Islamofauxia Part II

There have been hundreds of instances like this that have included staged news, misrepresentations, fraud and inaccuracy that have been exposed by the blogosphere and media watchdog organizations. And yet they keep happening.

It was only this past January that Reuters gave us the Gaza Blackout Fraud. You may recall that, in a clear but silly attempt to smear Israel by accusing her of using collective punishment the Hamas propaganda machine produced a number of photographs like the one at the right. This one purports to show the Gaza government working by candlelight because Israel forced a blackout this one is clearly staged as it can be seen that, even with the drapes drawn, the vast majority of the hall is lit quite well by the bright daylight outside.

This next picture is even sillier as the candlelight parade is proceeding down a brightly lit street with street lights clearly visible in the background. It all seems so shamefully transparent and idiotically simple but, for some reason, it never ends.
In reality there is a vast volume of media fraud and misbehavior happening and most of it is far more subtle and sophisticated that these pathetic examples. Day in and day out, a virtual army of organizations and individuals respond to those fabrications and deceptions- publishing all manner of criticism and even ridicule. The offending media ignore what they can, deny most of the rest, fight legal battles to intimidate critics and, when all else fails, they issue bland corrections- and nothing changes.

That is, nothing changed until May 21, 2008. It was on that day that the chief judge in the Enderlin/France2 vs Karsenty appeal case dismissed all charges against Karsenty and confirmed that he had not overstepped reasonable professional ethics when he became one of the first media critics in the world to actually put into words the previously unspeakable fact that it had become apparent that Enderlin and France2 were either complicit or dupes in one of the bloodiest and most destructive frauds in the history of media.

The verdict in that trial was only brought about by seven long years of brilliant, innovative and painstaking work by several people. Among those people, it was Richard Landes of Second Draft and Augean Stables who, when the momentum was failing and the world had turned away, kept working, not as an agitator and accuser but as an honest researcher and synthesizer. His integrity, energy, intellectual honesty and the virtual mountain of solid scholarship he produced over the years lead to his becoming the most respected and influential expert witness to give testimony in that case. It also turned the tide against the intentional manipulation of the media by civil society and it will, if properly followed up, tip the balance away from those in the media who willingly (or blindly) assist them.

Thanks, in large part to Richard Landes, we stand at a true turning point in the single most urgent battle for the future of civilization in the twenty-first century- the quest, no, the absolute necessity, to turn the rising tide of chaos and propaganda in the Mainstream Media and the Cybersphere into a dependable, honest and accurate flow of information.

Second Draft, the organization founded to further Landes’ work is prepared to lead this effort. Having been at the center of the seven year long al Durah controversy and having lived through the two trials testing the work and methods of many researchers/writers we know what is required to identify, expose and destroy Islamofauxia. The combination of judgment, knowledge and skill required is unique. Only Second Draft has done such a complete job.

Our next step is to take these abilities and experience and instill them into an organization that will be on 24 hour standby to address and defeat all future attempts to stage and publish such frauds.

Mark Twain wrote, “A lie can travel all the way around the world before the truth can get out of bed and put its shoes on.” Second Draft aims to be there with boots on, ready to stand in the way of the lie.

We are now planning the next, absolutely essential, step toward building that system. We have begun the arrangements for a major three-day conference that will be the definitive work on the Kfar Qana building collapse- the only news story in history ever to have halted a war in progress. Our Kfar Qana conference has two objectives:
1. Condense the same kind of energy, collaboration and talent that it took to understand and debunk the al Durah incident and bring it to one location for three days and bring it to bear on the already discredited but still widely cited Kfar Qana incident.
2. Use the activities to build the relationships and working methodologies that will allow the same team to form rapid response task forces over the internet in the future.
The team gathering for this conference will include the following areas of expertise:

• Forensic medicine
• Ballistics
• Munitions
• Military equipment and tactics
• International law
• Crime-scene investigation
• Arabic language and culture
• Journalism and media
• Cinema
• Forensic digital photography and sound
• Intelligence
• Structural Engineer

There will also be Israel Defense Force experts, media people, bloggers and Lebanese investigators who were on the ground for the initial investigations.

There is a way of winning the information war and it is not just to "correct" and exhort- as if we were correcting mere mistakes. Islamofauxia is a deadly and intentional problem. Second Draft's combination of solid research and aggressive follow through has been successful beyond our modest means, with your help we can ramp up our capabilities so and continue to turn the tide.

First of all, we need your help to make this conference a success. We would like to hold it this December but there is much to do and arraigning a secure venue, the technical resources and travel for all our experts will not be cheap. Please, help us with a contribution today to support this urgent and vital work!

This is your opportunity to take a pivotal role in insuring that civil society will survive the current challenges and thrive well into the twenty first century.

To donate by PayPal just go to the Second Draft web site http://www.seconddraft.org/ and click on the “Donate” button at the lower right.

If you prefer to send a check, Please make it payable to Second Draft and send it to Second Draft, P.O. Box 150159, Newton Center, MA 02459

Islamofauxia

OK, class, lets try out a new word, I have been working on a more accurate way of describing the polymorphous phenomenon we study at Second Draft and this one actually came to mind while I was responding to a very good post at one of my favorite Canadian Blogs, Blazing Catfur...

New Word:
Islamofauxia (pronounced like islamophobia with no "B") – The lies, staged video, PhotoShopped pictures, calumnies, rage triggers, exaggerations and assorted frauds that Islamists concoct and the eager propagation of same by the Mainstream Media.
If all cases of Media Fraud and Islamofauxia were this obvious, you would not need Second Draft...
Back in the summer of 2007 the picture on the right made its way into the media via Agence France Press news agency. It came with this rambling caption, which intentionally blends the mention of the supposed bullets of the coalition forces into inflammatory references to suicide bombs (which the coalition was actually working to prevent):
An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. At least 175 people were slaughtered on Tuesday and more than 200 wounded when four suicide truck bombs targeted people from an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq, officials said. (AFP/Wissam al-Okaili)
Any one who has ever fired any kind of firearm and most people who have even seen a picture of a gun being fired would, if they stopped to think about it, realize that since those two bullets were still in their casings, it is impossible that they could have “hit” that woman’s house unless someone took them out of a clip and threw them. The picture (taken by an Iraqi stringer) and the caption were concocted with the intent to deceive and mislead. Yonatan Zunger has some very interesting take on the background of the picture here.

The dizzying combination of evil but inept fraud of the Islamists and idiotic complicity by the media that produced this example of Islamofauxia is pretty rare. But one must wonder, “If this transparent incompetency could get as far as it did, what else are they doing that they get away with- and how much damage is it doing?”

Defining, understanding and counteracting Islamofauxia is what Second Draft is all about, In the next few posts I will be exploring the implications of this new word and how it shows that our way of investigating and understanding Islamofauxia has led us to an historic tipping point, that may turn out to have fateful and momentous implications for Western Civilization.

Update:
It can be varied for sub categories like Islamofauxist for the perpetrators and Islamofaux-assister for the media dupes
And Islamofauxney (Pronounced Islamo-phoney) as a general description of all ideas, stories and pictures that are manipulative, misogynist, intolerant, hateful, sly, destructive and lethal....

Updated Update:
This word is catching on because is close enough to Islamophobia so that it take some of the venom out of the accusation. Also, it is a good antidote to cultural relativism. If you call it Taqiya or Kitman liberals will say "oh, its a cultural thing, its ok." Giving it our own name says, "cultural thing it may be, but its not ok in this culture and last time I checked this is the successful one."
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