"Evil" (dixit Fox News) Saudi co-sponsor of "WTC Mosque", is big shareholder of ... Fox News! [EN]
If the Park 51 Cordoba center should be declared evil because of its co-sponsor, as Fox news claims, then we should do the same with Murdoch's Fox News itself, for it has the same co-investor...
Evil and Stupidity. The mix of them spells no good for whomever is building horror- and doom-scenarios.
The evil men are Newt Gingrich and John Bolton, frustrated politicians.
The stupidity is glamorously represented by Pamela Geller, and, as we will see here, the biggest US news channel, Murdoch's Fox News.
The scene is Lower Manhattan. A Muslim community of Sufi inspiration has been established there for many years. Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf was among the first and most outspoken Muslims who condemned the Al Qaeda terrorist actions of September 11, 2001. Some of his constituents were among the 3.000 victims of the terrorist attacks on the WTC towers. The Bush administration helped him to spread his message in the US and all over the world.
Rauf bought an abandoned building in his neighborhood and plans to turn it into a cultural center with swimming pool, gym, library and prayer facilities for Muslims and a meeting place for people of different religions. Symbolically, the name of "Cordoba Center" was chosen, for the Andalusian city of Cordoba has been, for a number of centuries, a space where liberty of opinion and speech, as well as peaceful interaction between Jews, Christians and Muslims flourished.
No problem in liberal New York City. Until the sharks withered an opportunity for hate-mongering. A scandalous exploitation of the 9/11 victims and their families started. Until now, NYC Mayor Bloomberg and President Obama kept a firm stand for liberty of religion and opinion, but the agitation of Ms. Palin and her tea-party friends got nation-wide support. Even internationally, it attracted the support of European anti-Islam "hero" Geert Wilders, who is scheduled as a speaker on 9/11 2010 at a protest meeting in NYC.
Therefore, we are happy, here in Europe, to present to you an inimitable US treatment of how Fox News stumbled into a "Parent Company Trap". The news came to us by way of Prof. Juan Cole's Informed Comment Blog, since 2002 my favored source of news about the Islam world and US-American reactions to it.
Cole:
Jon Stewart points out that Fox News anchors and guests are vilifying Saudi prince and financier Alwaleed bin Talal as a financial backer of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the Muslim-American clergyman who seeks to build a community center in lower Manhattan. The problem: Alwaleed bin Talal is part owner of Fox News. Stewart’s special correspondents debate whether Fox is just pure evil or terminally stupid.
"I vote for both..", says Juan.
I agree. The following video thanks its existence to the strict rules of transparency in matters of financial support and shareholder-participation that exist in developed liberal societies (but NOT in Holland, where the Wilders mafia is allowed to hide its sponsors and benefactors). As such, it cannot and should not be seen as anti-Americanism. No, it honours the US and shames the Dutch politicians who did not do their job, as well as our timid media, that do not allow a show like this (Jon Steward's) to be aired.
Enjoy!
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
The Parent Company Trap | ||||
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Evil malevolence and stupidity are an explosive mix.
It may explode in your face.
That is what happens here. Fox News, the CitiBank, the family Bush investment companies and many other institutions in the US and in Europe, avidly accept Islamitic finance. In the video, you may have seen Mr. Murdoch as well as George W. Bush cuddling with the president of the Saudi Royal Fund: Prince Alalweed bin Talal. But when and if the same Prince Al Talal is investing in the immobilities of an islamic cultural centre, he suddenly turns into a summit of evilness!
To my Dutch friends, I say: "Look, whom our anti-Islam clown Wilders is associating with!"
And to my European friends in general, I say: Where is the Euro-Jon-Stewart programme, that will keep us happy and sharp? Put it on-line, before Wilders and his friends will have cut dramatically financing of public media.