Arab Political Commentators Mamoun Al-Tamimi and Tal'at Rmeih Discuss the Situation in the Middle East

Al-Majd TV, an Islamic oriented channel from the United Arab Emirates, hosted two political commentators, Egyptian Tal'at Rmeih and Palestinian Mamoun Al-Tamimi, to discuss the situation in the Middle East. Following is a verbatim translation of excerpts from the discussion that was aired on May 18, 2004:

Al-Tamimi: Regarding those who relied on this West having moral and democratic foundations, their words do resonate now. They (The Americans) are beasts in human form. Who told you that this (Arab) nation has lost its emotions in the past 50 years? Indeed it has gone through such a period, this is true. But in the past three years this nation has changed.

The nation is furious. By Allah, if you open the gates of Jihad in the Arab world, you will find tens of millions who already are prepared to take revenge on those who humiliate this nation, provoke it, colonize it, kill its youth, detain them, and defile our holy places.

Who told you that the nation has disappeared? By Allah, this nation is simmering, not only from the ocean to the gulf, but from ocean to ocean, and all this because of the actions of America, Sharon, and Bush.

Rmeih: The Muslims ruled a country that stretched from one end of the world to the other, in a civilized manner. At no stage, despite their power and strength in all their conflicts and wars, did they commit a single crime in this revolting bloody manner. Since Western culture began to rule the world, it has been producing criminals in this manner.

They said Hitler was a unique and insignificant phenomenon, but then came the Zionists and the Jews who have been fighting for 50 years, massacring and torturing. They said that these are a phenomenon that is related to the conflict in the Middle East, and then Milosevic, Karadzic in Bosnia-Herzegovina committed massacres and killings, and produced mass graves. Now the great pioneering American culture, as those in the West call it, as well as those who serve as the West's ideological or political agents… This culture is now producing this.