Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

A Manifesto Against Islamic Totalitarianism

Jyllands-Posten has published a beautiful manifesto against Islamic totalitarianism. Here is the English translation by Agora:

Together facing the new totalitarianism

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.

We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man’s domination of woman, the Islamists’ domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.

We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

12 signatures

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

I originally wrote that Muslims will lose the cartoon war because the press will not stand for limitations on their freedom. For the following month, as I saw most US media outlets refuse to publish the cartoons (despite their obvious news value) I have feared that I was wildly optimistic. The world has been abandoning Denmark.

This manifesto is a proper response to the immature and absurd riots that have broken out, meant to show Muslims are not totally impotent. The West needs to understand the threat posed by political Islam and Islamism.

Let us hope that other newspapers have the guts to publish and support this.

Muslim riots, 1934-36

There is truly nothing new under the sun.

Muslims have staged deadly riots over stupid things way before Denmark ever became this year's target of flag-burning.

(All of these articles are taken from The Palestine Post archives.)

In 1934, Muslims started rioting over a book that supposedly insulted Mohammed:

A very similar case happened a year later. A Hindu wrote a book, allegedly insulting Mohammed. He was promptly murdered. When his killer was executed, the Muslims in India rioted, killing 20:

In Lahore, some Sikhs decided to demolish an abandoned mosque. Only four were killed, so this was considered a very minor riot.

Again, a similar scenario played out in 1936 in Bombay when the Muslims felt that a Hindu temple was being built too close to their mosque:

To be fair, Hindus living with the Muslims were disposed towards violence as well over silly reasons:

But for Muslims to riot against Jews, they didn't even require a Jewish antagonist. Just like today, any old reason would do to riot against the Jews/Zionists/Americans, no matter how tenuous the connection is to the alleged insult:

These are not the only Muslim riots during this three-year period, of course. There were others that started for political reasons, especially in Lebanon as well as the usual riots against Palestinian Jews. But these are more similar to today's riots in the fact that they were over stupid issues and they show how cheap human life is to the rioters.

They also show that the much lauded "Muslim tolerance" towards other religions is a myth, and has been for quite some time.

Teach Your Children

I wonder if this is what CSN&Y were referring to?

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good bye.

Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

And you, of tender years,
Can't know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.

(Can you hear and do you care and
Cant you see we must be free to
Teach your children what you believe in.
Make a world that we can live in.)

Teach your parents well,
Their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

Pakistani boy, covering his face with headband thatsays ''There is no God but God.,Muhammad is the Prophet of God',' takes part in a rally against the publication of cartoons depicting Islamic Prophet Muhammad printed by some Western newspapers, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006 in Karachi, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Pakistani children carry a mock coffin wrapped with a U.S. flag, wearing yellow headbands that says, 'There is no God but God.,Muhammad is the Prophet of God,' during a rally against the publication of cartoons depicting Islamic Prophet Muhammad printed by some Western newspapers, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006 in Karachi, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Shakil Adil)

Pakistani boy brandishes a dagger during a rally tagainst the publication of cartoons depicting Islamic Prophet Muhammad printed by some Western newspapers, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006 in Karachi, Pakistan.

Kashmiri Muslim youths burn copies of an Indian magazine in Srinagar February 28, 2006. Dozens of Kashmiri youths on Tuesday took to the streets in Srinagar to protest against an Indian magazine for publishing a picture of a playing card showing an image of the Mecca. REUTERS/Danish Ismail

Say what? Further research found this:

Life in the historic Lal Chowk and Budshah chowk, the nerve centre of the summer capital, was disrupted after youths took to streets, protesting against the publication of pictures of Muslim holy places of Mecca and Medina on a pack of cards.

As the news spread that picture of the holy places had appeared on playing cards, youths forced closure of shops and pelted stones damaging vehicles at Lal chowk, Budshah Chowk, Maisuma and Court Road.

It was however, not immediately known who has published the pictures. But youths were seen holding a paper depicting the pictures.

The demonstrators were raising slogans against the US, alleging a conspiracy to hurt the sentiments of the Muslims.

It looks like there is a market out there for offensive media, if only so crazed Muslims could burn them.

Anyone up for a game of poker?

Tradition ain't what it used to be

This is a funny video.

("When the first Japanese production of Fiddler was produced, the composers Harnick, Bock and Stein went to Japan. They were all very nervous. ‘How’s a New York interpretive Jewish musical is going to work in Japan? During production they are all anxiously biting their nails. At the end the Japanese producer comes over to them and says: I don’t understand, I don’t know how this piece can work so well in New York. It’s so Japanese!' ")

The religious war from Qatar

Like the UAE, Qatar is considered a great ally in our "war on terror." It seems that the current administration is havin a hard time in distinguishing between friends and enemies.

Qatar is where the infamous Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi resides, and he is given many opportunities to spew hate on Qatar TV - not against Zionists but against Jews as well as Christians, Americans and whoever else is on his radar screen that week. Here's his latest:

Our war with the Jews is over land, brothers. We must understand this. If they had not plundered our land, there wouldn't be a war between us."
[...]
"We are fighting them in the name of Islam, because Islam commands us to fight whoever plunders our land, and occupies our country. All the school of Islamic jurisprudence - the Sunni, the Shi'ite, the Ibadhiya – and all the ancient and modern schools of jurisprudence – agree that any invader who occupies even an inch of land of the Muslims must face resistance. The Muslims of that country must carry out the resistance, and the rest of the Muslims must help them. If the people of that country are incapable or reluctant, we must fight to defend the land of Islam, even if the local [Muslims] give it up.

"They must not allow anyone to take a single piece of land away from Islam. That is what we are fighting the Jews for. We are fighting them... Our religion commands us... We are fighting in the name of religion, in the name of Islam, which makes this Jihad an individual duty, in which the entire nation takes part, and whoever is killed in this [Jihad] is a martyr. This is why I ruled that martyrdom operations are permitted, because he commits martyrdom for the sake of Allah, and sacrifices his soul for the sake of Allah.

"We do not disassociate Islam from the war. On the contrary, disassociating Islam from the war is the reason for our defeat. We are fighting in the name of Islam."
[...]
"They fight us with Judaism, so we should fight them with Islam. They fight us with the Torah, so we should fight them with the Koran. If they say 'the Temple,' we should say 'the Al-Aqsa Mosque.' If they say: 'We glorify the Sabbath,' we should say: 'We glorify the Friday.' This is how it should be. Religion must lead the war. This is the only way we can win."
[...]
"Everything will be on our side and against Jews on [Judgment Day]; at that time, even the stones and the trees will speak, with or without words, and say: 'Oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim, there's a Jew behind me, come and kill him.' They will point to the Jews. It says 'servant of Allah,' not 'servant of desires,' 'servant of women,' 'servant of the bottle,' 'servant of Marxism,' or 'servant of liberalism'... It said 'servant of Allah.'

"When the Muslims, the Arabs, and the Palestinians enter a war, they do it to worship Allah. They enter it as Muslims. The hadith says: 'Oh Muslim.' It says 'oh Muslim,' not 'oh Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, or Arab nationalist.' No, it says: 'Oh Muslim.' When we enter [a war] under the banner of Islam, and under the banner of serving Allah, we will be victorious."

Also out of this great friendly land comes Dr. Ali Al Quradaghi, who claims that the Christians and Jews are uniting to fight against Islam:

Jews and Christians were now preparing to wage the third world war with Muslims as the target, Doha-based Islamic scholar Dr Ali Al Quradaghi, said here on Thursday. Muslims of the world, he said, should unite against such forces that try to denigrate the great Islam faith, he added.

Funny that no one but Muslims noticed.

The Qatar newspaper also lightheartedly describes Qatar and Bahrain-based Muslim Brotherhood sheikh Wajdi Ghunaim in these terms:

For a Muslim, Friday sermons are a serious business, but a Doha-based Egyptian cleric makes the devout laugh with his witty remarks.

Wajdi Ghunaim is an independent scholar (not attached to the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs) and is occasionally invited to deliver Friday sermons and lead prayers.

Last Friday, he delivered the sermon at Bukhari Mosque in Al Hilal area, pulling large crowds.

Ghunaim, who frequently appears on Arabic TV channels, told a local Arabic daily in an interview yesterday that while (the Israeli Premier) Ariel Sharon can enter Egypt, he cannot, despite Egypt being his home country.

A member of the feared Islamic outfit Muslim Brotherhood, Ghunaim says he suspects he may be put in jail if he lands in Cairo.

What a riot! Guess what he says about Jews?

In 1998, CAIR and the American Muslim Council (AMC) cosponsored a rally at Brooklyn College, which included a diatribe by Wagdi Ghuniem, an Egyptian extremist. Ghuniem led 500 people in singing a ditty with the chorus: ‘No to the Jews, descendants of the apes.’

So, these are the sorts of people on Qatari TV, written about in glowing terms by the mainstream English-language Qatari media. And all of them are popular and clearly describe their conflict in purely religious terms, not political.

We are still looking for moderate Muslims from Qatar who denounce their hate. After all, they are our close allies.

And another

A banner day for the cartoon protesters!

Tolerance and justice all rolled up into one.

Incitement!

The pictures keep coming!

Funny thing - according to these mental midgets, imams calling for jihad against the West is not incitement to violence, but making fun of their religion is. And it is not incitement to the West to wage war against Islam, but it is incitement to Muslims to burn, pillage and kill.

Once again, the truth comes out from those lowest on the Islamic totem pole - here they say almost explicitly that they cannot be held responsible for their actions when they feel slighted. In other words, that they cannot act like normal adults. They can't help it!

I wonder what their reaction would be if a European would point out that their sign hurt her feelings. Obviously, this must be a major crime in their culture, judging from their signs.

Insane Muslim protesters of the day

This young (or perhaps old) woman (or perhaps man) has something important to say:

Cutting off hands for robbery? I can handle that!
Walking in desert heat with my entire body covered up except for a slit for my eyes? No problem!

Iran building nuclear weapons so they can destroy the Western menace? Go for it!
Hijacked planes crashing into buildings? Hand out the candy!
But if you dare publish a cartoon in an obscure Danish newspaper that pisses me off, well, you just crossed the line!

Honorable mention:

Yes, it is true. Muslim extremism is chopping off heads of infidels; Western extremism is publishing a stick-figure picture of Mohammed.

Formally renounce Oslo

Let's revisit the letter that the lying murderer Yasir Arafat sent to Yitzchak Rabin that started the entire Oslo fiasco:

September 9, 1993

Yitzhak Rabin

Prime Minister of Israel

Mr. Prime Minister,

The signing of the Declaration of Principles marks a new era in the history of the Middle East. In firm conviction thereof, I would like to confirm the following PLO commitments:

The PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security.

The PLO accepts United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.

The PLO commits itself to the Middle East peace process, and to a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides and declares that all outstanding issues relating to permanent status will be resolved through negotiations.

The PLO considers that the signing of the Declaration of Principles constitutes a historic event, inaugurating a new epoch of peaceful coexistence, free from violence and all other acts which endanger peace and stability. Accordingly, the PLO renounces the use of terrorism and other acts of violence and will assume responsibility over all PLO elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance, prevent violations and discipline violators.

In view of the promise of a new era and the signing of the Declaration of Principles and based on Palestinian acceptance of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, the PLO affirms that those articles of the Palestinian Covenant which deny Israel's right to exist, and the provisions of the Covenant which are inconsistent with the commitments of this letter are now inoperative and no longer valid. Consequently, the PLO undertakes to submit to the Palestinian National Council for formal approval the necessary changes in regard to the Palestinian Covenant.

Agreements are, by definition, between two parties. Notwithstanding that the PLO never lived up to even one part of this agreement, just their pretense of accepting Israel was enough for Israel to give them money, land and sacrifice over a thousand lives.

For some reason, the world now understands that the Palestinian leadership has no interest whatsoever in recognizing Israel or in living peacefully with her, yet Israel is still expected to provide money, aid, electricity, jobs, water and everything else needed for the Palestinian Arabs to continue to stage attacks against her.

It is time for Israel to formally say: Enough. Oslo is dead and Israel has no obligation at all to abide by any of its agreements with a partner who does not accept even the barest of responsibilities towards peaceful co-existence.

Unfortunately, Israel's leadership appears to be more interested in votes than in defending their people.

Blog evolution

Soccer Dad reminisces about his early on-line experiences that culminated (so far) with blogging. As a geek, I can't resist the temptation to add my own on-line history.

I was on Usenet as early as 1985. I mostly posted in net.religion.jewish which soon became soc.culture.jewish but occasionally in other places. I mostly stayed away from politics in those days and stuck with religious arguments. It was a simpler time, when people all used their real names....

Only a couple of years later did I discover BBSs. I did a fair amount of time with KesherNet but not for conversations as much as for downloads.

Then I got a Compuserve account. In those days, each network was pretty much independent and only were they just starting to intercommunicate via email - there were gateway systems between different types of networks. Since I was on KesherNet, Compuserve and Usenet, I would forward divrei Torah between different networks.

I seem to remember on Compuserve getting into some political discussions. I also fought against Holocaust deniers who started posting all over Usenet.

In addition, I was an early subscriber to probably the most famous Jewish religious mailing list, mail.jewish, and a very small contributor to its original FAQ. I mostly lurked on there, only posting for specific technical questions that sometimes came up.

I was on the Web around 1994 when Mosaic was the only graphical browser out there, and when protocols like gopher and archie were at least as popular as http. In those days there was very little Jewish content on the Web and no one really had any idea of how it would evolve. One of the earliest Jewish mega-websites was Shamash, which still exists at http://www.shamash.org (at the time it was hosted at nysernet.org.)

The web did grow but I really didn't get too involved in on-line discussiions until one day, probably around 2002, when I stumbled onto Yahoo news message boards. An amazing waste of time, the MBs are one of the last refuges for terrorist-supporters and Nazis to speak freely on a major news site (most other sites simply closed down their message boards after the flame wars began, and many moderate their comments and/or require valid email addresses.)

I spent a few years there, making cyber-friends and seeing the same tired arguments over and over again. I got rather sick of spending time crafting a good post only to see it scroll off in a few minutes from the busier boards.

I started saving some of my posts, and then created a very short-lived Geocities site to keep them around. It was then I discovered blogging and how easy it was to set up Blogger, so here I am, for about 18 months now. My focus has changed a bit since I started here and I am sure it will continue to change in the coming months. I do appreciate everyone who reads this, though. It may be a little egotistical but without an audience there is really no incentive for me to write or repost interesting things I've seen.

My curiosity piqued, I decided to find out what exactly JSO means.

It turns out it is the Jafria Students Organization in Pakistan, which apprently has perhaps one member based on how poor their website is. But it is worth reading anyway, both for content and for style:

Jafria students organization pakistan is pakistani Shia Youth organization working for humain help. if you have any problem about islam and shia, share with me i will try answer you and help you.

n we can help those people's who are very poor

and want to know about islam and shiat ,we can help all who are without islamic knowledge

]we provide largest amount of islamic Books and magzines for reading.

if have you any problem regarding islam and shiat contect with me at the fallowing mailing address and Phone no..

/Hussaini Book shoop

Kashish centre Nuodero

Larkana, Sindh

4074-4047131,4087193,4087199

e-mail:-sayed_mazher2003@yahoo.com

Then it shows a series of pictures of people, some of whom appear to be dead:

If anyone can translate this, I would appreciate it. After all, this is turning into one of my most popular features and I wouldn't want to let down my readership.

Vanity 59

This week Daled Amos hosts Haveil Havalim #59, the latest excellent selection of notable posts in the Jewish blogosphere.

Another excellent collection of articles, including links to blogs that I've never seen before. I don't even have enough time to read all of these blogs, and the amount of time it takes to put HH together must be huge.

I am fortunate that one of my postings was included as well.

So check it out!

MEMRI does it again:

On February 19, 2006, Iranian TV channel 4 covered a film seminar that included a lecture by Professor Hasan Bolkhari. In addition to being a member of the Film Council of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Bolkhari is a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry, and active on behalf of interfaith issues.

The following are excerpts from Bokhari's lecture.

Hasan Bolkhari: There is a cartoon that children like. They like it very much, and so do adults - Tom and Jerry.
[...]
Some say that this creation by Walt Disney will be remembered forever. The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon. It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse – especially the mouse.

Some say that the main reason for making this very appealing cartoon was to erase a certain derogatory term that was prevalent in Europe.
[...]
If you study European history, you will see who was the main power to hoard money and wealth, in the 19th century. In most cases, it is the Jews. Perhaps that was one of the reasons which caused Hitler to begin the anti-Semitic trend, and then the extensive propaganda about the crematoria began... Some of this is true. We do not deny all of it.

Watch Schindler's List. Every Jew was forced to wear a yellow star on his clothing. The Jews were degraded and termed "dirty mice." Tom and Jerry was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. One of terms used was "dirty mice."

I'd like to tell you that... It should be noted that mice are very cunning...and dirty.
[...]
No ethnic group or people operates in such a clandestine manner as the Jews.
[...]
Read the history of the Jews in Europe. This ultimately led to Hitler's hatred and resentment. As it turns out, Hitler had behind-the-scene connections with the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion].

Tom and Jerry was made in order to display the exact opposite image. If you happen to watch this cartoon tomorrow, bear in mind the points I have just raised, and watch it from this perspective. The mouse is very clever and smart. Everything he does is so cute. He kicks the poor cat's ass. Yet this cruelty does not make you despise the mouse. He looks so nice, and he is so clever... This is exactly why some say it was meant to erase this image of mice from the minds of European children, and to show that the mouse is not dirty and has these traits.

Writing satire of these guys keeps getting harder and harder when they keep topping themselves.

Insane Muslim Protesters of the Day - German Edition

This stuff is like crack to me.

The latest protests in Hong Kong and Germany have at least been peaceful, but the hypocrisy of the message remains incredible.

This means "Press freedom - yes, press rudeness - no."

And somehow they are referring to relatively mild cartoons about Islam and not the daily demonizing of Jews, America and the West in the Arab press.

'Who insults the Prophet, insults us all' and 'Islam respects all religions'.

As long as they are not Hindus and others who worship multiple gods, Jews who will be destroyed in the final battle, or Christians who must pay their poll tax to live under Islamic domination.

Finally, Reuters has to try to softpedal the insanity by egregiously mistranslating the German here:

Reuters tranlates it as 'The Islam is not the enemy - the enemy is called Bush'. Now, look at the German words, and wonder why the Reuters reporter decided that "Terrorist" means "enemy" in German.