Ali accuses European media of double standards when it comes to terrorism

Special to The Reference

Director of the Center for Middle East Studies in Paris (CEMO) and Member of the Egyptian Parliament, Abdel Rahim Ali, said today that major media outlets, such as BBC, continue to call terrorists who stage attacks against the Egyptian army and police in Sinai “militants”.

“However, if someone stabs a British citizen or drives over some British pedestrians on one of the streets of London, the same media outlets immediately call this person a ‘terrorist’,” Ali said.

He added at a seminar organized by CEMO on dialogue between the two banks of the Mediterranean that if a politician calls for suppressing women, spreading hate against those who are different and barring music and the arts on religious grounds, this is considered a crime against civilization and humanity in the West.

A politician, he added, accused of making this is never allowed to win elections.

He said French politician Marine Le Pen is a case in point in this regard.

“Nevertheless, some senior writers who write in major European newspapers, such as Robert Fisk who writes for the British newspaper, Independent, consider Mohamed Mursi, a Muslim Brotherhood leader who harbored the same racist views, a democratically elected president who has to be supported and considered a victim, even if he dies in a natural manner,” Ali said.

The seminar focuses on cooperation between Europe and non-European Mediterranean states, including Egypt, in the fight against terrorism; illegal immigration; education, and water.

The seminar is held on the sidelines of the Two Mediterranean Banks summit which is held in Marseilles on June 23 and 24.

CEMO takes the opportunity of the summit to open discussion on the issues that cause problems between countries on the two banks of the Mediterranean.

Apart from the Arab-Israeli conflict, which stands behind most of the violence in our world today, the Arab Spring came to wreak disaster on the world and widen the scope of problems in it.