Muslim anti-Semitism continues to be ignored in western media
Anti-Semitism in the Muslim world is not something that western media are fond of talking about. As I have noted many times, the BBC has an extensive profile of Hamas on its website which, amazingly, manages to say nothing of the group’s deep seated hatred of Jews let alone its Protocols of Zion style propaganda about Jewish conspiracies. To understand the way in which Jews are talked about by mainstream Muslim leaders is, of course, to understand the nature of the political cultures Israel confronts on a daily basis. These are inconvenient truths.
The media monitoring organisation MEMRI is, therefore, an invaluable counterpoint to what amounts to a policy of censorship. Anyone who wants a rounded understanding of what is really going on in Israel’s conflict with the Muslim world should refer to it regularly.
The latest example comes from Sudan, where a senior cleric was given a prime time slot on television to push one of the greatest anti-Semitic slurs of modern times: that the Jews carried out the 9/11 attacks on the United States.
In a sermon broadcast in June and reported this week by MEMRI, Imam Abd Al-Jalil Al-Karouri addressed the Sudanese people in the following terms:
“How could our young men - from our so-called ‘backward’ countries - possibly use American airplanes to destroy these buildings, the steel pillars of which are as large as the pillar of this mosque? imagine this pillar made entirely of steel. Could [the burning] of the plane’s fuel destroy such pillars?”
And, he continued:
“We consider this to be a Jewish conspiracy. 4,000 Jews were absent from work in this usury center - these two buildings in Manhattan were the World Usury Center. 4,000 Jews were absent from work, so that 4,000 Americans would die. The [Americans] must study the issue of 9/11, so they can apologize for it, just like they apologized for the invasion of Iraq.”
If this were an isolated instance it would not be especially significant. But it is not. MEMRI’s website is packed full of this sort of thing. No western journalist could conceivably claim that the evidence was unavailable. It is simply being ignored.
There is also widespread public opinion data available. In 2006, Pew released a survey — The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other — showing that only small minorities in Muslim countries accepted that Arabs carried out the 9/11 attacks and revealing mass anti-Semitism across the Muslim world. In Egypt 97 percent of respondents admitted to having unfavourable attitudes to Jews. In Jordan the figure was 98 percent.
To publish and talk about these issues, which are based on hard evidence not hearsay, would change the way that Israel’s predicament is perceived. It would not be so easy to portray Israeli leaders as paranoid and aggressive fanatics. It would help make the case for a reasoned and balanced approach to Israel. That, one presumes, is why it isn’t done.
To read the MEMRI report referred to, click here:
http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD246009
To read the Pew survey (go to the section marked “Questionnaire” for the anti-Semitism data), click here:
http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=253
July 26th, 2009 at 3:21 am
I noted reference to your blog on Israpundit. Well stated point. What should also be noted is that not only do the Western democratic media ignore this racist Jew hating phenomenon, so too do Western democratic leaders, the most prominent now being President Obama.
That willful Western blindness coupled with the racist Jew hating leaders from much of the Muslim world has provided fertile ground for anti-Israel/Jewish racism to grow and become increasingly vehement.