-♻RetweetBanning Hizballah TV in America
Sun, Dec 19, 2004 at 2:54:49 pm PST
Here’s a good backgrounder on Al-Manar, the official propaganda mouthpiece of Hizballah, recently added to the US government’s Terrorism Exclusion List: Banning Hizballah TV in America. (Hat tip: SoCalJustice.)
The listing of Al-Manar on the TEL is a step that should have been taken long ago; as this article points out, Hizballah has been responsible for more American deaths than any other Islamic terror group besides Al Qaeda. This section describes the kind of hate speech and poisonous incitement that’s been broadcast for years to Arab communities in America:
According to one official in al-Manar’s Art Graphic Department, al-Manar’s music videos are meant to “help people on the way to committing what you call in the West a suicide mission. [They are] meant to be the first step in the process of a freedom fighter operation.”
The United States has been a primary target of al-Manar programming and is depicted as a global oppressor. In a speech broadcast on al-Manar, Hizballah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah stated, “Our enmity to the Great Satan is complete and unlimited. . . . Our echoing slogan will remain: Death to America!” One video features an altered image of the Statue of Liberty. The statue’s head has been transformed into a skull with hollow eyes, her gown dripping in blood. Instead of a torch, she holds a sharp knife. After asserting that the United States “has pried into the affairs of most countries in the world,” the video ends with the slogan, “America owes blood to all of humanity.”
Al-Manar often juxtaposes sacred Islamic text with images of “martyrdom” to incite its viewers to support and even carry out acts of terror. In one video, Qur’anic verses are sung in somber, quiet tones and scrolled across the screen while footage in the background shows U.S. and Israeli flags being burned, demonstrators waving a “Down with U.S.A.” sign, a suicide bomber recording his valediction, victims and rescue personnel scrambling in the aftermath of a suicide bombing, and similar images.
Indeed, al-Manar takes its case for suicide operations straight to the people. Viewers are told that “the path to becoming a priest in Islam is through jihad.” Potential bombers are implored to focus their attention on the afterlife and on judgment day “instead of getting preoccupied with our lives here on earth.” Mothers are encouraged to give up their sons for God, country, and the blessings of the afterlife, to prepare them “for battle knowing that their blood will mix with the soil.” In the eyes of Hizballah, “this belief in judgment day is the most powerful weapon in the face of technology and advanced weaponry.” Such belief “drives fear into the heart of the Israeli soldier as he sits in his tank, while God guides [Hizballah’s] bullets and rockets to their targets.”
Al-Manar also encourages Iraqi insurgents to attack U.S. troops as well. One video lambastes U.S. troops in Iraq with the following lyrics: “Down with the mother of terrorism! America threatens in vain, an occupying army of invaders. Nothing remains but rifles and suicide bombers.” The video ends with an image of a suicide bomber’s belt detonating.
Frank says:
