MEMRI is an organization which translates Middle Eastern news into various languages for western nations such as English and German. It claims to be an organization with a desire to “inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization.”

Its founder is Meyrav Wurmser, a woman who has a history of being vehemently anti-Arab, being director of Hudson Institute, a neo-con allied organization and her husband, David Wurmser, is an adviser to Dick Cheney.

However it is its behavior which truly shows it is anything but nonpartisan, it is an organization known to deliberately mistranslate and edit news reports in Arab countries to fit in with its own agenda going so far as to imply Norman G. Finkelstein, a man whose parents were in concentration camps, is a holocaust denier.

He gave an interview in 2006 on New TV where whole parts of the interview were cut out in the English Transcript MEMRI had provided western news organizations. All instances where he made it clear that he believed in the holocaust and repeated that it would be irrational to deny it occurred was cut out from the translated transcripts MEMRI provided.

MEMRI recently posted what it alleged was an interview I did with Lebanese television on the Nazi holocaust. The MEMRI posting was designed to prove that I was a Holocaust denier. Below I juxtapose the MEMRI version of my interview (both the actual broadcast version as well as the transcript it prepared) against what I actually said in the interview.

Even as early as 2002 The Guardian had picked up on MEMRIs suspicious motives,

The second thing that makes me uneasy is that the stories selected by Memri for translation follow a familiar pattern: either they reflect badly on the character of Arabs or they in some way further the political agenda of Israel. I am not alone in this unease.

While claiming to be nonpartisan MEMRI is clearly mistranslating Arab news media to further a pro-Israel agenda. Injecting such propaganda directly into Western Media is a gross abuse of trust.

Muslim Massacre, a new retro styled game, is making the rounds on the internet and the British Muslim youth organisation ‘The Ramadhan Foundation’ is condemning the game saying

“We have written to the British Government to urge an inquiry into this game and take action to shut down the site. This is not satire but a deliberate attempt to demonize Muslims.”

“This game is glorifying the killing of Muslims in the Middle East and we urge ISP providers to take action to remove this site from their services as it incites violence towards Muslims and is trying to justify the killing of innocent Muslims.”

As a devout Muslim I find the assertion the game incites hatred towards Muslims to be ridiculous, it is clearly satire and if anything furthers understanding between Islam and the west by marginalizing both fundamentalist Muslims and people who incite hatred towards Islam. Certainly some people who play it will do so out of hatred for Muslims but most will see it as making a satirical political statement, if they are looking for a statement that is. From what I’ve seen and played of the game it seems to poke more fun at the far right wing of United States politics. You have a gung-ho American soldier tasked with killing Muslims who are represented as evil doing terrorists, all in

The game is no more than satire, it cannot be made clearer from the opening scene in the game where we have George Bush giving a speech condemning Islam and advocating genocide. The games creator does not even harbor any hostilities towards Islam saying that

“If I was to try and come up with a meaning for the game at this moment, it would probably be something along the lines of metaphorically destroying the stereotypical depiction of a Muslim.”

Yes it has depictions of Mohamed (PBUH) and Allah (SW), no I do not like that but the creator is not Muslim and he doesn’t have to follow Islamic law. If the game was deliberately inciting hatred against Muslims, that is to say, if it lacked the satirical elements then I would have issue with it, but as it stands at best it’s just making a political statement and at worst it is satirizing a serious matter.

The games website is currently down so in the interests of fairness and impartiality I have uploaded the game to the site, if you’re interested download and play it, make up your own mind. Click here to download.

I like this man, I don’t know how much I should like him based on this one video and the way in which his words have either been interpreted or delivered, but he makes one good point. Muslims should integrate into European society, gain respect and credibility with their fellow humans and that should in itself marginalize the provocateurs and destroy the walls seperating people.

One key statement he’s making I find hard to believe is that Muslims will outnumber non-Muslims in Europe within 20 years, unfortunately this is the headlines he’s made, talk of integration, misunderstandings between cultures, the fruitlessness of provocation and reaction to it have taken a back seat.

For those who may question his choice of words should remember he is being interpreted from a non-English language and is speaking to a non-Western culture.

That said I don’t approve of him saying ‘the enemies of Islam’ as it gives pride to people who actively provoke hate but more importantly it gives impressionable young Muslims a misguided desire for violence.

While Islamically dogs are regarded as unclean it doesn’t make them wrong to own, especially in certain circumstances. For example a farmer may need a herding dog or a blind man may need a guide dog, neither is regarded as unacceptable because it is recquired as part of the persons livelihood.

It seems to me the reason why Muslim taxi drivers, or just Arab taxi drivers in generel would refuse to transport a blind passenger and a guide dog would be because they are afraid of dogs. This fear is not born from religion however, it’s more than likely born from living in countries where stray dogs are notorious for pack hunting people.

The excuses cabbies use goes beyond simple religion, some say they’re allergic and some even admit to being afraid. Those reasons don’t seem to gel well with the New South Wales government the Transpot Minister saying “I need to make the point very clear to the taxi industry and to taxi drivers. This is illegal, with a fine of up to $1,100″.