MRN

The aspiration of the Media Review Network is to dispel the myths and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims and to foster bridges of understanding among the diverse people of our country. The Media Review Network believes that Muslim perspectives on issues impacting on South Africans are a prerequisite to a better appreciation of Islam.

Armouti Egypts claims about the opening of rafah crossing untrue

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: Palestine info.co.uk)

Dr. Ahmed Al-Armouti, the head of the Jordanian delegation who was denied access to Gaza, denied that the Egyptian authorities facilitate the movement of goods and people into the besieged Gaza Strip and said that the humanitarian situation at the Rafah border crossing is very tragic.

In a news conference held on Wednesday in Amman, Dr. Armouti expressed his shock and dismay at the Egyptian government’s insistence on blockading Gaza while deceiving the whole world about its opening of Rafah crossing before anyone.

Armouti, who is the dean of Jordanian doctors, stressed that the Egyptian authorities have no legal right to prevent anyone to leave Egypt for any destination he wants, including Gaza.

Christian non zionists launch boycott of settlement goods

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

“This decision has not been taken lightly, but after months of research, careful consideration and finally, today’s debate at the Conference. The goal of the boycott is to put an end to the existing injustice. It reflects the challenge that settlements present to a lasting peace in the region”.

By Jerome Taylor

(source: Rise for the Truth)

The Methodist Church today voted to boycott all products from Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories becoming the first major Christian denomination in Britain to officially adopt such a policy.

The decision was made at the church’s Conference in Portsmouth, an annual gathering which decides Methodist policy. The official stance of the church, the fourth largest Christian denomination in Britain, will be to boycott any products made on Jewish settlements on the West Bank. Lay Methodists will also be encouraged to follow the church’s lead.

The move will inevitably put Methodists on a collision course with Britain’s Jewish community. The Board of Deputies of British Jews had already expressed concern over a 50-page report which had been compiled by a Methodist committee and sent to all its churches before the conference explaining why a boycott was justified.

Terror allegations against south African charity are stalespurious shameful

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Al Aqsa Foundation Media Release – 2 July 2010

The Al Aqsa Foundation of South Africa (AFSA) was shocked to read various scurrilous allegations against the organisation in The Times newspaper of Tuesday, 29 June 2010. The newspaper article reported that the allegations emanate from the website of the US Treasury Department. The Times further claims that AFSA is the “latest South African organisation to be blacklisted”, and quotes the website as stating that AFSA was part of the “Hamas terrorist infrastructure”.

In fact, the spurious allegations against AFSA by the US Treasury Department were made seven years ago, in 2003, and have been found by various authorities – including the South African government – to have no basis whatsoever, and cannot be substantiated either by the newspaper or any US government department.

The Al Aqsa Foundation of South Africa is a South African organisation, registered with the Department of Social Development as a non-profit organisation (NPO), and with the South African Revenue Services as a public benefit organisation (PBO). Its sole purpose is to address the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people, particularly Palestinian orphans.

The organisation has determinedly remained committed to this agenda and has an impressive track record in this regard. It is not part of any other organisation outside of South Africa (whether humanitarian or political), and operates purely as a South African institution, guided by the South African Constitution and South African legislation.

Better late than never

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Asmal’s groundbreaking call for targeting Israel’s legitimacy

By Iqbal Jassat – Chairperson: Media Review Network

While Kader Asmal’s opinion piece “World must deny legitimacy to Israel” [Mail & Guardian, June 25] was welcomed as a breathtakingly courageous call for action against the Zionist entity, unsurprisingly it has also elicited raging howls of complaints from the usual suspects.

However, what I do find quite intriguing is the personal attack David Saks of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies hurls at Asmal. His insulting response as an apologist for Israel is reflective of the increasing difficulty spin-doctors for the usurpers of Palestine have in countering credible and sound analysis.

Accusing Asmal of falsehood and of “standard anti-Israel polemic” and then himself indulging in emotive rhetoric without any reference to the key components of Asmal’s brilliant argument to bring an end to Palestinians’ long ordeal, is a total cop-out!

Asmal, a veteran of the struggle against apartheid and having been closely associated with legal probes into violations of international law by Israel following its invasion of Lebanon in 1980 and the Sabra and Shatila massacres of hundreds of defenceless Palestinian refugees, cannot neither be dismissed as “ignorant”, nor of having a “jaundiced approach”.