MEMRI's translations can certainly be ridiculously inaccurate or even deceptive sometimes, but it's hard to ignore that many clips. I don't really know how representative these clips are. MEMRI certainly presents quite a lot of interesting material, like this outrageous clip in which various Lebanese officials/politicians supposedly blabber about the "supposed tragedy" of Anne Frank and say that the persons responsible for putting an excerpt from her diary in some textbooks should be prosecuted:
Or this video from an Egyptian cleric who supposedly does not deny the Holocaust but rather celebrates it, joyfully going over the pictures of dead bodies:
Whenever we stand up to those who deny or minimize genocide we send a critical message to the world. As we continue to live in an age of genocide and ethnic cleansing, we must repel the broken ethics of our ancestors, or risk a dreadful repeat of past transgressions. We know from captured German war records that millions of innocent Jews were systematically exterminated by Nazi Germany - most in gas chambers. These facts have been proven repeatedly through countless thesis and dissertation research papers. Virtually every PhD in the world will stake their career on the veracity of known Holocaust facts. Despite this knowledge, Holocaust deniers ply their mendacious poison everywhere, especially with young people on the Internet. Such deniers have only one agenda - to distort the truth in a way that promotes antagonism against the object of their hatred, or to deny the culpability of their ancestors and heroes.
ReplyDeleteMuseums and mandatory public education are tools to dispel bigotry, especially racial and ethnic hatred. Books and films can reinforce the truth of past and present genocides. They help to tell the true story of the perpetrators of genocide; and they reveal the abject terror, humiliation and degradation resulting from blind loathing and prejudice. It is therefore essential that we disclose the factual brutality and horror of genocide, combating the deniers’ virulent, inaccurate historical revision. We must protect vulnerable future generations from making the same mistakes.
A world that continues to allow genocide requires ethical remediation. We must show the world that religious, racial, ethnic, gender and orientation persecution is wrong; and that tolerance is our progeny's only hope. Only through such efforts can we reveal the true horror of genocide and promote the triumphant spirit of humankind.
Charles Weinblatt
Author, "Jacob's Courage"
http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/
Yeah but we are all on to your nefarious world Zionist conspiracy Prof. Weinblatt. ; )
ReplyDelete"Islamism" is probably one of the worst idealogies since National Socialism or Stalinist Communism. So it does not surprise me the slightest that they would be willing to deny something like the Holocaust. Numerous crimes are still whitewashed for political reasons, the Armenian Genocide, Soviet War crimes during WWII, Stalin's reign of terror, the Rape of Nanking and the Cambodian genocide under the Khmer Rouge to name just a few.
-"Islamism" is probably one of the worst idealogies since National Socialism or Stalinist Communism. So it does not surprise me the slightest that they would be willing to deny something like the Holocaust-
ReplyDeleteI think you're painting with too broad a brush.
I actually live in a place with a sizeable Muslim community, and they spend time doing a lot of things that have nothing to do with Holocaust denial or terrorism. I've also visited Asian countries with a large Islamic population, and it's the same there.
Maybe the rampant HD in the region has more to do with proximity to Israel, which I won't comment on, because I'm only concerned with Holocaust Denial and would rather not get too involved with the politics behind it.
> I actually live in a place with a sizeable Muslim community, and they spend time doing a lot of things that have nothing to do with Holocaust denial or terrorism. I've also visited Asian countries with a large Islamic population, and it's the same there.
ReplyDeleteI would say most Muslims aren't Islamists.
Well of course not all people who identify themselves as muslims embrace "Islamism" (notice the quotation marks ;) ). While I am not a fan of Islam per say, I would never forget muslims are individual humans with different interpretations of their religion or ideology like anyone else. I would never condone radical anti-Muslim measures like say this guy: hesperado.blogspot.com.
ReplyDelete