Demonizing is happening on all sides. We have to be alert against that. But that's why broadcasting this series are all the more remarkable.

Btw, got any reference to the shows you are mentioning. I'd like to read a bit more about it.

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Exposing the dark side.

You can get transcripts and view video of both shows at MEMRI. Transcripts were also made part of the record a couple years ago as part of some senate hearings. I'll see if I can find them archived at the US Senate site.

I beg to differ about the demonizing. You will not find the equivalent of these (and other) shows on official israeli, american, or european channels. You will certainly find political content and one sided arguments and even things that could be classified as propaganda. But for sheer dehumanizing poison, you'll find nothing to approach these shows.

You should also know that Iranian booksellers brought out new editions of "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" and an abridgement of that famous work called "The International Jew" for display in their kiosk at the world's largest book fair in frankfurt in 2005.

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The most important political office is that of the private citizen.
Justice Louis D Brandeis

Thanks! I'll have a peak at it.

"Evil has landed"

I suppose I don't need to explain myself further here.

I also haven't seen the movie "300", but at least the Iranians were complaining how the Persians were depcted.

And western media are publishing (in their full right!) offensive cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. As I said, both sides.

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Exposing the dark side.

"Western media" is free. The broadcasters and printers of the horrible depictions we're talking about are state controlled.

There is no equivalence between poking fun at muhammed (or jesus or moses) in a cartoon and making a movie which depicts jews killing christian children to use their blood for passover motzah or plucking the eyes out of palestinian babies. Indeed, pretending there is equivalence is a derivative of the same kind of political manipulation that is the ultimate goal of these telelvision show. They are all a means to divert the attention of poor and oppressed arabs and persians from the abuses they suffer at the hands of their own dictatorial leaders and direct the peoples anger at the nearest target of convenience. It's an old trick but it can still work.

Apropos of nothing in particular here is a link to a cartoon that cracks me up sometimes. It goes after jesus and muhammed simultaeneoulsy.

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The most important political office is that of the private citizen.
Justice Louis D Brandeis

Apparently, it also plays on an independent Jordanian channel Al-Mamnou TV (http://www.intelligence.org.il/fr/fr...shataat_f.pdf). So whether states are broadcasting it or private channels isn't relevant. Such series are extremely bad taste, but while we as westerners easily downplay the significance of the cartoons, we may very well ignore the true sensitivity they have in the muslim world.

I agree fully that many of these broadcasts are indeed a way of the regimes to create an external enemy, but on either side the deminization serves a sinister purpose.

Edit: in case you're not fluent in French: Jordanian TV - “Al-Shatat,” an anti-Semitic Syrian-produced series

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Exposing the dark side.

It's not irrelevant at all. Broadcast by independent media is qualitatively different than dissemination by a government controlled outlet. The content of government controlled media can be rationally classified as indicative of the actual policy objectives of that government - regardless of statements made to western audiences.

And once again I will point out nothing in the Israeli, European, or American press comes close to these (and other) shows produced for official arab government television either in vituperative purpose or in outrageously and transparently racist content. The only things remotely similar in the west are publications from such private racist organizations as KKK, john birch society, and the so-called "christian identity" movement.

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The most important political office is that of the private citizen.
Justice Louis D Brandeis

Ok, I give that to you. Irrelevant is a too heavy word. In most authoritarian regimes state television programming is at least endorsed by the regime. Not so in more free countries (remember the trouble ol' Tony Blair had with his BBC).

Again, who are we to say if Al-Shatat is more appaling for us, than the muslim cartoons are to muslims.

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Exposing the dark side.

We can certainly say that no reasonable person who recognizes that this is the 21st century could possibly equate the two. There simply is no way to equate the mischaracterization of real human beings for the purpose of making them appear worthy of hatred with the ridicule of an imaginary being for the purpose of making people laugh or to illustrate a point.
If there are more than a tiny handful of fanatics for whom these acitivities are equivalent then we should all be very afraid.

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The most important political office is that of the private citizen.
Justice Louis D Brandeis

Different cultures, different religions. During the outcry about the cartoons, I've even heard very moderate muslims declare that this is really the worst offense you can make against the muslim community.

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Exposing the dark side.

Comments like this do not make you sound intelligent.

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One day, I will sneak across the border into Canada and be an illegal alien. It will be fun.

I'm not here to sound intelligent.

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Exposing the dark side.

So then you are a troll.

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One day, I will sneak across the border into Canada and be an illegal alien. It will be fun.

timj219;
Transcripts from MEMRI are highly suspect. Read on;

jihad4beer;
You know, whenever you appear here it's in your troll's coat.

The transcripts themselves are not suspect. They are excerpts taken directly from Arab and Muslim television and nobody disputes the translations.

There is nothing unethical about showing the openly sexist, racist and close minded attitudes and opinions aired on various Middle East media networks.

You are saying that the message is suspect because the messenger is an Israeli.

But the message is real.

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One day, I will sneak across the border into Canada and be an illegal alien. It will be fun.