Letter

In response to Sectarian tension, Israeli intervention: What led to the violence in Syria?

P&I lets us down with Al Jazeera article on Syria

I feel sure that most Pearls and Irritations readers are anti-war. P&I can make us more alert to insidious war propaganda and so better able to take a stand for peace and humankind’s survival.

Yet, P&I posted an article by Al-Jazeera’s Mat Nashed that dealt with the recent fighting in Suwayda, Syria, and the Israeli response.

When it comes to Syria, Al-Jazeera is basically a mouthpiece for the foreign policy of Qatar, whose royal family provided billions of dollars toward the “phony war” in Syria, as it’s described by Jeffrey Sachs.

Qatar is known for its links to the Muslim Brotherhood; Al-Jazeera was a platform for inciting sectarian hatred in Syria and for the fatwas of the late Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi who is said to have been the Brotherhood’s spiritual head.

On 23 July, Tony Zappia MP presented the concerns of Australia’s Druze community to federal parliament. He listed some of the barbaric attacks on Druze civilians in Suwayda.

The suffering and concerns of Syria’s Druze at the hands of regime militants who believe they have a God-given right to slaughter “heretics” is not going to be presented so sympathetically or sincerely by Al-Jazeera.

P&I has let its readers down.

— Susan Dirgham from Melbourne