More proof that Tunisian Salafists hate all Jews

This video was shot a few days ago in the Tunisian tourist resort of Sousse. It shows Tunisian Salafists smashing bottles of alcohol. About two minutes into the clip, the Salafists are shouting down their favourite bogeyman - the Jews.

Mark their words. You can clearly hear the Arabic 'al Yahud'. Are demonstrators railing at Israel, or are they shouting, ' Down with the Jews, but not Tunisian Jews' ? No.

 When it comes to purveying the 'demon drink',  the worst offenders, in these Islamists' eyes, are in fact Tunisian Jews. After all, they originated the famous Boukha - or fig brandy.

Tell that to Ahmed Maher of the BBC. Recently a reader received a BBC reply to her complaint relating to Ahmed Maher’s claim in a BBC website news piece:

 “Several media reports spoke about YouTube videos that showed radical Islamists threatening Tunisian Jews. Despite searching extensively, I did not find any of them.” 

The reader provided four video clips in support of the complaint – viewable here, here, here and here.

The mind-boggling reply she received could have come straight of Alice in Wonderland:

 “We have reviewed Ahmed Maher’s article “Tunisia’s last Jews at ease despite troubled past”, and discussed your complaint with him. Regarding the You Tube links, Mr Maher reaffirms that he conducted an extensive search in Arabic and English to find clips or links of Salafists or hardliners attacking “Tunisian Jews” – a specification he makes clear in his piece.

    "He found clips of rallies in support of Osama Bin Laden, but stresses he did not find anything attacking “Tunisian Jews” specifically (my emphasis - ed) . Mr Maher says: “The chants heard in the four links cited [in your complaint] are against ‘the State of Israel and Jews but not Tunisian Jews’. 

    "The chants were echoed across several Muslim countries in the past two years in the wake of the Arab spring (and even before the revolutions) by extremists (even lay people and leftists in Egypt in particular who attacked the headquarters of the Israeli embassy in Giza in August 2011) to protest what they term ‘the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the blockade of the Gaza strip’.

    "They chanted it in Tunisia during the visit of the Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah. Again, the chants, which are in Arabic, were not directed at ‘Tunisian Jews’ but ‘Israel’ in general.

    “I spoke to Sheikh Bashir Bin Hassan, one of the most prominent Salafi, Wahabi sheikhs in post-revolution Tunisian, and asked him again about two things: the chants and the protest in front of the Tunis synagogue. He said: ‘The chants were not aimed at the Tunisian Jews; make no mistake. It was directed at Israel because Israel is a very sensitive issue in the Muslim world. Our Prophet Muhammad asked us to take good care and protect non-Muslims living in our countries like Christians and Jews.’

 "Get it?" says the excellent BBC Watch blog." According to the BBC, if Tunisian Islamists (and presumably any elsewhere too) chant “Killing the Jews is a duty” or “Khaybar, Khaybar ya Yahud” or ”the army of Mohammed will return”, then local Jews have nothing whatsoever to worry about because in fact they are not referring to them – or indeed to Jews at all – but to Israel, which should apparently be perfectly understandable.

"And the BBC website’s Middle East desk is quite sure of that because a prominent Salafist – who obviously thinks it unremarkable to chant hate speech relating to “the Zionist entity’s policies” in front of a synagogue in Tunisia – told them so.

BBC Watch concludes:

" If that is the level of understanding and interpretation prevalent among staff at the BBC’s Middle East desk, then the only conclusion can be that the licence fee payer is funding an outfit not fit for purpose."

 No doubt the BBC would also rubbish the latest video (above ) from Sousse.

As for Mr Maher's playing down 'exaggerated' media reports of Tunisian antisemitism, he maintains that all the Tunisian Jews he interviewed told him, "we are fed up" :

"I have not put words into their mouths, neither did I push them to speak on this angle. There is no question about that.”

As pointed out by Point of No Return, Mr Maher has selectively interviewed 'dhimmi' Tunisian Jews with a vested interest in playing down 'exaggerated' media reports of Tunisian antisemitism.

However,  Mr Maher's colleague Magdi Abdelhadi, in his two-part radio series on the Exodus of Jews from Arab countries, Heart and Soul, broadcast six months ago, managed to find three Tunisian Jews who held the opposite view.

" It is the Salafists we fear", restauranteur Jacob Lellouche is heard to say.

Whatever happened to BBC standards of impartial reporting?