The Media Narrative Against The Tunisian Uprising

So why are popular uprisings labelled as the “velvet revolution”, “the cedar revolution” and “the orange revolution” yet when a popular uprising against an oppressive regime in Tunisia is it's, “terror”? This is the Jasmine Revolution.

The media is currently scrambling for a narrative that downplays the wishes of the Tunisian people around the world for democratic freedom with descriptions such as “anarchy”, “riots” and fear of a "domino effect”?

The reason is the West secretly supported the brutal dictator President Ben Ali who in time honoured tradition used his rule to line his own pockets, those of his family and his cronies while the Tunisian people suffered. Even Wikileaks revealed that the Americans (who else) feared a civil revolt against their client dictator due to the excessive disparity in wealth between Ben Ali's cronies and the Tunisian people. Well the people have spoken and risen up against a brutal regime but there is still much to be done for they are not yet free. The Speaker of the Tunisian parliament has assumed the role of President, imposed a curfew and ordered the army to shoot any protesters.

So what is likely to happen? Well as soon as the airlines have evacuated the Western holiday makers the crack down is likely to increase in severity including the murder of any people singled out as “leaders” of the uprising (with more than a little assistance from the French or the Americans no doubt) . The media will of course do its job in opposing the uprising by playing up fears of an “Islamist takeover” and turning a blind eye to the brutality. The BBC is already reporting that “a bank has been burned”. The bank is “owned” by Ben Ali. Compare this with the so called “uprising” in Iran during their elections. The BBC provided saturation coverage at the behest of our government where the anti-government protesters could do no wrong in the eyes of the BBC.

Anything to stop a Muslim country from establishing rule in the name of the people it seems. You see it's fine for Muslims to arrange the day they celebrate Eid or the exact protocols of some matter of fiqh (Muslim jurisprudence) but as soon as Muslims try and politically empower themselves, i.e. try and take decisions that fundamentally give them control of their lives, livelihoods and resources, the West intervenes to stop this by any means, including murder. The “fear” of so called “Islamism” is used as a convenient excuse to scare the populations in Western countries and silence popular opposition to such colonial practices.

We hope the Tunisian people achieve their freedom by sweeping away the Ben Ali regime completely after such a long history of oppression and we hope the other Arab dictators that are only too happy to do the West's bidding by oppressing their people face the same fate as Ben Ali. It's time for Muslims to challenge the media's Islamophobic narrative.