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.

The hajj and the apartheid train where is the muslim outrage?

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Ziyaad Motala

(source: The Huffington Post)

A pivotal theme in current Islamic political discourse is a demand for justice, a key tenet of the Quran. A popular complaint in Islamic political argument is discrimination against Muslims in the west such as the ban of the veil in European countries, minarets in Switzerland or racial profiling in many western countries. Unfortunately, there is a conspicuous lack of looking inwards to practices within Muslim countries. Muslims from all over the world have just completed the annual pilgrimage, the Hajj in Saudi Arabia. The Hajj represents a critical pillar of Islam and is supposed to represent a universal gathering of Muslims, which transcends race, ethnicity, color or any other distinction. Muslims are supposed to meet in the sacred precincts surrounding the holy city of Mecca as equals wearing the same simple clothing meant to symbolize perfect brotherhood, where individuals or groups do not see themselves as separate entities and differences of lineage, tribe or race have no bearing.

The experiences of the Hajj are very different depending on which part of the world you originate from. If you hail from Saudi Arabia or the Gulf states, you will perform the hajj in relative luxury and privilege, which is denied to Muslims from the sub-continent, Africa or the rest of the world. Those from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have a different Hajj based on luxurious accommodations, and preferential treatment in performing the rituals. The latest egregious practice is the high-speed rail service, which transports the pilgrims from Mecca to the sacred sites where the rituals of the Hajj are performed. The train is reserved only for Saudis and citizens from the Gulf countries. Citizens from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries can be transported to the holy sites within a few minutes. For others, they will have to take the bus or walk which could take many hours each day. I cannot think of any other place in the world today that practices such crass racism. Imagine a train in the United States that states no Arabs — just people from the west — can ride in. The real tragedy is the lack of outrage from Muslims.

The british labour party vs the Isaraeli labor party secret visits by anc mps to Isarael

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

(source: Writing Rights.org)

The British Parliament has debated the cruel detention and kangaroo court trials of Palestinian children by the Israeli military. The article by Amira Hass is a must read. Next year Open Shuhada street will campaign for similar debates in the South African Parliament.

Writing Rights has learnt that a secretive pro-Israel organisation in South Africa takes ANC members and other civil society leaders to Israel to provide “a balanced view of the conflict”. Since when is a brutal colonial occupation balanced? The South african Human Rights Delegation to Palestine and Israel did not hide our visit or our support for freedom, democracy, human rights and security for all. The ANC leaders who have gone on these free trips should be ashamed of themselves and Open Shuhada Street will ask that they be censured. Similarly, the secretive organisation acting as a defense of occupation should be ashamed of itself.

Zackie Achmat

Otherwise Occupied / Labour is concerned

No, not Labor. The British parliament is the one debating the treatment of underage Palestinian detainees by Israeli military tribunals.

By Amira Hass

Labour Party representatives who had visited the Ofer military tribunal in the West Bank two weeks ago expressed shock over how the court conducts its hearings. In a parliamentary debate about detained Palestinian minors, they said that given a sample of 100 children, 69 said soldiers beat them and kicked them when they were being arrested. The children were better off pleading guilty regardless of whether they had done something, because if they were detained until the end of proceedings, this could be three times longer than their punishment, the parliamentarians said.

The Labour legislators cited data they had received from the Palestinian branch of Defense For Children International.

This is not the Israeli Labor Party. The visitors at Ofer were members of the British Labour Party. It was not Israel’s parliamentarians who spent an hour and a half debating a subject that shows the face of Israeli society, but rather their British counterparts.

No consequence for Isarael

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Iqbal Jassat

(source: Palestine Chronicle / Voice of the Capefm Online)

Noam Chomsky calls it one of the most humiliating moments in US diplomatic history. Sam Bahour refers to it as a dead end. Both are referring to President Obama’s pathetic capitulation to Israel on the issue of settlement freeze. Indeed, watching Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on TV broadcasts explaining why America has backed off from these demands, revealed beyond any doubt that the US is extremely weak with questionable motives and thus cannot be trusted as a fair and impartial mediator.

Following this latest failure by the Obama administration to impose its considerable weight, it has become easier for many more people to accept Bahour’s thesis that the Israeli agenda has become a domestic US issue and is integrally linked to US elections, US foreign policy, aid and the US military-industrial complex.

The stark nakedness of the US position and the embarrassment it ought to cause senior public figures within the White House seems to be of zero consequence. That the Netanyahu regime spurned Obama’s lavish array of ‘gifts’ that included $3 billion for fighter jets, is sufficient evidence of how Obama, like his predecessors, is totally straitjacketed within the Zionist lobby.

While the far-right Israeli government continues to float frightening scenarios of “existential threat” to its survival as a “besieged Jewish state”, Chomsky points to a very different picture. He says that Israeli and US high-tech civilian industries are closely integrated. US arms manufacturers are subsidized not only to develop and produce advanced equipment for Israel, a state “that is virtually part of the US military-intelligence establishment” but also to provide second-rate military equipment to the Gulf states – currently a precedent-breaking $60 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi deal also allows for recycling petrodollars to an ailing US economy.

Seasons greetings

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

The executive & staff at the Media Review Network would like to wish South Africans of all persuasions well over the festive season. We hope & pray that this season will bring much joy & happiness to our rainbow nation.

We urge all South Africans to remain within the law so that we may enjoy the goodwill during this festive season.

May the New Year ahead be filled with much love, peace, hope & contentment.

Bibi Ayesha Laher

Tel: 012 374 16335

Email: info@mediareviewnet.com