Hatred not fair comment

Editorial

There's no shortage of anti-Semitic material to be found on the Web, distributed through e-mails or heard on the nightly news. But when a local paper decides to print such hateful drivel, perhaps a closer look is in order.

The article in question, written about in the Bulletin and various other publications last week, was printed in the Dec. 19 issue of the Miracle. Titled, "It Wasn't Arabs," it was penned by lawyer Edgar J. Steele, who runs a Web site called conspiracypenpal.com. It was a response that Steele had made to an e-mail he had received from someone who claimed they detested Arabs. Steele acknowledged that he "got a little carried away" with his response about why this person was wrong. The response, printed in the Delta-based Muslim community newspaper, consisted of a list of more than 80 reasons why Steele hates Jews.

(The full-text of the article is available to read on the Miracle's Web site www.miraclenews.com, issue 82.)

Some of the examples he cites include: "It wasn't Arabs who tried to steal my law practice – it was a jew (sic) ... It isn't Arabs who fill my email inbox with pornographic span – it is jews (sic)." The article goes on to say that Jews demolished the World Trade Centre, Jews started the Second World War and Jews were the cause of the Depression.

The irony in this story is that the Miracle writes in its masthead that it is a publication "dedicated to bringing harmony amongst all Muslim and other communities. We promote Islamic brotherhood on the basis of mutual respect, tolerance, forgiveness and love for all."

It then continues with the standard journalistic disclaimer: "We are not responsible for the view of our advertisers, and all articles, features and letters to the editor contained herein do not necessarily reflect the views and opinion of the Miracle."

While it is standard practice for a newspaper to say the views in its pages do not necessarily reflect its own opinions, the choice of what they have put in their paper certainly does reflect their opinions. In other words, the piece by Steele, in the opinion of the Miracle's editor, was at least worthy enough to be put into print.

A couple of years ago, the Bulletin printed a short letter to the editor from a non-Jewish person who advocated the demolition of the mosques on the Temple Mount and the rebuilding of Solomon's Temple.

While this is definitely not a view espoused by our paper, we thought it relevant to include as an opinion from a non-Jew and as a contribution to an ongoing debate about the issue of land in Jerusalem. In addition, that letter was a mere 360 words long, as opposed to the 1,800-word rant by Steele; and it was included in an obvious spot for opinions – on the Letters page – while Steele's missive was not labelled in any way, either as news, opinion, feature or even sarcasm. (The last one would merit a consideration if only because the article is so ridiculous it almost sounds like a take off on what a truly ignorant anti-Semite would write.)

Even the most outlandish ideas have their place and Canadian society allows them to be aired. A line is crossed, however, when truth gives way to mythology and the motivation of the author (or speaker) is clearly to incite hatred against an identifiable group, rather than to put forward a legitimate intellectual position. Steele's article is not fair comment that verges on inflammatory; it is a collection of misrepresentations and outright fabrications intended to support Steele's explicit proposition that Jews, as a people, are worthy of contempt and hatred. An editor, indeed almost any Canadian of goodwill, should have recognized this.

Given the newspaper's stated goal, the name of the publication is truly appropriate. Giving space to grossly offensive opinion pieces, such as those by Steele, suggests it would indeed be a miracle if the paper comes anywhere close to its goal of promoting "mutual respect, tolerance, forgiveness and love for all."

^TOP