MESOP TODAY’S OPINION : THE TODENHOEFER CRAZE – FINAL WORDS BY JUDIT NEURINK

One-sided reporting only helps ISIS – RUDAW – 29 Dec 2014 – The Islamic State, or ISIS, is stronger and more powerful than we think, was the main message of a German journalist who spent 10 days with the group in Syria and Iraq. Did he realize he is being used by the group for their propaganda? Jürgen Todenhöfer (Germany) told the media that ISIS is far more dangerous than Western leaders realize. “They believe in what they are fighting for and are preparing the largest religious cleansing campaign the world has ever seen. They are extremely brutal. They are talking about 500 million people who have to die.” ISIS wants to get rid of all those they consider unbelievers or apostates. The 74-year-old German went to Afghanistan and Iraq before, where he also met other jihadis. He interviewed the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in 2013 because he felt the world was unfairly hostile towards him. This former judge and former (right wing) parliament member shows himself as an anti-war activist, and is strongly anti-American.

Todenhöfer said he was very impressed with the way ISIS is ruling Mosul. They have maintained “an awful sense of normalcy in Mosul,” he told CNN. There is an “almost ecstatic enthusiasm” for the jihadist group in the city. These comments show that he only saw what ISIS wanted him to see. In that sense, he does not differ too much from those the group recruits in the West. And whether he realizes it or not, he is actually helping ISIS to blind them with promises of the ever growing Islamic state they can be part of. It’s the second time the world has been allowed a view inside the state of ISIS: a VICE reporter spent time in ISIS’ stronghold of Raqqa last summer, also showing us happy people willing to kill and die for the caliphate. The problem with both reports is their one-sidedness. Mosul and Raqqa are under control mainly because people are far too afraid to show any discontent. If they do, they know they quite possibly will pay with their lives. Doctors who refused to treat ISIS fighters were killed, as were people who openly doubted God. Although Todenhöfer does agree it is a rule of fear, he does not seem to understand its extent.

Yet, he is of the generation that has witnessed how the Nazis entrapped the whole German state in that same fear in the thirties and forties. Surprisingly, he does not mention the parallels. Like the Nazis, ISIS does not only use fear to suppress people, but also to fight the enemy. ISIS propaganda makes the group into a powerful murder machine, and both soldiers and civilians have fled because of it in Iraq. Likewise, the Nazis presented their army as an unbeatable force.

They share the way they recruit and indoctrinate people: the Nazis used movies and speeches to convince people to support their goal of a Third Empire; ISIS is a champion in using its propaganda, recruiting people from everywhere. And the Hitler Jugend of the Nazis can be compared to the youths that ISIS is indoctrinating and training to be the next generation for the caliphate.

Would anyone in Nazi Germany have told a journalist who was accompanied by members of the SS that they were not happy? Yet, most people were suffering; there was huge poverty, the policy against the Jews was not supported by all, and those with the regime were treated better than others. Mosul now is a city with hardly any electricity or water and where most people have grown poorer because they lost their wages from Baghdad. Many mourn for the loss of their old culture, where people of different backgrounds mixed. The ISIS policy against the Christians is not widely supported at all. The rule forcing women to wear the “niqaab” is hated almost as much as the ban on smoking. At the same time, ISIS is eating in restaurants that no-one can afford anymore, and the foreign fighters get expensive goodies (like Red Bull and chocolate bars) from outside, as well as the newest smart phones.

Mosul is taken over by village people, who brought their simple beliefs and came to ISIS for the salaries it paid. Now, many locals have had to sign up for ISIS too for lack of income. Todenhöfer was impressed that every day 50 people report to the recruiting offices of ISIS – but he did not question it. When Saddam Hussein was in charge in Iraq, journalists would have to work with a minder making sure they would see only what the dictator wanted them to see. The same happens whereever dictatorships blossom – as in the caliphate of ISIS.

Anytime journalists agree on reporting in such situations, they owe it to their public to try to see through the disguises, to question what is shown to them, to search for a bigger truth, and most importantly to show the whole picture. And that’s where Jürgen Todenhöfer failed badly.

http://rudaw.net/english/opinion/29122014