picture taken from:

 http://www.inminds.co.uk/article.php?id=10214

Flashback: The "demonization" of Muslims and the battle for oil

by Michel Chossudovsky, 4 January 2007


Throughout history, "wars of religion" have served to obscure the economic and strategic interests behind the conquest and invasion of foreign lands. "Wars of religion" were invariably fought with a view to securing control over trading routes and natural resources.

The Crusades extending from the 11th to the 14th Century are often presented by historians as "a continuous series of military-religious expeditions made by European Christians in the hope of wresting the Holy Land from the infidel Turks." The objective of the Crusades, however, had little to do with religion. The Crusades largely consisted, through military action, in challenging the dominion of the Muslim merchant societies, which controlled the Eastern trade routes.

The "Just War" supported the Crusades. War was waged with the support of the Catholic Church, acting as an instrument of religious propaganda and indoctrination, which was used in the enlistment throughout Europe of thousands of peasants, serfs and urban vagabonds.

America's Crusade in Central Asia and the Middle East

In the eyes of public opinion, possessing a "just cause" for waging war is central. A war is said to be Just if it is waged on moral, religious or ethical grounds.

America's Crusade in Central Asia and the Middle East is no exception. The "war on terrorism" purports to defend the American Homeland and protect the "civilized world", it is upheld as a "war of religion", a "clash of civilizations", when in fact the main objective of this war is to secure control and corporate ownership over the region's extensive oil wealth, while also imposing under the helm of the IMF and the World Bank (now under the leadership of Paul Wolfowitz), the privatization of State enterprises and the transfer of the countries' economic assets to foreign capital. .

The Just War theory upholds war as a "humanitarian operation". It serves to camouflage the real objectives of the military operation, while providing a moral and principled image to the invaders. In its contemporary version, it calls for military intervention on ethical and moral grounds against "rogue states" and "Islamic terrorists", which are threatening the Homeland.

Possessing a "just cause" for waging war is central to the Bush administration's justification for invading and occupying both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Taught in US military academies, a modern-day version of the "Just War" theory has been embodied into US military doctrine. The "war on terrorism" and the notion of "preemption" are predicated on the right to "self defense." They define "when it is permissible to wage war": jus ad bellum.

Jus ad bellum serves to build a consensus within the Armed Forces command structures. It also serves to convince the troops that the enemy is "evil" and that they are fighting for a "just cause". More generally, the Just War theory in its modern day version is an integral part of war propaganda and media disinformation, applied to gain public support for a war agenda.

The Battle for Oil. Demonization of the Enemy

War builds a humanitarian agenda. Throughout history, vilification of the enemy has been applied time and again. The Crusades consisted in demonizing the Turks as infidels and heretics, with a view to justifying military action.

Demonization serves geopolitical and economic objectives. Likewise, the campaign against "Islamic terrorism" (which is supported covertly by US intelligence) supports the conquest of oil wealth. The term "Islamo-fascism," serves to degrade the policies, institutions, values and social fabric of Muslim countries, while also upholding the tenets of "Western democracy" and the "free market" as the only alternative for these countries.

The US led war in the broader Middle East Central Asian region consists in gaining control over more than sixty percent of the world's supplies of oil and natural gas. The Anglo-American oil giants also seek to gain control over oil and gas pipeline routes out of the region. (See table below and maps above).

Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, possess between 66.2 and 75.9 percent of total oil reserves, depending on the source and methodology of the estimate. (See table below).

In contrast, the United States of America has barely 2 percent of total oil reserves. Western countries including its major oil producers ( Canada, the US, Norway, the UK, Denmark and Australia) control approximately 4 percent of total oil reserves. (In the alternative estimate of the Oil and Gas Journal which includes Canada's oil sands, this percentage would be of the the order of 16.5%. See table below).

The largest share of the World's oil reserves lies in a region extending (North) from the tip of Yemen to the Caspian sea basin and (East) from the Eastern Mediterranean coastline to the Persian Gulf. This broader Middle East- Central Asian region, which is the theater of the US-led "war on terrorism" encompasses according to the estimates of World Oil, more than sixty percent of the World's oil reserves. (See table below).

Iraq has five times more oil than the United States.

Muslim countries possess at least 16 times more oil than the Western countries.

The major non-Muslim oil reserve countries are Venezuela, Russia, Mexico, China and Brazil. (See table)

Demonization is applied to an enemy, which possesses three quarters of the world's oil reserves. "Axis of evil", "rogue States", "failed nations", "Islamic terrorists": demonization and vilification are the ideological pillar of America's "war on terror". They serve as a casus belli for waging the battle for oil.

The Battle for Oil requires the demonization of those who possess the oil. The enemy is characterized as evil, with a view to justifying military action including the mass killing of civilians. The Middle East Central Asian region is heavily militarized. (See map). The oil fields are encircled: NATO war ships stationed in the Eastern Mediterranean (as part of a UN "peace keeping" operation), US Carrier Strike Groups and Destroyer Squadrons in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian deployed as part of the "war on terrorism".

The ultimate objective, combining military action, covert intelligence operations and war propaganda, is to break down the national fabric and transform sovereign countries into open economic territories, where natural resources can be plundered and confiscated under "free market" supervision. This control also extends to strategic oil and gas pipeline corridors (e.g. Afghanistan).

Demonization is a PSYOP, used to sway public opinion and build a consensus in favor of war. Psychological warfare is directly sponsored by the Pentagon and the US intelligence apparatus. It is not limited to assassinating or executing the rulers of Muslim countries, it extends to entire populations. It also targets Muslims in Western Europe and North America. It purports to break national consciousness and the ability to resist the invader. It denigrates Islam. It creates social divisions. It is intended to divide national societies and ultimately trigger "civil war". While it creates an environment which facilitates the outright appropriation of the countries' resources, at the same time, it potentially backlashes, creates a new national consciousness, develops inter-ethnic solidarity, brings people together in confronting the invaders.

It is worth noting that the triggering of sectarian divisions and "civil wars" is contemplated in the process of redrawing of the map of the Middle East, where countries are slated to be broken up and transformed into territories. The map of the New Middle East, although not official, has been used by the US National War Academy. It was recently published in the Armed Forces Journal (June 2006). In this map, nation states are broken up, international borders are redefined along sectarian-ethnic lines, broadly in accordance with the interests of the Anglo-American oil giants (See Map above). The map has also been used in a training program at NATO's Defense College for senior military officers.

The Oil Lies in Muslim Lands

The oil lies in Muslim lands. Vilification of the enemy is part and parcel of Eurasia energy geopolitics. It is a direct function of the geographic distribution of the World's oil and gas reserves. If the oil were in countries occupied predominantly by Buddhists or Hindus, one would expect that US foreign policy would be directed against Buddhists and Hindus, who would also be the object of vilification.

In the Middle East war theater, Iran and Syria, which are part of the "axis of evil", are the next targets according to official US statements.

US sponsored "civil wars" have also been conducted in several other strategic oil and gas regions including Nigeria, the Sudan, Colombia, Somalia, Yemen, Angola, not to mention Chechnya and several republics of the former Soviet Union. Ongoing US sponsored "civil wars", which often include the channelling of covert support to paramilitary groups, have been triggered in the Darfur region of Sudan as well as in Somalia, Darfur possesses extensive oil reserves. In Somalia, lucrative concessions have already been granted to four Anglo-American oil giants.

"According to documents obtained by The Times, nearly two-thirds of Somalia was allocated to the American oil giants Conoco, Amoco [now part of BP], Chevron and Phillips in the final years before Somalia's pro-U.S. President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown and the nation plunged into chaos in January, 1991. Industry sources said the companies holding the rights to the most promising concessions are hoping that the Bush Administration's decision to send U.S. troops to safeguard aid shipments to Somalia will also help protect their multimillion-dollar investments there." (America's Interests in Somalia, Global Research, 2002)

Globalization and the Conquest of the World's Energy Resources

The collective demonization of Muslims, including the vilification of Islam, applied Worldwide, constitutes at the ideological level, an instrument of conquest of the World's energy resources. It is part of the broader economic, political mechanisms underlying the New World Order.

What happened to feminism? why can't we oppose both the Middle East wars and the stoning of women (or people in general).

So that photo is fake, so what? so our society demonize Muslims, this doesn't mean we have to support religious governments does it? So there are ulterior motives to the media's reporting, so what? our enemy's enemy could still be our enemy.

if you care about human rights and human well being you should care about these brutal executions as well as the capitalist's wars.

Despicable! let me correct it by linking to some real ones courtesy: Huffington Post

 http://despardes.com/?p=10823

Are the people excusing the stoning to death of women for non-crimes just EDL or other racists posting to make Indymedia look like idiots?

Just because there is a fictional picture of a stoning doesn't mean it doesn't go on. It's hardly the place where you can go and start taking pictures unless you want to risk being stoned to death yourself.

You only have to search the internet for a few minutes to find various other images of public stonings.

Just because we oppose bigots like the EDL doesn't mean we can't condemn the unacceptable practices of any religion, including Islam.

There is a distinct pattern of deception going on here. Whenever the subjects of Zionist and Western War Crimes raises it's head, the Zionist trolls start trotting out their hate Islam propaganda.

Keep in mind that there is no truly Islamic government in the middle east... they are all western client states... dictatorships, set up by the west to benefit the west. The leaders of most nations in the middle east are seen as traitors. Therefore, there is no true Islamic Law being carried out in these countries. Much of what does happen, is designed to undermine the Islamic ideology... so the people can more easily be absorbed into the NWO cultural melting pot.

Good [Politically Correct] citizens [or subjects] are useless freedom fighters.

To the trolls I would say, America, Britain and Israel murder innocent people everyday... is this what you are trying to avoid?

"!To the trolls I would say, America, Britain and Israel murder innocent people everyday... is this what you are trying to avoid?"

No, what we are saying is that you have come to hate America so much, you are now overlooking equally abhorrent crimes being committed by Iran. Which undermines your right to object to America on the grounds of the crimes it has committed.

Surely, if you object to what the US has been doing that objection cannot simply be because its the US that did it. It must surely be on the basis of WHAT the US did, and to whom!

If this is the basis of your objection, where is that same objection to Iran?

And no, i am not a troll simply because I disagree with you. I am a human being who objects to both the human rights abusing US and the human rights abusing Iran and do not differentiate between the two.

What is all this talk of 'America' and 'Iran'? I think we need to be more specific than this, i.e. that we are either talking about the American Government and the Iranian Government and not the general public in these countries.

As I stated before, most, if not all, the governments in the Middle East, indeed around the world are controlled by the global elite who use the state system for their own benefit, not the common people.

The Iranian government does not truly reflect the average Iranian as far as I know. It is the best of a bad choice, if the voting system is reliable and many have doubts in that respect.

The Ayatollahs are "War Lords" who care less about the average Iranian than they do about their domestic pets. Indeed, Ayatollah Khameini admitted on TV that without Iranian help, the American could not have invaded Iraq and Afghanistan so successfully. Strange situation, eh?

It is my belief that there will not be an attack on Iran, it is a red herring that everyone keeps waving about. The American government has been sabre rattliing for years but done nothing to back it up. Just another crock of globalist shit, Iran is already in their pockets throught the international banking system and suchlike.

We have to break out of the ideological prison that the global elite have brainwashed everyone with. That includes Zionist Jews, they are being used and it is about time they woke up instead of doing someone elses dirty work. I wouldn't be surprised if they were sacrificed again as they were during the second world war.

Is this all just a US plot?

Or is it the case, that the NWO is just a conspiracy used to exaggerate the power of the US in order to allow the US to achieve global dominance. In order for a NWO to develop, the people must believe it is possible for it to exist first.

To undermine the truth, you need only stretch it. Stretch the truth, and the lies will dominate. For the US to become a global policeman, it must first define the lie that will become the law it will police. The NWO is the lie!

Those who claim the NWO is in the making, are the very people who will bring it about, by legitimising what should not be legitimate.

This is something politicians are well adept at and have mastered, especially in the US. Provoking a public reaction in order to siphon off energy from that reaction.

Here's the pattern: some people are idiots who think their enemy's enemy is their friend. e.g. the EDL who cosy up to Zionists because they dislike Islam.

The apologists for the sexist and homophobic Iranian regime are doing exactly the same thing by butt-licking fascist theocrats just because they are the enemy of the USA.

No, I''m not a Zionist, in fact it's the exact opposite, I despise what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. I will oppose hierarchical domination wherever it is, Just because the US/UK/Israel may kill more people doesn't make the situation in Iran any better.

Fuck all religions and fuck all states. The bigots defending barbaric sexism and homophobia here are just like the nutter who posts on here about how great Kim Il-Jong is in North Korea.

my quick answer for those of you whom have been reacting to this action and any action against brutal islamic law.


if you believe Islam or any other religion ; I do not have a time to talk to you,
we are belong to different century.

If you work for PressTv ,, I don't have a time to talk to you either, you get money to come to these site and say what they want you to say.

But if you consider yourself as a Anarchist, and if you believe [ enemy of my enemy is my friend ] , as a anti-American aggression.

Then what would you say to those women whom fight for basic human right under Islamic law ?
What would you say to those women whom their Sexual live is monitored by Islamic power in Iran, S.A, Somalia,,,,,?

What would you say to those Union activist, individual lefties , Atheiset or indvidual anarchist whom are arrested and executed because they are [ enemy of God] under islamic Power?


Just to let you know that there are some leftist and individual Anarchist whom put their life in risk to fight for Freedom and equality in the countries which is under islamic law.

I personally know some individual, whom all their friends been executed by islamic regime, they have been fighting during last 30 years,, since Islamic regime [ counter revolution] took the power.

Also , just to remind you that those islamic groups [ now in power ] where backed by CIA and GB intelligent service as a green belt around former USSR and as a counter revolution.

For Union activist, leftist and individual anarchist fighting against Islamic ruler, is a matter of live and death, regardless of what American Empire thinks about Islamic regime and its threat for stability of Oil in Middle East.