By Diana Appelbaum, December 25, 2003
Posted on 12/25/2003 2:04:30 PM PST by forty_years
| Muslim Students Association Telling Lies By Diana Appelbaum, December 25, 2003 |
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At some point in the last two or three years, someone who hates Israel fabricated a bloodthirsty quotation and attributed it to Ariel Sharon. The false quote has circulated widely on anti-Israel and anti-Semitic WEB sites and list serves, and at least three student columnists have published it as fact in reputable college newspapers, the Georgetown University Hoya, the University of Florida Alligator, and the University of Illinois Daily Ilini. [http://www.thehoya.com/viewpoint/031902/view2.cfm, http://www.dailyillini.com/dec03/dec11/opinions/stories/opinions_column02.shtml, http://www.alligator.org/edit/opinion/issues/02-spring/020418/c02column18.html].
This is, or ought to be, a source of shame to the three newspapers in question since, while columnists have the right to express even the most outrageous opinions, they are not allowed to invent facts. Editors are responsible for vetting columns for factual accuracy. And, when errors slip in, for publishing corrections. To date, none of the three college newspapers in question has published a correction.
Here is the false quotation:
"I don't know something called International Principles. I vow that I'll burn every Palestinian child (that) will be born in this area. The Palestinian woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Palestinian child's existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit I've killed 750 Palestinians (in Rafah in 1956). I wanted to encourage my soldiers by raping Arabic girls as the Palestinian woman is a slave for Jews, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said in an interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956.
This “quotation,” in its entirety or in part, appears on hundreds of virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic WEB pages, but it is an obvious hoax. The clues would be apparent to any careful journalist. None of the WEB pages gives a source for the quote., beyond alleging that it was in “an interview with General Ouze Merham in 1956.” But neither I nor others have been able to find any evidence that a “General Ouze Merham” ever existed. [http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/08/8297_comment.php].
A careful reading of the quote itself makes clear that it is a hoax.
In 1956 Ariel Sharon was a college student. It is not usual for journalists to interview college students. Nor is it usual for generals to turn journalists and publish interviews.
The false quote refers to Arabs as “Palestinians,” a term that was not yet in use in the 1950’s. It talks of Palestinian women as slaves of the Jews, a kind of rhetoric never used even in Israeli hate-literature. Talking of Jewish women as slaves of the Arabs, by contrast, is a commonplace in Arab hate-literature. [http://www.arabianews.org/english/article.cfm?qid=4&sid=6]
Then there is the sentence about killing 750 Palestinians in Rafah in 1956. Some rabidly anti-Israel WEB sites, the kind with graphics of blood dripping from red letters, list 100 deaths at Rafah on Oct. 10, 1956. [http://www.angelfire.com/wi/MuslimYouth/massacres.html] But there isn't any reputable source of any incident causing multiple deaths having occurred in Rafah in 1956.
For these and other reasons, a writer on Independent Media, an aggressively anti-Israel news outlet, calls the alleged Sharon quote, “a very poor fabrication.” [http://pittsburgh.indymedia.org/news/2003/08/8297_comment.php, http://netwmd.com/articles/article353.html]
The false quote was published in a guest column written for the U. of Florida Alligator by Mohammad Bahmaid, President of the U. of Florida Muslim Students Association. It was published in the Georgetown Hoya by Shadi Hamid, chair of the Political Action Task Force for the Muslim Students Association-National. [http://www.progressive.org/mediaproject03/mphm1703.html] It was published in the Daily Illini by Mariam Sobh, a Section Editor of the MSA Link, newsletter of the Muslim Students Association - National. [http://www.msanational.org/publications/msalink/Link_Mar02.pdf]
Ms. Sobh’s superior at the Daily Illini, the individual responsible for making certain that columnists verify their facts and for printing corrections, is Opinions Editor Roaa Al-Heeti. In her Daily Illini bio, Ms. Al-Heeti lists the web site of the Muslim Students Association, http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/msa, as her personal favorite. [http://www.dailyillini.com/home/staff.shtml] Ms. Al-Heeti is a member of the Executive Board of the Association. [http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/mailman/archive/peace-discuss/2003-January/001455.html]
The Muslim Students Association is an Islamist group that makes no secret of its ultimate goal of bringing America under the sway of its extreme and oppressive version of Islam. [http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/eastvalleyopinions/articles/1011shahbandar1011.html] The MSA lays out the first steps in this process in its “GUIDE ON HOW TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL MSA (chapter).” [http://www.msa-national.org/publications/startersguide.html] The document reminds student activists that “it should be the long-term goal of every MSA (chapter) to Islamicize the politics of their respective university.”
One of the key steps is to infiltrate, and ultimately to take over, the campus newspaper in five easy steps:
FORM A MEDIA COMMITTEE:
- Requires 4-10 individuals, depending on the size of the MSA
- Half of the committee should work for the campus newspaper as reporters
- Aim is to eventually be on the editorial board
- Ensures that anti-Muslim sentiments are not easily be expressed through this medium
- Other half scopes the university regional, and national newspaper for anti-Muslim propaganda and then responds to it promptly
- Negotiate with the editorial board to have a weekly or biweekly MSA column
The MSA advises that truth is a useful tool:
TIPS ON HOW TO DEAL WITH THE MEDIA PRODUCTIVELY. TRUTH: Always tell the truth (not the whole truth) to the media. (Because) Journalists will check facts with various sources. Be prepared to back up your information with credible sources. A lie will do you more harm both in the short and the long term.
This is a remarkable insight into the way an Islamist propagandist thinks. These young people are not being instructed that they ought to tell the truth because it is the right thing to do. Or that they should tell the truth because everyone hearing the truth will support the Islamist cause. They are being told that they should tell the truth (but not the whole truth) because getting caught in a lie will damage the cause of Islamism.
Here’s a news flash for the Muslim Students Association: you’ve been caught telling a lie.
Here’s another: most Americans think that lying is wrong, whether or not you get caught and regardless of whether it harms or helps your cause. Americans think that lying is intrinsically immoral. Telling the truth is an American value. Got that?
The MSA advises that truth is a useful tool:
This is a remarkable insight into the way an Islamist propagandist thinks. These young people are not being instructed that they ought to tell the truth because it is the right thing to do. Or that they should tell the truth because everyone hearing the truth will support the Islamist cause. They are being told that they should tell the truth (but not the whole truth) because getting caught in a lie will damage the cause of Islamism.
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Merry Christmas, Jackson.
Thanks for the links, Saber.
"We vow that we'll burn every Jewish child (that) will be born in this area. The Jewish woman and child is more dangerous than the man, because the Jewish child's existence infers that generations will go on, but the man causes limited danger. We vow that if we were just Muslim civilians and we met a Jew we would burn him and we would make him suffer before killing him. With one hit we've killed 3000 infidels (in New York in 2001). We wanted to encourage the shaheeds by raping Australian, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish and French girls as the infidel woman is a slave for Muslims, and we do whatever we want to her and nobody tells us what we shall do but we tell others what they shall do,"
Change some words around and suddenly it becomes a true quotation of things that have actually been said by Hamas and Al Qaeda.
FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
Radical Islam's 'plan'
to take over America
Arab-American author outlines secret
20-year strategy to undermine country
A refugee from the Muslim Middle East thinks he has discovered Islam's 20-point plan for conquering the United States by 2020 – a plan revealed in the latest issue of Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
Anis Shorrosh, author of ''Islam Revealed'' and ''The True Furqan,'' is a Christian Arab-American who emigrated from Arab-controlled Jerusalem in January 1967.
''The following is my analysis of Islamic invasion of America, the agenda of Islamists and visible methods to take over America by the year 2020,'' Shorrosh says. ''Will Americans continue to sleep through this invasion as they did when we were attacked on 9/11?''
1. Terminate America's freedom of speech by replacing it with statewide and nationwide hate-crime bills.
3. Engage the American public in dialogues, discussions, debates in colleges, universities, public libraries, radio, TV, churches and mosques on the virtues of Islam. Proclaim how it is historically another religion like Judaism and Christianity with the same monotheistic faith.
7. Yell ''foul, out-of-context, personal interpretation, hate crime, Zionist, un- American, inaccurate interpretation of the Quran'' anytime Islam is criticized or the Quran is analyzed in the public arena.
10. Reading, writing, arithmetic and research through the American educational system, mosques and student centers (now 1,500) should be sprinkled with dislike of Jews, evangelical Christians and democracy. There are currently 300 exclusively Muslim schools in the U.S. which teach loyalty to the Quran, not the U.S. Constitution. In January of 2002, Saudi Arabia’s Embassy in Washington mailed 4,500 packets of the Quran and videos promoting Islam to America's high schools – free of charge. Saudi Arabia would not allow the U.S. to reciprocate.
11. Provide very sizeable monetary Muslim grants to colleges and universities in America to establish ''Centers for Islamic studies'' with Muslim directors to promote Islam in higher-education institutions.
12. Let the entire world know through propaganda, speeches, seminars, local and national media that terrorists have hijacked Islam, when in truth, Islam hijacked the terrorists.
Here’s a news flash for the Muslim Students Association: you’ve been caught telling a lie.Here’s another: most Americans think that lying is wrong, whether or not you get caught and regardless of whether it harms or helps your cause. Americans think that lying is intrinsically immoral. Telling the truth is an American value. Got that?
Liar, liar ! ...
There are enough devout Orthodox Jews in the Israeli Army - even in the squads and regiments commanded by Sharon in his military career - that a crime such as what is described could possibly have remained concealed or that some of his troops wouldn't have mutinied or the like.
The article, by Tariq Al-Maeena, attributes this quotation to some guy, identified only as Omar, on a fishing trip.
Thereafter the quotation is picked up and ruthlessly reprinted - without any mention of Omar or the fishing trip - by numerous pro-Arab or anti-Jewish media; always in exactly the same words - not even showing whatever flexibility there might be if they had found the quote in its original language and translated it themselves. The Palestine Chronicle's search engine, nor any other reference tool, mentions a General Ouze Merham except in connection with this phony quote.
If there were any truth to this quote it would have shown up in some of the biographies of Sharon, especially those by his (numerous) political rivals and enemies in Israel, but even those people didn't use it which means it must have been very obviously fake.
The Flight from Fact: Palestine in the Hands of Palestinians From Time Immemorial
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