Ramadan holiday season entertainment for Jew-haters

...And this is indeed a point that is emphasized too rarely: if a program like “Khaybar” can be produced and aired as Ramadan holiday entertainment, it’s not “Islamophobic” to conclude that many Muslims accept anti-Jewish bigotry as an integral part of their world view.

Petra Marquadt-Bigman..
The Warped Mirror/JPost..
13 July '13..

Imagine for a moment that for the holiday season between Christmas and New Year, some big Hollywood producer came out with a special history drama devoted to portraying Muslims as mendacious, bloodthirsty and utterly evil creatures who were rightly fought and killed by the noble Christians of a bygone era. While the program was being produced, the people involved with it – like the screenwriter and the actors – were interviewed in the media, describing the project in glowing terms and emphasizing how topical their history show was because current events proved that the Muslims of our time are as evil as the ones shown in the program…

Thankfully, this is an almost unimaginable scenario, but one doesn’t need any imagination to know how any even remotely comparable project would be received: less than a year ago, in September 2012, violent reactions to the amateurish YouTube clip “Innocence of Muslims” resulted in some 50 deaths, hundreds of wounded and extensive damage from arson and rioting. Since many Muslim rioters targeted US embassies and consulates, President Obama even addressed the uproar in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly, condemning the “crude and disgusting video [that] sparked outrage throughout the Muslim world.” Echoing widespread sentiments, a Guardian blogger described the 15-minute clip as “a bigoted piece of poison calculated to inflame the Muslim world” and argued that it provided “a dark demonstration of the power of film.”

But what would happen if there was “a bigoted piece of poison calculated to inflame the Muslim world” against the Jews? Well, no need to exert the imagination: for this year’s Ramadan that started a few days ago, a special program glorifying the efforts of early Muslims to make the Arabian Peninsula “judenrein” will be offered “on numerous channels, including Dubai TV, Dream TV (Egypt), Al-Iraqiyya TV (Iraq), Algerian Channel 3, Atlas TV (Algeria), Qatar TV, and UAE TV.”

As a comprehensive MEMRI-report documents, Arab media reports indicate that everyone involved in the production of “Khaybar” is very proud of the show:

“Actor Ahmad 'Abd Al-Halim said: ‘I play one of the Jewish characters, who demonstrates the behavior of the Jewish human being. All he thinks about is accumulating money.’ Actor Ahmad Maher said: ‘History has shown that the Jews are a people with no moral values, who do not honor their agreements.’ According to him, screenwriter Yusri Al-Gindi ‘created a historical document showing how these people are oppressors, who do not honor their agreements. History shows that they are the people who disputed Allah. They are the slayers of prophets.’”

According to the MEMRI-report, the show’s screenwriter, Yusri Al-Gindi, “gave frequent interviews about the program, its screenplay, and its meaning.” Apparently, Al-Gindi thinks of himself as an expert on Jews, claiming to have done “research” that led him to the insight “that from the days of Moses, the prophet of Allah, to now, the Zionist entity has not changed its method.” Al-Gindi also declared:

New TV Series Coming Next Month, Khaybar, Khaybar ya Yahud

Like the daily demonization of Jews and Israel in the Palestinian Authority and Hamas media, like the constant invention and exaggeration of stories of mistreatment of Palestinian Arabs by multiple European-funded NGOs, and like the lie factory that is the UN — here’s a particularly egregious example which is in the news today — anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate propaganda in Egypt and other Arab countries represents an early stage of a hoped-for genocide against the Jewish people.

Fresnozionism.org..
20 June '13..

Egyptian TV is planning to broadcast a new series during Ramadan in July: Khaybar, the story of a battle fought in 629 by the prophet Mohammed against the Jews of Khaybar, an oasis in northwestern Arabia. After a vicious battle in which many Jews were killed, women and children were made slaves (Mohammed himself took the wife of one of the leaders). A few Jews were allowed to remain on the condition that they give half of their produce to the Muslims.

Muslim demonstrators today like to chant “khaybar, khaybar ya yahud, jaish muhammad saya’ud, Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews, Mohammed’s army will return,” to remind us of the historic event and to threaten a replay of it.

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) describes the TV series thus:

The series is explicitly intended to demonize the Jews as an alien race hostile to Muslims and the welfare of the world. According to the series’ script-writer, Yusri Al-Jindy, “The goal of the series is to expose the naked truth about the Jews and stress that they cannot be trusted …I think it is time to expose them [the Jews] even in America itself. I am confident that the United States will realize that it paid a high price for supporting them.” …

Khayber is produced by the Qatari company Echo Media Qatar which, in 2010, produced a television series, The Collapse of the Caliphate, which blamed Jews for conspiring with the enemies of the Ottoman Sultan to dismember the Caliphate, the Islamic empire administered for several centuries by the Ottomans. A report in the Qatari newspaper Al-Raya states that the series focuses “on the social, economic and religious characteristics of the Jews including politics and conspiracies and how they dominate and control tribes.” …

The promotion of anti-Semitic themes in the Egyptian media has been a long-standing and ominous problem. In 2002-2003, Egyptian television produced a 40-part series, Rider Without a Horse, dramatizing the classic anti-Semitic tract, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The program depicts Jews murdering a gentile child to use his blood in making of Passover matzah.

It’s easy to think “who cares, it’s normal in that part of the world, it doesn’t mean anything special.” But it does. Like the daily demonization of Jews and Israel in the Palestinian Authority and Hamas media, like the constant invention and exaggeration of stories of mistreatment of Palestinian Arabs by multiple European-funded NGOs, and like the lie factory that is the UN — here’s a particularly egregious example which is in the news today — anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hate propaganda in Egypt and other Arab countries represents an early stage of a hoped-for genocide against the Jewish people.

A Middle East Reality Check - “Khaybar"

...the series may be in trouble because it portrays some of the Prophet Muhammad’s “companions” and therefore offends the religious sensibilities of Dubai TV and other broadcasters. While I have no position about what Muslims ought to consider taboo, the fact that “Khaybar” is still slated to run in most of the Middle East tells us more about what the contemporary Arab world thinks about Jews than canned statements about peace intended for the Western press that peace advocates rely upon.

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
17 June '13..

Much of the discussion about the Middle East peace process tends to focus almost entirely on what Israelis do and what the implications of more concessions to the Palestinians will be for the Jewish state. Some of this emphasis is justified, as Israel ought to do what is not only right but is in its long-term interest. For some on the left that means ignoring not only the openly stated intentions of the Palestinians and their supporters in the Muslim and Arab worlds but also their long record of rejecting peace. But as difficult as it might be to focus the international press as well as liberal Jews on the historical record of the Palestinians and their political culture that makes peace improbable if not impossible, it may be just as important to broaden the discussion to that of the culture of the entire region. If Palestinians have never found the will to recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders are drawn it is in no small measure because doing so is viewed as treason to the general anti-Zionist cause.

It is that context an item brought to our attention by the Elder of Ziyon website. In one we are informed that a new blockbuster miniseries slated for broadcast throughout the Muslim world in July as part of the region’s version of sweeps week for the Ramadan holiday may not be aired after all. But rather than “Khaybar” being axed for its widely reported anti-Semitic theme, the series may be in trouble because it portrays some of the Prophet Muhammad’s “companions” and therefore offends the religious sensibilities of Dubai TV and other broadcasters. While I have no position about what Muslims ought to consider taboo, the fact that “Khaybar” is still slated to run in most of the Middle East tells us more about what the contemporary Arab world thinks about Jews than canned statements about peace intended for the Western press that peace advocates rely upon.

As the Anti-Defamation League reported in February, there isn’t much doubt about the intent of people that made “Khaybar”—which centers on the historical conflict between early Muslims and Jewish tribes in the Arabian Peninsula during the Prophet’s lifetime:

Mr. Kerry, On your next visit promoting peace, perhaps this might receive your attention?

“The 1966 The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Egypt signed, states in Article 20, paragraph 2, that “Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.” “It is clear: Egypt must be held accountable, as must any country that broadcasts it.

Morton A. Klein..
ZOA..
13 June '13..

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon the Obama Administration to publicly pressure the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood-backed regime of Mohammed Morsi to cancel the broadcast of a viciously anti-Semitic television series that is due to air in July during Ramadan and to also cancel its distribution in the Arab world. The television series, Khayber, celebrates the victory of Muhammad’s Muslim army over the Jewish tribes living in northern Arabia in the battle of Khaybar in 629 C.E. According to most Islamic sources, the Khayber story ends with the slaughter of thousands of Jewish men, women and children. The vanquished Jews were forced thereafter to hand over half their produce to the Muslims until later expelled by the Caliph Umar. The ZOA has noted that Egypt is a signatory of The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which prohibits the “advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence,” and should be held accountable for the broadcasting and dissemination of this series.

The series is explicitly intended to demonize the Jews as an alien race hostile to Muslims and the welfare of the world. According to the series’ script-writer, Yusri Al-Jindy, “The goal of the series is to expose the naked truth about the Jews and stress that they cannot be trusted …I think it is time to expose them [the Jews] even in America itself. I am confident that the United States will realize that it paid a high price for supporting them.” Anticipating a charge of anti-Semitism Al-Jindy said that, “The charge of anti-Semitism is an out­dated trend, and in fact it is a lie that Jews use against any­one who tries to expose their naked truth and their conspiracies.” Al-Jindy is also the author of The Wandering Jew, which was banned in Egypt in the 1980s.

Khayber is produced by the Qatari company Echo Media Qatar which, in 2010, produced a television series, The Collapse of the Caliphate, which blamed Jews for conspiring with the enemies of the Ottoman Sultan to dismember the Caliphate, the Islamic empire administered for several centuries by the Ottomans. A report in the Qatari newspaper Al-Raya states that the series focuses “on the social, economic and religious characteristics of the Jews including politics and conspiracies and how they dominate and control tribes.” A report on Al Jazeera this week described Khayber as “the most important feature of the Islamic-Jewish fight. Muslims always raise its name in their rallies against Israel because it constitutes a memory of a harsh defeat for the Jews who lived in the Arabian Peninsula during the time of prophet.”

The promotion of anti-Semitic themes in the Egyptian media has been a long-standing and ominous problem. In 2002-2003, Egyptian television produced a 40-part series, Rider Without a Horse, dramatizing the classic anti-Semitic tract, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The program depicts Jews murdering a gentile child to use his blood in making of Passover matzah.

The current Egypt President, Mohammed Morsi, also has a long and ugly record of anti-Semitism: