The US media reports that an American teacher has been killed in Yemen, "gunmen linked to al Qaeda" are responsible say reports. Reports quote the killers as saying that, "This operation comes as a response to the campaign of Christian proselytising that the West has launched against Muslims,"
"Islamic militants often accuse Western aid groups of proselytising." US authorities reply. This seems to imply that Christian groups don't proselytise, that people in the Muslim world are imagining this, not just the "terrorists" or "alleged" militants, insurgents, al Qaeda whatever alleged group we are told is responsible for such killings. But we get sick of the proselytizing over here.
Recently, a teacher at a Christian school in Kurdish norther Iraq was shot also. I have to ask what nerve someone must have to come from the US, a country whose government propped up the the ruthless Hussein, then invaded the country for the second time after imposing sanctions that killed some 500,000 Iraqi's, mostly women and children. Then there's Falujuah, a symbol of heroic resistance to imperialist occupation for Arab's and Muslims throughout the world. What do we expect? It's arrogance in the extreme, a complete disregard for the rights of others. I heard that the father of the teacher in Iraq said he was a "martyr". Well, the Islamists have the same martyr's so perhaps they can all meet up in their respective heavens.
I don't wish anyone the fate of death on anyone------well, almost anyone. But we have to look at this in perspective. Firstly, the western media reports the death of a teacher at a language school in Yemen. Most Americans have little knowledge of the methods the CIA have used to infiltrate foreign states to influence policy. We know of the direct method, assassination, Lumumba for example. The US has been bombing Yemen and assassinating, "suspected al Qaeda militants" for some time. The US uses unmanned drones so that we don't lose any lives and increase opposition to foreign policy on the domestic front. But the CIA has planted people as teachers or religious officials. I was in a former Stalinist state not long ago and one guy I talked to didn't trust the numerous preachers and what he described as "Baptist" ministers appearing from the US. There was a general feeling they were not all what they claimed to be. This may come as a suprise to the average American but not to the rest of the world. Like Uganda, it starts with "advisers", trainers etc. The CIA were the first Americans in Vietnam, there to prepare the ground and public opinion for the invasion.
So this latest guy may have been a teacher and he may not have been. Either way, we need to recognize that not only the regular bombing of Yemen and assassination (with a few collateral deaths) of, who knows who they are, but the US support and arming of the previous ruthless anti-democratic dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, has caused some resentment to say the least. Is it possible we might feel the same way were the situations reversed?
As I have said many times, US foreign policy is the best recruitment tool for Islamist terrorist groups. Not only that, the national movements that once existed in many of these countries that were political in nature like the Tudeh in Iran, the Iraq CP and other political groups, were all crushed by dictators with the help of the US. If we don't like the Mullah's of Iran we can blame their rise to power on US and British foreign policy in the region, the two biggest obstacle to secularism and democratic rights.
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