Shaaban: Arab and Islamic Issues Appear in Western Media in a Distorted
Manner
Dec 08, 2009
www.sana.sy/eng/21/2009/12/08/259903.htm

Damascus, SANA - Syrian news agency - Presidential Political and Media
Advisor Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban said that Arab and Islamic issues appear in
Western media in a very distorted way that combines ignorance and targeting
the Arabs and Muslims, stressing that the Western media has become in recent
years owned by a group of companies associated with capitalist and Zionist
programs.

In an interview with the Syrian satellite TV channel Monday night, Dr.
Shaaban regretted that the Arabs do not have their own media and news
agencies that present news from an Arab point of view, or at least from a
realistic point of view. "We know that all these things are political
because the Middle East issue and the Arab-Israeli conflict are political,
but the Western media and its biased owners- who are the true enemies of
Arab rights - direct media towards religious issues...and issues that
discuss terrorism in a manner that targets Muslims and Arabs and labels them
as terrorists," she said.

She added that "Western mass media managed to portray Arab-Israeli conflict
as if it's a conflict against Muslims or a conflict that targets Jews...All
of these contradicts the history of this region, which is the cradle of the
three divine religions."

Dr. Shaaban said that "we wondered about the western discrimination against
the Arabs and the Muslims because we live in the same region and I as a
Muslim woman I belong to the church as I belong to Islam because the church
bills are part of the existence and life in as much as Islam is part of our
life. We as Arabs and Muslims feel astonished that the West sees the veil
(Hijab) and the Mosque as a dangerous phenomenon.Western media never present
our issues as they are in reality ".

She pointed out that "human life is sacred, but the lives of Arabs, from the
western point of view, are useless and aren't treated equally as others'
lives".

The Presidential Political and Media Advisor stressed that the serious thing
"is not only that they don't write about us, but they also distort this
history, civilization and values. Nothing is done by accident; it is planned
and outlined to draw the image of the Arabs, Muslims and women in the
western media. We remember that when they occupied Iraq they said they came
to liberate Iraqi women and to improve their conditions".

She added that demolishing Gaza and Palestine and stealing the ruins of
occupied Syrian Golan and usurping its land do not exist in western media.
We blame the western media on one side, but we should re-evaluate our
approach on the other side.

"We as Arabs should be more active in displaying our issues to the western
world, particularly at the internet era and the availability that these
facts could be found on the websites if we don't have TV channels or
newspapers in the West", she said

Dr. Shaaban added that the great secret behind the success of the Syria
policy is President Bashar al-Assad's vision and steadfastness despite all
pressures put on Syria since 2005, and the clarity of this vision as well as
the strategic decision that resistance is less costly than surrender.
"President al-Assad expressed this stance on December 2005 in his speech at
Damascus University, giving Syria this success and the political standard
which could be an example to be followed in the media field to create our
own space and issues and not to copy what the others say".

She said the idea of democratic and tolerant West is odd in light of recent
poll on preventing the building of minarets. The idea of the western
tolerance is western-made. Racism against Muslims existed in the West at
some point; it hasn't fully disappeared. now it's appearing in new forms.

Dr. Shaaban saw that "this campaign against Muslims and Islam which is
escalating nowadays due to the existence of a positive phenomena in the
interest of Arabs and Muslims in the West coupled with the appearance of
moves that call for boycotting Israel, adopting Goldstone report and
punishing the Israelis for the crimes perpetrated against the
Palestinians.., so they tried to get around this positive phenomena by
escalating against the Muslims".

On the regional scene and the future of the region, Dr. Shaaban stressed
that the role Syria played under the leadership of President al-Assad
changed the regional scene. The strategic decision on the strategic
relationship with Turkey and Iran opened new prospects for the Arab world,
where Jordan and Libya also have canceled visas requirements with Turkey.

She concluded by saying that Syria is enjoying President al-Assad view and
its position as a key player in the region and can not be ignored. Syria
aspires to be a key player in exercising the Arab rights, not only regarding
the Golan but also in Palestine. It also aspires that Iraq recovers from
what it happened to it.

F.Allafi/ H.Sabagh/ H.Zain/ Ghossoun / Zahra