The lynching of four Shia by a mob apparently led by Salafi sheikhs in the village of Abu Musallim in Greater Cairo on June 23, 2013, came after months of anti-Shia hate speech at times involving the ruling Muslim Brotherhood and its political party, Human Rights Watch said today. The episode shows that the government needs to recognize that Shia in Egypt are at risk and to take protective measure to ensure their protection and equal rights.Look at that - HRW has the ability to condemn hate speech that could lead to people being killed!
“The brutal sectarian lynching of four Shia comes after two years of hate speech against the minority religious group, which the Muslim Brotherhood condoned and at times participated in,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
The anti-Shia hate speech by Salafis, who consider Shia Muslims heretics, and the Muslim Brotherhood has been going on for two years, Human Rights Watch said. Muslim Brotherhood members and officials at Al Azhar, Egypt’s main center of Islamic learning and authority, have publicly called for an end to the spread of Shiism in Egypt.
But Arab antisemitism has never been condemned by HRW, or Amnesty. Not once.
Even though there are still Jews living in Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and elsewhere. Even though the Arab antisemitism is being spread among Muslims in Europe and results in attacks against Jews there. Even though there happens to be a Jewish state in the midst of the Arab world.
The Khaybar miniseries is being broadcast throughout the Arab world in July. The entire point of the series is to instill hatred of Jews under the guise of entertainment. Despite repeated calls for HRW and Amnesty to condemn it, and the delivery of a petition this week to their offices in New York, these "human rights groups" remain silent about incitement against Jews that will be seen by tens, or perhaps hundreds, of millions of Arabs.
HRW is showing its hypocrisy with its belated denunciation of the Egyptian incitement against Shiites. Yet how was this incitement framed? By saying that Shiites are even worse than Jews. In other words, for Muslims, Jews are the standard against which all hate must be compared.
HRW and Amnesty apparently have no problem with this.
They are happy to condemn white European antisemitism. They are happy to condemn Arab hate against other Arabs. But direct Arab incitement against Jews?
Nothing.
(You can still sign the petition demanding HRW and Amnesty condemn Arab antisemitism and the Khaybar series in particular - all signatures get emailed to them. Now including Joe Stork.)