Rabbi Boteach trying to turn Michael Jackson's kids Jewish?

Apparently, if you believe Al Arabiya in Arabic.

Al-Arabiya seems to have taken some relatively obscure news stories: one about Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's friendship with Michael Jackson, and one about MJ's ex-wife Debbie Rowe considering herself Jewish and seeking custody of her two kids.

Putting the two together, and you get Arab journalism at its finest.

Al-Arabiya is saying that Debbie Rowe seeking custody to raise the kids Jewish at Rabbi Boteach's urging. It also says that Botech hired lawyer Gloria Allred, who filed a complaint against Jackson in 2003 after he dangled his baby from a hotel window, to help Rowe gain custody.

They have a video that supposedly shows this, but it is only a video of Rabbi Boteach being interviewed on Fox News about Jackson the day after his death.

Usually, mainstream Arabic news tries to be somewhat accurate if slanted. Apparently as soon as the word "Jew" shows up, their few journalistic standards go out the window.

Of course, neither this story nor yesterday's story about how Arabs shouldn't sell Jewish souvenirs in Jerusalem were never translated into their English language site.

UPDATE: Boteach seems quite happy leaving MJ's kids with their grandmother.