(See also Prof. Diana Ralph's article: Islamophobia and the "War on Terror": the Continuing Pretext for U.S. Imperial Conquest. -rep.)

http://www.smearcasting.com/index.html

Smearcasting documents the public writings and appearances of Islamophobic activists and pundits who intentionally and regularly spread fear, bigotry and misinformation in the media. Offering a fresh look at Islamophobia and its perpetrators in today’s media, it also provides four snapshots, or case studies, describing how Islamophobes manipulate media in order to paint Muslims with a broad, hateful brush. (download full report - 325kb)

Making Islamophobia Mainstream
How Muslim-bashers broadcast their bigotry

A remarkable thing happened at the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) nominations in February 2007: The normally highbrow and tolerant group nominated for best book in the field of criticism a book widely viewed as denigrating an entire religious group.

Edit: Originally titled: "RNC exploits 9/11 footage at Convention for political points" -- the video below makes that title pretty useless.

(Keith Olbermann rolled the tape on MSNBC last night. It's worse than the report below suggests. This is 100% bona fide Islamophobic propaganda. Try to tough it out to Olbermann's comments at the end, but don't say I didn't warn you, this is total fear-mongering garbage. -rep.)

The death of a taboo

September 4, 2008

ST. PAUL -- One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.

(Seven Stories Press of New York is publishing an affordable softcover version of the invaluable scholarly volume, The Hidden History of 9-11. Here is their page dedicated to this updated second edition. To promote the book, Seven Stories has allowed us to publish an online version of the chapter by Professor Diana Ralph, dealing with the historical roots of "international terrorism", Islamophobia, and imperial aggression. This chapter is typical of the scholarly detail in "Hidden History". If you enjoy this chapter, please consider pre-ordering at Amazon, or Powell's, or ordering directly from the Seven Stories website. Anyone interested in purchasing a bulk quantity should email Lars: lars@sevenstories.com )

…the War against Terror is not really about terror….It’s about a superpower’s self destructive impulse toward supremacy, stranglehold, global hegemony. (Arundathi Roy, 2004, p. 34).

Researchers are uncovering extensive, credible evidence that the official account of the 9-11 attacks is untenable. Although al Qaeda may have had the resources to get hijackers onto planes with box cutters, it did not have the power to shut down FBI investigations of the suspected hijackers, to set up distracting war games on 9-11-01, to issue stand-down orders preventing effective military response, or to cause two WTC towers plus Building 7 to collapse using demolition explosives (Griffin, 2004; 2005). Western intelligence knew about the 9-11 attack plans as early as 1995, and may have facilitated and exploited them for their own ends. Some suggest that the U.S. may even have directly planned and carried them out flying the planes by remote control.¹ Regardless of whether it simply facilitated the attacks or carried them out themselves, there is little doubt that the U.S. was involved (Ahmed, 2002, pp. 82-83).

If this is true, we need to ask, why would U.S. leaders risk such a colossal crime against the American people? What was the motive? What is the real agenda behind the “war on terror”? Is the security of Western (non-Muslim) people really threatened by Muslim fundamentalists, or have Muslims just replaced “communists” in the role of “enemy”?

This chapter explores the real motives and the Islamophobic cover story which underly the U.S. “war on terror”. It focuses on the inter-twined histories of Dick Cheney’s plan for world control and Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign for a “war on terror” against those critical of Israel and the United States. The “war on terror” distorts the concepts of “terrorism” and “security” in order to frighten Americans into sacrificing their actual security and into colluding in an unprecedented imperial campaign for world control. It poses a false dichotomy between “radical” and “moderate” Muslims, demonizing them when it is convenient for Western powers, and rewarding them as “moderates” when they serve Western interests, regardless of their actual ideologies or practices. Both for Muslims worldwide and those living in Western countries, the consequences have been catastrophic.