The heroes of Brighton

Thanks to a Hasby Awards nomination from Harvela, I saw this short video showing how many ordinary people come out every Saturday to counterprotest the BDSers in Brighton who are boycotting a Jewish owned shop that happens to sell Sodastream.



There are lots of videos there, definitely worth checking out.

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When Muslim Brotherhood uses BDS methods against lectures sponsored by PalArabs

Yesterday's linkdump mentioned this:

A guest lecture at a London university was abandoned when protesters backing Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood chased the speaker from the stage.

Speaker Mohamed El-Nabawy had to be ushered off stage by security guards when around 30 demonstrators stormed a lecture theatre at Bloomsbury’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), which is part of the University of London.

They were said to have targeted the public discussion, focusing on the challenges facing Egypt, because of Mr El-Nabawy’s ties to the Tamarod group which opposed ex President Mohammed Morsi.

Footage which has emerged online shows the chaotic scenes as chanting demonstrators take control of the lecture theatre and guests are led to safety by security guards.

The scene is eerily familiar. It is exactly what the BDSers do when Israelis try to speak on campuses.

Yet here was the reaction from the sponsor:

A spokesman for the university’s Palestinian Society, which organised the event, said: “While we fully respect, and understand, the highly-charged context of any discussion on contemporary Egyptian politics, we believe that the disruptions pre-empted any possibility of fruitful exchange.

Do you think that the Palestine Society minds when Israelis or Zionists are interrupted and barred from speaking, or even playing music, at universities worldwide? Do you think that SOAS PalSoc ever said a word against that?

Zvi writes in the comments:

We have seen many times that terrorism has no "off switch" - that if a society condones terrorism as long as it is against unpopular people (Israel, Jews) or "in a just cause" (against Israel, Jews), then it itself becomes the victim of terrorism.

BDS and Academic Boycott proponents be warned!!!

The same is true of the soft terrorism - threats of violence - practiced by BDS supporters who regularly attempt to threaten and intimidate university speakers, artists and others who are related to Israel in some way. Society as a whole failed to oppose such tactics, even condoning them at the highest levels - and now they have metastasized, like the evil cancer that they are.

To university BDS advocates: YOU introduced tactics of violent violent intimidation into British universities in your war against the Jewish state. You created a climate of fear for Jews on campus. You created a climate that cheered the censorship of Israeli voices, and the intimidation of voices that dared to sing in Israel. And now those same tactics are being used elsewhere on your campuses, against someone else. Those same tactics will be used more and more frequently, targeting more and more people.

You should feel terror when you read about this event; it is a sign that you have created your own hell.

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Controversial British Islamic public school closed for health violations

From the Derby Telegraph, last week:

WOMEN teachers at Al-Madinah School in Derby claim they are being told to cover their heads and shoulders with a hijab – an Islamic scarf – whether or not they are Muslim.

This is one of several complaints made by staff to their unions at Al-Madinah School, which is currently under investigation by the Education Funding Agency for alleged irregularities over its grants.

A member of the teaching staff told the Derby Telegraph that women were being told to sign new contracts that say they must wear hijabs and that girls are told to sit at the back of classes.

It is understood that the new contracts for staff also include rules about not taking non-halal food into the school and not being allowed to wear jewelry.

Mr Raine added: "There are worries over practices concerning the discrimination between male and female pupils in the school, with the girls being told to sit at the back of the class regardless of whether they can see the board properly."

The school, which occupies space at Norman House, Friar Gate, where primary-age children are taught, and Midland House, Nelson Street, for secondary children, was set up in September 2012.

The then head teacher, Andrew Cutts-Mckay, who has left after less than a year in post, said at the time that the school was being set up so that "the timetable will be flexible with time for Islamic teaching but pupils will be able to opt out of this and there will be a chance to learn about other faiths".

He said the school would "honour all faiths" and that he envisaged a school where 50% of pupils are Islamic and the other half were not.

Sue Arguile, branch secretary of Derby National Union of Teachers, said: "This school was first launched as based on Muslim principles and not as a Muslim school.

"If the school is not sticking to the original reasons behind why it was set up, then it does call into question whether public money is being used properly and for its intended purpose."

The Daily Mail adds:

Jane is a good school teacher and proud of it. She lives in a handsome, detached house surrounded by neatly mowed lawns on the outskirts of Derby, with her husband and three pet cats.

For nearly 20 years, she has taught history, geography and religious studies in schools throughout the East Midlands city. In all that time, there has never been one word of complaint against her from head teachers, parents or pupils.

‘I feel I do a good job and always wear a business suit with trousers or a sensible skirt in school. It is a sign of respect for my profession and sets a good example to the children.’

Yet, one day in October last year, she returned home from the classroom in tears to her husband, a successful businessman. To her horror, she had become embroiled in a furious row at her school over what she wore to work.

The Islamic Al-Madinah school in Derby, one of the newest of the Government-sponsored free schools, had asked her to dress modestly, covering her hair and ensuring she did not show any flesh apart from her face, hands and feet.

She abided by the request — or so she thought.

For earlier that October day, wearing a grey suit with a skirt well below the knees, thick knitted black stockings, calf-length boots and her long brown hair completely covered, she stepped into a lift at the school with a male teacher.

To her shame, he looked her up and down and told her that she had failed to observe ‘common decency’. The two inches of leg hidden in the 100 denier stockings which showed between her boots and the hem of her dress were ‘abhorrent’, he warned. Her discreet outfit was, he deemed, ‘figure hugging’ and immodest.

‘That encounter in the lift with this Muslim male teacher made me feel like a slut,’ Jane says today. ‘It was the final straw. '

The webpage for the school says, improbably:

The entire idea of a public Islamic school seems odd, but one where even the basic principles of society are spurned is outrageous.

Anyway, the school was just closed, at least temporarily, after a health and safety inspection.

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