May 29, 2005
I say Oprah's time is up already..
What I have to say about Oprah Winfrey can be summed up in the following sentence: I am no fan
Oprah's Mag Misses the Mark
Continued media omission of incitement to violence in Palestinian culture.
Palestinian imam Ibrahim Mudayris
(view video)
As you read the following speech, delivered by imam Ibrahim Mudayris on national Palestinian TV on May 13, ask yourself how these words might influence an impressionable teenage Muslim girl:
With the establishment of the State of Israel, the entire Muslim nation was lost because Israel is a cancer that spread in the body of the Islamic nation; because the Jews are a virus similar to AIDS, from which the entire world is suffering... The day will come and we shall rule America, Britain, we shall rule the entire world, except the Jews. The Jews will not live under our rule agreeably and permanently, since they have been treacherous in nature throughout history... Listen to your Beloved [Muhammad], who tells you about the most dire end awaiting the Jews. The stones and trees will want Muslims to finish off every Jew.
Now let's turn to... Oprah:
Oprah Winfrey's popular print magazine - 'O' - has an ongoing feature named 'Rescuing the World's Girls.'O's June 2005 edition focuses on the plight of an 18-year-old Palestinian who was tried, convicted and is currently serving time in an Israeli jail for conspiring to perform a suicide bombing.
The author, David France, asks the question: 'What would make a girl take such a radical and grisly step?' France quotes an author and university professor who asserts that:
religion is not the cause [of Palestinian suicide terror]... these are people who define their situation as hopeless. They feel that they have no way to respond against what they see as Israeli military aggression.
Incredibly, the lengthy 'O' article completely ignores a main factor behind Islamist terror ― the incitement to violence that continually spews forth from Palestinian media and mosques such as Ibrahim Mudayris' cited above. (The author makes only passing reference to Yassir Arafat's individual statements that 'seemed to incite.') Yet the Palestinian girl featured in 'O', Yusra Abdu, was likely bombarded by such messages her entire life.
As Ariel Sharon declared on Sunday (5/22) in New York:
I believe that the day will come when we will sign a peace agreement with all our neighbors.... Unfortunately, our Arab neighbors still do not recognize the Jewish people's birthright to an independent state in our homeland - the land of Israel. Such recognition can only come through comprehensive change in their education system.
New York Times columnist David Brooks made a similar point in the context of the recent Newsweek scandal. Referring to this Palestinian imam's speech, Brooks states: 'These are the real extremists, the real enemy. Let's keep our eye on the ball.'
Even the Palestinian leadership has come to acknowledge the issue ― PA Minister of Information Nabil Shaath made a motion to suspend Mudayris after his defamatory May 13 sermon.
Yet the problem remains widespread: HR-affiliated Teach Kids Peace notes that the IDF recently arrested a Palestinian boy with a explosive belt tied around his waist ― the fourteenth such arrest of a teenage terrorist in the past two months.
Comments to 'O' magazine: click here
Posted by Maria at May 29, 2005 09:38 AM | TrackBacks