She wrote, as if it is a fact:
"The Koran is revered as a miracle by Muslims.
It was revealed
over 23 years to the Prophet Muhammad, who was illiterate,
then memorised by his followers, and written down by his companions."
Why did she not write:
"Muslims believe it was revealed"?
Well now I understand - she believes this herself!
Her whole article condemns the harmless Christian church for burning a Koran,
rather than focusing on condemning the violent Islamic maniacs who
threaten, riot, burn and kill
in response.
I thought she was just an anti-Israel leftist,
so
I thought this was just normal leftie pandering to Islam.
But now I understand - she herself might have been offended by the Koran burning.
Michael Jansen on Iraq, July 23, 2007:
"the overwhelming number of insurgents are Iraqi nationalists fighting for liberation."
They are of course fighting for no such thing.
They are fighting to enslave Iraq, not liberate it.
Michael Jansen section.
"The majority of Michael Jansen's articles consisted of one-sided condemnations of Israel by partisan sources, with no Israeli voice to provide perspective or counterbalance.
...
Much of Jansen's reporting was based on second-hand information from Hamas spokesmen or pro-Palestinian sources, some with radical agendas.
Several articles consisted entirely of allegations against Israel, without any Israeli counterbalance. And editorial comments by Jansen herself underscored these allegations."
The Irish Times paper edition prominently highlights this quote from Rishmawi:
"It would be a lot easier for Israel if it can get rid of the Christian community.
It could portray its fight as being against Islam."
Strangely, the Irish Times does not mention that
Israel's Christian population grew by 25 percent from 1995 to 2007,
and has grown by 345 percent since 1949.
Some war against Christianity!
The message seems to be that if the Christian population is declining in the PA
and increasing in Israel, it could not possibly be the PA's fault.
It must be Israel's fault.
Why? Israel wishes to remove the Christians from the PA,
so as to present its war as against Islam.
The fiends!
Like all agenda-driven journalists, Jansen never asks the unasked question:
What would happen to a Christian in the West Bank who did
loudly and vocally blame the PA, not Israel, for the decline in the
Christian population?
Honest Reporting also
notices this article.
They outline some of the Muslim persecution of Christians in the PA.
The West must confront Binyamin Netanyahu or risk alienating Arab democrats says Michael Jansen, 26 May 2011, after
Netanyahu's magnificent speech to the U.S. Congress.
But she is unable to quote any "Arab democrats" who are alienated.
She quotes Fatah, Hamas and the Arab League, none of whom are democrats.
She talks about the Arab street that is allegedly "democratic" but also hates Israel, the only democracy in the region.
And then she says we should respect that Arab street rather than despise it!
Israel bombs Syria, May 2013, during the Syrian civil war, to prevent advanced weapons being sent by Assad to Hezbollah.
Every civilized man must applaud this strike.
But not the Irish Times.
Where to begin? "Syrian holiday shattered"!
Em, Syria is in the middle of a civil war
that has killed 70,000 so far!
It's not like Israel disturbed their peace!
Jansen opens with a quote from
Assad regime lackey George Jabbour:
"Over coffee and strawberry cake, Mr Jabbour, an academic and former adviser to
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's father,
said: "Israel is using the pretext of chemical weapons to attack Syria.""
Jansen provides no criticism of this dictator's lackey, and for all we know agrees with him.
She writes as if Israel is aggressively entering the war,
whereas shipping weapons to Hezbollah is of course the aggressive act.
"by early afternoon the people of Damascus had recovered from the shock that Israel sought to embroil itself in their civil conflict".
And not a word of praise for the brave IAF
pilots and their mission,
but we expect that from the Irish Times.
Absolutely shameful piece
by Michael Jansen,
Aug 28, 2001,
where she describes the Jew-killing terrorist
Abu Ali Mustafa
as "a gentleman revolutionary".
We are supposed to appreciate the Jew-killer because he is
"a soft-spoken man"
and he wears a "suit and tie" while killing Jews.
Shame on the Irish Times for publishing this.
Netanyahu's magnificent speech to the U.S. Congress, May 2011.
Michael Jansen claimed this would alienate Arab democrats.
But she was unable to quote any Arab democrats who were alienated.
Michael Jansen publishes fake news about Israel in the Irish Times,
9 July 2024.
The estimate of Gaza deaths was a letter to the Lancet, not a peer-reviewed study.
The Irish Times later had to issue a
correction.
Michael Jansen converted to Islam in 1967.
The Irish Times thinks we don't need to know that.
For 25 years, the Middle East correspondent for the Irish Times was a Muslim.
And they never told us.
Yes, of course, a Muslim could still have sensible opinions about the Middle East.
Jansen doesn't in practice,
but some Muslims do
(see this list).
But that's not the point.
The point is the patronising approach of the Irish Times in not telling us.
They have hidden this from us for decades.
It's like how they hid from us for decades that their
American correspondent, Seán Cronin,
was the
Chief of Staff of the IRA.
Tom Carew discovered this
in Nov 2010,
though it took a while to confirm it.
I had thought for years that Michael Jansen was just another anti-Israel leftie.
I was amazed that the Irish Times never saw fit to tell us that the person attacking Israel
for years in their pages was a Muslim.
An American Girl On The Hajj,
Michael Jansen,
Saudi Aramco World, November/December 1974.
Tom Carew
discovered this article
in Nov 2010,
but we weren't totally sure this was her.
Further research by me in Feb 2012 finally confirmed this is the Irish Times writer.
All sources agree that the following is all the same person:
Michael Jansen.
Born "Michael Elin", female, American,
born Protestant in Michigan.
Went to Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, graduated 1962.
Moved to Lebanon around 1962.
Went to American University of Beirut.
Converted to Islam 1967.
Married before 1972 to the international journalist Godfrey Jansen.
Godfrey was also a Muslim (whether by birth or conversion I do not know).
She went as "Michael Elin Jansen"
or "Michael E. Jansen".
She completed the Hajj to Mecca in 1973.
They lived Lebanon.
They moved to Cyprus 1976.
She started writing for Irish Times in 1987.
Godfrey died 1998.
She is Middle East correspondent for the Irish Times.
Photos from the above article. "I formally declared my adherence to Islam."
Sources
Here are the sources that prove
that the convert to Islam is the Irish Times writer.
Profile at the anti-Israel
UCC Palestine Solidarity Campaign
site.
This site says:
"we aim to provide as much information as possible on the background of the people whose opinions are in the database,
so that readers can make up their own minds on the credibility that they wish to attach to these opinions."
They tell us that
Alan Shatter is Jewish.
I wonder will they now tell us that
Michael Jansen is Muslim?
Obituary
of her husband
Godfrey Jansen
(born 1919, died 1998).
He was an international journalist and a Muslim.
He is mentioned by her in her tribute to Edward Said,
Irish Times,
December 29, 2003.
Dedication of
Godfrey Jansen's book
Militant Islam
(1979).
This confirms his wife's old name as "Michael Elin".
Note "binti" means "daughter of".
And "Hajja" is the title given to a woman who has completed the hajj.
Highly negative review
of Godfrey Jansen's book Militant Islam
by the great
Daniel Pipes
in 1980.
He points out that Godfrey Jansen really ought to declare that he is a Muslim.
To which could be added that Michael Jansen really ought to declare it too.
Pipes says the book has terrible politics:
"The reformist groups who are the heroes of Militant Islam include the
Muslim Brethren in Egypt,
al-Maududi's Jama'at-i Islami
in Pakistan,
and "with reservations, the Libya of Colonel Qaddafi"
...
Jansen sympathetically reviews the activities and doctrines of these groups and takes it upon himself to convince Western readers that their efforts are "laudable or at least understandable.""
Aug 1987 -
Michael Jansen starts writing on Israel and the region
for the Irish Times.
Her anti-Israel bias over the years is striking,
but we are never told that she is a Muslim.
Nov 2010 -
Tom Carew
discovers the 1974 article about the Hajj.
We discuss it and we aren't totally sure this is her.
Feb 2012 -
I prove it is her.
Apr 2012 - First appearance of this information in the mainstream media:
Susan Philips
on
"Talking Point", Newstalk radio, 14 April 2012.
See full show:
and relevant clip:
Tony Allwright makes a video of
Susan Philips
on
"Talking Point", Newstalk radio, 14 April 2012.
As a refreshing reminder that not all Muslims are like Michael Jansen:
The brave radicals of
British Muslims for Israel.
"Israel is here to stay.
It is a democracy, it is a place where people can live freely together, and it is exactly the sort of civic society and system that we should be replicating across the Middle East."
If only the Irish Times could hire Muslims like this to write for it!
As a refreshing reminder that not all Arabs hate Israel:
Israeli Arab
Rania Fadel
explains why she loves Israel, the country where she can be free.
If only the Irish Times could hire Arabs like this to write for it!
Arab Muslims who love Israel and serve in the Israeli army.
This clip includes the twin brother of Bedouin IDF soldier
Omar Sawaid,
age 27,
married with two children,
who was
abducted by Hezbollah in 2000
and murdered.
Nonie Darwish
of Arabs for Israel
is an Egyptian Muslim who was raised to hate Israel.
She rebelled against this,
converted to Christianity and became pro-Israel.
In contrast to Jansen, she risked her life by doing this.
What is it about the left-wing mind that makes someone like
Michael Jansen
more appealing to them than someone like Nonie Darwish?