Palestinian Ban on Hate Sermons

By The Associated Press

Taking its strongest stand yet against anti-Semitic incitement, the Palestinian Authority has decided to ban incendiary sermons from official TV, just days after a broadcast in which a Gaza cleric likened Jews to the AIDS virus.

Information Minister Nabil Sha'ath said Wednesday he would no longer permit the broadcast of sermons that incite against other faiths. Sha'ath harshly criticized cleric Ibrahim Mdaires, who, in a televised sermon Friday, also accused Jews of inflating the dimensions of the Holocaust.

Other Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said they expected the Gaza cleric to be banned from delivering sermons.

Several months ago, Palestinian Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) pledged to lower the incitement level on Palestinian television and radio. Palestine Liberation Organization fighting songs, for example, have been taken off the air.

But action has been gradual, and Israel continues to protest that the PA is not doing enough to counter anti-Jewish themes and displays.

An official Palestinian Internet Web site had carried a notorious anti-Semitic tract, the "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," until Wednesday - removing it only after a Jewish group protested. The 19th-century forgery purports to spell out a Jewish plot to take control of world finances.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev welcomed Sha'ath's decision. While incitement has declined since Yasser Arafat died in November, he said, "we still think there is more to be done.

"We hope the Palestinians follow through with this," he added.

Sha'ath said the ban on inflammatory sermons would be part of an overhaul of Palestinian TV to try to make it more relevant and competitive against Arab satellite stations.

On Wednesday, the Palestinian cabinet adopted new guidelines for TV broadcasts, including equal opportunity for expression to various political groups, and a provision that denies Abbas top billing on news programs unless news value warrants.

"Our TV is being watched by only 1 percent of the Palestinian people who watch Arab satellites, and our radio is also limited after the destruction of its transmitters and equipment" during Israeli military strikes, Sha'ath said.

"We have to convince the Palestinian people that we are the main source of the Palestinian news, with all its ramifications," he said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/578276.html

Is what's good for the goose, good for the gander?

What do you mean?
Who are you talking to?

Its horrible that hate speech ends up on Palestinian airwaves but the Palestinians have actually done something to stop it. Will Israel ever crack down on racist incitements to attack Palestinians in Israeli newspapers or will US newspapares ever stop printing antiArab biggots like Daniel Pipes?

which racist incitements in which israeli newspapers are you talking about? on the other hand the palestinians have merely declared but not done anything yet.

The JPost is not even the worst of Israeli papers but they run articles by Daniel Pipes who is the David Duke of Arab haters. Have you seen his latest article defending a death threat in a Koran sent to someone who bought a Koran from Amazon?

disagree all you wish, the JPost is one of the best israeli papers. I don't really define myself as a rightist but i gotta say i've read also pipes' descriptions of himself as an anti-islamist yet also a neutral observer in his stance concerning Arabs and Islam. it transpires that he's against islamists but not arabs. lastly, i've read accounts of the story about this alleged koran desecration from both the far left and other sources and don't see any conclusive evidence that the used koran was scribbled with a death threat.

Do you support Israeli terror then?

"i've read also pipes' descriptions of himself as an anti-islamist yet also a neutral observer in his stance concerning Arabs and Islam"

So you think its ok for a paper to run a story by someone who calls himself an antiIslamist, isnt that about the same as having someone calling themselves an antiSemite?

How can you call yourself a biggot and then claim to be a netral observer in the same breath? Im sure there are neoNazis think of themselves as "neutral" observers but its obvious their hate influences all of their views. The same goes for Pipes whose views are just as hateful even though one still sees his articles in "respectible" newspapers.

I don't think that justifies Israeli terror

"So you think its ok for a paper to run a story by someone who calls himself an antiIslamist, isnt that about the same as having someone calling themselves an antiSemite?"

an aslamist is a muslim adhering to an ideology of milatant islam such as the extreme wahabbi stripe, not islam in general. don't start accusing me of using word games when you don't even know the difference between islamism and islam. only the latter designates the religion itself. so anti-islamism isn't anti-islam. and only the latter could be compared to anti-semitism.


"How can you call yourself a biggot and then claim to be a netral observer in the same breath? Im sure there are neoNazis think of themselves as "neutral" observers but its obvious their hate influences all of their views. The same goes for Pipes whose views are just as hateful even though one still sees his articles in "respectible" newspapers."

it hasn't occurred to you that the real problem here lies in your interpretation of his positions, not in pipes' views themselves.

the funny thing is how we often see the opposite phenomenon happening in regard to Jews and judaism where pure anti-semitism is often made light of through claims that what's being said isn't racism after all.

Well, the problem is, "islamist" is too close a word to "islam."

"Islamist" is meant to mean "extreme fundamentalist muslim" but the problem is, the word "islamist" almost looks like it oculd mean "any person of islam"

It's not really a great word, because it looks like it could be insulting all muslims

Far from defense, more like assassinations, property damage, ect.

>>"Islamist" is meant to mean "extreme fundamentalist muslim" but the
>>problem is, the word "islamist" almost looks like it oculd mean "any
>>person of islam"

Most people who use the word Islamist claiming it means Islamic fundamentalist are also biased against all Muslims. Is support a death threats in Korans a result of hatred of fundamentalists or hatred of all Muslims? Is support for profiling a result of dislike for fundamentalists or a dislike for all Muslisms? Is support for religious humiliation is US detention camps a result of htared for fundamentalists or a hatred for all Muslims? Pipes is a lot like David Duke in terms hiding extremely hateful views behind a rationalizations that dont stand up to real inspection.

A Brave Muslim

Posted Dec 31 2004

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is a Muslim journalist imprisoned by Bangladesh for urging his country to recognize Israel, warning of the radical islam's rise and its growing influence in Bangladesh, and foradvocating interfaith dialogue among Jews, Muslims, and Christians. He also published pro-Israeli articles by himself and others. He has been in prison for over a year with no immediate hope of release. His family has been impoverished and attacked, his property looted with impunity, and the police refuse to lift a finger in their defense. My friend Shoaib is trying to let the world know that there are many Muslims who desire peace with Israel and people of all faiths, but the radicals in Bangladesh are trying to silence him. Please help!
Visit the web site dedicated to his release, http://www.freechoudhury.com, and read more about the situation and what you can do. And please, please sign the petition to release him, which is linked at the web site.

http://arabsforisrael.com/pages/6/index.htm

We have to call the Muslim terrorists something. Why are we splitting hairs? Is it true that there are Muslims slaughtering people in the name of religion or not?

A Brave Muslim

Posted Dec 31 2004

Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury is a Muslim journalist imprisoned by Bangladesh for urging his country to recognize Israel, warning of the radical islam's rise and its growing influence in Bangladesh, and foradvocating interfaith dialogue among Jews, Muslims, and Christians. He also published pro-Israeli articles by himself and others. He has been in prison for over a year with no immediate hope of release. His family has been impoverished and attacked, his property looted with impunity, and the police refuse to lift a finger in their defense. My friend Shoaib is trying to let the world know that there are many Muslims who desire peace with Israel and people of all faiths, but the radicals in Bangladesh are trying to silence him. Please help!
Visit the web site dedicated to his release, http://www.freechoudhury.com, and read more about the situation and what you can do. And please, please sign the petition to release him, which is linked at the web site.

===================================================
http://arabsforisrael.com/pages/6/index.htm

"Most people who use the word Islamist claiming it means Islamic fundamentalist are also biased against all Muslims."

this is not so. sorry but you just pulled that out...thin air.

To reiterate, the allegation about the death threat inside the used koran has taken on a life of its own and become truth in the minds of some. But there's no real proof for this story. in any event your first question is utterly irrelevant. it doesn't shake the correct distinction between islamism and islam.


"Is support for profiling a result of dislike for fundamentalists or a dislike for all Muslisms?"

obviously many racists would jump on this bandwaggon. Just about any idea could be taken advantage of by racists. i don't quite understand why you believe you can demolish the prudent distinction between islamists and muslims on such a basis.

how do you know people's thought and feelings?

There are religious Muslims killing poeple just as there are religious Jews, Christians, Hindus and Budhists killing people. Blaming the groups or individuals carrying out the killings in the name of religion is one thing but to blame the religion as a whole is racist and is in many cases the same thought process that resulted in the killings themselves. Just a few years ago in Gujarat, militant Hindus massacred thousands of Muslims in an antisIamic pogrom that was inspired by a belief that Muslims were dangerous and killing Hindus (the actual spark were the deaths of Hindus on a train in what was later determined by investigators to have been an accident). Most hateful views are rationized by pointing to specific cases of individuals who live up to the racist steretype or conspiracy theory.

The US Army is quite religous and the US airforce is full of evangelicals who make people from any other faith fell unwelcome. Many pilots use religion to give them strength when carrying out bombing missions. WHen peopel point to all the deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and pretend that the guerilla wars against US occupation in those two places prove that all muslims are evil they are not only racist in their generalization but wrong in terms of their actual facts. More civilians have been killed over the past few years in Afghanistan and Iraq by Christian fundamentalists dropping bombs in the name of Christ than have been killed by any other religious group. This doesnt make all Christains bad and has little to do with religion since the policy that drives the killings is driven by geopolitical and economic inetrests not religion (but peopel ordreed to kill tend to try to justify it in their own mind via their religion).

Wow, the fucking piece of shit indymedia editor today ruined the thread, again.

None of the comments above have anything to do with each other

"the allegation about the death threat inside the used koran has taken on a life of its own and become truth in the minds of some."
Amazon has suspended the bookseller from selling Korans through Amazon since they dont want their customers to be weary about buying used books put up for sale for hateful reasons. Pipes wrote an essay that is all over the right-wing sites saying the woman who received the book should apologze to Amazon since there was nothing wrong with a Koran containing a detah threat being put up for sale on Amazon. Explain Pipe's thought process, if its not bigottry, what is it? Would he have siad the same thing if a Jewish religious book put up for sale contained a swastika?

To "yeah,"

Are you a scumsucking, jew-hating piece of shit?

WHy do you feel the need to turn all topics that are about something wrong a palestinian is doing with an anti-israel topic?

I pray to god that your mother dies of cancer.

I also hope that hte next sept 11 gets rid of you.

Fuck you.

Who gives a fuck about daniel pipes? He hates islamic terrorists, not random muslim people. ANd he's not an official representative of any government going on tv preaching that all muslims must die.

i desecrate the koran in the bathroom

Praying to god that someone's mother dies of cancer is one bad insult. But what did this person's mother ever do to you? How dare you. I pray that you die, as soon as is humanly possible. You're an insult to even to the worse of worst god-believers.
By the way you can't pray to god that my mother dies of cancer. She's alreayd dead. From cancer.

" I pray to god that your mother dies of cancer. I also hope that hte next sept 11 gets rid of you. Fuck you. "
I hope you have a nice nap and comes to terms with all the anger inside of yourself. Try eating something healthy it can help calm down all that inner termoil.

I think its good the PA decided to crack down on hate speech against Jews on Palestinian television. Reducing violence will require both sides to stop hateful rhethoric against each other.

To deanosor,

Are you one of those dishonest, fake peace activists who is really just on the side of the islamic terrorists?

There are people rooting for those who want to kill all jews, and at least one of them is an editor here on indybay.org

Fuck you and all your coward keyboard warrior types, wishing cancer on someone's mother sounds like an angry child get some help

Dont know what your going off about. I doubt anyone posting here supporters antiSemitism. Its funny you go around accusing people of being hateful and supoprting fundamentalists but then make statements like " I hope that hte next sept 11 gets rid of you." I would hope that nobody hopes for another 9/11 since aside from killing thousands in NYC it also resulted in two wars by the US that have probably resulted in hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and an increase in religious extremism among Christians, Jews and Muslims.