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.

Ten big media lies about Isarael

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: Press TV)

Michel Collon, a Belgian journalist and author, in his book "Israel, let’s talk about it," has slammed European media over decades of "lying" to people in order to support Israel.

Collon, in his book, has recounted "10 big lies" spread by Western media in order to "justify the existence and actions of Israel", which are concisely presented below:

1. The first lie is that Israel was established in reaction to the massacre of Jews during the World War II.
This notion is completely wrong. Israel is in fact a domineering project which was approved in the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, when nationalist Jews decided to occupy Palestine.

2. The second justification for establishing and legitimizing Israel is that the Jews are returning to their forefathers’ land, from where they had been driven away in 70 A.D. This is a tale. I have spoken to the famous Israeli historian Shlomo Sand and other historians and they all believe that there has been no "exodus," so "return" is meaningless. The people living in Palestine have not left their land in the ancient era.

Beyond violence non violence

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

The Culture of Resistance

By Ramzy Baroud

(source: Palestine Chronicle)

Resistance is not a band of armed men hell-bent on wreaking havoc. It is not a cell of terrorists scheming ways to detonate buildings.

True resistance is a culture.It is a collective retort to oppression.

Understanding the real nature of resistance, however, is not easy. No newsbyte could be thorough enough to explain why people, as a people, resist. Even if such an arduous task was possible, the news might not want to convey it, as it would directly clash with mainstream interpretations of violence and non-violent resistance. The Afghanistan story must remain committed to the same language: al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Lebanon must be represented in terms of a menacing Iran-backed Hizbullah. Palestine’s Hamas must be forever shown as a militant group sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state. Any attempt at offering an alternative reading is tantamount to sympathizing with terrorists and justifying violence.

The deliberate conflation and misuse of terminology has made it almost impossible to understand, and thus to actually resolve bloody conflicts.

Read More »Beyond violence non violence

Just what is america doing all over the world?

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Doug Bandow

(source: The Wisdom Fund.org)

In one of the most celebrated debate exchanges of the 2008 presidential campaign, GOP contender Rep. Ron Paul pointed out that Americans were hated because they were "over there" in Islamic lands. In fact, there is virtually no country on earth where American forces are not located.

Luckily, most people in most of those nations are not trying to kill Americans. In fact, many foreigners enjoy being protected at U. S. expense. Alas, Washington’s desire to garrison most of the earth’s surface helps explain why Uncle Sam is effectively bankrupt.

In fact, it’s hard to keep track of America’s many overseas military installations. By one Pentagon count there are 865 foreign facilities. But that doesn’t count bases in Afghanistan and Iraq, which probably pushes the total past 1000.

There are 268 in Germany, 124 in Japan, and 87 in South Korea. Many of these are small, but the numbers are still incredible. Moreover, writes David Vine of American University:"Others are scattered around the globe in places like Aruba and Australia, Bulgaria and Bahrain, Colombia and Greece, Djibouti, Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, and, of course, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — just to name a few. "

Damaging video released

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Netanyahu: I Deceived the US to Destroy Oslo Accords

By Jonathan Cook

(source: CounterPunch)

There is one video Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, must be praying never gets posted on YouTube with English subtitles. To date, the 10-minute segment has been broadcast only in Hebrew on Israel’s Channel 10.

Its contents, however, threaten to gravely embarrass not only Netanyahu but also the US administration of Barack Obama. The film was shot, apparently without Netanyahu’s knowledge, nine years ago, when the government of Ariel Sharon had started reinvading the main cities of the West Bank to crush Palestinian resistance in the early stages of the second intifada. At the time Netanyahu had taken a short break from politics but was soon to join Sharon’s government as finance minister.

On a visit to a home in the settlement of Ofra in the West Bank to pay condolences to the family of a man killed in a Palestinian shooting attack, he makes a series of unguarded admissions about his first period as prime minister, from 1996 to 1999. Seated on a sofa in the house, he tells the family that he deceived the US president of the time, Bill Clinton, into believing he was helping implement the Oslo accords, the US-sponsored peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, by making minor withdrawals from the West Bank while actually entrenching the occupation. He boasts that he thereby destroyed the Oslo process.