Over the last month, Muslim Brotherhood spokesmen and leaders have made a concerted effort to portray their organisation in the Western media as representing a non-threatening, moderate, democratic alternative to the sort of politics embodied by the now-deposed Mubarak regime. The BBC has actively engaged with this issue and has interviewed officials such as Mohamed Morsi and Helmi El-Gazzar about their intentions now that the political landscape has altered so dramatically. The themes of Western fears of a rise in Islamic extremism, the role of Islam in state issues and the future of bilateral relations with Israel were fixtures of broadcast coverage of the Muslim Brotherhood. However, these issues had a lower profile on the BBC News website, whose content seemed to reflect an acceptance of the concept of Muslim Brotherhood 'moderation'. Tues. 22 Feb. 2011 @ 13.58 - Controversial scholar issues fatwa against Gaddafi, arguing he has behaved worse than 'the Jews' during Operation Cast Lead; Guardian live blog omits this and whitewashes history of prejudice. The leading Islamic scholar Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi yesterday issued a fatwa or religious decree, permitting the Libyan army to kill their estranged ruler, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. According to MEMRI, Qaradawi used his appearance on Al-Jazeera to argue that the leader's behaviour was so heinous as to warrant an unfavourable comparison with Jews and Israel: 'If you [Gaddafi] are indeed [the father of] the people, where is your compassion for them? You claim to be a commander and a father, but does a father ever kill his children?! Does a commander ever kill his soldiers?! And in this manner! ...We haven't seen anyone... Even Israel, when it attacked Gaza... These Jews were described as cruel: "Then your hearts were hardened, and became as rocks, or even harder." Even the Jews did not do such a thing.' Tues. 22 Feb. 2011 @ 12.35 - Suez Canal officials confirm that two Iranian warships have passed through the waterway on their way to the Mediterranean, the first such passage since the Iranian revolution in 1979. Reports emerged last week that the Iranian authorities were seeking passage for two of its ships through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean Sea, a request described as a 'provocation' by Israel. Today it was confirmed that passage had been granted by the Egyptian authorities and the ships were en route. The approval of the ships to move through the Canal has been widely reported across the British media. The Daily Telegraph carries further details on the exact nature of the two ships involved: 'The 1,500-tonne Alvand is normally armed with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles, while the larger 33,000-tonne Kharg has a crew of 250 and facilities for up to three helicopters'. Mon. 21 Feb. 2011 @ 11.01 - Readers' editor shifts the focus on to readers who 'jumped to the wrong conclusion that the full version of Livni's words had not appeared in the Guardian that day'. Last Monday Just Journalism covered The Guardian's acknowledgment that a pull quote appearing in the newspaper during the Palestine papers story was 'cut in a way that may have given a misleading impression.' Former Foreign Minister and negotiator Tzipi Livni was presented as having stated that Israeli policy 'is to take more and more land day after day' until 'it is impossible, we already have the land and cannot create the [Palestinian] state.' In fact, her preceding words made clear that she was describing the Palestinian perception of Israeli policy. Today's column by readers' editor Chris Elliott also addresses the incident, acknowledging that The Guardian's use of the quote, 'gave the misleading impression that this was the attitude of Livni and her government at the time' and that the full text makes it 'clear that Livni's intended meaning is very different from that implied in the pullquote.' However, the rest of 'Open door: Misleading pullquotes' focuses on defending the publication against the false assumption by 'some readers' that the full version of Livni's words did not appear elsewhere in The Guardian that day. Crucially, Elliott links the allegation by readers of 'deliberate distortion on the Guardian's part' to this incorrect supposition.
February 22, 2011 BBC Focus BBC on the Muslim Brotherhood
The Wire Guardian live blog whitewashes al-Qaradawi
The Wire Iranian warships pass through Suez Canal
The Wire 
Guardian muddies apology for Livni quote distortion
Tuesday, 22 February 2011
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