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German Comic Vs Muslim
Extremism
BERLIN — The German state
of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is using a novel tool to prevent Muslim
schoolchildren from being drawn into extremism and violence: cartoon
comics. "We have learned from
our opponents," Hartwig Moeller,
head of the NRW interior ministry's intelligence gathering department, told
Reuters in an interview on Tuesday, March 25. Officials in NRW, Germany's
most populous state, had run a well received comic strip in 2004 starring Andi,
a schoolboy hero who stands up against xenophobia and racism. Drawing on that experience, they
launched Andi last October into a second adventure featuring his Muslim "girlfriend" Ayshe and her
brother Murat, who comes under the influence of a radical friend and a
"hate preacher". Some 100,000 copies of the comic, featuring boldly drawn Manga-style
figures, have been distributed to every secondary school to be used in
citizenship and religion lessons for schoolchildren aged 12 to 16. "This is exactly the
age at which the Islamists are trying, through Qur'anic schools and other
means, to fill young people with other values," said Moeller. The comic reportedly aims to
show young people the difference between peaceful
Islam and the violent, intolerant version peddled by militants. "If I get through to
someone this way, and it makes him more critical of people who want to make him
a jihadist, then I've stopped him at some point committing terrorist attacks or
going to a terrorist camp in Afghanistan or Pakistan ," Moeller argues. "Maybe he won't slide off
into this milieu -- that's the idea." Germany is home to nearly 3.4
million Muslims, the second biggest Muslim minority in Western Europe . Islam comes third in the
country after Protestant and Catholic Christianity. New Tactics
Using a medium that grabs
children's imagination the German state seeks to get its message across more
effectively. "If you're serious about
getting through to young people, you have to choose a style that they'll take
in their hands and accept, that's how the comic came about," said Thomas
Grumke, the NRW official who thought up the original Andi idea. "A comic can go much
further than a normal text," he maintains. "There's a great deal more
room to play with, more room for interpretation." Aiman Mazyek, general
secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, welcomed the comic
strip. "We found the basic
approach was right and good, we only
regretted (the authorities) didn't tell us about this initiative in advance, then it could have been made much better," he
said. Admitting that hate
preachers exit, the Muslim leader insisted the portrayal in the
comic was "a bit overdone." Mazyek said copies of the comic have been distributed in mosques. According to Reuters, the regional government in Hamburg
state is also using the Andi story. It also cited interest from
Austria , Denmark , Japan and the United States . The unusual initiative is
one example of how countries around the world are searching for new ways to
prevent young people being drawn to extremism. Richard Barrett, who heads a UN task force studying counter-radicalization and rehabilitation initiatives around the world,
recently suggested that role models such as singers, actors or sport stars
could play an important part. "I think that is something
we should be looking at – trying to identify these alternative influences and
have them speak out against terrorism," he told a conference this month in
Stockholm . "Being cool is a very
important part of it all." Swedish terrorism expert Magnus
Ranstorp cited the example of Ahmad Dhani, an Indonesian rock star who
challenged militant ideology in a massively popular album called "Warriors
of Love". He suggested the West needs to
harness humor, soap opera and public relations industries in efforts to
"disarm the extremists' messages and influence over young people." Comments: They
promote "peaceful
Islam", where
Muslims accept Western hegemony, slave-ship and occupation of their lands
without opposition, while they violently reject true Islaam and jihad calling
it "the
violent, intolerant version peddled by militants". What
about Christian and Jewish extremism and militarism? Aren't Muslim states and
lands currently under occupation by Christian and Zionist Jewish forces around
the globe? Aren't Christian and Jewish terrorists currently occupying
Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Chechnya and have military bases in
Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Djibouti and elsewhere in
the Muslim World? What about Muslim regions in the Philippines , East Turkstan
, Kashmeer, Kosova, etc.? On the other hand, we don't see Muslims occupying any
Western country or any land any where? Are
Muslim leaders doing anything to stop Western Zionist-Christian terrorism
against Muslim states and individuals? Of course not! On the contrary, they
have joined the anti-Islaam bandwagon: labeling Muslim resistance (jihad)
terrorism and calling for modernizing Islaam; arresting Muslims who reject
Western terrorism; and removed everything related to jihad from school books,
media and lectures. Why do oil rich Arab states ignore Muslim engineers and specialists in every field, currently working overseas, and employ instead non-Muslims even from India ? We still recruit and employ Europeans, Amer icans, Canadians and Australians in every sector of our economies without any reservations and offer them the highest salaries, paid vacations, health care and paid schooling for their children in their home countries or in local private schools in their own languages. Our governments do not watch what they do or where they go! "!!~ aajooba ~!!" <aajooba@gmail.com> |
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