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Zionism – Features

Abcs 20 20 broadcast on islam delivered blurred vision of reality

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(source: thecynicalarab.wordpress.com)

Diane Sawyer, Bill Weir and Lama Hasan attempted to answer a variety of dynamic questions about Islam during an ABC broadcast on Friday called “Islam – Questions & Answers.” The programme aspired to respond to five questions American viewers submitted via comments, email and video submissions: What is Islam? Why Do Radicals Feel Violence is Justified? Is Western Culture at Odds with Islam? Where is the Moderate Muslim Voice? How Can We All Get Along?

The premise of the broadcast, to explain away misconceptions in respect to Islam and Muslims in America, sounds plausible – commendable even; ABC is touted as ‘America’s News Service’ and their tagline heralds that “…more Americans get their news from ABC News than from any other source“. The delivery of the ABC ‘Islam’ special solidified many contentions, one of the most pivotal being that of the anatomy of American ignorance.

Diane Sawyer’s voice lulled viewers through a barrage of40and videos, including that of Osama Bin Laden and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. It is a simple technique used by even the most liberal of media orthodoxy; them and us, extremists verses moderates, radicals against pacifists. The clip of Osama Bin Laden was inaudible but Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s was not, a few seconds were played wherein he was heard saying ‘Al Mawt La Amreeka’ – ‘Death to America’ and then, of course, there was nothing more given. The video ABC stripped was from a speech by Hezb’Allah Secretary General, in it we can see that his statement was blatantly taken out of context. The video of his speech can be found here:

 “…I must clarify that when I say “America” I do not mean the American people, most of whom are distant and ignorant of what is going on in the world, and of what its government and army are doing in the world.

Nevertheless, we consider the current administration an enemy of our nation and of the peoples of our nation, because it has always taken a position of aggression, of occupation, and of supporting Israel with weapons, airplanes, tanks, money, as well as political support, and full and unlimited protection.

We consider it to be an enemy because it wants to humiliate our governments, our regimes and our peoples […] This American administration is an enemy […] If America stops interfering in our countries’ and nation’s affairs, stops its aggression, stops its occupation, stops its plundering of our resources and treasures, we will have no problem with it….”

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Nations their40in the media

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By Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban

(source: Middle East Monitor)

Countries’40in the past used to depend on what the people in those countries produce in terms of development, innovation, science and art. That image was a natural result of the achievements and the work done in those countries for the benefit of their people and other peoples too.  But since forces known for their right-wing extremism took control of the world broadcast, print and electronic media, they started to be an important factor in shaping a positive or negative image of countries; and in this way interests, policies and extremist ideologies started to form the image of many countries.  This problem has been exasperated after the media revolution to the extent that it has become difficult, in many cases, to arrive at the truth or to discern reality and distinguish it from this deliberately manufactured image which is, sometimes, at odds, or in sharp contrast, with reality.

Rightwing forces in the West, which realized the role of the media, started to exert a monopoly over the media (60% of the British media, for instance, is owned by one person).  That is why the media has turned, in recent years, into a tool in war, aggression, torture, forgery and in justifying the crimes of tyrants. And that is why the Arabs’ image is being manufactured by their enemies, while Israel’s image has remained that of ‘an oasis of democracy’, although it launches wars and practices genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people.

The Arab world is a model victim of the IT and information age, despite the fact that it possesses the largest number of satellite TV stations in the world, in proportion to its population; for the number of satellite stations does not mean the existence of a strategy or that these stations reflect the causes of these countries or present these causes on the local and global level in an appropriate and useful manner.  The problem has reached a degree where it became difficult for outside observers of Arab media to have an actual assessment of Arab causes and their expected role in supporting these causes.

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The so called guardians of free speech

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By John Pilger

(source: AntiWar.com)

As the United States and Britain look for an excuse to invade another oil-rich Arab country, the hypocrisy is familiar. Colonel Gadhafi is “delusional” and “blood-drenched” while the authors of an invasion that killed a million Iraqis, who have kidnapped and tortured in our name, are entirely sane, never blood-drenched and once again the arbiters of “stability.”

But something has changed. Reality is no longer what the powerful say it is. Of all the spectacular revolts across the world, the most exciting is the insurrection of knowledge sparked by WikiLeaks. This is not a new idea. In 1792, the revolutionary Tom Paine warned his readers in England that their government believed that “people must be hoodwinked and held in superstitious ignorance by some bugbear or other.” Paine’s The Rights of Man was considered such a threat to elite control that a secret grand jury was ordered to charge him with “a dangerous and treasonable conspiracy.” Wisely, he sought refuge in France.

The ordeal and courage of Tom Paine is cited by the Sydney Peace Foundation in its award of Australia’s human rights Gold Medal to Julian Assange. Like Paine, Assange is a maverick who serves no system and is threatened by a secret grand jury, a malicious device long abandoned in England but not in the United States. If extradited to the US, he is likely to disappear into the Kafkaesque world that produced the Guantanamo Bay nightmare and now accuses Bradley Manning, WikiLeaks’ alleged whistleblower, of a capital crime. 

Should Assange’s current British appeal fail against his extradition to Sweden, he will probably, once charged, be denied bail and held incommunicado until his trial in secret. The case against him had already been dismissed by a senior prosecutor in Stockholm and given new life only when a right-wing politician, Claes Borgstrom, intervened and made public statements about Assange’s “guilt.” Borgstrom, a lawyer, now represents the two women involved. His law partner is Thomas Bodstrom, who as Sweden’s minister for justice in 2001, was implicated in the handover of two innocent Egyptian refugees to a CIA kidnap squad at Stockholm airport. Sweden later awarded them damages for their torture.

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