(AhlulBayt News Agency) - African Shia Leader, Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky, is in London on invitation by the Islamic Human Rights Commission and the Universal Justice Network in along with other internationally renowned scholars and academicians for a meeting and a conference. According to the organizers, the conference is to “discuss the major challenges to the revitalization of faith and practice in the modern world.”
Prior to Sheikh Zakzaky’s presentation the Zionist’s daily, The Jerusalem Post, on Wednesday October 6, 2010 pasted in its website what seemingly was news item titled “Anti-Semetic preacher to address London conference.” The next day, October 7, 2010 when the Islamic scholar has made his presentation, it changed the title to “Islamic Movement preacher to address London conference” and altered the content of the story with additions and subtractions. What could have prompted such a malicious headline is not far-fetched. Readers would have expected more information on the conference, which is a sign of true journalism, but the writer, a certain Jonny Paul, instead pedalled back in time to misrepresent and misquote Sheikh Zakzaky with obvious insidious intent.
The Zionist newspaper ascribed false statements to Sheikh Zakzaky during a seminar organized by Resource Forum of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria in May 2008 titled, “Sixty Years of Illegal Creation of Israel.” It misquoted Sheikh Zakzaky referring to Jews as “the lowest creatures on earth,” “children of monkeys of pigs” and many other false statements unworthy of his revered status and personality. Had the Sheikh made such statements during the 2008 seminar in Nigeria, as erroneously insinuated by The Jerusalem Post, former Israeli ambassador to Nigeria Moshe Ram, who was highly disturbed by the seminar, would have responded to that very comment in his rejoinder published in the leading Nigerian daily, Daily Trust of July 4, 2008. The seminar which had in attendance renowned academicians and journalists was widely reported and documented in the Nigerian media, and the issue under discussion was the legality of Israel as a state in sixty years.
At the seminar, Sheikh Zakzaky questioned the belief that Israel as a modern and vibrant society with a very creative economy in high tech and science has brought peace to the world. He contested the so- called “smartness” of such a country that has ignored international human rights law and all human standards, and lay siege and starvation intended to break innocent people. “If these atrocities demonstrate intelligence, or is used as yardstick to measure intelligence, then armed robbers can also said to be intelligent,” he argued.
It is crystal clear that, the Zionist Lobby through its organ, The Jerusalem Post, is hatching up a hidden agenda to suppress movement and activities of Sheikh Zakzaky. The intent is to paint picture of Sheikh Zakzaky as “Anti- Semetic” and “hate- preacher” that should be detained or banned from international trips. To buttress its point, the newspaper went a step further and even dangerously too, to contact the Home Office and was told what it wanted- the government will be taking a tougher stance than the previous one with regard to extremist preachers entering the UK. It quoted Home Secretary Theresa May issuing a warning to that effect: “Foreign hate preachers will no longer be welcome here. Those who step outside the law to incite hatred and violence will be prosecuted and punished. And we will stand up to anybody who incites hatred and violence, who supports attacks on British troops, or who supports attacks on civilians anywhere in the world.”
If the Sheikh is a hate preacher, as the Zionist Post wanted to paint him, he would have preached it against Christians in Nigeria who live side by side with him in his home country rather than the Jews of which there is not a single Nigerian Jew. Ask the Nigerian Christian leaders about him and you will only hear words of praise and respect for him. How then can Zionists, who live thousands of miles away, can accuse him of hate preaching?
To any civilized mind, the write- up by The Jerusalem Post is ill- intended, and the world is watching with keen interest as events unfold.
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