Where’s the Coverage? Palestinian Authority Arrests Non-Muslims for Eating During Ramadan

Over the weekend, The New York Times published an Op-Ed by Avraham Burg entitled, “Israel’s Fading Democracy,” in which the author argues:

Israel today is a religious, capitalist state. Its religiosity is defined by the most extreme Orthodox interpretations.

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With the elevation of religious solidarity over and above democratic authority, Israel has become more fundamentalist and less modern, more separatist and less open to the outside world.

CAMERA recently documented The New York Times‘ slanted editorial policy which overwhelmingly features “obsessive hectoring and criticism of Israel.” But this problem is not limited to The Times. Currently, “The Economist” is hosting an online debate, Is Israel succumbing to Jewish fundamentalism? The fact that such a question is even entertained in the media is nothing short of Orwellian, given that Israel is the only liberal democracy in the region where residents are free to practice their religion as they see fit or to practice no religion at all.

Contrast Israel’s freedom of religion with the restrictive policies of its neighbors.

In June, Saudi Arabia beheaded a man for witchcraft and the state reportedly executed two people last year on similar charges. The BBC reported:

The BBC’s Arab Affairs Editor, Sebastian Usher, says there is a very strong prohibition of some practices from the country’s powerful conservative religious leaders.

Last month, the State Department called on Iran to release Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani who is facing execution for converting from Islam to Christianity. He has been in prison for almost three years already.

In Egypt, recent sectarian riots forced many Christian families from their homes and shops which were looted and burned by Muslim mobs. The ancient Coptic community is unhappy with the post-revolution Muslim Brotherhood government which they feel under-represents them and, as reported in The Jerusalem Post:

Christians complain school books discriminate against them as they include verses from Koran that both Muslim and Christian students are required to study, but make no reference to the Bible.

Several weeks ago, hundreds of Gaza Christians protested the kidnapping and forced conversion of several members of their community. As described by The Gatestone Institute:

According to Christian families, the world does not seem to care about their plight. “We only hear voices telling us to stay where we are and to stop making too much noise,” said a Christian man living in Gaza City. “If they continue to turn a blind eye to our tragedy, in a few months there will be no Christians left in Palestine. Today it’s happening in the Gaza Strip, tomorrow it will take place in Bethlehem.”

And indeed, oppression of Christians is taking place under the Palestinian Authority. According to the official PA newspaper, six people have been arrested and one sentenced to a month in prison for eating in public during Ramadan, the month when, under Islamic law, eating is prohibited from sunrise until sunset. And, in an interview on PA TV, Sheikh Yusuf Ida’is, the Chairman of the PA Supreme Court for Shari’ah Law, said:

Our streets are Islamic, praise Allah. Any person caught committing this sin in public during Ramadan has to be imprisoned until the end of Ramadan, as an example to others.

So, while the media are obsessed with criticizing Israel, even to the point of promoting absurd stories of religious fundamentalism, they routinely ignore the rising tide of true religious fundamentalism throughout the rest of the Middle East.

Where’s the sanity? Where’s the decency? Where’s the coverage?