Saturday, August 17, 2013

The deliberate distortion of the words of Hasan Nasrallah by Western and Arab (oil and gas) English-language media

It is amazing how many Western media maintained yesterday and today that Hasan Nasrallah blamed the bombing in the southern suburbs on Sunnis.  There are many headlines to that effect still standing, including on the websites of Qatar and Saudi Arabia (aljazeera and Al-arabiyya).  Here is what Nasrallah said word-for-word (my translation):  "There will come someone who says that Sunnis were the ones who shelled you in the suburbs, and that Sunnis were the ones who planted bombs on the road for you, and that Sunnis were the ones who sent car bombs to the southern suburbs, and that they were the ones who perpetrated the massacre yesterday...Anyone who uses this logic is an Israeli, and is a partner in the killer in achieving the goal of killing and massacre.  I on my own responsibility state that those [killers] are not Sunnis.  Those have no religion and no homeland and no kinsfolk.  Those are not Syrians or Palestinians or Arabs and are not Muslims and are not Sunnis.  Those are killers, from the thought of killers, and they have killed more Sunnis than Shi`ites and Christians.  And if you want me to show you the statistics and numbers...they have killed more Sunni clerics than they have killed Shi`ite clerics, and in numbers". 

سوف يأتي من يقول لكم إن السنّة هم من قصفوا عليكم الصواريخ في الضاحية، والسنّة هم الذين وضعوا لكم العبوات على الطريق، والسنّة هم الذين أرسلوا السيارات المفخخة إلى الضاحية، وهم الذين ارتكبوا المجزرة بالأمس»، مشدداً على أن «كل من يتكلم بهذا المنطق هو إسرائيلي، وهو شريك للقاتل في تحقيق أهداف القتل والمجزرة، وأنا على مسؤوليتي أقول لكم، هؤلاء ليسوا سنة، هؤلاء لا دين لهم ولا مذهب لهم ولا وطن لهم ولا قوم لهم، هؤلاء ليسوا سوريين ولا فلسطينيين ولا عرباً ولا مسلمين ولا سنّة، هؤلاء قتلة، من فكر القتلة، وهؤلاء قتلوا من السنّة أكثر مما قتلوا من الشيعة ومن المسيحيين، واذا اردتم أبيّن لكم إحصائيات وأرقاما، قتلوا من علماء السنة أكثر مما قتلوا من علماء الشيعة، بالأرقام».

PS So someone in the BBC and Aljazeera and other Western media owe us an explanation: how this passage became in their rendering:  "Nasrallah blames Sunnis for the car bomb"???