Muslim Hate

Media Silence

By Nonie Darwish
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Western media vigorously report on politically incorrect speech, except the type coming from Muslim leaders. Such outrageous speech is a daily diet on Arab TV. The following is a recent statement:

“The Jews are the Enemies of Muslims regardless of the occupation of Palestine; we will fight, defeat and annihilate them until not a single Jew remains on the face of the earth.” (January 2009, Egyptian cleric Muhammad Ya’qoub).

On February 1, 2009, prominent sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, on Al Jazeera TV, called the holocaust "divine punishment" for the Jews and encouraged Muslims to do same by saying: "Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers [i.e. Muslims]." He then added that he would "shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews."

In September 2008, Sheikh Nabil Al-'Awadhi, a Kuwaiti government-appointed preacher said that "Europeans are immoral, unclean and cowardly.” Egyptian Cleric Alaa Said said in January: “Jews spread wars, homosexuality and corruption in the world.”

Egyptian cleric Ahmad Abd Al-Salam accused Jews of “Infecting food with cancer and shipping it to Muslim countries.” Also in January, Egyptian cleric Zaghloul Al-Naggar called on “waging war against the Jews, who are devils in human form.” In 2001 I read in the front page of an Egyptian newspaper that Israeli Viagra is flooding Egyptian markets to sterilize Egyptian men.

Egyptian cleric, Hazem Shuman, recently said “We must teach our children to hate the Jews.” Even the Mumbai terror attack was blamed on Zionists by Pakistani security expert Zaid Hamid; the theme was that, of course, in addition to the 9/11 terror attack itself and the 2004 Tsunami being all done by the Jews, some Muslim leaders proclaimed. Muslim clerics do not find it at all unholy to express delight and exuberance when catastrophes hit the West, such as the destruction by hurricane Katrina or the current economic crisis. Last October, in a Friday sermon at the Tehran University, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, said that the U.S.'s economic crisis was "divine punishment" that had made Iranians very happy.” Across the Muslim world, non-Muslim Westerners are referred to as "wicked," "corrupt," "our clear enemies" and “the great Satan.”

Many Muslim journalists and professionals promote the same message. Egyptian female lawyer Nagla Al-Imam said on Arab TV last October: “Arab men should sexually harass Israeli women. Leave the land so we won’t rape you.” Egyptian intellectual, Galal Amin, said last February that “Israel was behind the attempted assassination of Naguib Mahfouz,” an Egyptian Nobel prize winning author, who was stabbed in Cairo by a radical Muslim. Syrian economist Muhammad Sharif Mazloum last October, said: “Jews assassinated President Kennedy and are also responsible for today’s world wide economic crisis.” Kuwaiti professor, Abdullah Al-Nafisi, on Al-Jazeera TV, suggests anthrax attacks on the White House and prays for the bombing of a nuclear plant on Lake Michigan.

For the Western mind, it is hard to even imagine going to a church or synagogue to hear preachers cursing, threatening and inciting violence and annihilation of whole groups of people. Because this does not make sense to Westerners, they immediately accept the claims that such preachers are just a fringe minority, an extreme sect or cult, such as Jim Jones. But that claim is dishonest, since hate propaganda is the rule and not the exception in Muslim preaching. It must go hand in hand with demands for conquering other people, otherwise jihad will end.

Hate rhetoric comes into Muslim homes in America via satellite dishes directly from the horse’s mouth in the Muslim world. Is it any wonder that in recent Muslim demonstrations in Florida, demonstrators were telling Jews to “go back to the ovens”?

We must never underestimate the power of hate propaganda, because, quite simply, it works. Believe it or not, if you grow up hearing ‘holy’ cursing day in and day out, it can feel and sound normal, justified and even good. Evil, especially coming from religious leaders, is powerful especially if no one opposes it. That is why I decided to end my subscription to satellite Arab TV, simply because I could not take it any more. I now rely on Memri.org for information on Arab media.

By not reporting on Islamic hate rhetoric, Western media is selectively normalizing hate speech for one particular group against another and developing a double standard that is detrimental to peace and democracy. The cancer of hate speech and anti-Semitism is already in Europe and on American college campuses. No one should be above criticism and exposure, especially those who issue Fatwas of death. Courage and honesty are needed in our media. [Frontpage encourages all of our readers to buy Nonie Darwish's new book, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.]

Nonie Darwish is an American of Arab/Muslim origin. A freelance writer and public speaker, she runs the website http://www.arabsforisrael.com/. Her new book is Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law.