Ramadan hate TV

By Ethel C. Fenig

Despite the pronouncements that Islam is a religion of peace, evidence questioning these fine sentiments keeps appearing. Yesterday's slaughter in Israel of four Jewish Israelis riding in a car, celebrated in the Arab world as a strike against peace, was one instance.

The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in Israel uncovered another example from Iran, centered on the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is a time when families gather for festive dinners with increased television watching after not eating during the day. For television watching suitable for the whole family on this happy holiday time

Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV and the Shi'ite Amal NBN-TV broadcast "The Christ," an Iranian-produced series rife with an anti-Christian anti-Semitic expressions.

Indeed, the program's anti Christian references were so offensive that in Lebanon its embattled Christian minority raised their voices in complaint, forcing a rare instance of Hezbollah appeasing Lebanese Christian sensibilities by eventually dropping the program. No complaints were voiced about the program's vile anti Jewish content.

These hateful Ramadan programs are a regular event in the Arab world. Previously

the Syrian-produced series Al-Shatat ("Diaspora," i.e., the exile of the Jewish people from their homeland), and from Lebanon it was distributed to many other countries. The series presented an anti-Semitic, pseudo-historical survey of the history of the Jewish people and Zionism, and included the anti-Semitic blood libel (i.e., that Jews baked the Passover matzo with the blood of Christian children).

The latter is an old Christian canard which Muslims, in the spirit of perverted interfaith relations, have adopted.

Although European and American authorities have tried to limit these broadcasts because of the racist content

The limitations are ineffective and both Hezbollah and Hamas circumvent them.

Happy peaceful Ramadan. And no talk of Islamaphobia. Even if there are some valid reasons for it.