A curious report here from the BBC. Apparently a Coptic business man has reposted a cartoon of Mickey and Minne Mouse in Moslem dress. I found the Minnie mouse one online, which I attach; I couldn’t locate the other. Apparently a Moslem cartoonist has — rightly — retaliated with a cartoon of said businessman, which again I have not seen. And extremist Moslem leaders are calling for his head for being disrespectful. Nothing special there.
But much more important is how the BBC reports the situation in Egypt.
The outcry comes at a time of tension between Egypt’s Christians and Muslims. …
But many have questioned his wisdom in sharing the cartoons at a time of tensions between Coptic Christians and conservative Muslims.
Scores of people have been wounded and several killed in clashes between the two communities in recent months, and there are fears this row will increase the chances of more sectarian clashes in the run up to post-revolution elections in September.
In each case the BBC puts “Christians” first. It refers to “tensions” — weasel wording — “between Coptic Christians and conservative Moslems”.
What is actually happening is an onslaught on the Coptic community by Moslem groups, now that Mubarak is out of power, as can be seen in many online news reports. But the phrasing plays that down, and carefully creates a false equivalence.
The BBC also uses the term “conservative” — the major British right-of-centre party — to describe the extremists. I’m sure the news team laughed as they did that.
It’s like reading TASS or Pravda in the old Soviet days.
Whatever I want from the BBC, for which my taxes pay, it is not this.
UPDATE: The Islamic Mickey Mouse seems very hard to find. Here’s a low-quality version:
What I’d like now, to complete the set, is the cartoon of the businessman! Anyone know where it is?
Roger, thank you very much for picking on this. The media in the West has been inaccurate in reporting the onslaught on the Copts by the Islamists, most often the Salafists, in Egypt. Since 11 February 2011 when Mubarak was removed, the Copts have been under constant attacks by the Islamists in which dozens of Copts were killed, hundreds injured, and so many churches and properties looted and burned. In addition, a sinister campaign of intimidation was commenced by them to terrorise the Copts, and ‘reduce them to their rightful place’.
Rather than portray the abuse of the fundamental freedoms and human rights of the Copts by Western media, it preferred to describe it as ‘clashes’ between Copts and Islamists. The media sees the Coptic question (which is an Islamist, religionist problem) in simply religious terms; and being unconcerned by religion in general, and sensitive of being ‘accused’ of siding with the Christian Copts, it preferred not to see that the problem is a human rights issue in the first place. Copts are being attacked by the Islamists of Egypt whose ideology of political Islam is anti-women, anti-human rights, anti-Coptic and anti-democratic. This is the truth that Western media needs to reflect to the citizens.
But the BBC is not alone in that bias or lack of inaccuracy when it comes to reports about the attacks against the Copts – On May 8, the Islamists attacked a Coptic church in Imbaba, Cairo, killed a few and scorched the church to the ground. The media as you can see from my article: THE MEDIA INACURACY IN REPORTING THE VIOLENCE AGAINST THE COPTS IN EGYPT http://copticliterature.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/577/ broadcast the news in a twisted way, often relying on local journalists who are marred by fanaticism themselves.
Dioscorus Boles
PS About the Mickey & Minnie cartoon: The Coptic business man is Naguib Sawiris who employs thousands of Egyptians, Muslim and Copts. A couple of weeks ago he tweeted a link to the cartoon, and since then the Islamists open hell on him. They orchestrated a hate campaign asking Egyptian Muslims to boycott his businesses.
It is important to know that the cartoon was drawn by a Muslim more than 6 months ago, and has been published in Egyptian papers, and was widely available on the internet. It depicts Mickey and Minnie in Islamists attire and liking. Mickey and Minnie, in addition to other western cartoon characters, dollies and teddies, have come under harsh attacks from the Islamists in the Middle East for being non-Islamic. They wanted these to be islamised. So the artist was just trying to do that.
You can find the cartoon of both characters here: http://www.masralyoumnews.com/2011/06/naguib-sawiris-slavin-apologize-for.html
Between me and you: I think Mickey and Minnie should feel insulted and sue.
Thank you for the update and the link, Dioscorus, as well as the extra details.
Deliberately misleading coverage by the BBC is depressing indeed. But I fear that we are all being misled, in so many ways, by what was once the mainstream media and is now little better than a mouthpiece for the most corrupt elements in western society.