Special Report - Arab Antisemitism
September 13, 2002
No. 7

The Events of September 11 and the Arab Media: The New Antisemitic Myth

In March 2002, MEMRI released a study of the Arab media's response to the
events of September 11, titled, "A New Antisemitic Myth in the Middle East
Media: The September 11 Attacks Were Perpetrated by the Jews." The study,
with a foreword by Congressman Tom Lantos, is available online at
http://www.memri.org/AntisemiticMythBook/ and as a PDF file at:
http://www.memri.org/book/AntisemiticMythBook.pdf.

Since the release of MEMRI's study - and regardless of the information
accumulated about the identities of the perpetrators - officials,
journalists, and religious leaders throughout the Arab and Muslim world have
continued to claim that the perpetrators of the attacks were not Arabs or
Muslims. The claim that American and or Jewish/Israeli elements carried out
the attacks has become an accepted, albeit false, and common myth in the
Arab world, to the point that U.S. President George W. Bush and Secretary of
State Colin Powell have been accused of masterminding the attacks.

This updated report, which is based on research compiled over the past five
months, reveals another trend that has emerged in the Arab media whereby
Arab writers have begun to base their fictitious allegations on the widely
discredited "research" of Western sources such as former Ku Klux Klan leader
David Duke and Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy. The apparent intent of the
Arab writers is to add credibility to their false allegations by relying on
Western sources whose claims they erroneously believe will be readily
accepted by a Western audience.

The full text of this updated report is available online at:
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sr&ID=SR00702

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The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) is an independent,
non-profit organization that translates and analyzes the media of the Middle
East. Copies of articles
and documents cited, as well as background information, are available on
request.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
P.O. Box 27837, Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: (202) 955-9070
Fax: (202) 955-9077
E-Mail: memri@memri.org
www.memri.org