Media policy of the disbelievers against Muslims

The confrontation between the camp of Imaan and the camp of kuffr has become very intense. Many people have been killed or wounded, many lands have been ravaged. But the war has not only extended to guns and bullets, tanks, planes and artillery. The propaganda machine in this time of war is also very busy fighting a psychological war, adopted by the political parties and organizations that do not want the Allah's law to be implemented. They have spread many lies, distortions, character assassinations seeking to affect the public opinion and to implant an image in the minds of the people to help them in their military objectives. They target to mislead the masses in order to achieve their objectives.

Those groups and organizations target to mislead the Muslim masses that support Islam and its ruling with full conviction and divert them away from them. They know that because their objectives are not accepted by the Muslims, they have to distort the reality and use satanic tricks to dazzle people with their words.

The media policy of misleading the masses is established on three foundations.
1- Media deviation
2-Propaganda
3-Psychological warfare

The camps of the non-muslims have adopted these three foundations as their media policies of distortion to make people stand with them or to turn away from the people of Tawheed and Jihad.
 

Distortion
 Distortion of the media means to transfer the information diverting from the truth and fabricating events, realities or perspectives, taking words and events out of context to whisper and play with the minds of the masses. This is known as Al-Tahreef in the Qur'an. Meaning to take something out of the correct track, Allah (Swt) says,

أَفَتَطْمَعُونَ أَن يُؤْمِنُواْ لَكُمْ وَقَدْ  كَانَ فَرِيقٌ مِّنْهُمْ يَسْمَعُونَ كَلاَمَ اللّهِ ثُمَّ يُحَرِّفُونَهُ مِن  بَعْدِ مَا عَقَلُوهُ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ 
"Can you, then, hope that they will believe in what you are preaching - seeing that a good many of them were wont to listen to the word of God and then, after having understood it, to pervert it knowingly?" [2:75]

Allah informed us that they changed the truth, the same way that the media today take the words of true Muslim leaders and ulamaa fighting for Allah's deen to prevail and take them out of context, portray them with a completely opposite meaning.

Media Blackout
Another way they distort with the media, is by ignoring and hiding the information making it difficult for people to access the information. Sometimes they do not want to admit casualties, that is why you find many cases of several operations by the Muslim fighters protecting their Ummah, and news of this coming out of the battlefield or even their videos and evidence of it, but you do not find any news about it in the mainstream media as if it never happened.

Doubt upon the strength of the Muslim fighters
Whenever they do or are forced to report any news of the Muslim fighters, they always give the impression that there is doubt or ignorance about them, they will use words such as 'so-called' or 'alleged' or 'apparently' e.g. to say the 'so-called fighters' or 'so-called leader Abu Mus'ab' etc as if to give the impression that they do not really exist or that they are insignificant. They imply that there is something suspicious or false about the sources of the Muslim fighters or any news of their successes or strengths.

Exaggeration of Western Strength
At the same time they always attempt to give the impression that their own efforts and strengths are superior and impenetrable. They will continuously speak about the advance technology and weaponry, even if they are not real or ineffective. They imply that their weapons can destroy everything from the soldiers to the mountains, though there is nothing like this. They wish to spread fear in the hearts of their enemies.

They will name their operations with big names and highlight them publicly, 'Operation Eagle' and similar things. They will declare that they will use these heavy handed tactics and use heavy weapons to strike fear and to provoke the enemy to see if they will react or pre-empt that in any way - this also allows them to gather information and intelligence about their enemy.

Chinese Whispers 
Sometimes they will use certain terms or information in order to provoke the curiosity of the enemy and incite them to inquire and investigate a story which is completely false in the first place, but the natural curiosity of the people will help to spread and exaggerate the propaganda for them.

Repeating the news
They will also use the tactic of repeating the same lie over and over again, repeating it everyday and even several times a day. They will return to the same lie on every occasion to give the impression that they have discovered more evidence or that new events strengthens the case of their previous lie. So that the news will stick in the minds of the people and makes them feel as though it must be true.

Mocking 
They will always speak about those Muslims who are firm on the path of Allah in a mocking and belittling way; calling them names, belittling their beliefs, their efforts and claims; attempting to embarrass and expose / fabricate faults in their character, beliefs and call.


False Blame 
The enemy sometimes engages in operations and heinous acts of violence, usually against women and children and sectarian sites and then blame it upon the Muslims, taking advantage of and reinforcing the false image in the minds of the people and inciting division and new enemies against the Muslims and their fighters.

Promoting hypocrites
They also like to spread the news, comments and information from groups and organizations who look like the Muslims in their skin, language, religions but those who support the agenda of the government and do kuffr.

They utilize those people who support them and hold grudges against the Muslim fighters, spreading their words, elevating them in the eyes of the people and giving them status, reference and reputation and promoting them as leaders of the community to give the impression that the masses are against the Muslim fighters and only a small minority of people support them.

They will allow these groups and organizations to fabricate and spread lies under the guise of exercising freedom of speech, but this allows the media to spread these lies or bolster their own while appearing to be neutral and independent.

Good cop and Bad cop
They will utilize these methods in a very systematic and planned way, sometimes attacking harshly and fiercely, sometimes without any reason or cause. Other times they will pretend to defend Islam against the others, while putting forward the defense using distorted ideas about Islam. For example they will say "Islam is not barbaric or violent at all, in fact those so called Muslim fighters who claim to defend their Deen and Ummah and fight have hijacked Islam which is really peace."

Scientific terms
They will use some pseudo-scientific terms to impress the people and give the impression that they have researched and discovered something that a lay person cannot understand or scrutinize, justifying their own lack of proof or plausibility.

Psychological warfare
They are trying to shake the confidence of the Muslims and the supporters of the those on al-haqq, to make them feel as though they are not capable to handle the situation or that they are wasting their time, to mislead the masses and dissuade them from supporting them.

Example in Somalia 
When they reported the establishment of Shari'ah in Mogadishu by the Islamic Courts, they would report that some extremists have attacked, killed and forced the people under their authority and are enforcing their ideology on them.

So when the Ethiopian army invaded and occupied Somalia, they used the excuse that they are fighting extremists to fight and do whatever they wanted. So no matter what atrocity was committed by Ethiopia it was falsely justified by the media under the guise of tackling terrorism.

Victory is always for Islam
Their war is against Islam and all Muslims who believe in bringing back Islam as a way of life. This is why they fight this psychological war against all Muslims wherever they are in the earth. They clash with the Muslims everywhere and they think that they will reach some victory.

However with the help of Allah, they will be defeated and destroyed and they will not leave the Muslim lands peacefully or with any satisfaction. They will leave with insecurity and concern and leaving behind most of what they hoped to achieve. In fact those who defend their Muslim brothers and sisters have succeeded in striking fear in the hearts of the armies and in the hearts of their own home countries that they hope to return to. Allah (swt) says,

وَمَا أَنتُم بِمُعْجِزِينَ فِي الْأَرْضِ  وَلَا فِي السَّمَاء وَمَا لَكُم مِّن دُونِ اللَّهِ مِن وَلِيٍّ وَلَا  نَصِيرٍ 
and never - not on earth and not in the skies - can you [hope to] elude Him: and you have none to protect you from God, and none to bring you succour.”[29:22]

So they cannot escape with their crimes, they are going to be attacked and there is no tanks in the earth or jets in the heavens that can protect them from the punishment of Allah (swt). That is why, whenever they are defeated badly, they increase their media propaganda and distortion against the Muslims.

Attributing victories to other causes 
When they suffer losses, they attribute the victories of the Muslim fighters to other causes or people, claiming that it is another false resistance group and puppet regimes or even blaming friendly fire, the weather and technical difficulties for the loss of tanks, helicopters, planes and battles.

While we know the reality that those Islamic emirates all over the world in East Turkmenistan, Chechnya, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and other places is a huge victory against the west and it is a duty upon us to support them.

It is about time that we realised that our brothers and sisters need our help. And that help is not always by money or bodies, sometimes it is by our tongues and words, helping them, standing by them, praying for them, refuting the distortions against them Insha'Allah.