Weapons Of Mass Deception In War

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Why do some non-Malays online support the bombing of Iran?
They probably feel bullied by Malay-Muslim ketuanan or supremacy at home and, therefore, have little sympathy when Muslims overseas are attacked. 
It’s also strange how Sunni Muslim Malaysia is openly supporting a country which practices Shia Islam, which is officially an “ajaran sesat” or deviant teaching at home.
When religion and politics get mixed up, strange things can happen.
ADSSome locals also seem to have swallowed the lamestream media stereotype that all Iranians are Muslim “fanatics or terrorists” who chant “Death to America” day and night.
IranBut the reality was different when my partner and I visited the country some years ago. 
Most Iranians were very welcoming and polite to us. Some spoke excellent English and were very helpful with directions.
Of course, one rule in Iran is that non-Muslim women must have a scarf loosely covering the head - unlike in Malaysia, it’s OK to show bits of hair.
My girlfriend and other female Chinese visitors didn’t mind as the country had such amazing mosques, mansions, and markets. And the food was superb. 
Best of all, we were never hassled by tourist swindlers despite being independent travellers.
We also met Iranians who had studied in Cyberjaya before. They said they missed “ayam goreng kunyit” (turmeric fried chicken)!
People we encountered - taxi drivers and guest house hosts - were just trying to make a living. Many actually didn’t even like the ulamas or religious leaders there.
They complained of corruption and incompetence, that people were not selected on merit but on the “religious” facade they put on.
Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah KhomeiniSo, is Iran a “fanatical” country which deserves to be bombed? No, just like us in Malaysia, many there don’t agree with their government. So it’s unfair to put all people into a simplistic lump.
For example, after entering our AirAsia plane from Tehran back to Kuala Lumpur, over half the Iranian ladies removed their hijab or tudung, revealing their thick, luscious hair.
Bomb people to ‘save’ them?
ADSBut pro-war media can skew people’s minds. Imagine this - PAS takes over Putrajaya, imposes syariah law and suppresses non-Muslims.
Would the West then bomb us to “save” us from “religious extremism” before taking our natural resources?
After all, the Mat Sallehs are great defenders of “human rights”, ya? Though they see and hear no evil with the Gaza genocide.
Remember that the West said they had to “bomb Vietnam to save Vietnam” from the “evils” of communism. Three million Vietnamese died, and many more were injured. 
Today, Vietnam is our partner in Asean, even though it’s still ruled by communists.
America also bombed Iraq in 2003 to “promote democracy”. At least 200,000 civilians were killed. But the real motive was something less altruistic.
“They’re calling it Operation Iraqi Freedom. They were going to call it Operation Iraqi Liberation until they realised that spells ‘oil’,” joked comedian Jay Leno.
The irony is that 20 years after the Iraq War, the BBC admitted there is “Saddam nostalgia”. Despite being a brutal dictator, there was stability, unlike the chaotic religious civil wars which erupted after the American invasion.
Before the war, Iraq was a modern nation with highways, universities, and hospitals. After the war, it was hard even to get electricity and clean water as those facilities had been bombed. What a fantastic “liberation”.
Old recycled excuses
The old 2003 Iraq invasion excuse called nuclear WMD or weapons of mass destruction, is being recycled in the current Iran war.
Even though America’s own spy agencies said in March that there was no evidence of nuclear weapons in Iran. So it sounds more like another kind of WMD - weapons of mass deception.
But pointing out Western hypocrisy doesn’t mean I wish to whitewash the Iranian regime. 
For example, women who flouted hijab laws and promoted “indecency” were to be punished with flogging, long prison terms and even death in a harsh law that the ulamas wanted to roll out in December 2024.
Iranian journalists, activists and lawyers were outraged by the law, resulting in its suspension five days later.
So, is it right to wage war on the country due to such unjust laws? Or as US President Donald Trump put it, MIGA - Make Iran Great Again - through regime change?
But bombs will obviously also hurt the journalists, activists, lawyers and yes, the women themselves. The very people that Western moral crusaders are claiming to “protect”.
Can we flip the script and say, let’s bomb the US because Black Lives Matter has shown how police there discriminate against and even kill African Americans? 
In short, don’t tar ordinary people with the sins of their leaders. If that happened in Malaysia, we’d all be in big trouble!
We may strongly disagree with Iranian Islamic or Vietnamese communist rule, but it’s up to the people there themselves to solve it. Not outsiders whose underlying motives are ugly colonial power plays or wealth grabs.
The only possible exception that allows foreign intervention is when a regime commits genocide. Like when Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979 to oust the murderous Khmer Rouge.
What about the Houthis of Yemen and Hezbollah of Lebanon? Were they justified in launching rockets at Israel to stop the Gaza slaughter?
Religion and war
I am disturbed to find some Malaysian Christians supporting the war against Muslim countries. Have our racial and religious prejudices overcome our humanity?
Yet, Jesus himself preached love, kindness, and forgiveness, even toward our enemies. He taught, “Those who live by the sword, shall die by the sword”.
Yet some local Christians, especially MAGA Malaysians (yes, they exist!), are diehard supporters of “God’s people” in Israel despite the Gaza genocide.
Rather than speaking out against injustice, “Christians have been more inclined to take sides and so pour fuel on an already raging fire (in the Israel-Palestine conflict),” lamented Malaysia’s National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF).
Some also believe that “whoever blesses the descendants of Abraham will be blessed, and whoever curses them will be cursed.”
The passage is from Genesis 12:3, a point that was debated recently between US Senator Ted Cruz and journalist Tucker Carlson.
This is usually taken to mean Israel, forgetting that the Arabs are also descended from Abraham.
What complicates matters is a very debatable reading of the Bible that Israel must exist as a nation before the Second Coming of Jesus can occur. 
However, NECF notes that other Christians interpret that “Israel” in those verses actually means the “collective church”, not the political creature under Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuAs Jewish-American journalist Glenn Greenwald points out, it’s weird that we condemn Iranian leaders for having Messianic end-time beliefs (in Shia Islam).
Because one-third of American Congress leaders also have Messianic beliefs, including that it’s necessary to give weapons to Israel so that “Jesus can return” after Armageddon.
Greenwald adds, Christian teachings say the so-called “chosen people” will then be destroyed because they have long rejected Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Ah, such irony.
It’s not just Christians, of course. Politics can pervert any religion, even those that teach kindness and compassion.
This happened with hate speech in Malaysia against non-Muslims or in Burma, where Buddhist bullies burned Rohingya villages.
In conclusion, please be extra careful when lamestream media or religion is being used to justify wars.
War is seldom ever a solution - it only unleashes more death and destruction upon the people that its “saviours” claim to be saving. - Mkini
ANDREW SIA is a veteran journalist who likes teh tarik khau kurang manis. You are welcome to give him ideas to brew at [email protected].
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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