Last Thursday, February 8, 2007 AIM received the following letter of complaint from Mr Robert Burton-Bradley.
I notice your website has picked up the Daily Telegraphs coverage of an incident at Killara high School involving a simulation exercise for year 11 students is grossly misinformed.
I noticed a number of inaccuracies when I first read the Article in The Australian newspaper.
I have since written an article for the Northside Courier which exposed a number of these falsehoods.
I suggest you investigate this matter before posting it as accurate and honest reporting on your website.Robert Burton-Bradley
Here is my reply:
Dear Mr Burton-Bradley,
I have to say I was surprised you decided to complain about this alleged gross misinformation to us rather than The Australian.
As you correctly pointed out in your letter, we only “picked up” the Daily Telegraph’s coverage..”.
Furthermore, after reading your article “Students of banned Middle-Eastern program refute 'anti-Israel' bias ” I am even more puzzled because the bare facts as presented by you and the Murdoch media are the same.
These facts are:
- The Killara High School ran the Middle East Politics Simulation game for a number of years
- Dr Andrew Vincent of the Macquarie University Centre for Middle Eastern Studies devised the simulation as well as becoming its propagator
- There was a complaint from the Jewish Board of Deputies
- The NSW Dept of Education decided to ban the exercise
And so the “gross misinformation” and “inaccuracies” can be reduced to the fact that the Australian/Telegraph mentioned “a number of distressed parents and children” whereas you pointed out that there was only one parent complaining and the rest of students and parents were more than happy about the whole thing.
Obviously there are two completely different issues here, and what is more one does not rule out the other.
A Jewish education expert who observed an exercise at Killara High School on Sydney's North Shore said some Jewish students sat together for support and were too intimidated to speak as other students voiced anti-Israeli opinions in terms critical of individual students. (Source )
In fact the program devised by Dr Andrew Vincent was probably very successful and the majority of students did not see anything wrong with it.
After all it was a school programme, and most young people are easily influenced by people in authority (no matter how sinister the motives of these authorities might be).
The true motive behind this “educational” role-play was to demonize the Israelis, to produce more Israeli-haters like AnthonyLowenstein, Adam Shapiro or Noam Chomsky and people, who often just try to fit in to the anti-Semitic “mainstream”.
Please do not be fooled for a minute by Dr Andrew Vincent’s unbiased, academic view on Israel. After all, he demanded Hezbollah be taken off the list of terrorist organizations.
He also insinuated that it was the Israelis who killed the late Yasser Arafat:
Justice seems further away from the Palestinians than ever before. The Israelis quite possibly murdered Yasser Arafat, who despite all his failings stood up for Palestinian interests and refused to cave in to US and Israeli pressure. His replacement, the hapless Mahmoud Abbas' real task is to provide security for the Israelis and to persuade his people to accept the Israeli occupation of their land forever and without protest. (Source )
..and he agreed that suicide bombers are martyrs:
Are these suicide bombers martyrs or not? Martyrdom like beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If their communities, their families, their comrades see them as martyrs, well, martyrs is what they are. (Source )
Dr Vincent doesn’t worry about facts: as long as his ideological aims are reached, anything goes:
In preparing a profile, you should not consume yourself with incidental biographical data such as bithdates, schooling, etc, except where this has a particular influence on your role - in which case the relevant effect should of course be discussed. A short historical overview should then link into information about philosophy and/or ideology - is your character more pragmatic or idealistic, reactive or active?
You should also keep in mind that every person (and organisation) considers himself to be rational and, generally, "right". To role-play an extremist group, for example, as insane would lead to a poor parody and little effect - an understanding of the logic and ideology which drives that group is necessary and should be worked with, no matter how strange you may find it based on your personal ideas (which you too consider "right"!). This leads to an appreciation of the many grey areas that dominate people and politics, as well as looking below the surface and going some way to understanding different views. (Source )
The media like to suggest that suicide bombing is a uniquely Islamic phenomenon, with poor misguided patsies thinking they’re going to be propelled into an Islamic paradise peopled by 47 virgins, and other earthly delights. (Source )
The number of virgins is in fact 72 not 47.
When it comes to other areas Dr Vincent wouldn’t bother with little obstacles like facts at all:
Sri Lanka has seen Buddhist suicide bombers who killed up to 500 people, including Rajiv Gandhi. (Source )
Firstly, the conflict in Sri Lanka has nothing to do with any religion (unlike the terrorist acts committed in the name of Allah).
Secondly, Dr Vincent refers to the activities of Tamil Tigers, who are Marxists and therefore cannot be classified as “religious”.
Thirdly Tamils aren’t Buddhists but HINDU (it is the Sinhalese who are mostly Buddhists).
As you can see, Dr Vincent managed to make several “gross” errors in just two sentences.
Would you really trust this man with the education of your children?
Yours sincerely
Dan Zaremba
Australians celebrate and revere Anzac Day on April 25th each year in remembrance of our brave soldiers who fought in two great world wars to secure our freedom. Every Australian identifies with the slogan “lest we forget” and in services held around the country people reflect on the battles and men who died to secure our freedom. Yet across the world in France, there is one remarkable battle which helped form the Europe we know today and allowed the development of civilization based on Judeo Christian principles. This one famous battle has become known as the battle of Tours and effectively stopped the Muslim advance into Europe. After the death of Mohammed in 632AD, Muslim armies exploded out of the Arabian peninsula to conquer much of the Middle East, expanding across north Africa. From there they crossed into Spain in 711AD and eventually controlled much of al-Andalus by 715AD. It was the victory at Tours by Charles Martel that stemmed the tide and eventually the Muslim marauders were expelled from Spain in 1492 when the last outpost at Granada fell to King Ferdinand of Spain. 
Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was born, lived, fought and won battles against religious and social oppression in the 17th century Bharat or India. He was a shining star in the Indian firmament and is renowned as a champion of the downtrodden and depressed masses. He was and continues to be an icon for the classes and masses alike and is seen as a rallying point for peasants oppressed by foreign rulers, Pathans and Moghuls alike. Sexually exploited women found in Shivaji Raje a protector, a benefactor and flocked to his Hindavi Swaraj to find solace and feel liberated under his saffron flag. 
Perhaps some readers might be interested to know that January 28 is considered a feast day among Catholics – actually 2 feast days are celebrated on the same day – one is of ST Thomas Aquinas, the great medieval theologian and philosopher who adapted Aristotle to the western Judeo-Christian worldview. . It is also the feast day of a lesser known person – St Peter Nolasco, the great ransomer of captives from the Muslims.
How often in conversation with a Muslim, do they quote Spain as the crowning achievement of Islam, where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in harmony for about 800 years?
Why do Muslims insist that Jerusalem is their Holy City?
There is a very strongly entrenched view among majority of Westerners today that the three main monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity and Islam share one common God and therefore despite the obvious differences, the core foundation of these three religions is the same. 
