TFF Associates & Themes Blog

Lund, Sweden, March 29, 2016

Recommended reading…

The general post-Brussels mainstream media discourse has shown the same profile as virtually all others since September 11, 2001:

• Emphasis on who did it, the circumstances where it happened and how the crime was carried out;

• The fate of the victims, the mourning of the nearest relations and the memorial;

• Much larger coverage than more devastating attacks outside the West.

• Absence of relevant and intellectually challenging questions related to the big WHY – Why do some people hate us so intensely, willing to die for it?

• And absence of discussions about possible historical causes and action-reaction perspective – the only reason offered is that they are evil people/Muslims and evil acts must be met with force – Francois Hollande who never misses an opportunity to puff himself up talks about all of Europe being hit – 35 people killed out of 508 million to be precise.

• The underlying, tacit ‘narrative’ of course is that we Europeans are simply innocent victims – more important, that is, than the roughly 1 million Iraqis who died thanks to the European participation in 13 years of sanctions and an illegal war and occupation led by the US. And, as is well-known, victim psychology often legitimates disproportionate responses – to be seen.

• Finally, the complete loss of perceptive proportions in a war that has resulted so far in 350.000 dead Syrians, 4,6 million Syrian refugees and 6,6 million Syrian internally displaced and destruction of yet another Middle Eastern country and its culture – among other things thanks to arms trade to all fractions and thousands upon thousands of bombing sorties – the far majority of which orchestrated by the US/NATO/EU countries over the last 5 years.

We believe there are different perspectives that deserve our attention – based on complex analyses, a moral standpoint and an intense desire to help stop this – for all self-defeating – vicious spiral.

We invite you to browse these and share them in your circles:

Richard Falk, world renown international law expert and TFF Associate
Reflections on the Brussels attack

Omar Alnatour in Huffington Post
Muslims are not terrorists. A factual look at terrorism and Islam

Roberto Savio – founder of the International Press Service and connoisseur of international affairs
A decalogue to understand terrorism and its consequences
– among them the possible dissolution of the EU.

Simon Jenkins, The Guardian
The scariest thing about Brussels is our reaction to it

Gareth Porter, world renown investigative reporter and TFF Associate
Reporting (or not) the ties between US-armed Syrian rebels and Al-Qaeda’s affiliate

Juan Cole, professor, Informed Comment
How not to talk about Muslims after a fringe terrorist group attacks

Jan Oberg, TFF director on PressTV
Comments about an hour after the Brussels attacks.

And much more in the on-line magazine Transnational Affairs published by TFF…

Jan Oberg