Death to America, Death to the Arabs

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

America is angry at certain Arab satellite channels — specifically al-Manar, al-Aqsa, al-Rafidayn, and al-Zawraa — over what it calls incitement to kill Americans, and is considering measures against the satellite owners who sell broadcast frequencies to these channels. The American House of Representatives has voted in favor of this move, and the bill is still working its way through the legislative channels. In all likelihood, a decision will be crafted to besiege these channels, and the Obama administration will move to implement it.

What disturbs America most is the slogan “Death to America,” chanted by Iranian crowds and at Hezbollah rallies, and sometimes at Hamas rallies. It is also troubled by the positions of other satellite channels because of their absolute support for Iraqi and Palestinian resistance — namely al-Rafidayn, al-Ra’y, and al-Zawraa. America considers these channels to be openly inciting the killing of Americans, thereby stirring panic and terror against Americans, threatening the lives of American soldiers in the region, and negatively affecting American interests in the Arab-Islamic region.

America considers this threat terrorism, because it threatens civilians and non-civilians alike in pursuit of political gains. By the American definition, terrorism is an attack on civilians by groups and organizations, using their pain and grief to achieve political gains. This definition conveniently excludes states, so as to exempt Israel — and America itself — from the charge of terrorism, while it makes use of a term called “state sponsors of terrorism” to accuse states that do not go along with it and do not submit to its policies. Meaning: Hezbollah, Hamas, Iraqi resistance, and Afghan resistance are terrorist organizations, while Syria, Iran, and Sudan are state sponsors of terrorism.

America is angry over a slogan that may or may not lead to the killing of Americans, yet pays no attention to the actual killing of Arabs and Muslims under the banner of democracy and freedom. America does not chant slogans against Arabs and Muslims — it speaks to them gently and deliberately, weeping over the state of freedom and democracy in their countries — but it kills them savagely with every kind of weapon, does not hesitate to test the latest products of its military arsenal on them, does not hesitate to kill innocents in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq, to besiege innocents in the Gaza Strip, and does not hesitate to support Israel in killing innocents in Lebanon and Palestine. The necks and blood of Arabs and Muslims are a fertile field for savage, barbaric American aggression — the effective American method for teaching Arabs and Muslims democracy.

If some Arabs and Muslims chant a slogan titled “Death to America,” America practices an actual, continuous aggression titled “Death to the Arab Muslims.” Americans hear the slogan against them merely as words, while we suffer the slogan against us as real action, embodied in massacres and homes demolished over the heads of their own occupants. So who, then, is the terrorist? America has been killing Arabs and Muslims for decades, either directly or through intermediaries such as Israel and certain Arab regimes. And if the Arabs once repelled that aggression, America has not stopped, and does not stop putting the sword to Arab throats. And if Arabs killed a thousand Americans, America has killed tens of thousands, indeed hundreds of thousands, directly and indirectly.

America may take measures against the owners of the satellites, and it is quite possible it will pressure them to shut down the frequencies of these channels it is angry at. But will this help America win the affection of Arabs and Muslims, and improve its image? No — the fruits will be just as rotten as the decision or the pressure itself. It will do itself further harm, and will do harm to the regimes that submit to the pressure, making them further targets for those who oppose America.

America refuses to think with its mind, and always prefers to think with its horns. This is the problem of the powerful who find no one to deter them — they grow arrogant and go too far, and in the end fall victim to their own misdeeds. America still believes it can subdue the Arab-Islamic region by force, and it is precisely this arrogance that brings it ever more trouble. People are not mere insects that only pesticide can deal with, and as long as America remains a prisoner of its own delusions, more hostility and trouble await it.

Over many long years, I have not heard a single American official speak rationally about the region, nor offer sound political analysis. Every American official praises the despotic rulers they call moderates, praises their criminal friend Israel, and calls on those they term extremists to embrace so-called rationality and moderation. I have never heard an American official stand and explain the reasons America is so hated in the region. Most of what they say amounts to an escape from the truth — claims such as that Arabs and Muslims hate freedom and democracy, or that Arabs and Muslims resent the people of the West because of their progress in various fields of life. A trivial line of reasoning aimed only at escaping the truth and justifying the wars that scorch everything green and dry across the region.

The matter is simple: if the Americans stopped supporting Israel and the despotic Arab and Islamic regimes, stopped plundering wealth and interfering in internal affairs, and stopped killing Arabs and Muslims, then those they call inciters would stop inciting.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “الموت لأمريكا، الموت للعرب” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.