Dr Phil’s Islamophobia…

I just saw a show from last November… about the relationship of American Katherine(18) and Palestinian Abdullah(22).

A Daughter In Danger?
A Daughter In Danger? II
Katherine ReturnsI have seen only the two first parts, but there were things I found awkward already there… The Palestinian bloggers found even more awkward and upsetting things…KABOBffest: He said Palestine..

About Mahtab and Betty Mahmoody (why is she still using his last name?)
Without my daughter
Vilified in Hollywood, father still without his daughter
Does anyone know if he has his daughter again? Original author: Ketutar, used with permission.

I actually watched all three episodes, and I read the entire KABOBfest Blog…

Dr. Phil is a mainstream media figure, which as we know, sparingly use the word “Palestine.” Why would he incessantly use the word if not to substantiate any negative images already in the minds of most Americans about Palestinians?

I have to agree with the assessment made the blog entry author, Will. It becomes even more obvious as the show(s) continues. What is sad about this particular Dr Phil Show, is that Dr Phil seems to have bought the whole prejudiced view of Arabs, and Palestinians, pandered to the world by America. He can’t distinguish the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, and he consistently makes it out to be suspect that Abdullah hasn’t gotten that visa already after 2 years. He even let’s his guest speculate on the possibility that Abdullah might be a terrorist, because of this “failure” to produce a visa. Doesn’t he know that with the current hatred by the US Authorities for anyone coming from the Middle East not being Jewish, it’s virtually impossible to get a visa unless you are heavily loaded with money?

Throughout the entire second show, Dr Phil uses every method of manipulation in the book to lure Katherine back home to the US WITHOUT Abdullah.

Example: ““Katherine, how about the end of the week? Let’s do it Friday. You’ve both said it’s a good idea. Will you let me make the arrangements and bring you home Friday? You can go back if you want to. I’m just saying, come home, look your family in the eyes, let them take you to McDonald’s,” Dr. Phil says.Katherine smiles at the mention of her favorite restaurant. “Oh, man, I want to go home really bad, yeah. I just want to talk about it with Abdullah first. But I do want to come home. I just don’t know when.”

I am sorry, but Katherine is an adult, yet she is being treated like a child.

The way he treats Abdullah is even worse:

““And then we’ll work with you about working with the embassy and getting a visa,” Dr. Phil tells Abdullah.”

A promise he doesn’t keep, and have no intention of keeping when he makes it. The lying bastard:

““Well, I don’t think anybody here believes a word he said, right?” Dr. Phil asks. He tells Tamara, “And the reason I stopped you is because at this point, I’m trying to get her home. So I didn’t want to create discourse. I totally agree with what you’re saying. I mean, come on, two years? We’ve talked to the embassy. We’ve been all over this. It’s not an instantaneous thing, and post 9/11, the challenges are greater, particularly from the Middle East, but it’s doable. It’s absolutely doable. I have one goal right now. My immediate goal is to get her back on U.S. soil, get her back home when he isn’t here, and then we’ll put you on her like a duck on a June bug. But the main thing is to get her here because we don’t know what’s going on over there.”

Lying to 22-year-old simply because he is a Palestinian and an Arab. It becomes very clear as he doesn’t counter Katherine’s mother when she says:

“I believe that [Abdullah] has been lying because there’s some reason why he can’t come here, and I’m wondering if it’s not because he may be a terrorist.”

Right. He is Palestinian. He is an Arab, a Muslim. Despite the fact that it’s clear by what he says about his family, that they live in Jericho, which is in the West Bank, and is a SAFE place, the show, including Dr Phil consistently paint a picture of immediate danger to Katherine by placing her on the Gaza Strip.

Just what does Dr Phil think has happened? Abdullah has more or less kidnapped Katherine or acted like a predator:

“And enticing her over the Internet and then having her go over there, where she is shut off from her family, is the wrong way to do this.”

I am shocked and horrified over the Islamophobia, dishonesty and hypocrisy displayed by a man who demand rigorous honesty from others:

““Abdullah can’t hear us right now, and do you really care what people in the Gaza Strip think about you?” Dr. Phil asks Katherine. “I don’t often say this kind of thing, but I think I’m entitled to the truth! I think I have earned the right to have the truth. Do you realize how many people we’ve had working on getting you back here safe? And I don’t think you even know how close to harm’s way you have been.“

Why shouldn’t she care about Abdullah and his family? And how is Dr Phil entitled to the truth, he who has lied and manipulated an inexperienced 18-year-old deliberately and knowingly to accomplish HIS own ends. How in anyway was Katherine in danger that the people of the West Bank isn’t accustomed to? Why is Katherine more important than Abdullah and his family?. And what harms way? Really? WHAT HARMS WAY? The answer is obvious – that of being with a Muslim, an Arab, a Palestinian.

Shame on you Dr Phil, you lying, manipulative, bigoted, hypocritical Islamophobe!

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Welcome to reality

(CNN) — Thousands of Afghans packed a sports stadium in the western Afghanistan city Herat Saturday to protest the reprinting of the same Danish cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed that sparked rage in the Muslim world two years ago.

Afghan protesters burn a Danish flag during a demonstration last month in Kabul.

Several newspapers in Denmark reprinted the controversial drawing last month after Danish authorities arrested several people who allegedly were plotting a “terror-related assassination” of the cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.

The protesters shouted slogans in their native Dari language that, translated into English, included “death to enemies of Islam” and “death to Denmark and Holland and the insulters of Islam.” Anti-American slogans were also heard.

“We have gathered here to express our anger against this inhuman act of the Danish paper that insulted our Holy Prophet,” said Faqir Ahmad Herawi, a scholar who helped organize the protest.

I support their right to protest, provided they do so in a civilized manner. In return they actually have a human obligation to accept that FREEDOM of SPEECH and FREEDOM of EXPRESSION is a democratic principle on which any civilized society is based.

Threatening people because they exercise this Freedom is not acceptable. Trying to kill people because they speak their mind is not acceptable.

I don’t try to kill President Ahmadinejad because he denies the Holocaust nor do I attempt to murder Robert Faurisson or Norman Finkelstein because they claim outrageous things about Jews and Israel.

Someone claimed the other day that Moses was on drugs during the Revelation on Sinai, and you don’t see me or anyone else trying to kill or threaten to kill that nut-case.

Religious Satire and Political Satire has always been part of critical thinking and of democracy. Religious and Political Fanatics on the other hand have always tried to silence Satire. Because it always carries a grain of truth – that is the point with Satire.

Welcome to reality

No Baskeball on Shabbat

The Herzl/Rocky Mountain Hebrew Academy boys basketball team in Denver qualified for the regional championship, but won’t be able to play because the game was scheduled to take place on Shabbat. The Colorado High School Activities Association governs the league the boys play in, and has refused to move the game to a time when the team could play without breaking Shabbat, claiming that rearranging the schedule on the regional level would be too complicated.

One of the comments on this story is from a Ali Eteraz, who said:

Wasn’t Lieberman nearly Vice President while observing Shabbos? I don’t particularly see why creating exemptions for those that observe it is necessary. Isn’t there a principle of darura (arabic for necessity) in Orthodox Jurisprudence as there is in Islamic? A rabbi should just say “necessity requires that these boys kick ass on shabbos — one time exception!” Why do we like to pretend that religions aren’t flexible? (My bold)

What is significant about this post and the comment is that it illustrates how Jews and Muslims actually agree on something as intimate as religious practice. It also illustrates how both Muslims and Jews face difficulties in terms of having consideration taken to their religious practice.

SoB