Salina Khan
A PsyOps media campaign to instill enmity toward Iran in the minds of Pakistanis is in full swing as the American-Israeli-Saudi axis works relentlessly to pull Pakistan into their thickening plot to attack Iran from the soil of neighboring Afghanistan.
With Pakistan still reeling from an Indian incursion in February, angry and emotional influencers all over the Pakistani media are accusing Iran of collaborating with enemies to attack Pakistan.
“Iran, Israel, and India are standing together and they have one target — Pakistan,” claimed a host on a March 4 video of online current affairs channel, Haqeeqat TV, which has 1.6 million YouTube subscribers and over 500,000 followers on Facebook. The identity of the host is not disclosed but the channel says it aims to reveal “stories behind the Curtain” and from the “Deep Dark side of this world.”
Well-known Pakistani media personality, Orya Maqbool Jan of Neo TV Network, also maligns Iran in a mishmash rant during a February 18 video segment entitled “Iran… Foe or Friend of Pakistan?”
Spicing up his talk up with some Farsi and a Bollywood mention, he condemns Iran for varied transgressions, from insinuating Pakistan supports extremist groups to helping anti-Taliban factions to impoverishing Iranians living near the Pakistan border.
These videos are being viewed by hundreds of thousands of people and invoking comments like the following, “Iran don’t dare to think about attacking Pakistan again otherwise you will never see Iran in world Map… don’t Party with Israel and India… Beware.”
The anti-Iran hysteria is not random. It comes on the heels of a war summit in Poland in mid-February that was attended by officials from 60 countries to plan “war with Iran,” in the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (this man is currently facing charges relating to corruption). A number of leading European countries boycotted the anti-Iran hate summit in drab Warsaw.
Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir kicked off the blitzkrieg of Iranophobia in the Pakistani media during a press conference in Islamabad on February 18 when he accused Iran of being “the chief sponsor of terrorism” and declared his “wish to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from the face of this planet.”
The psychological warfare in the media, where lies, conjectures, and suspicions against Iran are repeated until they manufacture consensus, is aimed at stoking hate in Pakistanis so that they agree to send their loved ones to Afghanistan once again, this time to destroy Iran. Pakistan is being coerced to join the American-Israeli-Saudi triumvirate against Iran, and the attacks from India were coordinated to put pressure on Pakistan to oblige.
The Trump regime has set toppling the Islamic government as top priority and even created the Iran Mission Center inside the CIA in June 2017 after Donald Trump returned from trips to Israel and Saudi Arabia. That same month Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman declared he was going to take the “battle to Iran.” The reason for his opposition to Iran, “Its [Iran’s] logic is that Imam Mahdi will come and they must prepare the fertile environment for the arrival of the awaited Mahdi” and together they “will control the world,” MbS said.
There is only one way Pakistanis can quickly and effectively prevent the war propaganda from taking effect. Stop listening to the random talking heads in the Pakistani media!
Instead, Islam has given us a place to get weekly political news analysis filtered through a reading of the Qur’an and Prophetic Sunnah: the khutbah delivered during Friday Jumu‘ah prayers. Find and listen to scholars, irrespective of which sect they belong to, with correct political insight and follow their guidance. My three favorites demonstrate astute political insight every time and are available online: Syed Jawad Naqvi (Shi‘i) of Jamia Urwa-tul-Wusqa in Pakistan and Muhammad al-‘Asi and Afeef Khan (both Sunni) of the Islamic Center of Washington, DC.
Last month two US Congressmen wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post warning that the “Trump administration’s Iran policy… is pushing us to take military action aimed at regime change in Tehran.” They said they are drafting legislation to prevent an “unconstitutional attack on Iran.”
Thankfully, the Pakistani government is also resisting the warmongers; the Pakistani people should do the same.
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