BBC’s 1998 documentary, The Quran and the Kalashnikov, is incredibly surreal to watch in 2011. This documentary outlines the basis for the West’s – more importantly, the American – demonization of Islam and the Muslim faith in the context of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and the beginning of the Soviet/Afghan War. As many of you already know, this was also the beginning of the CIA training of Osama Bin Laden and the Mujahideen, which also coincided with billions in aid from the US and Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, The Quran and the Kalashnikov claims that the use of the term jihad as meaning an actual defensive war on a battlefield had not been embraced by the Muslim world until the Soviet/Afghan War. Furthermore, the US legitimized and supported the Afghani Mujahideen’s use of the term jihad, as well as the perception that this was not just a territorial war, but a war on the Muslim religion itself. The US strategically pitted the spectre of Communism against the righteousness of religion in order to win support from the Afghanis, the American people and from other Western nations. However, once the Soviets were defeated almost 10 years later, the Mujahideen were left without an ally in the US, and were told that any further attempts at jihad in Bosnia, Palestine, Chechnya or any other Muslim nation under threat were illegitimate and illegal.
What this documentary reveals, especially to a non-American who was not subject to anti-Muslim propaganda to the same degree in the 90’s, is that the War on Terror started long before Bush II came into power. There are numerous clips of the “peaceful” and “liberal” President Clinton talking about the threat of Muslim terrorist attacks in the US – it’s almost as if since the first Gulf War there have been a book of Terrorist quotes that Clinton, Bush II and Obama all read from during speeches. With all that has happened and continues to happen in Afghanistan and the Middle East over the past 11 years, it is really eerie to watch a documentary that lines up the course of history that has led us here, before the term al-Qaeda was invented and before 9/11 became the bastion for all suffering. What it makes me realize is that people want to be ignorant, they want to bury themselves in Disney and Friends, because once you look away from the flatscreen what you see is dark, corrupt and evil. History repeats itself over and over again because of greed on the part of the powerful and baseline stupidity on the part of the masses they control. After the jump, watch The Quran and the Kalashnikov and stay wise to their bullshit.
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