Mob attack

If a white mob beat, taunted and stripped a lone black man on Martin Luther King day I would expect the media coverage to be wall to wall. Oddly when it is a white man beaten, taunted and stripped on St Patrick's Day the media coverage is all but non-existent; why?

'A feral mob attacked, beat, stripped and tormented a lost tourist on St Patrick's Day in Baltimore. This racist attack was committed while chanting the name of a Black website called 'World Star Hip Hop' that regularly contains virulent racist and violent comments against Whites. Download this video immediately and continue to spread it to help catch these cowardly violent and racist thugs.'

Do I hear the word(s) double-standards?

JPost reports that:

'Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he will travel to Gaza if Israel does not apologize to Turkey for last year's Gaza flotilla raid, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported Wednesday.

Erdogan made the statement while on his way to northern Cyprus where he addressed his intent to strike a peace deal between the Greek and Turkish sides of the island nation, according to the report.'

Did you spot the double-standard? The Prime Minister of Turkey made his remarks on the Israeli/Gaza situation whilst on his way to Northern Cyprus. Just to remind you Northern Cyprus is illegally occupied by Turkey, it is recognised as an independent state by just Turkey. Cyprus is now a member of the EU but the EU will not even call for the illegally taken land to be returned to the legitimate Cypriot government.

Is there no concept of irony in Turkish?

SOAS and who is accorded the benefit of freedom of speech and who is not...

Providing private tuition to Mutassim Gaddafi, the National Security Advisor to the Gaddafi regime - no problem.

Giving ex-Pakistan dictator General Pervez Musharraf to speak to students despite being accused of complicity in murder, warcrimes and more - no problem.

Inviting al-Qaeda's Anwar al-Awlaki to speak - no problem.

Giving a platform to Palestinian academic Azzam Tamimi who has advocated suicide bombing, has told students he “longs to be a martyr” and that Israel “must come to an end” - no problem.

I could go on and on with the examples of 'no problem'; but some of SOAS's students found their limit this week when as The Standard reports, they 'stormed a university building and demonstrated against David Willets speaking on their campus... a student of politics and persian, said: "We were demonstrating against tuition fees, cuts and changes that are to be made to the education system."'

So allowing supporters of terrorism to speak is fine but a Conservative minister; no way.

It could be that the protester quoted above also protested against one or more of the above named speakers. It could be that there were equally vehement protests against the above four speakers. It could be; but somehow I doubt it.

Why is Israel being a Jewish state 'racist?

Why is Israel called racist for wanting to be a Jewish state and vilified for trying to get the Palestinians to agree to this in the latest talks? I only wonder because the draft constitution of the planned Palestinian state includes the following:

"This constitution is based on the will of Palestinian-Arab people" (Article 1)
"the Palestinian people are a part of the Arab and Islamic nation" (Article 2) "sovereignty belongs to the Palestinian Arab people" (Article 10)
"the legal character of the Arab-Palestinian people will be embodied by the state" (Article 13)
"Islam will be the official religion of the state" (Article 6)'

I wonder if the BBC will cover this aspect of the story... No I don't really, I know that they won't.



Thanks to Daily Alert for the spot.

Another security separator that goes unmentioned

As well as the various walls other than those built by Israel that I mentioned yesterday, there is of course the Melilla border fence built by the Spanish to protect their enclave in North Africa from people entering from Morocco. Again no mention of this security fence seems worth mentioning by the BBC or the United Nations whilst they obsess over the Israeli security fence; why?

It is also odd that the Spanish seem not to mention their possession of Melilla (or indeed Ceuta, Islas Chafarinas, the Peñón de Alhucemas and the Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera) when they lay claim to Gibraltar from the British imperialists.

Robert Crumb bravely satirises the Christian & Jewish holy book, would he be so brave with the Koran?

THe Telegraph report that:

"A sexually explicit illustrated Book of Genesis by controversial artist Robert Crumb, which features Bible characters having intercourse, has been condemned by religious groups.

The book, which is released this month, carries the warning "adult supervision recommended for minors", and is described as "scandalous satire" by its publishers.

It includes graphic illustrations of Bible characters having sexual intercourse, and other scenes depicting naked men and women as well as "gratuitous" depictions of violence."

Robert Crumb is quoted as saying that he does not believe that the Bible is the word of God. "I take it all for myth from start to finish, with probably some faint relation to historical reality."

How about the Koran, Mr Crumb? Do you accept that that is the word of God or do you think it is myth from start to finish? Will you turn the Koran into a sexy cartoon, or is that beyond your levels of bravery?