| |
To Our Fellow Jewish Canadians - Our Apologies
Alameen
1-07-2010
 Email
to a friend
 Post
a comment
 Print
On January 7th, 2010, at approximately 11:30 AM, we received a news release issued by B’NAI BRITH CANADA, Canada’s Jewish community’s foremost human rights agency raising concerns about an article published in alAmeen’s last issue, titled, “Ukrainian kids, new victims of Israeli 'organ theft'.
We understand from the communiqué that the leading Canadian Jewish organization, is not pleased with the content of the article, and have asked for an apology, from alAmeen as well as British Columbia Muslim Association.
We understand that BNAI BRITH basis for demanding an apology is, as they view the contents within the article as Anti-Semitic, or Anti-Western, and against our most cherished Canadian values.
We understand that our fellow Canadian Jewish community members find some of the contents inappropriate and hurtful.
Therefore, in the spirit of honouring our most cherished Canadian Values, and to demonstrate our commitment to upholding and defending such values, the Editorial Board of alAmeen Post, without prejudice, extends its honest and sincere apology to our fellow Jewish Canadians for any hurt which may have caused by us publishing or communicating such a news article.
At alAmeen, we take pride in serving the local Muslim Community since 2002, and our goal and aim remains – to bridge the gap – that exists between Muslim and Non-Muslim British Columbians, Canadians. Although, as young community newspaper we strive to achieve excellence and have consistently maintained highest ethical standard in reporting; we denounce all forms of discrimination, whether it is anti-Muslim, or anti-Semitism, or any other forms of discrimination, and although short, but how we have conducted ourselves in past is a testament to our commitment in enriching Canada.
However, there are few points which do need clarifications, as it is imperative to make distinction between alAmeen Post and British Columbia's leading Muslim Organization B.C. Muslim Association. BCMA and alAmeen Post are two separate entities. Our editorial board members may also be members of the BCMA, and from time to time elected to serve on different boards or branches. However, it does not mean, as it is being perceived, that BCMA is either behind, promoting, propagating, funding alAmeen, or it is a BCMA publication. That is not the case at all and we hope that our fellow Canadians do understand the distinction between these two separate entities.
Having said that, it is also important that our fellow Canadians, especially our fellow Jewish Canadians, who are upset with our coverage on organ harvesting, understand the nature of our business: alAmeen Post is a bi-weekly community paper, distributed free, serving the local Muslim Community in British Columbia, Canada; we neither have the resources nor the means to have field reporters or investigative journalist working in the field. A large portion of our news is devoted to cover community events and functions, dealing with our own community issues. We do incorporate news from various regions of the world, for our audience, which we obtain from third parties. However, we remain very cautious about the news, which we do publish, and with our limited resources, we try our best that the news which we do publish is credible.
Defending our news article at this juncture would mean causing further divide in our harmonious multicultural fabric, which goes against our own values, but it is needless to say that the issue of “Organ Harvesting in Israel” was being discussed at the time of our last publication, by major media outlets, and not just alAmeen.
However, we do acknowledge that our fellow Jewish Canadians are upset over this, as clearly EXPRESSED by BNAI BRITH CANADA on their behalf, and it is for this very reason we retract our story, and we have removed it from our website, as soon as we received the fax from BNAI BRITH CANADA.
We hope that this would appease those who may have been offended, our intention was not to offend or hurt anyone, and we remain committed to eliminate all forms of discrimination.
We thank you for your providing us the opportunity to clarify our position.
Also Read:
Poor Planning, Lack of Judgment equals Grief and Hurt!
http://alameenpost.com/articles.aspx?categoryname=community%20pulse&newsId=1742
Letter to the Editor:
http://alameenpost.com/articles.aspx?categoryname=Letters&newsid=1740
http://alameenpost.com/articles.aspx?categoryname=Letters&newsid=1741
Footnotes: B’nai Brith Canada acknowledges “apology” by Al-Ameen:
http://bnaibrith.ca/prdisplay.php?id=1601
|