By Ayub Khan, IOL Washington correspondent

CHICAGO, April 10 (IslamOnline) - Robert Fisk, a U.K. Independent journalist, lambasted the Western media for biased coverage when it came to Muslims and the Middle East. He was speaking at North Park University over the weekend and had flown in from Beirut, where he was covering the latest bout of Middle East violence. 

Speaking to an overflowing crowd, Fisk criticized the Western media, describing much of its coverage in the Middle East as "incomprehensible and cowardly". He said that while the media constantly targets Arab leaders as corrupt and wrong, virtually nothing is said about Israeli leaders who are just as equally guilty. 

Hawkish Israeli Prime Minister is usually referred to as “the warrior” whereas Palestinian President Yasser Arafat is described as a “terrorist,” said Fisk.

It was difficult, Fisk added, to explain to the Arab world the outrage felt in the Western world after the September 11 terror attacks. Almost 1700 people were murdered in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres (ordered by then Israeli Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon), but there was no similar condemnation in the West, no candlelight vigils, and no one called it a terrorist attack, he said. 

Fisk said that even the choice of words is biased and misleading. Instead of "occupation", "disputed" is used, thus misleading the public. He added that he feels  disgraced by the actions of his fellow journalists who while giving a clean chit to the Israelis, often unfairly target Arabs. 

He praised Israeli journalists like Amira Hass for their honest reporting which he said puts to shame Western and even Arab journalists who decline to criticize their regimes. He said that it is the duty of all journalists to monitor the centers of power. 

Fisk, one of few journalists to interview Osama bin Laden, said that much of the Al-Qaeda leader's support in the Arab world comes from his words rather than his actions. "His devoted followers hang on those words as though he was messiah...His words have a special resonance. Without those words he might just be a voice in the wilderness," Fisk said.  

He said he believes that the world hasn't really changed since September 11. "The world didn't change after the massacres in Sabra and Shatila. No one even remembers it... America has changed, but not the world," he said. 

Fisk recounted his recent dangerous encounter in Pakistan where he was attacked and injured by a crowd of Afghan refugees. “I too would have attacked Robert Fisk if I were one of those refugees,” he said.  

The audience gave him a rousing applause at the end of his address.

Fisk's appearance was organized by North Park's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Established in November 1995, North Park's Center for Middle Eastern Studies is the first evangelical Christian Middle Eastern studies center in North America.

Grounded in Christian values and committed to an ecumenical evangelical vision, the Center seeks understanding, and reconciliation with the Jewish and Muslim communities through academic study, publishing, conferences, guest lectures, consulting services, and cultural exchanges.  

The Center's executive director, Donald E. Wagner, is the author of Peace or Armageddon: The Unfolding Drama of the Middle East Peace Accord, Anxious for Armageddon: A Call to Partnership for Middle Eastern and Western Christians, and Dying in the Land of Promise: Palestine and Palestinian Christianity from Pentecost-2000.

Prior to his position at North Park, Wagner was national director of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (1980-89) and director of Middle East programs for Mercy Corps International (1990-95) and is the 1993 recipient of the Human Rights Achievement Award from the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee.