Posted on 10/17/2003 11:58:54 PM PDT by PsyOp
Israeli teen, then murders him}
Jerusalem Post ^ | Oct. 22, 2003 | THE JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Posted on 10/21/2003 8:57 PM EDT by yonif
The Ofer Military Court on Tuesday convicted Amani Mona of Bir Naballah of voluntary manslaughter in the terrorist murder of a 16-year-old boy.
The Palestinian woman lured Ashkelon teen Ofir Rahum to his death in Ramallah by offering to have sex with him during an Internet conversation.
Mona, 24, will be sentenced at a later date. The Israel Police Computer Crimes Squad carried out forensics on Rahum's computer, reconstructed old files through data recovery, and helped track down Mona and pin her to the crime.
Israeli security forces arrested Mona in early 2001 after Rahum's bullet-riddled body was found on a West Bank road.
Mona frequented Internet cafes in the Ramallah area and struck up conversations over the Internet with Israelis and others using ICQ, identifying herself as Sali.
It was during this period she introduced herself to Rahum, telling him her father was Moroccan and her mother Israeli and that she had arrived a year earlier from Morocco. All the chats between the two were in English.
After a number of conversations she informed her friend, Fatah activist Hassan Kadi that Rahum was a suitable candidate.
A scheduled meeting between the two last December fell through, when Rahum informed her he was unable to travel to Jerusalem and she turned down Rahum's suggestion that they meet in Ashkelon.
In the week prior to Rahum's murder, Mona pressed him to meet her in Jerusalem, where she said the two could have sex in her girlfriend's apartment. She warned Rahum not to inform his parents, saying she would ensure that he would return home at his usual hour.
On January 17, the two agreed to meet at the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. She had previously arranged with Kadi where they would meet, and confirmed that he had organized a hiding place and getaway car.
She met Rahum at the bus station and they got a taxi to her car at the A-Ram junction north of the city.
She drove him toward Ramallah, stopping at the site she had previously arranged with Kadi. Shortly after he arrived, armed with a Kalashnikov, and Kadi ordered Rahum to get out of the car and when he refused, shot him.
He and accomplice Fatah Doola placed Rahum's body in the trunk of their car and drove off. Mona followed them in her car and drove to the Fatah office in El-Bira, parking her car a distance away because of the bloodstains on it. She then met a girlfriend for lunch, visited an aunt in the hospital, and attended a defensive driving course in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Kadi gave the vehicle to a third party, who buried Rahum's body.
Mona was arrested three days later, and Rahum's body was returned to Israel as a result of the intensive actions of Israeli security officials, who investigated his disappearance and demanded that the Palestinians hand the body over to them.
U.S. officials familiar with the investigation of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl's murder now say they believe he was killed by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the alleged chief organizer of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S.
If the belief proves correct, it would be the first known episode of Mr. Mohammed -- whom the U.S. calls one of Osama bin Laden's closest aides -- personally carrying out one of the deadly acts that he is better known for simply organizing. It also would resolve a question following numerous arrests and four convictions stemming from Mr. Pearl's murder last year: Who was the 38-year-old reporter's actual killer?
Mr. Mohammed, suspected of being the al Qaeda terror network's operations chief, was arrested in March 2003 in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi, near the capital of Islamabad, and is being held in an undisclosed location.
Now Bush administration officials have told The Wall Street Journal and Mariane Pearl, Mr. Pearl's widow, that they have developed credible, corroborated information that Mr. Mohammed was "directly involved along with the men recently convicted in Pakistan" in the murder of Mr. Pearl.
Mr. Pearl, the Journal's South Asia bureau chief, was kidnapped Jan. 23, 2002, while reporting a terrorism story in Karachi, Pakistan. A month later, investigators learned of his death when they obtained a videotape that depicted his murder. It showed only Mr. Pearl's face, but not those of a group of men who, according to captured suspects, restrained him while one of them slit the reporter's throat with a knife.
Mr. Mohammed, 38, is one of nine people in custody in the Pearl case. Until now, law-enforcement officials have considered him a plotter, financier and organizer of major al Qaeda attacks that he monitors from afar. He is accused of plotting to blow up 12 U.S. airliners in the mid-1990s. He also is accused of helping to plot the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks and a suicide bombing at a Tunisian synagogue last year that killed 22 people.
In April 2002 -- almost a year before his capture -- he gave a clandestine interview to Yosri Fouda, a reporter for the Qatar-based television agency al Jazeera. At one point, Mr. Fouda wrote in an account of the meeting, Mr. Mohammed handed him a video recording of Mr. Pearl's murder, and asked him to distribute it to Western media.
Last year, four men were convicted of organizing Mr. Pearl's kidnapping and e-mailing demands and photos of the captive reporter to news agencies. A judge handed down a death sentence to Omar Saeed, who trapped Mr. Pearl by masquerading as a follower of a cleric with whom the reporter was seeking an interview. Mr. Saeed met with Mr. Pearl in Rawalpindi and, using a false identity, exchanged several e-mails with him, then lured him to Karachi.
Four other men are in custody for allegedly picking up Mr. Pearl from outside a Karachi restaurant where he awaited a ride to an interview with the cleric, then abducting him and guarding him at a nursery on the city's outskirts. Two of the four additional suspects led authorities to Mr. Pearl's body in May 2002, and described the last day of the reporter's life.
On Jan. 31 or Feb. 1, a phone call was received by one of the guards alerting them that some men would come to the nursery and that they shouldn't be interfered with, investigators quote the suspects as saying. Afterward, the nursery's owner -- a businessman named Saud Memon -- drove up with three Arabic-speaking men, the investigators say. One of the men spoke with Mr. Pearl, ordered one of the others to videotape Mr. Pearl's replies and killed the reporter, according to one suspect. It now is believed this main participant was Mr. Mohammed, an ethnic Pakistani who grew up in Kuwait and went to Chowan College in North Carolina. Pakistani authorities are seeking Mr. Memon, a garment-factory owner in Karachi. Last week, the U.S. froze the U.S. assets of the al Akhtar Trust for alleged terrorist activities, and named Mr. Memon a financier of that organization.
Reports of Mr. Mohammed's alleged role as Mr. Pearl's killer surfaced several months ago, but officials repeatedly dismissed them. But the investigators' allegation of Mr. Mohammed's complicity now lends credence to the two suspects' account of Mr. Pearl's death. It isn't clear whether Mr. Mohammed himself confessed under interrogation or whether some other fresh evidence emerged to convince the officials otherwise.
Among the many unresolved questions in the Pearl case have been the most basic ones: Who ordered him killed, and why did they do it? If Mr. Mohammed is indeed found to be the killer, that could answer the first question. Until his arrest, he was regarded as Mr. bin Laden's operations chief, so he wouldn't necessarily require anyone's orders for a relatively small operation. The second question remains unanswered, though.
In addition, it isn't clear whether Mr. Mohammed's only role was to kill Mr. Pearl, or whether he was involved earlier in the plot, such as at the organization stage. From evidence they have compiled so far, senior Karachi police officials have concluded that Mr. Pearl was kidnapped by one group -- organized by Mr. Saeed, who told investigators Mr. Pearl was simply a target of opportunity -- but that another set of militants assumed control later. An initial e-mail from the kidnappers didn't suggest Mr. Pearl's life was in danger, but a second message sent toward the end of January 2002 included a death threat. Mr. Saeed suggested to authorities that he alone organized the kidnapping.
Reuters ^ | Mon 20 October, 2003 12:35 BST
Posted on 10/22/2003 3:03 AM EDT by miltonim
Bandits kill 100 villagers in west Sudan
Mon 20 October, 2003 12:35 BST
KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Bandits killed 100 people, displaced a further 15,000 and burned down 15 villages in west Sudan last week, a ruling party official has been quoted as saying.
Khalid Ballal, a member of the consultative council of the ruling National Congress Party, said the armed gang had robbed the villagers in the western Darfur region before setting their homes ablaze, the privately owned Alwan newspaper reported on Monday.
"The locality of Jalingi was subjected to an attack by unknown persons on Thursday and Friday," the newspaper quoted Ballal as saying, referring to a predominantly African tribal area near the border with Chad.
Rivalry between Arab cattle herders and African farming communities in Darfur is common and fuelled by competition over dwindling water resources and pastures caused by desertification.
It was not immediately clear if the villages targeted were among more than six which a Sudanese parliamentarian last week said had been torched by Arab tribal militias in a raid which killed 34.
Darfur's African tribes accuse Sudan's Islamist government of supporting the Arab tribesmen or turning a blind eye.
The latest attacks did not appear linked to an uprising in the west by the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), which has recently signed a ceasefire with the government. The SLM/A accuses the government of marginalising the region.
Crosswalk ^ | Oct 2003 | Stephen Mbogo
Posted on 10/22/2003 3:12 AM EDT by miltonim
Nairobi, Kenya Nairobi, Kenya (CNSNews.com) - Anti-slavery activists are hopeful that the finalization of a Sudanese peace deal will bring an end to the atrocity of modern-day slavery that has taken place in the war-torn country.
Peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) have entered what may be their final stage in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
"This marks a significant opportunity to end slavery in Sudan," said Beth Herzfeld of the London-based anti slavery group, Anti-Slavery International.
ASI estimates that 14,000 people, mainly women and children, have been abducted and forced into slavery since 1986.
Pro-government militias, often with the assistance of the national army, have carried out raids in villages in southern Sudan, according to the campaigners.
They have abducted civilians and taken them to the north, where they are employed as slaves or as sexual concubines.
"The war has also prevented the safe return of rescued abductees and slaves to their villages in the [south]," ASI said in a statement.
Ending abduction and the use of forced labor need to be an integral part of any peace agreement reached between Khartoum and the rebel SPLA, it added.
"The peace talks are a welcome step. An end to the civil war means a real chance for both sides to work together and within humanitarian and relief groups to end the system of slavery that has been allowed to flourish in Sudan. We must not allow this opportunity to be missed," said director Mary Cunneen.
ASI said the transitional unity government to be set up under the peace deal should act to stop the abductions, state publicly that the abuses are illegal, and develop laws and penalties to protect people and punish offenders.
Anti-slavery campaigners say slaves taken to the north face hard labor, maltreatment, sexual abuse and Islamic indoctrination.
Some groups have worked actively to purchase the freedom of south Sudanese enslaved by Muslim gangs, although not all relief groups have supported the idea. Some argue that it perpetuated the traffic by increasing the value assigned to slaves by the traders.
The 20-year-old civil war has pitted Arab Muslim northerners against Christian and animist African southerners.
Political, economic and social spheres of government are currently controlled by northerners.
The peace agreement set to be signed shortly has a provision for southerners to form their own state after six years of transitional government, following a referendum on independence.
The final round of talks began in a mood of optimism.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said he believed a peace agreement would be concluded "before the end of this year," while SPLA leader John Garang told reporters here he was ready to remain engaged in the talks "as long as it takes to find peace."
Both parties have agreed on how to handle security issues during the transitional period.
Some SPLA militias will be integrated into the national army while joint forces will be established to provide security to specific areas still under dispute.
The key remaining issues are wealth and political sharing, and the religious status of Khartoum, which is currently governed under Islamic law.
The rebels want a secular national capital.
During early negotiations, the SPLA wanted 40 percent of oil revenues to be used for the reconstruction of the war-battered south during the transitional period.
For its part, Khartoum wanted 85 percent of the revenues to be used to run the unitary government, another 10 percent for reconstruction of oil-rich areas, and five percent for reconstruction elsewhere.
An estimated two million people have died during the war and accompanying famine.
I thought it was believed that the Qur'an was dictated word-for-word by Allah to Mohammed via Gabriel.
Middle East Online ^
Posted on 10/21/2003 8:31 PM EDT by avalon
Iran theologians blast Ebadi's Nobel Prize win
Group of clerics, theology students say Nobel Peace prize of women's rights lawyer aimed at ridiculing Islam.
TEHRAN - A group of clerics and theology students from Iran's clerical centre of Qom have hit out at the Nobel Peace Prize win of women's rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi saying it was part of a Western conspiracy against Islam.
In a statement carried by the hardline Jomhuri Eslami newspaper, the group from Qom's main seminary said: "The decision by the Western oppressive societies to award the prize to Ebadi was done in order to ridicule Islam."
The paper did not say how many people signed the statement, which also lamented that a "serious revolutionary confrontation with the tribe of infidels" had not yet taken place.
As for the "infidels", it voiced hope for their "tongues to be cut from their mouths and the poisonous pens broken in their hearts".
Keeping up its stiff criticism of Ebadi, the paper also quoted Mousa Qorbani - a prominent conservative MP - as comparing the Nobel laureate to British author Salman Rushdie, who was sentenced to death by Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for writing "The Satanic Verses".
"Awarding the Nobel Prize to Ebadi is like rewarding Salmam Rushdie, the Zionist regime and US leaders," he was quoted as saying.
Ebadi was given the prize on October 10 for her efforts to promote democracy and human rights, especially in her campaign to change Iran's laws governing women and children.
Her reform efforts and her defence of political dissidents have earned her the loathing of powerful hardliners here.
Quite the rant.
Though I consider myself a member of the Christian faith, I don't care much for churches. Give me the book, let me read, and I'll make up my own mind. So on that much we probably agree.
Where I would disagree, however is that all "organized" religions are equal. All religious constructs are subject to abuse by those who claim leadership. Eventually, however, the scope of the treachery they can commit in a religion's name is constrained by the written teachings of that religion, which are recognized by its rank and file adherents. Eventually they reign in clerics who travel too far out of bounds. This was the case in the many reformations of the Christian religion--which continue to this day.
In the case of Islam, what would be considered clerical abuse of scripture among Christians, is, in fact, supported and encouraged in the Koran. Islamic clerics have not been called to account for the evil they are encouraging because they are, in fact, following the written teachings of their religion.
The simplest way to judge the reletive merits of Christianity and Islam, is to compare the United States with any Islamic country of your choice.
The United States, who's laws and social structure were (and for the most part still are), based on the Judeo-Christian ethic continues to advance the cause of human rights and justice. We are country that people are banging down the doors to enter.
Islamic countries, those based on Koranic law, are mostly totalitarian dictatorships. Many still practice slavery. These are countries where people (except for the privileged classes), can't leave fast enough.
As for which "organized" religions are more-or-less evil, just ask yourself which country you would rather live in. The United States (Judeo-Christian), Saudi Arabia (Islamic), India (Hindu), or China (atheist--yes, it's as much a matter of faith as any religion).
BTW. Not only did you not put a "chill" up my spine, I found the superficiality of your post amusing (I used to think much the same thing). You need to read your history a bit more carefully and expand the scope of what you do read.
"As the union between spiritual freedom and political liberty seems nearly inseparable, it is our duty to defend both. And defense in the first instance is best." - Thomas Paine, Pennsylvania Magazine. 1775.
"Whenever the visible church has been oppressed, political freedom has suffered with it." - Thomas Paine, Pennsylvania Magazine. 1775.
"It must never be forgotten that religion gave birth to Anglo-American society. In the United States, religion is therefore mingled with all the habits of the nation and all the feelings of patriotism, whence it derives a peculiar force. To this reason another of no less power may be added: in America, religion has, as it were, laid down its own limits. Religious institutions have remained wholly distinct from political institutions, so that former laws have been easily changed whilst former belief has remained unshaken." - De Tocqueville.
"For my own part, I doubt whether man can ever support at the same time complete religious independence and entire political freedom. And I am inclined to think that, if faith be wanting in him, he must be subject; and if he be free, he must believe." - De Tocqueville.
"Wisdom, benevolence and courage: these are the three universal virtues. Some practice them with the ease of nature; some for the sake of their own advantage; and some by dint of great effort." - Confucius, Analects, c.400 b.c.
Sverker Oredsson and Mikael Tossavainen
Translation by Mårten Barck
Swedish original: "Judehat bland muslimer tystas ned" (Dagens Nyheter, 2003/10/20)
A Muslim and Arab Jew-hatred is spreading in the suburbs of the major Swedish towns. At the same time Jewish congregations in Sweden are reporting a sharp increase in Muslim aggression towards Jews in recent years. This is shown in a new report presented in DN Debatt.
NEW REPORT: ARAB AND MUSLIM ATTACKS ON JEWS ARE RISING SHARPLY IN SWEDISH SOCIETY.
"Silence surrounds Muslim Jew-hatred"
Teachers in the suburbs of the major Swedish towns report widespread and brazen hostility against Jews among groups of Arab and Muslim students. These students view the Holocaust as Zionistic propaganda, express admiration for Hitler and regret that he didn't succeed in killing more Jews. The problem is aggravated by the almost complete silence which is surrounding this form of jew-hatred. Sverker Oredsson, a professor of History, and the researcher Mikael Tossavainen write on a new report about the subject which is presented today.
Most Swedes believe that anti-Semitism is an extinct problem in our country. They are aware that prejudices and hatred aimed at Jews have regrettably occured in the past in Sweden but that is now seen as part of history. Most Swedes believe that our society has evolved and that we are more enlightened today. Most Swedes believe that Jews today don't meet more prejudices than Danes or smålänningar [people living in the Swedish province Småland].
Unfortunately they are wrong. During the last year the security police registered 131 anti-Semitic crimes. Nobody knows how many incidents go unreported but the security police expect the number to be large. Jews in Sweden today are living in the shadow of a very concrete anti-Semitism. Jews in Sweden today often feel compelled to hide their religious identity in public: necklaces with stars of David are carefully hidden under sweaters and orthodox Jewish men change their kippot to more discrete caps or hats when they are outdoors. Jews in Sweden nowadays get secret telephone numbers to avoid harassment. In Sweden. Today.
Anti-Semitism has been more or less absent from the political mainstream since the end of the Second World War. Jew-hatred was in principle only found among marginalized groups at the extreme right and left. That is not the case anymore.
During the last decade another form of anti-Semitism has started to spread in the suburbs of large Swedish towns: a Jew-hatred — often imported from the Middle East and not seldom presented under an Islamic flag — which also wins adherents among groups of Arabs and Muslims in Sweden.
In the Middle East anti-Semitism is alive and flourishing in a way which reminds one of Europe during the 1930s. Most regimes in the Arab world and in many other Muslim countries have supported the spread of Jew-hatred in state controlled media a long time.
In schools and mosques from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf the message that Jews are descendants from monkeys and pigs, a treacherous and greedy people striving for global dominion, is preached. The Jews are blamed for practically everything. For example it is alleged that the 9/11 terror attacks were carried out by Jews in one form or another, most often the Mossad, with the aim of getting America to attack Islam. The explosive spread of AIDS in Africa and Asia in general, but in the Muslim world in particular, is blamed on the state of Israel, who is alleged to send out hiv-positive Jewish prostitutes to weaken the enemies of the Jews.
In addition the Holocaust is regularly described as a Jewish lie aimed at grabbing money from Germany or Swiss banks and give rise to sympathy for Israel and the Jewish people. Even ancient Christian blood libels about Jews using the blood of Christian children for the baking of "Purim" pastries are used in anti-Semitic propaganda. In Saudi Arabia, for example, the blood libel is spread in a modified version, where the blood is alleged to be from young Muslim boys.
This Jew-hatred is nourished partly by specific interpretations of Islam. Throughout history, Jews have traditionally been better treated in Muslim countries than in Christian ones and pious Muslims around the world have lived for centuries without letting their attitude towards Jews be charged with anti-Semitism. In spite of this there always has been some degree of discrimination and animosity. The Koran is not without passages which can be used for rationalizing jewhistolity. In connection with the colonisation of the Middle East, European Christian and racist anti-Semitism was also spread in the area. The serious attraction and exploitation of Jew-hatred was however connected to the antagonism between Jewish and Arab nationalism and later on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The existence of a Jewish state in the middle of a perceived Muslim land and not least the current political situation in the Middle East heighten the anti-Jewish atmosphere in the Arab world and in other Muslim countries such as Iran and Pakistan. The Israeli state is the primary target for Arab and Muslim Jew-hatred, but the distinctions between Israelis, Zionists and Jews are not upheld. The propaganda which is spread from Damascus, Tehran and Islamabad often goes beyond criticism of Israeli politics and turns into pure demonization of the Jewish people.
This anti-Semitism is a part of the ideas and traditions brought to the segregated suburbs of Europe. The isolation from the new homeland and the retention of the culture of the country of origin via satellite TV, Internet etc., contribute to the survival and even strengthening of Jew-hatred among groups od Arabs and Muslims in London, Marseille and Paris.
But similar tendencies exist also in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmoe. This is shown in a study authored by one of the authors of this article, historian Mikael Tossavainen, which is published today by the Swedish committee against anti-Semitism.
Teachers in Swedish suburbs report widespread and brazen hostility against Jews among groups of Arab and Muslim students. This hostility is expressed by the refusal to concern oneself with anything that even can be considered as Jewish. Students may sabotage or skip teaching of Religion when Judaism is the subject, skip homework, books or examinations on courses about Judaism.
During lessons in history confrontations arise between teachers and students, who may on one hand say that the Holocaust never happened — instead dismissing it as Zionistic propaganda — or on the other hand express their admiration of Hitler and regret that he didn't succeed in killing more Jews.
There are quite a few websites in Swedish on the Internet that cover Arab and Muslim political, cultural or religious topics. Many of these are spreading gross anti-Semitic propaganda together with information about Islam.
Jews are described as greedy, mean, power hungry, thieving, revengeful, blood thirsty and sexually perverse. The Jewish religion is also attacked and is described as an inferior, morally reprehensible doctrine.
To support these allegations, false quotes from the Bible and the Talmud are used in many cases. It is alleged, for example, that Jewish men have the religious right to rape non-Jewish women and that it is permitted for Jews to lie to or deceive non-Jews. These allegations are sometimes explained with the idea of the chosen people, which is distorted to some sort of Jewish superiority myth.
Another returning theme on these websites is the belief in the existence of a Jewish world-conspiracy. In connection with this delusion lists of well-known Swedes with Jewish origin who are alleged to be part of this conspiracy to obstruct Islam, enslave the Palestinian — alternatively the Arab — nation or simply take over the world, are sometimes published.
It is hardly surprising that people who are living in such a world of ideas and are constantly fed with this kind of portrayal of Jews become anti-Semites. Nor is it particularly surprising that these attitudes are channeled in the form of threats and violence against Jews.
Jewish congregations in Sweden have noted a sharp increase in harassment, threats and attacks by Arabs and Muslims against Jews in the Swedish society during the last few years, clearly connected to the escalation of the Middle East conflict.
In this connection it is important to emphasize that the Muslim minority in Sweden is a very heterogenous group, religiously, culturally as well as ideologically and that far from all Arabs and Muslims in Sweden have anti-Semitic views. The report is not exhaustive, but its results are unambiguous and they expose an alarming situation.
The problem is furthermore aggravated by the almost complete silence which is surrounding this form of Jew-hatred. If anti-Semitism among Arabs and Muslims in Sweden is discussed at all in Swedish media and debate, it tends to be in the form of trivializations or denials of the problem.
There are even examples of commentators who allege that anti-Semitism in Sweden today is a made-up problem, which is grotesquely exaggerated by the Jews to get the attention away from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
The reason for the silence is probably multi-faceted. Perhaps some journalists and commentators regard their knowledge of Islam as insufficient for an appraisal of Islamic anti-Semitism. Perhaps they think it's difficult to draw a clear line between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism. Perhaps they try to avoid criticizing a group which already is vulnerable and discriminated in the Swedish society out of a fear of adding to racism in general and islamophobia in particular.
You don't need any more profound knowledge about Islam, however, to be against anti-Semitism spread under the guise of religion: condemnation of Jew-hatred is not about criticism of Islam. You don't need any deeper knowledge about the Middle East conflict to realize that talk about a Jewish world-conspiracy or ritual murder of Muslim children cannot be considered legitimate criticism of the policies of Sharon's government. If this agitation against Jews had been spread by neo-Nazi groups it would in all probability be treated with great indignation and receive strong condemnations by the same journalists and politicians who turn a blind eye when it comes to Jew-hatred spread in the name of Islam.
Arab and Muslim immigrants are done a disservice by the silence surrounding anti-Semitic utterances: by not signalling that the Swedish society doesn't accept agitation against Jews, the integration of these groups is not speeded up nor made easier — to the contrary.
Nobody gains from indulgence or apologetic silence when facing anti-Semitism. In this respect it is completely irrelevant whether it is spread by members of organisations on the extreme left, neo-Nazis or Arabs and Muslims. It should never be acceptable for frustration over the situation in the Middle East to strike Swedish Jews. To turn a blind eye to the fact that it does is a silent approval and this can only have negative effects — not only for Jews in Sweden today, but in the long-term also for our open, tolerant society and for the Swedish democracy.
Intellectuals, politicians and leading representatives of Muslim organizations in Sweden must signal their repudiation of Arab and Muslim anti-Semitism in our country — for the benefit of all.
SVERKER OREDSSON
MIKAEL TOSSAVAINEN
[Posted 2003/10/20]
JewishComment.com ^ | Saturday 11th Oct 2003 | Editors
Posted on 10/21/2003 10:46 AM EDT by Jacob Kell
On Thursday evening we went to Marks & Spencer department store. On the way, the bus conductor wanted it known to the passengers that he was Moroccan. He went from seat to seat making a point of greeting passengers in Arabic, and animatedly chatting with women in traditional Muslim clothes.
He did make a point of grunting to those of us who were, shall we say, ‘traditional locals.’ We did not feel slighted but as we approached Oxford Street he went to the front of the bus and told those of us seated at that end of the vehicle that ‘Marks and Spencer sell things and then send the money to the Jewish.’ He then said what one assumes was a similar piece of useful information to a Muslim woman and both became rather agitated. The bus driver, a white-haired London Buses oldtimer of decades standing, leaned out of his cab and with considerable irritation lectured the conductor on the history of the Holocaust and of the ‘Jewish.’ As we were leaving the bus I could hear the driver and conductor arguing ; the latter reminding the Englishman that all Marks and Spencer money goes to the ‘Zionist murderers.’
We then found ourselves in Oxford Street and outside ‘M&S,’ as it is affectionately known, was a contingent of policemen and women who were protecting a small group of young Jewish men who had set up a table with an Israeli flag. The men were further protected by a substantial metal barrier, to separate them from what can only be described as an hysterical crowd of hate-filled people of every shape and size. What was so depressing was that non-Arabs in the noisy crowd outnumbered those from the Middle East.
(Let me explain the background : for years Palestinian groups have had a stall outside Marks & Spencer to protest the history of the Sieff family and to stop people from shopping at a store that stocks Israeli goods. The Palestinian young people are never attacked, and when Jews approach them the most that happens is a lively discussion. To a lesser extent its neighbour store, Selfridges, has had leafletters outside for years protesting the presence of Israeli wines on its shelves. One day last year I went into Selfridges and accosted the first couple I saw. They said they agreed with the Palestinian leafletters and thought no ‘Zionist apartheid’ goods should be sold anywhere in the UK. When I asked this otherwise charming English pair where they had learned the word ‘apartheid’ in relation to Israel they said they had read about it in The Independent and had seen ‘atrocities on the BBC.’)
Back to Thursday: I began to pick up snippets of shouts from this viscerally angry crowd. One woman in religious Muslim attire standing next to me -- actually jumping up and down -- screamed at the top of her voice to the Israel supporters, ‘You Jews destroyed my country, Iraq.’ Someone asked her what Israel had to do with Iraq and she screeched ‘You killed sixty of my family in Iraq.’ She was asked how sixty Iraqis were killed by Israelis and she said ‘Israel -USA! Same thing! And now you will take over Iran!’ She became so agitated that she had to be led away by the police.
Then came the chorus of really quite terrifyingly angry English people with their shouted mantras of ‘You people invented terrorism in Palestine.;’ ‘Israel is expanding every day and will soon own the whole Middle East!!’; (doh???) ; ‘Israel is slaughtering thousands of Palestinians every day.’ (Again, doh?)
But the crowning glory was an elegantly-dressed businessman next to me who seemed normal except for the fury in his eyes. He said, ‘I love and revere the suicide bombers. Every time I hear of a suicide bomb going off I wish it had been eighty or ninety Jews instead of a pitiful handful.’ He then went on to shout at everyone around him every time someone tried to speak, and had reached a point of hysteria -- ‘You people have been trying to acquire land across the entire globe and will soon own every nation if you are not stopped!’ -- when, thankfully, a policewoman came over. One can think of some poeple who, had they been armed, would be in prison tonight because his suggestion that not enough Jews are killed each time a bomb goes off ‘made one crazy’ as the saying goes, but we were pleased to see that the policewoman was making every effort to book him.
(Imagine how far he would have got had he said such things in New York or Washington about Americans!)
What does this tell us about British society? Pim Fortuyn was assassinated because he expressed what were considered to be extremist views about the rise of Islam across Europe and in his native Holland. We have no objection to ethnic diversity but we are sickened when we see British and Arab people united in such blood-curdling hatred of one very tiny minority. (Lest we forget Jews are now outnumbered ten to one by Muslims in the UK.) What alarms us is the profoundly visceral hatred shown by the crowd on Thursday towards a mild-looking group of young Jewish men and bystanders supporting them.
Does this mean, as Melanie Phillips has said so often in the British press this year, that Britain is no longer a place where Jews may live without fear? Yes, we think it does. Our liberal friends will say that the actions of the Sharon government are making life hell for Diaspora Jews. Well, here is the crucial point: when Yitzhak Rabin was making peace and Israel was booming -- and the Palestinian territories were beginning to flourish -- terror bombs were exploding as often as during the dark days and way back then, one's British hosts were saying the same unspeakable things about ’you people invented terrorism in Palestine' and 'hopefully in the next war Israel will be taight a lesson it won't forget...'
Sadly, we believe anti-Semitism is endemic in the world at large. We feel that our own spiritual home is the United States ( we have given up trying to explain to European Jews why we feel as free and proud as Jews in the USA as we do in Israel ), but were we as young as the men on the Israel stall on Thursday we would make aliyah. NOW.
Well, that's what he said.
Have you ever tried to take dictation? I suck at it.
And if that's the way it really happened, why did Gabriel have to keep repeating himself? Did Mohammed have a short attention span, or trouble remembering what had been said to him? One would think that an Angel of God could speak clearly and concisely.
Actually, I think this is a very sad thread.
BTW, thanks for the additions.
Sure.
The only thing I might suggest is some editing for brevity. Makes things easier, and therefore more likely to be read.
If a day had 48 hrs...
My understanding is that Mohammed announced Allah's communications a little by little, a new bit often popping up whenever it was convenient to the movement.
Almost like how the National Enquirer breaks a big story.
I believe you are correct. Allah (Gabriel) told Mohamed, Mohamed told his followers, his followers wrote it down. Or something like that.
Bump and a Bookmark!
These are some of the findings in the most complete religious survey of the United States, and one of the most surprising is that Muslims, many of whom attend mosque services, number just 1.6 million, far below the estimates of 7 million by Islamic groups.
Jewish World Review ^ | 10-21-03 | Zev Chafets
Posted on 10/21/2003 8:03 AM EDT by SJackson
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
On Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad made headlines by charging that a Jewish conspiracy controls the planet.
"The Europeans killed 6 million Jews out of 12 million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy," he told the leaders and representatives of 57 Islamic nations who were gathered in Putrajaya, Malaysia, for their biggest summit meeting since 9/11.
"We are up against a people who think. They invented socialism, communism, human rights and democracy so that persecuting them would appear to be wrong, so that they can enjoy equal rights with others. With these, they have gained control of the most powerful countries."
On the other hand, Mahathir received a standing ovation from his Islamic colleagues. Supposed moderates cheered along with everyone else. Afghan President Hamid Karzai praised the speech as an "an eyeopener."
There is a feeling of hopelessness among the Muslim countries and their people," Mahathir said. "They feel they can do nothing right. They believe that things can only get worse."
This sense of failure has, he noted, bred violent frustration. "Our only reaction is to become more and more angry, and so we find some of our people acting irrationally. They launch their own attacks, killing just about everybody, including fellow Muslims."
Better. Thanks.
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