Muslim – guilty of being Islamic State recruits and planning attacks on American sites and Jewish cultural institutions.

There has been much speculation about Islamic State recruitment in South Africa, and around the world, but Islamic State does not have to recruit, the West does a good enough job for it.

It is the West’s support for tyrannical Arab and Israeli regimes that draws people to Islamic State. Islamic State’s use of words such as “caliphate” and “jihad”, and its Hollywood-style video clips purportedly confronting the imperial invaders, also attract marginal support from the naive.

In 2003, the South African government introduced US-inspired anti-terrorism legislation, despite warnings from civil society of the impact this would have on the Muslim community. Since then, there has been a slew of clandestine arrests and detentions of South African Muslims, in collaboration with foreign intelligence agencies, like the FBI.

Human Rights Watch and Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute report that the FBI treats Muslims like “terrorists-in-waiting”, encouraging, pressuring and sometimes paying them to commit crimes they would not have committed.

Informants trawl through Muslim communities, mosques and community centres, monitor and engage social media and talk of radical Islam to identify possible targets sympathetic to such ideals.

If suitable suspects are identified, FBI agents then run a sting, often creating a fake terror plot in which it helps supply weapons and targets.

Then dramatic arrests are made, press conferences held, terror “experts” paraded and lengthy convictions secured.

Are our authorities in South Africa headed in the same direction?

The investigating officer for the Thulsie case, Wynand Olivier, admitted in court that foreign intelligence agents prompted the Hawks to arrest the Thulsie and Patel siblings.

So desperate were the authorities to effect an arrest that even paintball guns were presented as evidence of an arms cache. Even more disturbing is Olivier’s understanding of the word “jihad”, a term that has become central to the case against the Thulsies. Olivier has admitted that no Islamic or Arabic language experts were consulted to guide the authorities on the use of the word.

The word “jihad” is actually widely used by all Muslims and refers to both individual and social battles. In fact, if the Hawks were to monitor the use of term “jihad”, every South African Muslim would qualify as a “terror” suspect. That is a day we must ensure never comes. The Muslim community is minister or chancellor or foreign secretary – not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100%.’”

She couldn’t have been more wrong, could she? Ask the coal miners. Ask the Argentinians. And now the Brits have Theresa May.

Their press has been full of comparisons and likenesses. Like Margaret before her, Theresa drags around a gawky husband who looks rather like a rabbit caught in the headlights. Denis Thatcher, by comparison, was a rather splendid old buffer.

The current photos seem to always emphasise Theresa’s May’s somewhat sinewy legs, on tottery high heels. Should a woman her age be exposed to this kind of scrutiny?

The answer surely would be trouser suits. When a woman becomes prime minister, she’s wearing the trousers anyway.

Big mozzie

THE Rio Olympics are rolling, in spite of difficulties such as mosquitoes spreading the Zika virus and allegations of firmly woven within the fabric of the South African society, a fact recognised by the government.

But if we are to retain this social harmony, the authorities must revisit the anti-terror laws we were coerced to adopt.

An independent, enlightened and prudent foreign policy will be the best way to protect us all – not a witch-hunt based on myths, stereotypes and misinformation.

Dr Osman is an executive member of the Media Review Network, a Johannesburg-based advocacy group. Find him on Twitter: @Firoz_Osman.

widespread, state-sponsored doping among Russian athletes.

Cartoonist Matt captures it in the London Daily Telegraph. A couple of scientists are looking in astonishment at a massive mosquito – about the height of two men. A Rio Games poster is on the wall.

One scientist says: “This is what happened when a mosquito bit a Russian athlete.”

Tailpiece

AN ENGLISHMAN, an Irishman, a Scotsman, a Welshman, a Gurkha, a Latvian, an American, a South African, a Cypriot, an Egyptian, a Japanese, a Mexican, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Pole, a Lithuanian, a Swede, a Finn, an Israeli, a Dane, a Romanian, a Bulgarian, a Serb, a Swiss, a Greek, a Singaporean, an Italian, a Norwegian, a Libyan and an Ethiopian go to a nightclub.

Bouncer: “Sorry, I can’t let you in without a Thai.”

Last word

Sometime they’ll give a war and nobody will come. – Carl Sandburg