Islam: The Religion and the People

Chapter 7: Some History

Between 1980 and 1988, a bitter and deadly war was fought between two Muslim countries in the Middle East: Iraq and Iran. The rulers of both countries made extensive use of the mass media to direct their propaganda both at their own people and at those of the enemy—to sustain the one and subvert the other. In this, as in so much else, they were following the examples offered to them by the European powers, notably in the Second World War and, in its aftermath, the Cold War.

But in one respect, the war propaganda, on both sides, was strikingly different from that of the European and American powers, and that was in the use of history. The propaganda spread by both the Iraqis and Iranians was full of allusions to past events. ...