Saturday, October 11, 2008

MEDIA: Exposing the new anti-Semitism ...


The US-based Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) has just released a detailed report on 12 pundits engaging in the smearing of a Semitic faith and its (often deemed but not actual) followers. The report is entitled Smearcasting and can be downloaded here.

The report oozes with detail and is fully-referenced, making it almost impossible for those profiled to bully the authors with threats of libel or defamation action.

Predictably, some of the dozen pundits profiled are associated with FoxNews. Strangely enough, others are regularly invited by prominent Australian thinktanks such as the Centre for Independent Studies and the Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Committee (AIJAC) to speak in Australia. Among them is Mark Steyn, whose last tour was partly funded by the Federal Government. Here is what Steyn wrote in his America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It ...

The Serbs figured that out -as other Continentals will in the years ahead: If you can’toutbreed the enemy, cull ‘em. The problem that Europe faces is that Bosnia’s demographic profile is now the model for the entire continent.
AIJAC has led anti-racism campaigns against Pauline Hanson's One Nation party. The CIS and IPA promote individual liberty and freedom. One can only wonder what the heads of these thinktanks were thinking when choosing to invite persons who encourage the kind of thinking that treats 1.2 billion individuals across the world (including 360,000 in Australia) not as individuals but as members of a group to be singled out as hostile.

It's interesting that columnist Andrew Bolt described Steyn as "a formidable advocate for good sense". Then again, Bolt made these comments in the context of criticising the Howard government's funding of Steyn's visit. You can read Steyn's hsterical approach to European demography in his lecture to the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs here.

It will be interesting to see if the CIS and AIJAC will again invite writers who seem to regard genocide as an option for Europe and who openly promote the kind of fear-mongering and prejudice common across the Western world in the decades leading upto the Holocaust. It will also be interesting to see if the Department of Immigration & Citizenship will provide visas for hate-mongers to visit Australia on speaking tours, and whether the Australian government will provide funding for such tours.

One author of the report has recently written about the distribution of the DVD Obsession in key "swing states" in the lead-up to the US election.

We are living in sad times when mainstream conservatives are promoting sectarian and racist nonsense.

UPDATE I: Speaking of nonsense, a certain Queenslander of dubious employment status has posted this dissertation on "the level of Muhammedan infiltration in Australian Immigration offices". But for true nuttiness, visit the top right-hand corner of the blog of Shukh Yer'mami (literally "urinate all over your mother", which might explain what SY's father was doing when SY was conceived) where, on October 9, the Shukh placed this imbecilic poll ...

If Obama gets in, will he destroy Israel?

° Obama will destroy Israel & America
° Obama will destroy Pakistan
° Obama will nuke Mecca
° Obama will make the US Islamic
° Obama means peace in our time
The majority of voters support the first and fourth options. And if that isn't crazy enough, read the Shukh's defence of former Austrian Hitler-admirer Joerg Haider. Priceless!

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Judging from your headline Please tell me you are not one of the growing number of idiots that think "Anti-Semitism" has anything to do with hatred of anyone other than Jews.

It's absolutely pathetic, that the Arabs, who are some of the biggest Jewkillers this side of WWII are now trying to insist "no no, we have a Semitic appearance, therefore we can't possibly be anti-Semites and shame on anyone for suggesting it". Regrettably, many well-meaning but wholly clueless morons are starting to pick up on the trend.

Do clarify, Irfan.

Irf said...

Er, where did I mention Arabs?

wmmbb said...

Hi there Irf,

Off topic, but here is something that Arabic speakers may wish to contribute to, and opportunity for Aussie Mossies, to show what can be done.

The instructions and necessary links are here: http://www.mettacenter.org/?p=358".

Anonymous said...

Er, where did I mention Arabs

Your headline was: "Exposing the new anti-Semitism ..."

The linked article concerns arguments against Muslims.

You subsequently refer to the "smearing of a Semitic faith".

What's a "Semitic faith"? Unless I'm mistaken, it seems you are trying to suggest that attacks on Islamists equals anti-Semitism. A rather absurd claim. Particularly when, as I've noted, Islamists are the biggest anti-Semites in the business.

Irf said...

It appears, Marr, that you regard "Muslims" and "Islamists" as one and the same. It also appears that you regard smearmongering about Muslims as acceptable discourse.

Irf said...

Further, Marr, are you suggesting that a Muslim must necessarily be an Arab and vice versa?

Anonymous said...

It appears, Marr, that you regard "Muslims" and "Islamists"

Well all Islamists are Muslim. They are drawing their inspiration from somewhere, aren't they?

are you suggesting that a Muslim must necessarily be an Arab and vice versa?
Of course not. Where did you get that idea? You could be a a blonde Australian who decided to convert to Islam and slay non-Muslims. I understand there's one or two in this very country.

Anonymous said...

Marr, do you know how to read English? Go read the report. Go read what the 12 bigots have to say. Are their attacks limited to Islamists?

Anonymous said...

Moshe (cough),

My original comment was in relation to Irfan's comments. Thus far he's not clarified anything. Let me make it simple.

Irfan: Your headline was confusing. To clarify, do you believe anti-Semitism refers to hatred of any group other than Jews?

Irf said...

marr, your first post suggests that the FAIR report concerned prejudice against Arabs. In fact, the FAIR report refers to Islamophobes i.e. those with a clear sectarian (and in many cases, ethno-sectarian) prejudice against Muslims. You then claimed that my headline and its accompanying article referred to Arabs.

The obvious conclusion one can reach from this is that you regard Arabs and Muslims as interchangeable. A rather imbecilic suggestion given that hardly 15% of Muslims come from an Arabic-speaking background.

Your next task is to establish that Jews represent the only semitic group on the planet. Good luck. You'll certainly need it.

Anonymous said...

Irf, it looks like you shut Marr up pretty well.