How Islamaphobic lies are spread

[Ali-Gation]

The Middle East Media Research Institute
The authors place particular reliance on material produced by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which was set up by a Ygal Carmon, former colonel in Israeli intelligence.

Arab Media Watch has argued:

‘By passing itself off as an independent organisation with a quasi-academic name, MEMRI has deceived a number of journalists into thinking it is a reliable source of information. The fact that it has used duplicity to procure this impression, and that almost all its staff members have been strongly partisan in their political and military work, should cast immediate doubt upon its credibility as an organisation and the accuracy of its work.’


The Guardian’s Middle East editor Brian Whitaker has written the following:

‘My problem with MEMRI is that it poses as a research institute when it's basically a propaganda operation. As with all propaganda, that involves a certain amount of dishonesty and deception. The items you translate are chosen largely to suit your political agenda. They are unrepresentative and give an unfair picture of the Arab media as a whole.

‘This might not be so bad if you told us what your agenda is. But MEMRI's website does not mention you or your work for Israeli intelligence. Nor does it mention MEMRI's co-founder, Meyrav Wurmser, and her extreme brand of Zionism which maintains that Israeli leftists are a 'threat' to their own country. Also, you're not averse to a bit of cheating to make Arabs look more anti-Semitic than they are.

‘In your Special Dispatch 151, for instance, you translated an interview given by the mufti of Jerusalem to al-Ahram al-Arabi, shortly after the start of the Palestinian uprising. One question the interviewer asked was: 'How do you deal with the Jews who are besieging al-Aqsa and are scattered around it?' MEMRI translated this as: 'How do you feel about the Jews?' – which is a different question. That left you with a reply in Arabic which didn't fit your newly-concocted question. So you cut out the first part of the mufti's reply and combined what was left with part of his answer to another question.’

During the US presidential election, MEMRI was responsible for translating a statement by Osama bin Laden which was used as the basis for a report that Al-Qaida was threatening terrorist attacks against US states who voted for Bush while offering peace to those who voted Democrat. This was used by pro-Republican media as a means of discrediting Kerry. The translation was quickly exposed as inaccurate and the report as baseless.

Yet MEMRI is used by the authors throughout the dossier as though it were a neutral source providing reliable and unbiased information.

More on this available from : http://www.london.gov.uk/news/docs/qaradawi_dossier.rtf

-----------------------------------
SO frankly the lazy tabliod journalist get islamaphobia given on a plate .. witness it for yourselves http://www.memri.org/ then Fox and Sun pick up on it.. tut tut.. but what to do folks is the question ..

[ah1999]

Assalaamu alaikum wa rehmatullah brother Ali-Gation,
Thank you very much for that very useful info. We are living in a world of a minefield of information and one had to tread very carefully to avoid being misled.
On a similar note the English translations of the Quran have similar setbacks. Several translators due their own belief systems/ hidden agendas have translated the Quran in such a way as to promote their own ideology/ ideas etc. The earlier translators of the Quran were Christians so it was expected to t certain extent and later we had Muslims with different ideologies.
Groups/ sects (Muslim and non-Muslims) quote verses of the Quran to promote their own ideologies/ concepts/ beliefs etc. to the unwary and unsuspecting sometimes unknowingly but sometimes less so.
The bottom line being one should be in constant search for the truth in all matters seeking advice from authentic sources and experts, and that is not easy, for authentic sources and experts are not easy to find.
Wassalaam, AH1999

[Ali-Gation]

See how many people they have fooled, link below lists media organisations supporting memri's credibility, even the bbc is listed

http://www.memri.org/aboutus.html#quotes

also look at this newslink from fox to read what they think of british muslims: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,139807,00.html

[Mr Sin]

[B]The

The Guardian’s Middle East editor Brian Whitaker has written the following:

‘‘This might not be so bad if you told us what your agenda is. But MEMRI's website does not mention you or your work for Israeli intelligence

Yet MEMRI is used by the authors throughout the dossier as though it were a neutral source providing reliable and unbiased information.
..

And Brian Whitaker know's a lot about neutrality. He's no Arabist see.

Why not visit his website linked via The Guardian http://www.al-bab.com/

[FractionMan]

Brian Whitaker maybe a hardcore arabist, but atleast he admits to his agenda as is pertinant from his website name let alone content.

He says:

This might not be so bad if you told us what your agenda is. But MEMRI's website does not mention you or your work for Israeli intelligence. Nor does it mention MEMRI's co-founder, Meyrav Wurmser, and her extreme brand of Zionism which maintains that Israeli leftists are a 'threat' to their own country.

Which is true, but journalists have stopped taking them seriously...well serious journalists anyway, since Leah Harris (member of the Executive Board of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel in Washington, DC) said what she said in the following article:

http://www.counterpunch.org/harris1228.html

If i can quote:

That explains why an organization like Campus Watch tries to turn professors who criticize Israel's policies into pariahs. It explains why the pro-occupation group the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) undertakes the disingenuous practice of mistranslating excerpts of anti-occupation articles published in Arabic press. These mistranslated excerpts, taken wholly out of context, are then picked up by the sensationalist American media and paraded as proof of the rabid anti-Semitism of the Arabs. It is noble to stand against anti-Jewish bigotry and bigotry of all kinds; however, the pro-occupation right goes much too far. Organizations like the Simon Wiesenthal Center, fixated on the idea of tolerance toward Jews, are appallingly silent on Israel's intolerance of Palestinians and its refusal to allow them the same rights that the center advocates for Jews. Instead of taking a critical look at why anti-Israel sentiment is on the rise around the world, the Wiesenthal Center's focus is on banning books and silencing speech. Anti-Israel or anti-occupation sentiment is conflated with an endless irrational anti-Semitism that always existed and always will. In short, either you're with the occupation, or you're an anti-Semite and a terrorist sympathizer.

[FractionMan]

And for more conclusive reading, have a look at this email debate, in which Brian Whittaker btichslaps Yigal 'ex mossad' Carmon to kingdom come...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/com...884156,00.html

(For those who can't be bothered to read, basically Yigal gets slapped and then starts moaning about how he wanted an open debate but this is just a *****slapping)

You know you gotta love a *****slapping!! woooohooooo...

PS mods: we need a *****slapping smiley

[Mr Sin]

[QUOTE=Fraction

ManYou know you gotta love a *****slapping!! woooohooooo...

[/QUOTE]

I didn't read it that way at all. Sorry.

MEMRI will never be your cup of tea, as Israel won't...but isn't it a sad sad reflection that you've got two non-Arabs trying to desipher the mediaval and opaque workings of the Arab world, which itself only cowers behind oppressive regimes and state controlled media.

If MEMRI's got it so wrong (again subjective) then I'd expect a far more polished and proffesional response from the Arab world than relying on celebrity Z lister Martin Bin Whitaker.

[br ash]

[QUOTE=Mr Sin]

I didn't read it that way at all. Sorry.

MEMRI will never be your cup of tea, as Israel won't...but isn't it a sad sad reflection that you've got two non-Arabs trying to desipher the mediaval and opaque workings of the Arab world, which itself only cowers behind oppressive regimes and state controlled media.

If MEMRI's got it so wrong (again subjective) then I'd expect a far more polished and proffesional response from the Arab world than relying on celebrity Z lister Martin Bin Whitaker.

Put it this way had MEMRI, only relied on the truth the whole truth, that is one thing, for it to manipulate date, so as to project an image under false guise, shows the true nature of MEMRI.


The way MEMRI projects Arabs negatively by manipulating data to suite its own agenda, is no different the way you came on this forum and PROJECTING a dancing professor as an Islamic scholar, who just happened to be a denier of the Holocaust.

There is no difference in the mentality behind MEMRI, Sin, and in STERN a Zionist who was more than willing to fight and die for the biggest ANTI SEMTIC in the history of Jewish persecution.

Salaam


Ash

[Mr Sin]

in STERN a Zionist who was more than willing to fight and die for the biggest ANTI SEMTIC in the history of Jewish persecution.[/B]

Salaam


Ash

Funny to think then he was on the same side as the Muslim SS then.

[br ash]

Funny to think then he was on the same side as the Muslim SS then.

He was also on the same side that sent over 50,000 Jews to the gas chambers. Your fellow Zionists.

The irony is you are on the side of the very individuals who carried out these crimes, i am not. You are on the side of the very people who when they could have saved over 50,000 Jews, allowed them to be sent to the gas chambers. THE ZIONIST LEADERSHIP.

But then you are the very person who was PROJECTING A DANCING Professor and an Islamic Scholar, and the very person who was a denier of the holocaust, and you were using him to defend the cause of Zionism

Like I have said get a life.


Salaam


Ash

[Mr Sin]

[B]
But then you are the very person who was PROJECTING A DANCING Professor and an Islamic Scholar, and the very person who was a denier of the holocaust, and you were using him to defend the cause of Zionism

Like I have said get a life.


Salaam


Ash

I stand by him AND he's giving me free dancing lessons.

[muslim_beta]

My objection to MEMRI is the fact that we are reliant on the selective choice of articles they translate. Since must of us do not know Arabic, we are completely in the dark as to what the Arab media is saying in Arabic. One cannot trust an organisation which is politically biased to translate the articles and objectively portray the current thoughts prevalent in the Arabic world (especially with founding members who are fanatic Zionists). It is absurd. The fact that they have a section on their website entitled "Arab anti-semitism documentation project" only proves that they are a partisan organisation with an agenda to grind, more specifically, an agenda to demonise Arabs and Muslims. If this is an organisation which purports to objectively portray Arab media, having a polemical section like that won't boost it's credibility.

This is a quote from their website a few years ago demonstrating their bias:

In its research, the institute puts emphasizes the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel.

http://web.archive.org/web/199902200...org/about.html

++++++++++++++++

http://www.arabmediawatch.com/module...rticle&sid=436

"The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is objective and independent"
Posted on Saturday, May 24 @ 16:12:22 BST

From 2001, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has come to public prominence as a site that provides translations of the Middle Eastern press. MEMRI describes itself as an independent and objective organisation, even though almost all of its translations show Arabs in a negative light, particularly in regard to their stance towards Israel.

Someone who browses their internet site, www.memri.org, assuming that the translations are a representative example of the Arabic press, may be inclined to wonder why it is so full of statements that are inaccurate or crude. It would be more worthwhile to consider the nature of the organisation that produces the material.

Shortly after 11 September 2001, at the time when MEMRI was coming to international prominence, it changed its self-description on its website. Prior to September 11, the section on its website with its "mission statement" contained the following statement which is now absent:

"In its research, the institute puts emphasizes [sic] the continuing relevance of Zionism to the Jewish people and to the state of Israel."

The mission statement and self-description of the organisation make it clear that it is an Israeli organisation with close connections to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) and its intelligence apparatus.

It also gives brief biographies of staff members, also now absent from the website. The president of the organization, reserve Colonel Yigal Carmon, "served in the IDF/Intelligence Branch from 1968 to 1988", was the Acting Head of Civil Administration in the West Bank (the euphemistic name for the illegal military occupation) from 1977 to 1982 (the years of Menachem Begin), and "was Advisor to Premiers Shamir and Rabin for Countering Terrorism from 1988 to 1993". Two of the other staff were members of IDF military intelligence, one was student coordinator for the World Zionist Organization, and one is a writer on Jabotinsky, who brokered the marriage between Zionism and fascism. The only other remaining staff member is a "stand-up comedian".

The original section of the website is preserved here.

The cross-checks that AMW has done of their translations usually indicate that they are accurate textually, but they often misdescribe the author. For example, on one occasion - picked up by a journalist at The Daily Telegraph - they stated that a one-off letter-writer to an Egyptian paper was actually a "columnist". They also often misdescribe the content of the articles in the headlines, so anyone just scanning through the titles would come to quite a mistaken view.

Examples of other mistakes are included in this article by the Guardian’s Middle East editor Brian Whitaker of 12 August 2002 entitled "Selective Memri".

By passing itself off as an independent organisation with a quasi-academic name, MEMRI has deceived a number of journalists into thinking it is a reliable source of information. The fact that it has used duplicity to procure this impression, and that almost all its staff members have been strongly partisan in their political and military work, should cast immediate doubt upon its credibility as an organisation and the accuracy of its work.

[Mr Sin]

By passing itself off as an independent organisation with a quasi-academic name, MEMRI has deceived a number of journalists into thinking it is a reliable source of information. The fact that it has used duplicity to procure this impression, and that almost all its staff members have been strongly partisan in their political and military work, should cast immediate doubt upon its credibility as an organisation and the accuracy of its work.

Yet you use palestineremembered.com as a reference.

[br ash]

I stand by him AND he's giving me free dancing lessons.

Nice to hear you admit it, hes taught you the Bull **** Dance

No question about it, your dancing professor, a denier of the holocaust, has taught you well in how to dance your bull **** from one thread to another. I totally agree with you.

You show your true colours, standing by a denier of the Holocaust. Like you standing by Stern, who was willing to die for the biggest Anti Semitic in the History of the world, and like you standing by the very scum bags, who sent over 50,000 innocent Jews to the gas chambers, when they could have saved them, because they did not meet the racist Zionist agenda.




Salaam


Ash

[muslim_beta]

Yet you use palestineremembered.com as a reference.

Fail to see the logic in this. All the facts can be verified on the Palestineremembered site, since all the sources are listed and can be checked up. Now my scepticism concerning MEMRI is not their bad translations and selective editing of certain articles (and there are major issues concerning those anyway), it is the fact that MEMRI purports to report the mainstream opinion of Arab media by translating selected articles. Firstly, due to MEMRI's political bias, it is not possible to trust them when they claim this represents mainstream Arab opinion. Also, one cannot gauge the current opinions of Arab media thought by presenting a few articles. In order for MEMRI's work to even have a semblance of credibility, they would have to translate all articles by all Arab media outlets produced everyday and let the audience gauge the current trends in Arab media thought.