CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Press Release
September 20, 2012
Condemn US Cultural Imperialism Hurting
Religious Sentiments of the Muslims Worldwide
A video film named ‘Innocence of Muslims’ made in the
USA by a team of anti-Muslim reactionary Christian religious jingoists and made
available on various video-sharing sites in the Web hurt the religious
sentiments of the Muslims worldwide by insulting the Prophet. This led to
massive protests by Muslims all over the world cutting across regions starting
from Libya, Tunisia and spreading to Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Kashmir to India, and particularly in North Africa, West Asia and
the Arab World. The CC, CPI (Maoist) is strongly condemning this cultural
onslaught of the US imperialists on the religious sentiments of the Muslims and
demands unconditional apology from the US government and makers of the film to
the Muslims all over the world.
Since 9/11, the US imperialism has been increasingly
targeting the Muslims all over the world in the name of so-called ‘War on
Terror’ and this offensive has not only been in the political, military and
economic spheres but also in social and cultural spheres. This cultural
imperialism of the US and its allies ranges from rabid Christian religious
chauvinism and the horrors of the Abu Ghraib type tortures to insulting the
Prophet and the Quran and other religious symbols of Muslims in cartoons and
films in the name of freedom of expression. This cultural onslaught is aimed at
maiming the psyche of the Muslims and making them feel inferior so that they
would not resist the imperialist aggression and raise against the atrocities
committed on them as part of the so-called ‘War on Terror’. But the US imperialists
gravely miscalculated. Every insult that is being intended to break the Muslims
is boomeranging into a massive protest. Accordingly, the above film has given
rise to the biggest protests the world has ever witnessed over a cultural issue
ranging from huge demonstrations, protest marches, destruction and burning US
flags, property and other symbols to attacks on US embassies and killing of
their diplomats.
One must understand that this unprecedented pouring of
anger is not just in response to the insulting of the Prophet, but is also part
of the pent up hatred against all kinds of atrocities committed by the US
imperialists on the Muslim population, particularly in Iraq, Afghanistan and
Pakistan and its blatant support to the atrocities on Palestinians by the
Zionist Israel. These protests should be seen in a broad sense as part of the
anti-imperialist struggles being waged by the people all over the world in all
spheres including culture and not just as protests by a religious community
concerning an exclusively religious issue. The wars of aggression US and NATO
waged to occupy the countries and grab oil resources in the gulf region and the neo-colonial exploitation and plunder of the
resource rich Arab and North African countries are the main reason behind the
hatred for the US. This assumed religious tones chiefly due to the premeditated
and deliberate anti-Islam propaganda and measures taken by the US to break the
resistance of the overwhelmingly Muslim majority population in these countries.
The comprador ruling classes in power in the countries
where these protests are raging, true to their character, are trying to
suppress the protestors with bullets, tear gas, lathi charges, and arrests.
Since decades these ruling classes have been running dogs of the imperialists
on the one hand and on the other die-hard dictators over their own people. Even
as US drones are pounding the Afghan villages and killings innocent people on a
daily basis and the entire Muslim world is erupting in protest against the US
cultural onslaught in the form of this film, Karzai is issuing statements that
the ‘War on Terror’ must go on and pleading with Obama not to wage this war in
Afghan villages. Such puppets are equally responsible for the innumerable
atrocities being committed on the Muslims all over the world by the
imperialists. They will never uphold the dignity of the Muslim people in the
face of such cultural onslaughts and would instead suppress them. It is for the
people to expose the true faces of these collaborators.
Stunned by the scale of protests the US government belatedly
spent more than 70,000 dollars on advertisements featuring Obama and Hillary
Clinton giving messages that US had always respected all religious faiths in a
futile attempt to stem the torrent of anger. In the first place, the film was
not made by some individual due to his whims and fancies. It is but an integral
part of the entire gamut of anti-Islam propaganda that the US government and
its allies have sponsored, supported and encouraged overtly and covertly as
part of the ‘War on Terror’. It is but the current instance of a series of intentional
acts to insult like the burning of the Quran in Afghanistan by US soldiers. If
not for this backdrop, such films would not have been so easily made nor found
their way to release.
Taking into consideration the huge surveillance system
of the US government, believing that the US government was ignorant about the
making of this film or its release would at best be innocence and at worst pure
deception of self. Even after massive protests the US government has still not
taken any steps to arrest the filmmakers, to stop its release or cared to issue
an apology to the Muslims. It is trying to buy time and deceive people by
issuing namesake and vague condemnations and statements about respecting all
religious faiths. History bears witness to the opposite. Moreover it is sending
its troops directly into countries like Libya violating their sovereignty on
the pretext of protecting its citizens from the protestors.
The Muslim population is not so inexperienced with the
malicious tricks of the US imperialism so as not to see through the ruse and
that is why with each passing day peaceful as well as violent protests are
erupting all over the world against the US and its Western allies. The irresponsible
and callous attitude of the Western imperialists, the imperialist era Neros,
towards Muslim religious sentiments can be gauged from the fact that even as
the world is burning over the film, a magazine published 20 cartoons insulting
the Prophet in France and it close down its embassies in 20 countries as a
forewarning. With leaders like Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon with a reputation
for having successfully resisted a US-backed Israeli invasion of Lebanon and
having anti-imperialist credentials calling for fresh and wide protests against
the insulting of the Prophet, the world is witnessing fresh waves of protests.
Every secular-minded person and democrat must
participate in these protests and condemn the cultural imperialism of the US
and the European imperialists particularly targeting the followers of Islam. Hurting
religious sentiments is but one part of this cultural imperialism. The various
other tentacles of this cultural imperialist octopus that is trying to strangle
the native culture (languages, dialects, eating habits, attire, housing – what
not?) in Asia, Africa and Latin American countries must be exposed as part of
the protests. Along with demanding an unconditional apology from the US
government and the film makers, these protests must turn into broad
anti-imperialist struggles, particularly against the US imperialism that is
targeting the Muslims in the third world to further its geo-political interests
and to grab the oil and other natural resources of those countries.
(Abhay)
Spokesperson,
Central Committee, CPI (Maoist)
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