Press Statement: February 26, 2006

Racist cartoons against Prophet Mohammed are a deliberate conspiracy
of the imperialists to denigrate the Muslim community!

The so-called crusaders of free press are only apologists of neo-colonialism!!


The Central Committee, CPI (Maoist), condemns the publication of the racist cartoons caricaturing the holy symbol of the Muslim community — Prophet Mohammed — by the Western media which is nothing but a sinister design of the imperialists led by George Bush to create a so-called civilisational clash between what they portray as “archaic and medieval” Muslim culture and “Western values” that are supposed to promote democracy.

The publication of the racist cartoons caricaturing Prophet Mohammed, first by Jyllands-Posten of Denmark, and later by several papers in the West, is neither accidental nor has any relation to so-called freedom of speech and free press. It is not just the Right-wing section of the media and the rulers that have been chanting the mantra of freedom of speech but even the Liberals and some civil liberties activists of the West too joined the chorus overlooking the sinister designs of the imperialists.

The popular fury that is vent out on the streets across the world by the Muslim masses is not just the result of the cartoons though it served as a flash point. Imperialism led by the 21st century Hitler, George Bush, has been demonizing the Muslim symbols; launching wars of aggression on Islamic countries as in Afghanistan and Iraq; threatening to invade or destroy Iran, Syria, Libya etc.; and endorsing every act of terrorism perpetrated by the Israeli Zionist racist regime on the Palestinians and other Arab countries. The heartrending agony suffered by the Muslims ever since the brutal campaign unleashed by the imperialist marauders led by George Bush in the name of a permanent and global war against terror, using the 9/11 incidents as a pretext, is indescribable. The savage bombings, indiscriminate arrests, blood-chilling torture of the detainees, as revealed by the horrifying photos and videos of Abu Ghraib; the denial of legal and human rights to Muslim prisoners held without trial for almost five years by the criminal Bush administration in the concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay and the terrible conditions prevalent there as revealed by the latest report of the UN Commission on Human Rights which recommended its immediate closure; the repeated humiliation of the Muslim citizens through surveillance and interrogation in the US and European countries; derogatory acts such as trampling upon and even urinating upon the Muslim holy book of Koran; the portrayal of Muslims as villains and barbarians by numerous films, novels and the Western media; and several such racist acts have made the Muslims furious and alienated. No wonder, more and more Muslims are pushed into the fold of religious fundamentalism and are willingly volunteering to join the so-called terrorists thanks to the global terror unleashed by George Bush.

Thus it is due to such historical and cultural factors, that the racist cartoons became the focal point for letting out the anger, disgust and agony felt by hundreds of millions of Muslims against the violence, oppression and exploitation perpetrated by the imperialists and their global corporations in their insatiable thirst for oil, rubber, diamonds and super profits.

The western media continues to sprinkle salt on the wound by republishing the controversial racist cartoons of the Danish press in several newspapers in France, Germany, the US, Australia and so on. The so-called liberals and advocates of free speech and free press maintain a criminal silence at the repulsive, repugnant, brutal tortures inflicted by the mercenaries of Bush, Blair and Co. in Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo Bay, and in numerous concentration camps maintained by the US and its allies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey and even within the US. Nor are they concerned about the massacres that are being perpetrated in Falluja, Baghdad, Samara, and so on. For them, tortures, massacres, rape of women, destruction of towns and houses by missile attacks, and inhuman economic sanctions causing deaths of millions of Muslim people, including women and children, never become issues. There is no outrage, no crying foul, no tears shed for the victims of such abuse and violence perpetrated by the world’s so-called democracies. The horrifying, blood-chilling photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib that would put even a Hitler to shame draw no protests or condemnation of the perpetrators of these crimes seated in the White Hose and Downing Street. Why wouldn’t these self-styled champions of fundamental rights speak of the fundamental rights of prisoners in the torture chambers of Abu Ghraib and elsewhere? It is clear that the so-called freedom of speech and press is a sham and what these hypocrites and frauds, masked as liberals and democrats, mean is freedom for publishing overtly racist, anti-Muslim, provocative and derogatory literature while censoring the inhuman, savage and criminal deeds of imperialism led by butcher Bush.

The ruling regime in Denmark led by the Centre-Right coalition of Rasmussen, has racist constituents such as the rabidly anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party and the Conservative People’s Party. Obviously, it has allowed the publication of the cartoons with malafide intent to make the Muslims the scapegoats for the ills of Danish society and to tighten the immigration laws to prevent the flow of more people from the Muslim world into their country. In fact, Rasmussen’s coalition came to power with the slogan of tax freeze and strict restrictions on immigration. The racist face of this supposedly liberal regime in Denmark can also be seen from the fact that it has denied the Muslims the right to build mosques in Copenhagen or cemeteries in Denmark. It is with the same intent of whipping up anti-Muslim passions and thereby divert the people from the real issues confronting them that the ruling regimes in other imperialist countries too allowed the republication of the cartoons.

George Bush, as expected, defended the publication of the cartoons in the name of free a press. This international terrorist who cares a damn for international public opinion, rejects the Geneva Convention as inapplicable to his soldiers found guilty of the worst war crimes in history, maintains prisoners without trial for years without end, derives vicarious pleasure as his mercenaries inflict cruel torture on hapless prisoners, considers the UN Commission’s report regarding the conditions of 500-odd prisoners in the hell-hole of Guantanamo Bay as unacceptable, has become a crusader of freedom of expression and free press!!

The CC, CPI(Maoist), calls upon the people of India to fight shoulder to shoulder with their Muslim brethren against the sinister designs of the imperialists led by George Bush to whip up racist, anti-Muslim sentiments, their attempts to portray Islam with terrorism and thereby achieve their aim of plundering the resources of the Islamic countries through wars of aggression. It is only by waging uncompromising war to wipe out the racist imperialist oppressors and plunderers from the world that genuine democracy, freedom, equality and self-respect of nations, religions and all communities can be protected.


Azad,
Spokesperson,
Central Committee, CPI(Maoist)
26 February 2006


[Reprinted from People’s March, Vol. 7, No. 4, April, 2006.]





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