Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Worst Thing You Can Do To An Egyptian

Ayman Kandeel fells the woman he thinks is an Israeli TV host. (photo credit: MEMRI screenshot)

Apparently, tell them they're actually in the same room with Jews.

You might remember the old TV show 'Candid Camera', which got its laughs from pranking people and filming their reactions secretly.

Here we have the Egyptian version, courtesy of MEMRI on al-Nahar TV, where three prominent Egyptian celebrities were brought in for an Arabic-language interview that they were told was for German television. But once the cameras were rolling, the interviewer and the staff on the set pranked the guests by telling them they were really Israelis and the show was for an Israeli channel. The full clip, available at MEMRI's link is well worth watching.



The reactions of the guests were, shall we say, revealing.

All three guests reacted by spewing some of the vilest Jew hatred you could imagine, and the two male guests actually got physically violent with the 'Jews', one of them, actor Ayman Kandeel, punching the female host Iman Mubarak and knocking her to the ground.

Not only does it reveal the deep seated hatred for Jews in Egyptian society but what passes for normal behavior. Could you imagine an American actor hitting a female TV host on the air and having any kind of career left, let alone avoiding being arrested?

Mahmoud Abd Al-Ghaffar makes a declaration. (photo credit: MEMRI screenshot)

Actress Mayar Al-Beblawi is shown in the clip declaring that “In that country [Israel], they are all liars. You wouldn’t believe it. They are real liars. They keep whining all the time about the Holocaust, or whatever it’s called. With all the Palestinians that you have killed, you are still whining about the Holocaust and its lousy figures?!”

Al-Beblawi adds later: “These people sawed off [the head] of John the Baptist. They are the slayers of the prophets, what else can we say about them?… Allah did not curse the worm and the moth as much as he cursed the Jews."

Even more revealing is what happened after the shows hosts revealed that they really were Egyptians and it was all a Candid Camera style stunt.In the case of Ayman Kandeel, he even demanded to see identity cards.

The hosts of the show never once remonstrated with the guests for their violence and bigotry. Even the female host, Iman Mubarak who got slugged praised them for their 'patriotism' after being told they were in the same room with Jews.

It's worth noting that this is a Muslim country that has supposedly been at 'peace' with Israel for over three decades...and where the Muslim Brotherhood, with the assistance of the Obama Administration has just taken over the country.

As I write this, the Israeli embassy in Cairo is still shuttered and unoccupied after it was sacked and destroyed by a mob while Egyptian police stood by and watched.

The reality, of course is that the Camp David Accords were a futile gesture, and both the Americans and Israelis should have realized that as soon as the Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat for signing them.

The hatred of Jews  is an integral part of Islam, predates the birth of the State of Israel and  is not going to be affected by signing a piece of paper, unicorn fantasies of trading land for guarantees of peace, concentrating on 'process'  or by creating a Jew-free 'Palestinian' state, not matter how large it is. The agendas of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafist al-Nour Part are no secret to Egyptians, who voted for them by huge majorities.

Until this basic attitude changes, all of the energy devoted to Mideast peace is wasted.

The Egyptians are only hanging on to the facade of peace because they aren't capable of waging war yet and still want to keep the American aid flowing.

 The Israelis would have been far better off simply hanging on to the land.
 

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

At Elder of Tziyon, there is a video clip showing the reaction of typical Israeli Jews in a Candid Camera event in which an Arab woman, dressed ''Islamic'', was refused service when she tried to buy a coffee, the seller saying, ''We don't sell to Arabs.''
Contrast the Israeli reactions with these mentally deranged Egyptians.

Zachriel said...

Rob: The hatred of Jews is an integral part of Islam

It was an integral part Christianity for most of its history, too. For example,
http://www.humanitas-international.org/showcase/chronography/documents/luther-jews.htm

Rob said...

Zachriel,
There's an important difference.

Jew hatred was NOT an integral part of Christianity but of a number of Christians, including leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. And yes,including Martin Luther,who like Mohammed,originally had nice things to say about Jews until he realized the Jews had no interest in converting en masse to his new faith and then turned psychotic.

There is no religiously sanctioned imperative to hate Jews in the New Testament, as there is in throughout the Qu'ran, the Hadiths ( the Muslim equivalent of the Gospels) and the Sunna.

Jesus never sanctioned Jew hatred,cursed the Jews or encouraged it, unlike Mohammed,who was pretty vocal on the subject.

That's why organized and religiously sanctioned Jew hatred by Christian denominations is largely a thing of the past, while it remains the attitude of the majority of Muslims today.

It's why no Muslim clerics and frankly, only a very few individual Muslims have ever had much bad to say about atrocities like the bombing of the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires, the massacre of the Fogel Family or the murder of Jews in the Chabad center in Mumbai,among many other events.

It's why the Arabic version of Mein Kampf remains a best seller in the Arab World.

There simply is not the equivalence here you are trying to create.

Regards,
Rob

Zachriel said...

Rob: Jew hatred was NOT an integral part of Christianity

It apparently was for most of 2000 years. Luther provided an oft-cited theological justification.

Rob said...

I see we're going around in circles.

Oft cited by whom? And how long ago?

Martin Luther's 'justification' was a very biased reading of one part of the Gospel of Matthew. Some Christians indeed followed that in the past. Few do today.

But there is nothing in the New Testament that even come close to approaching the hatred directed at Jews in the Qu'ran and Hadiths.

There is no account in the Gospels of Jesus demonizing Jews or calling on his followers to murder them.

Mohamamed does that repeatedly, and it is regarded as a duty and an instruction to the majority of Muslims today.

That is exactly why Christian violence against Jews is a thing of the past, and Muslim violence remains ongoing.

I can't believe that even you would try to make a serious case of equating them.

Zachriel said...

If Luther doesn't qualify as a prominent Christian theologian, then no one does.

Rob: I can't believe that even you would try to make a serious case of equating them.

We didn't equate them. Rather, we pointed out that anti-semitism was 'an integral part of Christianity' for centuries. "The Jews killed Christ" is about as evil as anything could be to most Christians.

Rob said...

You didn't equate them? LOL! Just reread your first comment!

You also didn't address what I had to say about the prominence of Jew hatred in Muslim scriptures or opinion now, today as opposed to Christianity, but OK Zachriel... have it your own way.

Michal said...

I've pointed out that MEMRI can not be trusted before, but do tell me, is it not true that the studio staff, the camera men, the host, the producer, and no doubt many more people in on this prank are Egyptians? How come we're judging a nation here by one hothead in the studio? Especially considering this video comes from a source notorious for its "mistranslations".

Rob said...

Hello Michal,
Ahhh, wikipedia,the source anyone can edit! And it quotes al-Guardian, the newspaper of choice for anti-semites world wide...

Having tested a number of MEMRI's translations with native Arabic and Farsi speakers, let's just say we disagree as to the veracity of what they put out.

Now as to your other point, I'm not judging a whole nation by 'one hothead' if you want to refer to someone who slugged a woman on national television because he thought she was a Jew as such.

All 3 guests referred to Israel and Jews with genocidal rhetoric and the two male guests both reacted with physical violence merely because they thought they were in the same room with Jews.

Not to mention the Egyptian crew congratulating them for their patriotism.

Are you seriously denying that Jew hatred is not deeply ingrained in the majority of Egyptians?

When Lara Logan was gang raped, was it or was it not to screams from the mob of 'Arab Spring' perpetrators of 'Jew, Jew!'

And what happened to Egypt's Jews, Michal? There were 75,000 of them before 1948. Today there are virtually none, because they were ethnically cleansed after everything they owned was plundered.

How about the Egyptian government printing and distributing Hitler's Mein Kampf, and the The Protocols of Zion throughout the country and funding television programs based on them?

Do I need to bring up numerous other examples, Michal?

There's plenty of evidence outside this video to judge what Egypt is, and why, but I though this particular video highlighted it nicely.

And aside from the Egyptian attitude towards Jews, it also illustrates the average Egyptian attitude towards women.

Regards,
Rob

Zachriel said...

Rob: You didn't equate them? LOL! Just reread your first comment!

We didn't equate the theological underpinnings, which, as we showed, depends on the theologian. We stated that hatred of Jews was an integral part of Christianity for most of its history.

Rob: You also didn't address what I had to say about the prominence of Jew hatred in Muslim scriptures or opinion now, today as opposed to Christianity

Apparently, many prominent Christian theologians have reached a different conclusion about the content of the scriptures. Did you even read Luther's essay? It's not an incoherent rant, but chock full of scriptural support.

Zachriel said...

By the way, none of this is meant to excuse ethnic hatred or historical revisionism. But such attitudes are not inevitable. They can be overcome.

Rob said...

Hello Zachriel,

Obviously I disagree that you didn't equate them. However,if that wasn't your intent, well and good.

As for changes such attitudes, Islam differs from Christianity, Judaism and most other fates not only in the violence and hatred expressed in its scriptures but in the inability to change any of it because it is consider G-d 3.0 by Muslims, received directly by Mohammed from Allah's delivery boy, the angel Gabriel.

The only way to change such attitudes would be for Muslims to take an entirely new view of Mohammed, and that isn't going to happen either, because trying to do so can get you killed.

Zachriel said...

Rob: The only way to change such attitudes would be for Muslims to take an entirely new view of Mohammed, and that isn't going to happen either, because trying to do so can get you killed.

Not all Muslims have the same religious views. It's a long way from the beliefs of the average Muslim in Kosovo and those of the Ayatollah in Iran.

Change can happen. Christians have a history of killing one another over theological issues. There were Reformations, which led to violence, and Counter Reformations, which led to even more violence. But change did come, albeit slowly.

That's why the point about what was integral to Christianity. It's not a dig, but hope.