Saturday, December 03, 2016

Did the Syrian regime "create" Salafite Jihadism? Did the Jordanian regime "create" Salafite Jihadism?

Of course the answer is complicated and is certainly beyond the comprehension of the Daily Beast but this can be said: of course they were not created by regime but were used and manipulated by the Syrian regime (especially after 2003 US invasion of Iraq, although the manipulation fluctuated between repression of those groups and facilitation of their move into Iraq).  But this is what curious about Western media propaganda talking point about the subject: there is no regime in the region which has used and manipulated Islamists and particularly Salafite Jihads more than the Jordanian regime and yet: let me know if you can find ONE article in any Western media about Jordanian regime manipulation and sponsorship of those groups.  As you know, King Khusayn (as Shimon Peres called his dear friend) personally appeared on television and talked about his role in sponsoring Syrian Islamists during the 70s and 80s.  Today, the key ideologues of the ISIS and Al-Qa`idah are safe and sound in Jordan and the regime in fact facilitates their political activities when it suits its interests. But that is never ever in Western media. When it comes to the Middle East (and ever since the Syrian war) this is propaganda time.  No sober or rational analysis is welcome in Western media and to some degree in Western academia.  Read here about the recent activities of the chief of ideologue of Jihadi terrorism, Abu Muhammad Al-Maqdisi.  So those groups were not created by any regime per se as they rose in a context in which the left and Arab nationalists failed, and Sadat was the first to sponsor, along with Israel and US, conservative Islamists to use against their foes.  So there are underlying causes for their rise.  Those groups, however, have been used and manipulated by the Syrian regime and Jordanian regime and by GCC regimes but the notion that Syrian regime went as far as bombing itself to convince the West that it faces Jihadi terrorism is a story best suited for either Instabul cafes or for...The Daily Beast.