Monthly Archives: April 2012
Kony 2012: How would the media report on Joseph Kony if he was Muslim?
By Uzma Mushtaq
Invisible Children Inc., a non-profit organization, launched the “KONY 2012” campaign by releasing a short documentary online which generated over 80 million views within 2 weeks, spreading primarily by social media and celebrity endorsements. The campaign aims to make Joseph Kony famous in order to capture him via U.S. military intervention. Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a radical Christian rebel group operating in central Africa, which has been terrorizing the region for over 20 years by recruiting children as child soldiers and forcing them to commit atrocious crimes against civilians.
NYPD secret document leaked, reveals targeting of Iranian and Palestinian communities
Since September 11, 2001 the U.S. government, along with the NYPD began to investigate various mosques and Muslims in the U.S., focusing on Shiite Iranian Muslims in New York City.
According to the AP article released on February 2, 2012 the NYPD Secret Intelligence Strategy Report for the Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, titled “US-Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City.” The NYPD is prohibited under its own guidelines and city law from basing its investigations on religion. Under FBI guidelines, which the NYPD says it follows, many of the recommendations in the police document would be prohibited.
Israel’s kind acts in Haiti create double-standard
By Maniza Azam
In his Jan. 30 op-ed ["American Jews, Israel answer call to help Haiti"], Steven B. Nasatir [president of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago] highlights the amazing efforts by Jews in America and Israel in the humanitarian crisis in Haiti and for this, I truly commend them. But this also makes me wonder, what about the humanitarian crisis in Palestine? Nasatir’s article mentions religious reasons for helping Haiti as Jews are called to “repair the world,” but in Gaza, Israel is doing the opposite.
Steve Huntley misrepresents the facts on Palestine / Israel
By Dima Ansari
The Dec. 27th opinion piece, “Palestinian state would expel Jews,” by Steve Huntley, dismisses key facts and resorts to illogical arguments. Huntley argues that the formation of a Palestinian state would lead to the expulsion of the Jewish residents in the West Bank. Not only does Huntley attempt to support this claim by citing two unofficial representatives of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), but he disregards the fact that these Jewish settlements are deemed illegal by international law because they are on Palestinian land.
