Death of Marwa El-Sherbini Not Covered by the Western Mainstream Media

The murder of Marwa Ali El-Sherbini (Arabic: مروة الشربيني‎; October 7, 1977 – July 1, 2009) went somewhat under-reported , by the western media. I only became aware of her xenophobic murder in Germany, by watching a recording of  the CBS Evening news anchor person’s interview with the Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Iranian President brought her murder up, when he was being confronted with a photo of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young Iranian women killed on the streets of Tehran, while watching a public protest against the Presidential election results this past summer. She was made an international martyr against Iran, and it was broadcast worldwide, and shown in graphic detail.

The following quotation  is a report on the incident taken from Wikipedia….

 Verbal abuse and court case for defamation

In August 2008, Alex W.^{[note 1]} (a German citizen, born in Perm, Russia^[5]but claiming German ethnic origin) shouted abuse at El-Sherbini in a public playground for children in Dresden, in a quarrel over the use of a swing by his niece and El-Sherbini’s son. El-Sherbini, wearing an Islamic headscarf, was called an “Islamist”, “terrorist” and “slut”^{[note 2]}. Others present tried to intervene, but Alex W. continued the verbal abuse for several minutes until the police arrived at the scene, directing epithets in Russian and German at the Russian-speaking bystanders who tried to reason with him. ^[6]

Alex W. was charged with defamation, pressed by El-Sherbini, and found guilty by the district court of Dresden, issuing a fine of 780 Euro. During the trial Alex W. claimed mitigating circumstances for the act of insulting El-Sherbini, suggesting that “people like her” were not real humans and therefore cannot be insulted. The Public Prosecutor successfully appealed the verdict to achieve a higher conviction due to the openly xenophobic character of the incident. ^{[5] [7]}

Fatal attack in the courtroom

At the appeal hearing at the regional court in Dresden, 1 July 2009, eight persons were present in the courtroom: a panel of one professional and two lay judges, the prosecutor, Alex W. as the defendant, his defence counsel, El-Sherbini as witness for the prosecution, and her husband and son as observers. ^[8] No security personnel was present and no security searches of individuals and their possessions were carried out, common in cases without anticipated security concerns and with no persons under arrest present. ^[9]

After El-Sherbini had testified, Alex W. strode across the courtroom and attacked her with a knife with a 18 cm (7 in) long blade, which he had taken into the courtroom in his backpack. El-Sherbini received multiple stab wounds to the upper body and arm (at least 16). ^[10] During the attack Alex W. was allegedly shouting “You don’t deserve to live!”^[5][7]. While trying to protect his wife, El-Sherbini’s husband Elwi Ali-Okaz was stabbed at least 16 times to the head, neck, upper body and arm^[10]. A police officer, who was in the court building testifying in an unrelated case was called to the scene to intervene, but mistook Elwi Ali-Okaz for the attacker and shot him in the lower leg. A criminal investigation against the police officer was ongoing as of 25 August 2009^[10].

Marwa El-Sherbini died on the scene, succumbing to her injuries.^{[9] [11]} Alex W. was arrested on the scene.^[12]

Elwi Ali-Okaz, critically wounded in the stabbing attack, was in a coma for two days ^[13]. He subsequently received physical therapy for several weeks in a hospital near Dresden for the stabbing and shooting injuries ^[14]”….

 

The racist and bigoted attack, and subsequent murder of  Marwa El-Sherbini was not fully reported on or sensationalized like Neda’s was. Could it be that her death does not further the goals of the Western media to paint all Muslims as terrorist, and people to be hated? It’s obvious to Iran that the graphic death of Neda was used to pit the people of the world against them, as it should have been. In presenting  the tragic and despicable acts against Marwa El-Sherbini, and the lack of mention of her in our media, I get the Iranian President’s point on this matter, and I hope that we all can get it as well, no matte what you feel about who making  it. I definitely despise all dictators, and mourned the death of Neda, as well.

Politics, both Nationally and Internationally seems to be run by reaction rather than pro-action. The Democrats uncover unseemly behavior by one of the Republicans, and all the Republicans can do is dig up a similar old offense by a Democrat, and say…”see, you guys do it too.”… as if that actually addresses the current problem effectively. It’s like mediating toddlers tattle telling on each other. I appreciate the Iranian President mentioning El-Sherbini on CBS news last night, but it is frustrating to me, that either he held this information back, only to reveal it at as a defense for himself, or, more distressing, the media knew about it, and decided for some nefarious reason’s to not allow the American people to know about it, by not reporting on it. I also see that all of our news outlets here in the USA report on the same stories every day, but none of them reported this one at the level of the Neda death.

Could it be that there is some collusion going in today’s broadcast media? I already have to go to MSNBC for the liberal point-view, Fox for the conservative, fascist point-of-view, and CNN for the middle-of-the road point -of-view, at least do us all a favor and stop manipulating what news you will skew in your favor!

The murder of Marwa El-Sherbini is a tragedy for her family, and is an insult to her people. All American’s should be informed of this travesty that occurred in Germany, and mobilize an effort to make sur it never happens again anywhere in the world. Whatever country that we choose to legally immigrate to, we should all feel confident in the protection of the local judicial system, and know that our right’s will be upheld and backed by the total strength of our home country and the United Nations, no matter what race or religion is involved.

I know that America is seen as a country that picks and chooses its allies, and causes to support, and our international policies are driven by our own self interest, rather than the health and welfare of the citizens of other countries.We are seen as hypocrites to a lot of nations for this policy, and I am certain that if we restore the fairness Doctrine : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness_Doctrine , and the Equal Time Rule:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-time_rule, which used to prevent broadcast and major media from unfairly presenting biased opinions and perceptions while presenting the news. This would also allow them to concentrate on just reporting the news, rather than creating it.

The act of not reporting the death of Marwa El-Sherbini, we provided the Iranian President an opportunity to do it himself, and to make the western media look bad, and biased against the concerns and violations toward Muslim men and women everywhere.

Most of all, remember Marwa El-Sherbini and pray for the health of her husband and the future of her small child.