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West ignorant about Islam: terror expert

DUBAI — People in the West are genuinely ignorant about Islam, and in this ignorance, they link terrorism with Islam, said an expert on terrorism yesterday.

"Westerners perceive that Islam and terrorism are linked because of the use of Islamic phraseology used by people spreading terror," said Frank Gardner, Terrorism Analyst, BBC, while expressing his views at the session titled "Covering the War on Terror" at the Arab and World Media conference. The session discussed how the new terrorist attacks changed the understanding of terrorism and whether political propaganda affects media's analysis of terrorism.

Citing an example, Gardner, who was crippled by a bullet, said : "When I was being shot, the attackers shouted Allahu Akbar."

The session was moderated by Jamil Mroue, Publisher of the Daily Star newspapers. Other panelists included Samia Nakhoul, Gulf Bureau Chief of Reuters and Nakhle El Hage, Head of News, Current Affairs at Al Arabiya.

Nakhle pointed out that media was a victim of the war on terror. "The government gets tough with the media, while on the other side, it becomes a matter of life and death, and both want to recruit media to work on their side. Because of this, several precious lives have been lost," said Nakhle.

"We have been accused of being a propaganda machine for terrorists when we show the images that we receive. Nowadays we report on the news and leave gory images. But nobody is happy with us," said Samia, adding: "The word terrorist is printed only if it is said by the person whom we are quoting." Giving the British perspective, Gardner referred to the July 7 bombings in London, which he said were a wake-up call for all in UK. "These were carried out by British Muslims and not Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda does not have an agenda and there is no one whom you can negotiate with," he added.