Melissa Katsoulis explores the strangest corner in the bizarre world of the literary hoax
Researching a book about literary hoaxes led me to investigate a sub-section of the misery-memoir genre which often left me reeling in amazement: the Holocaust hoaxers. Special privilege must be given to those increasingly few witness-writers who survived the Second World War in Europe, but they have certain duties too.
It is their right to write how and when they want (perhaps many decades later, if they are ready) and, as with Elie Wiesel, with their own definitions of truth and fiction. It was he who said that “Some stories are true that never happened.”
Gilad Atzmon develops the subject
Seven messages and counting on my voice mail from different Bay Area reporters, all wanting to know the Muslim community’s reaction about the recent heinous killings of Nidal Malik Hasan. All wanting to know what had driven a 39-year-old Muslim to go on a killing rampage, murdering 13 people in Fort Hood, Texas. “He had it all,” someone said, “he’s an educated man, he’s a doctor.” Why did he do it?
Apparently, I fit the profile of someone who has these answers: I am a Muslim Palestinian American: I must know what one out of the 1.5 billion Muslims around the globe is thinking at any given time.
“Hey, Jamal…sorry to disturb you so early. But you know the Hasan story is big, and I was wondering if you’re willing to come for an interview and talk about how it feels being a Maahzlem (Muslim) and all,” a television producer says to me on my cell, while I was driving to work.
“How did you feel being a Christian, with Timothy McVeigh and Adolf Hitler being Christians?” I fired back.
Silence… I probably should not have said that, but there it is.
I’m sick and tired of these kinds of questions from media outlets whenever some kooky Muslim decides to commit a random act of violence…or in this case when a GI psychiatrist goes psycho. At the same time, I’m also sick and tired of self-appointed Muslim experts and spokespersons who jump at every miserable opportunity like this one to try to explain Islam.
“Islam is a religion of peace,” they say.
No, it’s not. Not anymore than Christianity is a religion of love. They’re just religions, and what you do with them is all up to the believer. More people have died in the name of religion than in any other catastrophe or plague.
Here is what I know about Hasan:
He was a disgruntled GI who wanted to leave the military for whatever reason: his conscience, his religion, or for personal reasons. He could have left peacefully. He could have quit and paid the price without hurting others, just like Muhammad Ali, who refused the draft to serve in Vietnam but did not feel the need to go on a killing rampage. Instead, he was stripped of his heavyweight title and served time in jail.
Hasan is a coward…not only for committing this heinous act, but for counting on being killed or taking the gun on himself, leaving behind his family and the entire Muslim community to account for his despicable actions.
Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:34:55 GMT
Israel’s ambassador to Ankara has been pelted with eggs during a visit to a Turkish university in the coastal city of Trabzon.
Angry Turkish students threw eggs at Gabi Levy as he arrived at Karadeniz Teknik university on Wednesday.
The students protesting against Tel Aviv’s policies regarding the Palestinians, including the issues of illegal settlement activity in the West bank and the war on the Gaza Strip.
Police detained a group of 20 students and the Israeli ambassador left without getting out of his vehicle, Anatolia reported.
The embarrassing incident came only one day after Gabi Levy, who is on a tour of the region, faced harsh criticism in the nearby city of Rize, where local officials condemned Israel’s “policies of expansion and occupation” and said that the so-called “self-defense” should not involve “killing children.”
Ankara-Tel Aviv re relations deteriorated after Israel’s deadly military offensive in Gaza that killed over 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, at the turn of the year.
The two side’s bilateral relations further deteriorated last month, after Ankara excluded Israel from an international air force exercise in protest at “the humanitarian tragedy” in Gaza and called for an immediate lifting of Gaza siege, which has put the region’s 1.5 million population in desperate need of basic necessities.
HE/MMN
Zionism’s Jewish Enemy
Alan Hart Interviews Professor Ilan Pappe, Israel’s leading “new” or “revisionist” historian.
Like all Israelis, Ilan was brought up, conditioned, to believe Zionism’s version of the history of the making and sustaining of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It wasn’t until he went to England to continue his academic studies that he had access to documentation which enabled him to understand that Zionism’s version is a propaganda lie.
Video posted November 04, 2009
Press play and wait a moment for video to load
Part 2
Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle East. Author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews: The False Messiah (Zionism, the Real Enemy of the Jews). He blogs on http://www.alanhart.net
this was published on Sat, 16 May 2009 17:55:36 GMT; looks like they managed to evict it otherwise; the channel can still be viewed on hotbird
Egyptian judicial authorities have lodged a lawsuit against the Al-Alam TV network in a move to ban its activities and put an end to its broadcast in the Arab nation.
The complaint said that the TV network has criticized senior Egyptian authorities including President Hosni Mubarak and Chief Prosecutor Abdul Majid Mahmoud, Tabnak reported.
It also claimed that the network had attempted to orchestrate a coup against the ruling system in the country with Prosecutor Mahmoud being a the target of attacks.
The complaint claimed that Al-Alam activities run counter to international media regulations and called for an immediate stop to its broadcast on NileSat.
Earlier in July, security forces in Cairo inspected the Iranian satellite TV network office and confiscated equipment, including cameras, computers and two tapes, claiming the network lacked a license for operation.
The complaint came after the network published an article on its website discussing Mahmoud’s accusations against a ‘Hezbollah-backed campaign against Egypt’.
SF/SC/MD
In a shock move against Al-Alam News Network, the Saudi-based Arabsat network and Nilesat in Cairo have taken the Arab language network off air.
The technical section of Al-Alam reported on Tuesday that the Iranian network’s officials have contacted the officials running the two satellite operators, but have received no response.
Arabsat and Nilesat are among several satellites on which Al-Alam television broadcasts its programs.
No further details are available yet.
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