Rumor and Reality of War

Articles in Turkey's Islamist newspaper Yeni Safak reported thousands of rapes by US Troops in Iraq. According to a Boston Globe article about this, these wildly exaggerated allegations have fanned opposition here to the US invasion of Iraq to anger -- and even, apparently, to acts of terror.

Nurullah Kuncak says his father, Ilyas Kuncak, was boiling about the rumored rapes just before he killed himself delivering the huge car bomb that destroyed the Turkish headquarters of HSBC bank this winter, killing a dozen people and wounding scores more. "Until now, I agreed with the Western idea that suicide bombers were poor people with nothing to lose," Nurullah Kuncak said. "But look at my father. He had two houses, a good shop, five children, and two grandchildren."

The US Embassy in Ankara strongly denounced the Yeni Safak allegations, calling them "outrageous allegations . . . based on a US `source' best known for her pornographic websites and erotic television program.” Bizarrely, this source, a Ms. Block, is a California-based sex therapist who has a doctorate in philosophy. She says Yeni Safak apparently drew erroneously on an article she published on the Internet titled "Rape of Iraq."

"I am a sex therapist and I use sexual terminology for political commentary," said Dr. Block. "I did not say American troops are literally raping Iraqi women. . . . I don't know if Americans are raping Iraqi women. I do know they are killing them. I don't know if that's much better." She said it is clear that she was using "rape" as a metaphor for "invasion."

The Embassy stated, “We believe it is irresponsible for a serious newspaper to present such false claims from a clearly unreliable source on its front page as if they were fact.” However, though Kursat Bumin, a prominent writer and critic for Yeni Safak, wrote an opinion page article in the newspaper agreeing that the reports were "without any foundation, without any basis," the publication's executives did not respond either to the official US complaint or to inquiries from the Globe. Foreign editor Ibrahim Karagul said that he and the editor in chief of the publication had decided not to talk about the reports.

This is just one example of a world-wide problem, the reporting of allegations as fact. Sensational tabloid journalism is widespread in Turkey—but of course also in the USA. As one tabloid journalist told me yesterday, these journalists depict their stories not in the many shades of gray of the actual situation but in black and white. That is, they simplify. It is only a half step from this approach to cartoonish propanganda. This is not a model that Muslims should follow!

There is much to upset us in the news, yet we need to keep cool heads. Those who lose their heads and take violent action in the name or religion (or in the name of national security) let emotions lead them, as they are unbalanced people usually manipulated by others. Then we hear another report of civilians killed, on the Moscow subway, in the streets of Barcelona or Bogota, in Iraq, in Tel Aviv. Recently a bystander in Tel Aviv spoke about the aftermath of a suicide bombing when two old people’s heads landed at his feet.

Heads should roll but not in this way. Irresponsible journalists of all stripes need to be called to task. Yesterday at a Jewish-Muslim series of workshops, one workshop I co-facilitated concerned the depiction of Jews and Christians in Islamic textbooks. Indeed, there is a problem with balance in these texts, and instead of presenting a range of opinion throughout Muslim history the Muslim writers simply present one negative opinion as monolithic “Islamic” point of view. Yes there are some problems in our textbooks for us to fix, though we do not like others to criticize or take out of context.

Still the journalist admitted that the basis for the article had been from the Daily News editorial board (for political reasons) and that the editors also shaped the article to be much more “black and while” and harshly critical of our textbooks. In short, information was manipulated. Sounds familiar?

From President Bush and Prime Minister Blair to the Daily News (headed by rabidly Zionist Mortimer Zuckerman) and a thousand other presses near and far, manipulation of data has become a devilish art. But though one could buy the minds of the people in the short run, we need to stay with Truth, question everything, especially those reports we somehow want to believe. If I am against the war, I may want to believe about the rapes. If I am for the war, I (like Cheney even now!) may want to believe there are weapons of mass destruction. Propaganda tells us what we want to hear.

The appointment of Lawrence Silberman to co-chair the new Iraq Intelligence panel is a cynical ploy that seems to promise much future propaganda. President Bush has truly chosen one of his thugs—a man involved in Iran Contra, the Kenneth Starr conspiracy against President Clinton, even apparently the October Surprise that is said to have stolen the election from President Carter.

Note I qualified this as “said to have stolen.” To be responsible we need to weigh the evidence and acknowledge how much there is. We like rhetoric but we must measure our words. Currently in PakNews there is an article saying that what is happening to Muslims in the US and Canada is the same as what happened to the Jews in Germany. This is overstated of course— but why not make the point with more accuracy? In this internet world metaphors by sex therapists in California may end up misunderstood in Istanbul. Rhetoric in Khotba or in the news, even here in my column, may warm our hearts—or inflame them. For our heads we need the Truth, and critical thinking.