Words of Cantlie of February 2015, from Dabiq7-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE ANGER FACTORY by JOHN CANTLIE
Isis' s Hostage
Something interesting that I read in The
Independent on 19th January was that nearly
half of France opposes the publishing of
offensive cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad
and that they believe there should be greater
restrictions on the freedom of speech.
In a poll, “42 per cent of respondents express
opposition to cartoon depictions of the Prophet
Muhammad,” says Zachary Davies Boren in his
article. This is just after Charlie Hebdo, which
normally sells around 60,000 per issue, printed
seven million to cope with public demand
after the Paris attacks. And what did they put
on the cover? Another cartoon of the Prophet
Muhammad! Suddenly, hundreds of thousands
of Muslims all over the world took angrily to
the streets in protest. And who knows how
many others will plan out more attacks against
Europe?
So it seems half of France is pleading for common
sense and respect to prevail. And the other half
wants to carry on with sacrilegious speech and
belligerent behavior. It’s not the only example
of a split in opinions following the attacks after a
comedian was arrested by police for praising the
operation. So in other words, it’s okay to offend
Islam by making fun of the Prophet Muhammad
but it’s an offense to defend Islam by expressing
support for mujāhidīn.
The French attacks have highlighted the growing
rage of Muslims worldwide against Europe. Just
three young Muslims brought an entire country
to its knees while in the Middle East a billiondollars’
worth of bombs have been dropped in
the last three months alone. And yet everyone
acts all surprised and outraged after a relatively
small attack in a capital city occurs as a direct
result.
Why us? Why here? What did we do to deserve
this? Well remember the dozens of Muslim
men, women, and children who were killed in
Syria from coalition bombs in January alone.
Politicians were quick to support Islam,course,
but only their kind of “Islam.” In Britain,
someone called Eric Pickles wrote an open letter
to the UK’s Muslim community asking for help
in “dealing with this problem of radicalization.”
“British values are Muslim values,” he blurted,
clearly having no idea what he was talking about,
before hastily adding that Islam’s “message of
peace and unity” makes the country better and
stronger.
British leader David Cameron waded as he always
does after the fact, saying, “Anyone, frankly,
reading this letter, who has a problem with it, I
think really has a problem. What he is saying is
that British Muslims make a great contribution
to our country, that what is happening in terms
of extremist terror has nothing to do with the
true religion of Islam. It’s being perverted by a
minority who have been radicalized. Frankly, all
of us have a responsibility to try and confront
this radicalization, and make sure we stop
young people being drawn into this poisonous,
fanatical death cult that a very small minority of
people have created.”
Wow.
What we have here are two people, politicians
with a tremendous amount of power, who do
not have the slightest idea what they’re on
about. They clearly have little knowledge about
Islam, the Sharī’ah, jihād, the mujāhidīn, or why
Muslims are getting angrier and angrier about
how the West arrogantly pushes and shoves its
This, my friends, is the Anger Factory.
Governments are breeding more anger every
single day with their increasingly hawkish
viewpoints that simply do not work in the
real world. They refuse to change or adapt.
Confronted with a complex, developing situation
that needs to be addressed intelligently or
differently, Western governments just revert to
form, and use heavy-handed police tactics or
support military intervention abroad when it is
exactly those responses that have been making
the situation worse for decades.
Their response is often violently reactionary
instead of forward-thinking. Following the
attacks the French government responded by
flooding the streets with troops and tanks, a
completely pointless move that will only raise
panic levels amongst its citizens. Following the
capture of a Jordanian pilot by the Islamic State,
the coalition responded by launching a night
of intensive airstrikes on the city of ar-Raqqah
in Syria that will only prompt the mujāhidīn to
shoot down more aircraft and execute more
pilots.
Just as politicians failed to spot the explosive
growth of the Islamic State last year, so they
failed to anticipate a surge of attacks on their
home soil and are completely behind the curve
on addressing the situation. The horse bolted
a long time ago and the governments are only
now trying to slam the stable door shut. But
again, that is hardly surprising since it’s their
meddling that created this dangerous cocktail
in the first place.
And they’d never admit to that.
Governments will happily talk with terrorist
organizations near their home soil if it suits
them. Britain negotiated with the IRA and
Spain negotiated with ETA Basque separatists.
But when it comes to talks with Islamic groups,
belligerence and aggression are the only replies,
and the mujāhidīn have always posed a far
greater danger than any “homegrown” outfit.
So how much more of a danger is the Islamic
Caliphate established by these diehard fighters!
In taking a course of belligerence, governments
have set themselves down a deadly path.
Every bomb dropped in Syria or Iraq serves as
a recruitment tool for the Islamic State. It’s an
unwise course of action when there are millions
of Muslims living in those very same countries
who may not be slow in coming forward to the
call of jihād, and one that has irrefutably led
to the situation that is now blowing up in their
faces both at home and abroad.
This absolute refusal of governments to see the
bigger picture and take any kind of remedial
action has been starkly brought home to me in
my small world.
I’ve been allowed access to a number of
news reports and Twitter feeds regarding my
situation, and about the only thing I’m aware
that the British government has done in my
case is to comment pointlessly on the release
of my videos.
“We are aware of ththe release of another video
and are studying its contents,” a Foreign Office
spokesman will say. Awesome. Good job. Family
and friends have done far more for the other
Britons and myself who were imprisoned out
here. I’m even aware of an online campaign
that’s been launched by some of my old friends
to try and get my story represented before the
government. Thanks guys, I hope it has some
effect but really, asking the government to help
when it’s they who set the rules in the first place
may prove fruitless.
Because in my case, the British government
was entirely happy to watch as an 81 year-old
man made a film asking for my release from
his hospital bed, then die because he didn’t
want to see his youngest son executed. That
was my dad. They were okay with a mother of
three children making a video asking the Islamic
State personally to “re-initiate direct contact,”
without getting involved themselves. That was
my sister. And they were fine with a woman
doing multiple interviews with the media trying
to drum up awareness for the situation while
they did nothing. That was my fiancé, whom
I hope now has long since forgotten me and
moved on.
To them also I say thank you, thank you so
much for your tireless efforts. But let it go.
Leave it be and get on with your lives, all of you.
What can the remnants of one family, smashed
and emotionally exhausted after two years of
searching, be expected to do by themselves
while the government, so full of intelligence
officials, think tanks, and pompous men in suits,
sits back impassively and does nothing?
In doing so Cameron and his friends have drawn
me into the Anger Factory for the suffering
they’ve made my family endure. My father was
getting on a bit but he wasn’t that unwell when I
saw him last, and I hold the apparent lack of any
political support for my family, and therefore
the government, partially responsible for his
death.
Incidentally, please don’t mistake this for “poor
me.” I do so hate self-commentary and merely
use myself as an example.
If you don’t fit into one of the neat slots
government has created for you, then you’ve
fallen through the mesh of regular society and
will either have your name on a list or be stoically
ignored as the situation dictates. And it’s not
just the politicians. The media too can sadly
be remarkably indifferent in their approach.
This makes sense when you remember that
the majority of the print media are right-wingwing
today also (in the UK, the Telegraph, Times,
Daily Mail, Sunday Times, and The Sun are all
batting for the Conservatives) and so all feed
into the same system.
Very few reports look at the bigger picture or ask
questions like, “Should the government have helped more?”
Or, “Can we prevent this from happening again?” Or
even, “What can be done to help families in this
situation?”
Of late, and sticking with my situation as the
example, they simply report I have made
another video and appear to make little effort
to penetrate any deeper than surface level.
“John Cantlie, 43, plays the role of TV
correspondent in the video walking around
Mosul in what appears to be an attempt by
the militants to show that life is ‘business as
usual’ in the ISIS-controlled city in northern
Iraq,” said Mashable on 3rd January. “Intended
to show that life is carrying on as normal in the
Jihadist controlled city of Mosul, it is produced
in the style of a television travelogue akin to
those used on holiday programmes,” said The
Telegraph on 3rd January.
“Mr Cantlie says he accepted ‘long ago’ that his
fate is ‘overwhelmingly likely’ to be the same as
other captives,” said the Express on 4th January.
In many reports there’s little commentary or
analysis, just “Cantlie does another film and
talks about this and that.” It’s great that the
media think my situation is worth commenting
on if it makes people think beyond the obvious
but surely the point of journalism – and there
are some very good journalists out there – is
always to go a little deeper than surface level.
The specter of my death is always mentioned
in news articles and I’ve read the same thing
so many times that I have a sneaking suspicion
the media can’t wait for me to be executed. I
believe it’ll make their day if I have my head
chopped off.
One internet site, Newsday 24/7, was so eager
for me to die they published a story about it
in very bad English on 13th December. “Source
within the Islamic state told Newsday 24/7 that
British journalist, John Cantlie is executed by the
group,” it said without, clearly, making any kind
of verifiable check on such a serious statement.
Amazing. I suggest to my family that they have a
hacker shut that website down for the anguish
such a report must have caused them.
The one sphere which does seem to ask
intelligent questions and try looking at the
bigger picture is the public. The changing
face of media in the last 10 years means the
public don’t have to rely on the same media
that they’ve become so tired of over the years,
and generate their own, which is often much
faster, always more interesting, and sometimes
more reliable. Everyday people are more openminded
to a developing world and the things
that happen inside it and less controlled by the
meddling of government in what they read. In
many ways, social media has become a more
powerful tool than “real” media, as long as
you’re not hypnotized by the illusory trends that
social media can sometimes wrongly convey.
These days, it’s the public who have become
the news-gatherers and the journalists read
what they say. “Is ISIS playing a game of cat and
mouse with #JohnCantlie?” asked one tweeter
on 3rd January. “Playing with and taunting their
captive until they kill him? Hope not but fear
so.”“ISIS twitter accounts can’t get enough of
#JohnCantlie,” said another tweeter. “It’s
forgotten he is a hostage with a cut throat
hanging over his head.” And my favourite
comment, also tweeted on 3rd January. “Funny
how an Islamic State prisoner looks happier
and more free than most of us living in the
west!”
Interesting, thought-provoking stuff, people
asking tough questions and airing ideas that
are nowhere to be seen in the mainstream
media. The truth of the matter, for anyone who
is interested, is that I’m making the most of my
situation. Way back in September I said I would
speak out against our deceitful governments
for as long as the mujāhidīn allowed me to live,
and now in February that still remains the case.
If the mujāhidīn ask me to shoot a video or
write an article that in some small way sticks
it to a political system that simply doesn’t care
about its citizens, despite endlessly saying the
contrary, then I jump at the chance. I’ve seen
dozens of videos of Cameron saying how much
he values the lives of the British public, but
actions sometimes speak louder than words
and that isn’t what I’ve witnessed when it
comes to the families of British citizens held in
Syria.
It’s a strange thing, to harbor real anger
towards your government. For me it’s a new
sensation, politics never touched me before
because I lived blissfully under the radar. I’d
never voted in my life because I figured that
all politicians were, by nature, public school
liars who would just say whatever needed to
be said to get into power and then do exactly
the same as the leader before them except
wearing a different-colored tie.
Now, having been exposed first-hand to the
cold indifference of politicians and how utterly
ruthless they are when the chips are really
down, I realize how right I was in the first
instance.
Despite being a prisoner, I’ve been shown
respect and kindness, which I haven’t seen
from my own government. Even if I had the
choice, could I honestly return to and live in
a country that disowned the other Britons, all
their families, and myself so contemptuously?
I don’t think so.