US Congresswoman Ms Gabby Giffords was shot in the head while speaking at a public event in Tucson, Arizona on January 8, 2011. About 19 people were shot in that incident. A Federal Judge Justice John M Roll was also killed. According to witnesses, the gunman who opened fire at Gabrielle Giffords and Judge John Roll was a white male in his early 20s named Jared Lee Loughner. But nobody in the western media mentioned his religion, nationality and race nor did anyone called him terrorist or Christian-Taliban. Media mentions that Loughner was clean-shaven, short-haired and wearing dark clothes but it didnt term the incident as terrorism. Was it because the man with clean shave and short hairs didnt fulfil the criteria of a terrorist?
Some days ago when the Governor of Punjab in Pakistan was assassinated in a similar way, the western media highlighted the event as an Islamist fundamentalist terrorism act, calling Pakistan the epicentre of terrorism and an intolerant society. Most ironically, this society is fighting the worlds biggest ever long and dangerous war against terrorism that has saved not only America but also the rest of the Western world that too at the cost of more than 3,000 soldiers and officers of its army, and more than 10,000 civilian lives.
Look at their bias in Senator Gabby Giffords case or Oklahoma bombing case, they dont term it terrorism. There have repeatedly been incidents of mass killings in schools and public places that are motivated by blockbuster movies. There had been shooting in the military garrison where a US army Major killed his uniformed colleagues out of frustration of sending him to war in Afghanistan. In all these incidents no Muslim was involved and all the perpetrators were white American Christian educated members of the civilised world.
Thus, Pakistan is not a solitary country where people are not happy with government, such realities and feeling of demoralisation exist everywhere and extremists are vulnerable wherever they exist.
In reality terrorism has increased since we have joined war on terror. The more the drones attack, the more it causes flourishing of terror. The more the operations we have had started following US policies, the more extremism has grown. Militants have grown further. The WoT has created more radicalisation in our society. The discredit goes to the Christian dominant media that has skilfully portrayed and linked up religion to extremism making Islam a synonym of terrorism.
MAIMUNA ASHRAF
Rawalpindi
