Arab Media Watch chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi responds to the campaign by Melanie Phillips against the organisation, and the hate mail it has generated.
13 June 2007
One can tell a lot about someone by the company they keep. This seems to be the case with Melanie Phillips, regular columnist for the Daily Mail and part of the "team" at BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze programme.
On 6 June 2007, in response to what she described as "an orchestrated campaign against me" (the "campaign" was actually against her latest article, not against her), Phillips urged readers of her blog to write to Arab Media Watch and protest "at the gross abuse and manipulation of a free press, not to mention the intimidation of teachers and others, in which it is engaged." This, while advising our members and supporters who wish to write to her: "Don't bother."
Over the next few days, AMW received some 15 emails, perhaps not as many as Phillips might have hoped. More importantly, however, one might wonder whether she hoped for the kind of vulgar, racist abuse, not to mention grammatical and linguistic embarrassment, that her blog post generated. Take this correspondence from "a peaceful Christian":
"I think Melanie Phillips article was spot on or to you ignorant bastards absolutely correct and without any fault whatsoever The sooner you slimebags wake up to the 21st Century and stop blowing people up and slitting their throats the better. Actually it is not surprising that you are so aggressive -----with women who are ugly, dump and genitally mutilated I would be aggressive and as miserable as you are. Don't you wish you could fuck a nice slim blonde Christian and have your dicks sucked by someone who doesn't resemble a pig in a blanket? Dream on fellas 72 lovely Christian virgins if you are lucky"
One wonders how many Christian women will swoon at his curious defence of their sexual prowess. My mother, an Arab Christian (and thus doubly offended by her "peaceful" co-religionist) certainly won't be one of them.
On the subject of mothers, take this example from Sally Ann Bowman - the same name as that of a woman who was raped and killed a couple of years ago - and pay attention to the Borat-esque choice of spelling at the end: "Thank's for the advice you have given on letter writing and making slur's on a persons character. You are really 100% pathetic but then we see that aspect daily when feinging support for palestine when you don't give a toss in reality. Do everyone here a favour and fuck off back to where you came from preferebly taking the route via your mother virgina!"
Another writer with an interesting identity, and one who we were most surprised to hear from, was Jean Parisot De La Vallette, 48th Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. It seems he did not die in Malta in 1568, but is alive and well, taking the time to write to a "silly web-site" consisting of "hate-mongers," and highlighting, for some reason, the Turkish invasion of that country centuries ago.
"The only people who will heed your judeophobia are those of your own ilk, steeped in prejudice and hatred and living in a mindset of the 9th century," he writes. This would be news to our Jewish and Israeli members. He ends his message in Maltese, perhaps unaware that his language is closely related to Arabic.
We received an email about "the Arab mindset" from the arguably more famous Joe Bloggs - no really, Mr Bloggs himself - who informs us that "the killing of all Jews, the stoning of homosexuals, the beating of wives, the victory of Islam over the infidel and all other sorts of lovely stuff" are "contained in the Quran and the ahadith."
He adds: "They are true to the spirit of the Quran and the example that Mohammed (PBUH) set in his own life. Too bad that isn't reported in the British press. They may get the right idea about what the religion of peace is really on about!"
And the source for this "Arab mindset" and mastery of Islam? "A really good site," according to Bloggs: The Middle East Media Research Institute, notorious for systematically and selectively portraying Arabs and Muslims negatively. Check out the truth about this outfit at:
http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/CountryBackgrounds/Palestine/MediaMyths/MEMRIisobjectiveandindependent/tabid/220/Default.aspx
AMW received two more divinity lessons. "The arab re-writing of His-story, the arab re-writing of the holy scriptures; the re-writing of theology by arab christians, the re-writing of archeology by arab archeologists, the re-writing and the re-writing, the propogandizing and the brainwashing, doesn't change one jot or tittle of the Word of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the scriptures," explains Moll.
"Lies do not please the one true god.....You will fail because of the lies you propagate, which are so shallow and flimsy that they are apparent for what they are.....Lies," adds Martin Eric.
"This anti-semitic fascistic website is offensive to all freedom-loving people anywhere," writes John Parkinson. According to Aidan Thomas, then, AMW has common cause with the BBC, "who seem to have a vendetta against the Jewish people."
The absurd claims continue. Brian Wilson condemns AMW's "attempt to support the left-wing view in the UK of the destruction of Israel." I challenge him to provide any evidence that AMW has ever called for Israel's destruction.
Vivienne Outram was perhaps unaware of the hypocrisy of saying that "we are so lucky to have freedom to speak our minds without fear of intimidation and worse," while condemning AMW's viewpoint. It seems Phillips' freedom of speech is more important than ours.
"You should be ashamed of yourself," said Aengus Cooke. Meanwhile, David Tsal wrongly described Jerusalem as Israel's capital. For the facts on the legal status of the city, go to:
http://www.arabmediawatch.com/amw/CountryBackgrounds/Palestine/LegalStatusOfOccupiedTerritories/Gaza/Jerusalem/tabid/2158/Default.aspx
He also claimed that "Israel's Arab citizens have full rights and face no discernible discrimination. Statements to the contrary are so much journalistic noise and 'anti-Zionist' propaganda." Such discrimination is so well documented, and even admitted by Israeli political leaders (obviously part of the anti-Zionist propaganda then) that to claim otherwise is to remove oneself completely from reality. Tsal ended by saying that George Galloway MP should be "swinging from the gallows."
Given the hate mail, or in most cases "race mail", generated by Phillips' call for her readers to write to AMW, it is beyond hypocrisy for her to accuse us of "gross abuse", "manipulation" and "intimidation." AMW would certainly not tolerate such language on our behalf.
Perhaps this article might be a wake-up call for Phillips, a chance for her to distance herself from these so-called supporters, and by doing so, to start shedding the reputation that has earned her the nickname "Mad Mel" among many of her media colleagues. As the saying goes, with friends like these…