Islamophobes purposefully mistook these girls as child brides
The Loon world was whipped into a frenzy based on, as usual, the reinforcing winds of ignorance and hate. In what was meant to be an unremarkable story, Tim Marshall a reporter for Sky News blogged on a mass wedding celebration in the Gaza Strip officiated by Hamas. Marshall reports in his excellent blog Islamophobia. Ignorance or Propaganda?,
The party is for 450 grooms, the brides are elsewhere, some among the 5,000 or so guests. It’s the way things are done here, Personally I’m for the mixing of the sexes, but I’m not about to argue, I’m outnumbered.
Up on the stage there’s music and dancing. Everyone’s having a good time, even me, although the Hamas robocops are making me a little nervous. Sure Hamas have cold blooded killers among them, sure they support the murder of children in Israel, sure they are cracking down on women’s rights, but many of their supporters are just ordinary people. And they need a break…Then the fireworks explode, the cheering begins, and in march the Hamas scouts, bashing drums, looking every inch the future Hamas fighters many will be. Then the grooms, aged about 18 to about 28. They are holding hands with their young nieces and cousins, little girls aged from about 3 to 8, made up to the nines, wearing white wedding dresses.
So what has gotten the Loon world completely riled up? Well it seems that many of the anti-Muslims misconstrued the occasion and thought the grooms were actually marrying the little girls who were their nieces or cousins! Tim Marshall explains,
Our report on this put it into context saying that it took place just a mile from the Israeli border and was a message from Hamas about its strength confidence and future fighters. Oh and that the brides were elsewhere. Pretty straightforward.
It never struck me for a moment that the little girls might later be described in the bloggersphere as the brides! How naive I am.
Dozens, and I mean dozens, of websites took the video of the event and wrote lurid stories about Hamas mass paedophilia with headlines about ‘450 child brides’, and endless copy about how disgusting this was, how it showed how depraved Islam is, et al, ad infinitum. Site after site jumped on the story, linking from one totally wrong load of rubbish to the next. I’ll give credit to Tundra Tabloids who at least took down the video, but most sites just ploughed on regardless.
So which sites are these, and what have the various reactions been? Bartholomew gives us a hint,
The many websites that picked this up have responded in various ways: some issuing corrections, some quickly deleting their postings, and some insisting that it’s all true and that Marshall is trying to cover up the fact: “Why”, demands one site “would Tim Marshall defend the Gaza pedophiles?” One of the sites that decided to scrub was Robert Spencer’s Jihad Watch, which is worth noting as Spencer claims some sort of academic expertise on Islam.
Where does this collective hallucination and fixation on fiction originate from? The simple, straight forward answer is that it comes from the collective hysterical hatred shared by those who despise Islam and Muslims. It is a manifestation of Islamophobia, “ie. an irrational fear of Islam.” It springs from the idea that Islam is evil, inherently backwards, oppressive to women. The talking point goes, “Muhammad was a pedophile who married 9 year old A’isha and these vile Mooslims must be doing it now on this massive scale!” George Readings puts this into some context in a recent post on The Spitoons (via Bartholemew),
The “argument” goes that Muslims believe Muhammad to be a perfect model for behaviour and therefore the fact of Muhammad’s marriage to A’isha somehow proves Islam to be a depraved religion…This attempt to aggressively apply a modern British definition of paedophilia to seventh century Arabia strikes me as a sign of severe anthropological illiteracy…
…Marriage to a pre-pubescant child with whom consummation occurs upon reaching puberty is not a model most people would be happy with in the modern world (although Bolivia sets the age of consent at puberty).
Which is probably why nearly all Muslim countries have reformed these rules beyond recognition. The age of consent in Algeria and Malaysia is 16, in Indonesia it is 19 for males and 16 for females. In Egypt it’s 18 for both and Tunisia 20. Reform has not, however, come to Saudi Arabia. Back in April the world followed the case of a mother trying to obtain a divorce for her eight-year-old daughter who had been married off by her father to a friend he owed a debt. In the end she succeeded and now there is even talk of Saudi Arabia preventing marriage before the age of 18.
Poor Tim Marshall scoured the net in an attempt to let the Islamophobes know that they had gotten it wrong but what was the result?
I spent a few hours visiting websites and leaving comments where I could. To little avail. Instead I received a steady stream of vitriol. The best response was on a site run by a Debbie Schlussel . The guy who posted it said he wasn’t interested in the detail. The detail being the fact that the girls weren’t the brides.
It showed how much some people want to believe nonsense like this, as it re-inforces their prejudices, always a comfortably fun thing to do. But Hamas, and the jihadists do enough terrible things without having to make things up about them. Most of the stuff I read was outright, unthinking, gleeful, Islamophobia from people who clearly knew nothing about Arab popular culture. It’s as is they really beleive that because there are examples of child brides, it means all weddings are with child brides.
Debbie Schlussel is not new to LoonWatch readers, her doozy looniness is par for the course, so Tim shouldn’t worry, but he hit the nail on the head when he wrote, “It showed how much some people want to believe nonsense like this, as it re-inforces their prejudices, always a comfortably fun thing to do.” This is exactly the case — loaded with a bagful of prejudice and preconceived notions the Islamophobes took the wedding to be an affirmation of their pre-set conjectures.
When they were presented with the fact that they had stupendously erred some corrected themselves while others went into denial. It almost reminds you of some Biblical literalists who believe the world is 6,000 years old, you can present them with all the overwhelming evidence that point to the fact that the world is many millions of times older but they will stubbornly hold on to their literal interepretation of the Bible. This is not much different, and serves as a sweeping manifestation of the kind of irrationality that ignorance coupled with hate can produce.
August 7th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I love it when the folly of the loons precedes them. I mean the fact that they are willing to believe anything about Muslims says a lot about how far their demonizing perceptions are willing to go. Orientalism is an understatement. It’s more like Boratism.
August 7th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Haha that’s hilarious. Maybe the Islamophobes need to spend a little more time actually learning about Islam than watching child pornography…
August 7th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Wow, an amazing piece with excellent analysis. Some of them are so crazy they might drown in their craziness.
August 7th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
The Islamophobic degenerates who equate Muslims with Hamas are just as dumb as degenerates here who equate Hamas with Muslims.
August 8th, 2009 at 5:56 am
The Islamophobes are utterly desperate to get other people as outraged at (and terrified of) Islam and Muslims as they are; this is why they always grasp to stories that provide graphics and images (like the photograph above) even when the stories or the related photos turn out to completely wrong or misrepresented. This has happened over and over again.
Luckily, most people don’t seem convinced or even really care, which is what really burns the professional Islamophobes up. Many of them are sincerely convinced that Islam and all Muslims (and even sympathetic non-Muslims) are part of a grand unified conspiracy to conquer the world and impose a Taliban-like order on all of humanity. Therefore, they just can’t understand why so few people take this imminent threat as seriously as they do. LOL, oh well.
Anyway, great article and analysis, keep up the good work.
August 10th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Once I saw the picture, I knew what haters would be thinking. And of course, no one is interested in the ‘details.’ I love what Readings said, “severe anthropological illiteracy,” very well said indeed!
August 16th, 2009 at 8:44 am
So you do not think islam is dangerous? fact 1 childbrides are relatively
common among muslims, fact 2 who is busy blowing up buildings and people
using suicidebombers? fact 3 who blew up the Buddha statues in Afganistan?
fact 4 who is always demanding special treatment and separate laws in
Europe for themselves. I do not know about this event but Tim Marshall
is a journalist and favour hamas hence I would not trust him as far as I
can throw him. In these films on youtube why does he not appear himself
in any segment of the film? Why are there so many interviews with these
children? Why are the brides not filmed even once? I do not speak arabic
but I have a friend who does, I shall ask him to translate for me.
August 16th, 2009 at 8:28 pm
Believe me people,I have experience with the so-called moderate Muslims.What is a moderate?Let’s say MODERATE=believer in human rights.Anybody here against the idea?
I am a liberal,a believer in human rights.It is very hard to find a Muslim who will say:”I agree that you have the right of freedom of speech to criticize Mohammed and and the Koran and not be punished.”
They will say you do NOT have the right to insult Mohammed and the Koran,it is “Islamophobia”.Ask a religious Muslim who seems moderate.It’s hard to find.
PLEASE,people who run this website,UNDERSTAND,Islamophobia is ok since it’s just freedom of speech to criticize Mohammed and the Koran.It’s MUSLIMOPHOBIA(persons) that is bad.You guys are smart.You certainly see it.You have been hoodwinked into a false definition of Islamophobia,they have tricked you into thinking ISLAMOPHOBA=persecution of PEOPLE who are Muslim(it’s not,for Islam is a set of ideas).Nor is it a RACE.Islamophobia is NOT racism.
Again,consider ANTI-SEMITISM(or JUDEOPHOBIA),persecution of PEOPLE,Jews.You are against it,correct?But you are NOT against JUDAISMOPHOBIA(criticism of IDEAS,ideas of a religion,Judaism).
Why aren’t YOU against JUDAISMOPHOBIA?You say:”I have the HUMAN RIGHT,freedom of speech to criticize a set of ideas.”I agree.NOW do you see how your position is not good using LOGIC.Instead change to “We are against MUSLIMOPHOBIA,but agree with criticism of Islam(ideas),ISLAMOPHOBIA.”
Sincerely,you guys who run this website would gain alot in the eyes of human-rights liberals if you officially do it.It would show you are with us,with logic,reason and human rights.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Was the massacre of the Christians in Indonesia just another loony moment and easily explained by your ilk? I bet you could explain why Muslims needed to stage 9/11.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
John in Bucharest Says: “Therefore, they just can’t understand why so few people take this imminent threat as seriously as they do. LOL”
That’s what the Christian Lebanese thought. LOL
August 18th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
One doesn’t have to look further than Krister Andersson for ludicrous and disingenuous commentary. Did you even read the post? How does Tim Marshall favor Hamas, when he clearly condemned them?
August 20th, 2009 at 4:14 am
Did he? where? He was just blabbing about islamophobia as most
journalists and dhimmis do, i do not understand this, phobia
is a medical condition and has absolutely nothing to do with
digust with islam.
August 21st, 2009 at 4:28 am
No. “Disgust with Islam” often has to do with being a prejudice moron, and living in a fantasy world.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Really? As opposed to you I regard islam for what
it is really aböut, I have as of now regared islam
for what it is, a very disgusting political
view, do you not even dare to call it a religion
even when religion is superstition.
August 22nd, 2009 at 7:48 am
I am trying to understand the purpose of this event. From one of the blogs above:
“Our report on this put it into context saying that it took place just a mile from the Israeli border and was a message from Hamas about its strength confidence and future fighters”.
Malybe this is a question that everyone else but me already understands, but if the event was for the purpose of Hamas sending a message about its strength, confidence and future fighters - then what do little girls in white wedding dresses have to do with it? And why would the young men who seem to be the focus of the event be wearing what appears to be some sort of formal wear instead of uniforms or camo outfits? This is a sincere question — I am somewhat familiar with Islamic culture, although no expert, and usually events themed around fighting and military prowess involve men dressed as fighters with weapons, and such.
Is there an explanation that I am missing here?
August 25th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Nothing new here. Lying is the first commandment of Judeofascism and its shabbos goym followers. Notice how the trolls simply don’t care about the facts. Drop the “I’m a liberal” act, “Maturin,” you shabbos goys don’t believe in freedom of speech. The pathetic whitewash of western state media at “israel’s” organ harvesting story is clear proof of this. “All the news thats kosher to print.”
“Krister”(the disgusting product of a failed European culture of death which celebrates incest, pedophilia, an bestiality) likes to play doctor by insisting the phobias are merely medical conditions when in fact they have social manifestations.
Get back to us when you find those Iraqi WMDs, zionist arselickers.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Ohh insults, well that proves my point when
out of arguments use insults, and even if you like it
or not phobias are medical conditions ask any doctor.
Furthermore I am not interested at living in a stupid
religious theocracy whcih all the PC people think is
so wonderful. I am not an American I have no interest
in Iraqi WMDs.
And finally a little message to DrM: DRA DU ÅT HELVETE
DIN JÄVLA SVARTING.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Dr. M:
Are you sane?
You juxtapose Judaism with Israeli actions, and that is not right. One poll shows that the majority of Israeli Jews support peace with Palestine, and a growing number support moderating talks with Hamas. You attack the virulent Islamophobes (rightfully so) and then go to talk about the ‘trolling Judeofascism’.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Krister,
I don’t think English is your first language because you keep mistaking the journalist as someone sympathetic to Hamas or terrorists. He called Hamas “cold blooded murderer’s,” “killers of innocent children,” and “cracking down on women’s rights.” Where in that do you see support? That is condemnation.
Phobia’s are also medical conditions, but again phobia=fear. Islamophobia is an irrational fear of Islam. Do you see how those who have this irrational fear of Islam saw this picture and ran with it based on their own prejudices, thereby making fools of themselves. Some, when presented with the facts didn’t even want to admit it and rather continued with the lie. Think about that friend.
August 26th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Dr.M,
I have to agree with WDSF, just because haters analogize Muslims and Islam with things totally unrelated to it, and attempt to paint all things Islam and Muslims as evil does not mean that those who oppose them should fall to the same temptation.
Judeofascism is as much a misnomer as Islamofascism. It is also quite a touchy subject to bring up issues related to ancient blood libels, that have in the past been used to demonize Jews. How much truth is there to the allegations in the Swedish paper? Of course, the conduct of IDF soldiers as reported by Amnesty International was “wanton destruction” and is in and of itself enough to censor the deplorable and heinous conduct of the Israeli Army without confusing the situation by bringing up old demonized stereotypes about Jews.
The allegations in the Swedish paper and the events in New York involving the Rabbis from what I understand are unrelated. It also needs to be corroborated by independent investigators.
August 26th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
@”Krister Andersson,”
Complaining about being insulted while throwing insults at others? What a hypocrite. Seems to me you can dish it out but not take it. You also need some ESL classes as you don’t know that “phobias” have more then one context of usage(BTW I am an MD so don’t even attempt to lecture me on medicine). Lets gets something clear, no one is forcing to live under a “religious theocracy,” you paranoid Nazi reject. Frankly I don’t think anyone gives a damn about you. Iraqi WMDs are relevant to this conversation because this child bride hoax is coming from the same scum who were claiming day and night that Iraq was responsible for 9/11 and could take out the US and UK in 45 minutes. If you insist on believing such neocon criminals then I have no choice then treat you as one of them.
So spare us your disingenuous manufactured outrage and get lost vermin.
@WSDF and Emperor,
You are both correct as there is a difference but I like to play hardball with the haters. I use the term “judeofascism” primarily to teach the fanatics for Zion and their shabbos goyim followers that the tables can be easily turned against them. If they don’t like it, too bad. As for the Swedish investigative report about “israel’s” harvesting of organs from the bodies of Palestinians, it isn’t anything new. Interesting that the self styled “freedumb of speech” crowd isn’t eager at all to support the Swedish newspaper which dared to break the story.
Funny how that works…
August 27th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Seems there’s a lot of speculation and presumption on both sides, based on photos, videos, or the lack thereof). What’s telling is that nobody (not even Tim Marshall) has provided a direct quote from any groom/bride that was there. Is it possible to just interview one of the grooms that was there to clarify what was going on?
August 28th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Oh really tell me about the other context about phobis please, furthermore
why are you complaining about my insults to you please give an example.
You others you are right English is not my first language, in fact it
is my third but it does not invalidate my conclusions, he is a journalist
hence a cultural marxist. of course he support hamas.
August 28th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Krista- you really need to live in the real world….
fact 1 childbrides are relatively
common among muslims- Nonsense! even in Iran which has a legal age of 9 for marriage, the average is something like 19 and rising…Child brides are also to be found in animist cultures, still prevalent in India and rural China and are more a product of poverty and lack of education than religion.
fact 2 who is busy blowing up buildings and people
using suicidebombers? Um…the LTTE, the PKK, other non-Muslim factions in Lebanon…in fact the LTTE have used for suicide bombings that any other group.
Also…it might not be through suicide bombing but targetting civilians like the IDF do is also terrorism
fact 3 who blew up the Buddha statues in Afganistan? um, yeah and who has kept the pyramids and various Hindu Buddhist statues well preserved in Egypt and Pakistan? Who tried to blow up al-Aqsa? and who did tear down the Babri Masjid in India? clue:it wasn’t Muslims.
Just because people act savagely and are zealots doesn’t mean all Muslims are and Islam is the problem…
fact 4 who is always demanding special treatment and separate laws in
Europe for themselves.- like what? what separate laws have Muslims demanded? what special treatment? Sikhs do not have to wear helmets on bikes….its not unreasonable on their part, they just want to practice their faith….are you going to say they are evil too now?
just because someone wants to practice their faith doesn’t mean they are demanding anything that isn’t already available to everyone else…it just becomes more of an issue when a Muslim does something because the press jump all over it.
August 29th, 2009 at 2:02 am
I see the cretinous Krister is still wasting peoples time with his outlandish conspiracy theories. Not to mention his evasiveness. It’s one thing to be fooled, but to insist on being a fool despite evidence to the contrary…that’s just pathetic.
Not that such behavior isn’t symptomatic of racist Zionist/neocon arselickers(the majority of whom come from a Marxist background).
August 29th, 2009 at 11:27 am
“Lets gets something clear, no one is forcing to live under a “religious theocracy,” you paranoid Nazi reject.”
Hmmmm….seems like if you dont tow the line here, you are automatically referred to as a Nazi. And if you ask a simple question like “Is the term “Brit” racist, its not allowed through. But name calling it seems is par for course here but thats no surprised. All pro-islam sites seem to be the same. No real debate and free exchange of ideas.
September 4th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Just read Dr M.I have read and received comments like his before.In all probability he is a Muslim who has been indoctrinated.You read similar statements from Muslims in other forums.Maybe he is not a Muslim,but there is a high probability he is.
First,yes,the West has commited great crimes.I admit,but so have other cultures.You do agree to that,no,Dr.M?
The fact is that the Muslim organizations want to stop FREEDOM of SPEECH by saying honest criticism of Mohammed and the Koran is a crime.It is not.But they invented a EUPHEMISM for it and called it “ISLAMOPHOBIA” hoping others would not notice.And most have not and never will,that is reality.Dr M,can yu please tell us if you agree with:
1.The 100% HUMAN RIGHT of Muslims to leave their religion ANYWHERE in the world,even MUSLIM countries,and not be persecuted or discriminated,much less killed?
2.The 100%HUMAN RIGHT of us to critique Mohamed and the Koran,saying what we feel is wrong and negative ANYWHERE,even in Muslim countries,and not be persecuted or killed?
I hope you say yes,that you are truly for HUMAN RIGHTS.
September 7th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
There seems to be a long debate among the Pro-Islamic & Anti-Islamic individuals.
Let’s look at religion from a neutral perspective. I believe that religion is a guided path to GOD, a path where it is encouraged to do good deeds to all fellow man and all living things.
Just because of the minority that mix religion with other man-made factors (E.g. Politics, Money, Prowess and etc) the whole world views the “RELIGION” as a bad one.
Let us be open-minded in every perspective. When someone comes and criticizes your religion, it would be unwise to do the same to them. That would make us no different from them. Patience is the key element here.
We should engage in healthy discussions and not be quick to throw out slanderous remarks. Respect should be given if you expect respect to be given to you as well.
A final note. Religion is something that you would embrace willing fully. Set a good example by being a role model in the face of society. Let this culture be passed on from generations to generations
September 21st, 2009 at 5:58 pm
MDZFL,
Thank you for the good words, they are very important and I hope people act in such an ethical way.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Thanks for your support but I am used to it by now, they always
call me nazi, racist, facist and so on, i do not care anymore.
As for “Dr”M he is a joke, he is from Jamaica a country known
for two things, narcotics and lousy music.
September 27th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
You may want to read my take on it:
http://blog.grigaitis.net/2009/09/hamas-plays-host-to-pedophilia/
September 28th, 2009 at 7:39 am
If you keep making false accusations about a religon constantly, then expect to be labelled a nazi/racist/fascist!
If you don’t know the facts and go off what some racist/islamphobic has to say…do your own research and I don’t mean by going to some sites where people like gellar etc write their co called facts…try doing some PROPER research..
Also, if you think an arab/afghan/iragi etc man marries a child is religion IT’S NOT…it’s CULTURE…get it right!!!!
October 20th, 2009 at 1:47 am
@Maturin
Save the theatrics for someone who cares. You have no interest in any sort of human rights, nor do you believe in freedom of speech. If you did either, you would not be agitating against this site in the first place. Free speech does not merely consist of the ability to voice you view, it is to have an EQUAL PLATFORM TO BE HEARD! Once again, you verbally prattle, speaking in quips and easy slogans, but substantively know little. Don’t project and waste my time with your childish insecurities and judeofascist propaganda, you spineless hypocrite.
@elric66
In response to your comment, but you ARE a Nazi. The reason you’ve been called that it b/c you’re an paranoid anti-Muslim fanatic with your little crusader fantasies. And really, you want an “exchange of ideas?” What, posting BNP crap on Muslim and non-Muslim sites and then crying wolf? Is that why you ran off from Stefania Harris’ blog when I corrected you for your erroneous statements? You weren’t even man enough to admit you were wrong and took the cowards way out. That’s your M.O. Typical of the failed breed.
@Krister Andersson.
I’m not from Jamaica but nice job attacking the entire country anyway. Kinda proves my point that you’re an idiot and pathetic racist. Neurotic lil duffer aren’t you?
October 27th, 2009 at 11:47 am
The individual attacked me personally, calling me all sorts of names
so why should not I do the same? Besides I do think the music from
Jamaica are lousy and they are known for their narcotics, hence it is
not an attack. I am just stating facts.
October 29th, 2009 at 3:17 am
@Krister Anderson,
You don’t seem to to have any reservations when disparaging others and you dare complain about being “called names”? What a hypocritical clown.
As for your lame and racist remarks about Jamaica, you made those b/c of you thought I was a Jamaican. You had nothing else to work with. Talk about pathetic(not as pathetic as your belief in judeofascist propaganda BS about Palestinians though).
FYI, Jamaica’s economy is based on agriculture, mining, manufacturing, and tourism. Last time I checked there was no shortage of narcotics in your civilized little corner Europe. Guess little Adolfs need their high…
November 12th, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Garibaldi,
There are people who still believe this crap. Can you believe it? Just the other day I was browsing the internet and saw something relating to it, the nice thing is that I have also seen this piece used as a rebuttal to a lot of the misinformation out there about this story. Great job, again!