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.

Bible does not legitimize the occupation of Palestine the vatican

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Salim Nazzal

(source: Countercurrents.org)

The synods for the Middle East which lasted two weeks in the Vatican, have issued an important document which supports the Palestinian right to live free in Palestine. The document signed by more than 180 bishops from the catholic churches and other churches invalidated the Jewish argument that they are exclusively chosen by God. The argument of the so called chosen people has been invested by the Jewish Zionist invaders to legalize the occupation of Palestine and the uprooting of most of its native inhabitants.

Pope Benedict XVI addressed the synod by stressing that decent life is a right for all citizens to call for the consolidation of tolerance, and coexistence.

The document has cast out the zionist argument which uses the bible to authenticate its occupation. It makes it crystal clear that the bible cannot be used to inflict pain, occupation, or injustice on Palestinians.

The synod was held to debate the situation of the Arab Christians which has been diminishing particularly since the Zionist invasion in 1948 which destroyed thousands of years of established Palestinian Christian society, most of which was located in the major Palestinian cities such as Haifa, Akka, Jaffa, Nazareth, and Jerusalem.

The synod has accused Israel of hindering the movement of Palestinian Christians by the Zionist wall and by the hundreds of check points which humiliate Palestinians on a daily basis.

The synod called for the immediate establishment of the Palestinian state as a condition to end the cycle of violence, and for the return of Palestinian refugees expelled from their homes by Zionist troops in 1948.

Canadian muslims erect first minaret in arctic

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Michel Comte

(source: AFP)

OTTAWA — Canadian Muslims have erected the Arctic’s first minaret, atop a little yellow mosque which serves as spiritual home to the area’s fledgling Islamic community.

The prefabricated mosque arrived in Inuvik last month to serve a growing Muslim population in Canada’s far north, after traveling 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) over land and water. The minaret — built locally and installed this week — has four levels and stands 30 feet (10 meters) off the ground.

“It’s really beautiful when we turn on the lights in the dark,” Amier Suliman, a mosque committee member, told AFP on Wednesday. Only finishing touches — applying a second coat of paint inside, and hooking up bathroom plumbing — remain before the mosque’s grand opening next week.

Interview with wikileaks spokesman kristinn hrafnsson

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

“The Iraq documents give a picture of the war that has been hidden until now”

By Jerry White

(source: World Socialist WebSite)

On October 22, the web-based whistle-blower organization WikiLeaks released nearly 400,000 internal US military reports that provide damning evidence of war crimes committed by the US government against the people of Iraq.

The “Iraq War Logs”—the largest leak of classified military material in history—consist of Significant Action or SIGACT reports filed by US Army soldiers between January 2004 and December 2009, which WikiLeaks notes, “detail36as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.”

Among the major revelations contained in the documents are reports of at least 15,000 previously undisclosed civilian deaths and the killing by US forces of 834 people at military checkpoints, including at least 681 civilians and 30 children. They also detail US complicity in the torture of prisoners by the Iraqi stooge army and police. (See: “The WikiLeaks documents and the rape of Iraq”)

For its release of these documents—and previous material related to the Afghan War, along with a video showing the murder of Iraqi civilians by a US Apache helicopter crew in 2007—WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange have come under vicious attack by the US military, the Obama administration and the news media, led by the New York Times. An article by right-wing journalist Jonah Goldberg published in the Chicago Tribune over the weekend was headlined, “Why is Assange still alive?”

Yes Cape town opera should boycott Isarael

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Sentletse Diakanyo

(source: Mail & Guardian Thought Leader)

It appears it is an open season for launching cowardly attacks on Archbishop Desmond Tutu. One thing that we have come to learn about Tutu is his unwavering resolve in the pursuit of justice, equality, peace and freedom of the downtrodden, persecuted and oppressed. He has never been intimidated into silence by those who wield influence and power; nor has he been predisposed to populist rhetoric in order to ingratiate himself to the powers that be. Tutu was unapologetic in his stance against apartheid; and continues to mount fierce resistance against the injustices visited upon the voiceless and powerless.

Tutu went to Boston, Massachusetts, in 2002 to address the conference on “Ending the Occupation”. He compared the situation in Palestine to what happened to black people in South Africa during apartheid. He asked: “Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon? Have they turned their backs on their profound and noble religious traditions?”

The archbishop urged Israel to “strive for peace based on justice, based on withdrawal from all the occupied territories, and the establishment of a viable Palestinian state on those territories side by side with Israel, both with secure borders”.

Tutu’s views on the conflict between Israeli and Palestinians are nothing new. It was with no surprise to learn that he had encouraged the Cape Town Opera to cancel their visit and intention to perform Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at the Tel Aviv Opera House, before an audience that would exclude Palestinian residents of the “occupied West Bank”, while including people from illegal Jewish settlements on the West Bank.