US report on Zayed centre is 'baseless'
By Muawia E. Ibrahim (Khaleej Times)
22 September 2004
ABU DHABI � The Office of Information Affairs for UAE Deputy Prime Minister has criticised a US State Department report on religious freedom, which accused former Zayed Centre for Co-ordination and Follow-up (ZCCF) of promoting anti-Semitic views, describing these charges as "baseless" and "false".
The 'International Religious Freedom Report 2004', issued by the Department on September 15, accused the centre of "providing a platform for some anti-Semitic individuals" and "publishing some books with anti-Semitic themes."
In a statement clarifying its position, which was made available to Khaleej Times yesterday, the deputy premier's information office rejected these claims and called on the US Administration to practice what it preaches i.e. to allow freedom of expression and exercise tolerance.
"We would like to state unequivocally that the Zayed Centre never hosted any speaker who promoted anti-Semitic views of any kind at the Centre, as claimed by the 2004 Report. It is unfortunate that the authors of this official US government report ignored this established fact and failed to substantiate their claims with names, dates and other evidence," said the statement.
This is a bit rich, now that the Zayed Centre website has been taken down and so someone who hasn't been following the story can't check to verify this claim. Fortunately I did extract some material on Jewish-Temple denial from the website when it was still there. Have a look and see if any of it sounds anti-Semitic to you. It certainly contains some bogus history. There was more and worse anti-Semitic material that I didn't copy, as anyone who perused the site will remember. The Khaleej Times article continues:
It accused the authors of the report of choosing to mimic questionable and politically-motivated charges made by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) claiming that the Centre hosted anti-Semitic speakers such as British historian David Irving and Jurgen Mollemann.
"These baseless charges were debunked in an earlier clarification widely circulated in the Arab and international media on September 3, 2003, stating that the Centre never hosted these speakers because it opposes all forms of hatred and racism directed at any ethnic, religious or national group, including anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism."
[...]
Follow this link for the MEMRI report in question. Here's the relevant passage (all bold-font emphasis in what follows is in the original):
Under the title "A lot of Right that was Lost because of Some Wrong," Saudi journalist Sa'd Ibn Salih Al-Sirhan wrote on the closure of the Zayed Centre: "The problem of the Zayed Centre� and its sad end reveal a chronic mismanagement of our cultural and intellectual affairs. The Centre committed professional mistakes and allowed itself to be dragged into unscholarly allegations whose only purpose was to criticize America, rightly or wrongly. It embraced a number of racist lecturers� and devoted itself to provocations: provoking the Jews generally, both Zionist and non-Zionist, and provoking America. When those in charge of the Centre would hear of a person hostile to America and its policies or hostile to Israel or to Zionism or to Jews � they would initiate an invitation to him or establish relations with him regardless of the scholarly value of his thesis or his ideological background, which could be totally racist.
"The Centre has hosted every Holocaust denier and every one who downplayed the number of the victims - a matter which is deeply rooted in Western consciousness but is of no great interest to Arabs. When a scandal burst out in the media regarding the German leader Jurgen Mollemann because of statements he made on account of which he was accused of antisemitism � those in charge of the Centre rushed to invite him. The Centre has also established contact with the British historian David Irving � a rightwing extremist - because he denied the Holocaust. This Irving figured in the scandal of the notorious 'Hitler Diaries.' The Centre also did not fail to host a certain Saudi lecturer of mediocre level, who wrote a racist article in a Saudi paper in which she propagated a racist Western rumor, namely, that the Jews make the pastries of one of their holidays with children's blood. Even though this myth refers to one holiday only, our lecturer insisted on speaking of two holidays; in one of them pastries are made with the blood of a Christian child while in the other the pastries are made with the blood of a Muslim child. For that reason the Centre hosted her.
It actually says that, according to this Saudi journalist, Mollemann was invited to the Centre, but not that he spoke there, and that the Centre "established contact" with Irving. The statement does say that "The Centre has hosted every Holocaust denier and every one who downplayed the number of the victims," but I take that to be hyperbole. The statement then gives some specifics about two such figures but does not say that either lectured there.
More details are given in this report:
IV: The Zayed Centre Praises Antisemitic German Leader for His 'Impressive Stances Regarding the Jewish Antisemitism Claims
A controversial German politician, Jurgen Molleman, [9] as a parliamentarian for the Free Democrat party, as well as the president of the Deutsch-Arabische-Gesselschaft (German-Arab Society), has on several occasions compared Israel to Nazi Germany, and has implied that he supports Palestinian terrorist attacks, saying that he would "resist violently" [10] if he was in a similar situation. Mollemann is best known for his support of German pride and nationalism and has blamed Jews and Israel for harming the German self-image by perpetuating the memory of the Holocaust.
On July 6, 2002, the Executive Director of the Zayed Centre sent a letter to Mollemann inviting him to speak at the Zayed Centre. The letter stated that the Centre "[appreciates] your impressive stances regarding the Jewish antisemitism claims� Accordingly, we have the pleasure to invite you to give a lecture at the Zayed Centre on one of the topics related to the controversy on Semitism." [11] (See Appendix A)
[...]
V: Holocaust Denier David Irving on the Zayed Center
Holocaust Denier David Irving, whose website includes many antisemitic diatribes such as a June 1, 2003 entry quoting a letter that he wrote to London's Sunday Times: "You report that President Bush visited Auschwitz and bowed his head at the Wall of Death. Lucky he did not study the World War II aerial photos of Auschwitz first�that particular wall did not exist then. But then, he must be getting quite used to this kind of fakery.� [13]
Irving also wrote about the Zayed Centre a few days later on June 5, stating: "There is an article in the Harvard Crimson of May 23 regarding the controversy surrounding a donation from Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates. By Rachel Lea Fish , the article states: 'Not only does the Zayed Centre promote intolerance and hatred towards America, Jews and Israel, but it also attempts to deny the atrocities of the Holocaust and allows individuals such as notorious Holocaust deniers David Irving and Roger Garaudy, a forum to promulgate their propaganda.'" Irving then goes on to write the following response: "As those familiar with my books know (and there were forty-seven of them in the Widener Library [at Harvard University] last time I checked) I have never written about the Holocaust (I find it boring, along millions of others); and I have never set foot or eye on the Zayed Centre forum.� [14]
However, the Zayed Centre issued a report in Arabic titled "Those Who Challenged Israel" on September 2, 2001, which stated: "This study is a historical document for all readers, in particular Arab readers. It sheds light on all the figures from around the world who have challenged Israel � Charles de Gaulle who imposed an arms ban on Israel; Kurt Waldheim who admitted the PLO to the United Nations; David Irving, the premier WWII historian, who denies the holocaust; Jorg Haider, the leader of the right-wing, Austrian Freedom Party; and finally, prominent writer and thinker, Roger Garaudy who has written well known books against Israel and global Zionism.� [15]
Again, no claim is made that these two men spoke at the Centre. Indeed, the report quotes Irving to say that he did not.
Other MEMRI reports on the Zayed Centre are here and here. These several reports document in detail the anti-Semitic activities of the Zayed Centre. If the Centre had left its website up, this could all be readily verified from its own record, but obviously the site was an embarrassment and had to go. Evidently its sponsors now think enough time has passed that they can start denying what the Centre actually did and twisting what its critics have said about it.
Guess again.
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