Posted on 05/24/2004 6:02:26 PM PDT by SeenTheLight
There’s been a lot of talk since 9/11 about anti-Muslim and anti-Arab discrimination, and yet according to actual hate crime statistics, it is Jews who have had the most to fear. According to the FBI’s Hate Crimes Statistics Report for 2002, there were 155 anti-Islamic incidents and 931 anti-Jewish incidents. And as anyone who follows these developments knows, the majority of these anti-Jewish acts were perpetrated by Arabs and/or Muslims.
Of course, the media has remained largely silent on this issue, preferring instead to stick to their usual script of brown victims and white oppressors. But Jews themselves do not have that luxury. In contrast, many young Jews who never before encountered anti-Semitism are now reading daily about synagogue burnings, blood libels, grave defacements, school fire-bombings, and the cold-blooded and deliberate murder of Jews. They are also experiencing hatred on a personal level for the first time.
My own brush with anti-Semitism, in the post-9/11 landscape, first came while counter-protesting at ''peace'' rallies in San Francisco leading up to the war in Iraq. Most of the vitriol was couched in anti-Israel terminology, such as the hysterical accusations of ''genocide'' displayed on signs and the ''Intifada'' T-shirts worn by members of the crowd. On one occasion, I was called a ''Zionist pig'' for daring to wave an Israeli flag. But it was the Arab teenager with the ''Kill the Jews'' sign that made the most lasting impression.
Actually, I became aware of Arab anti-Semitism long before 9/11, mostly through my neighborhood grocery stores. San Francisco has many such corner stores, the nicest of which are owned and run by Arab-Americans.
A former neighbor of mine made the mistake one day of engaging in a political conversation with our local Arab store owner. Somehow the subject of Australians came up and she mentioned in passing their attitude towards the British. Not knowing she was Jewish, the man nodded in agreement, saying how much he hated Jews. Dumbfounded, she simply walked out the door without comment. From then on, the store became known as the ''Jew-Haters.'' We continued patronizing the place, joking about how we were going down to the ''Jew-Haters'' for some milk or a loaf of bread. But our casual indifference concealed a real fear--evident in the fact that we both tucked our Star of David necklaces into our shirts whenever we went in after that.
I later switched neighborhoods and hence corner stores, but in a cruel twist of fate, it turned out the ''Jew-Haters'' owned another store in the vicinity of my new address. A friend of mine, who isn’t even Jewish, ended up in an argument one day with the owner, who blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks and conjured up the conspiracy theory that 4000 Jews stayed home that day on a tip from Mossad. My friend pointed out how ludicrous these accusations were, but to no avail. Not being able to stomach giving money to the ''Jew-Haters'' any longer, neither of us returned to the store
Years later, I still frequent my local, Arab-owned corner stores, mostly out of necessity, but also because, ironically, they provide the friendliest service in the city. But in the back of my mind, there lingers a nagging question. I can’t help wondering if they would be as friendly if they knew I was a Jew? In fact, I wonder if they would want to slit my throat if they knew I was a Jew? As the young men behind the counter smilingly hand me my change, such are the thoughts that go through my mind.
Having lived most of my life as a tolerant, egalitarian type, I dislike feeling this way, but I’ve read too many passages like the one in the Koran where Muslims are instructed not only to avoid befriending ''disbelievers,'' but to kill them as well. I’ve seen the videos of Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg, both Jews, beheaded like animals by calm, cool, Arab terrorists. I’ve seen the photos of Palestinians triumphantly holding up their Jewish-blood-stained hands, and dancing gleefully in the streets--the heads and remains of Jewish soldiers held aloft. But it is the story of Sébastien Selam, the young Jewish DJ in France who was murdered last year by his Arab neighbor, that haunts me the most. The two young men had been friends, but after slitting Sebastien’s throat and mutilating his face with a fork, the Arab youth simply said, ''I have killed my Jew. I will go to heaven.'' How one reconciles a sense of humanity with such callous indifference to life, is a question I continue to struggle with.
The mundane nature of evil has confounded mankind throughout history and the current situation is no exception. Today’s ''monsters'' could very well be the shopkeeper down the street, a neighbor in your building, or even someone you think is a friend. And for Jews in particular, such realities raise difficult questions. All too often, these concerns go unspoken for fear of giving offense, but the rising bodycount should add some perspective. We have seen where such willful ignorance has led in the past. Can we really afford to go down that path again?
I swear, I'm beginning to develop a real hatred myself - for goddam Arabs and Moslems. I'm getting to the point where I just cross the damn street if I see a raghead. And I avoid having anything to do with any of them.
And I'm not even Jewish. So there...
Indeed. Belmont's lone remaining Jewish deli recently got sold to Arabs. The entire neighborhood nearby (centered around a Mosque started up in 2002) is turning Muslim. I have noted in the news a rash of small but disturbing attacks on synogogues and other Jewish organizations - the media never specify and imply that it's a bunch of skin heads - no doubt some of the traditional Nazi crowd have partnered with the terrorists, but I submit many of these attacks are actually by the terrorists themselves. They are here, they are multiplying and I fear that the average idiot watching the KPIX news for their liberal pablum will not realize the danger until something horrible happens right here in the "tolerant" Bay Area.
Oops. Kinda put this in the wrong category, as well as just sticking the whole link in the source spot. Guess it's been a while--my apologies to the serious FReepers...
Ping
When my wife and I moved to a town near LA, there was a gas station across the street. I thought of getting gas there as it was convenient and well priced. I bought one tankful, and the panel display on the pump had the owner's name; an Arabic name. At week later, two friends of mine were nearly killed in the bombings in Israel. I made the decision not to patronize his establishment. The owner lives on the far side of the condo complex, and we have never had words. After 9/11,when the bin Laden tape first aired, one of his employees(a relative, as they live with him)loudly played the speech in Arabic. This noise came from the station and not a car at the pumps. People complained, and this individual was not seen there again. Not long after that, a cousin of his vandalized a Catholic church in Culver City, and his compadres in the "King Fahd Mosque" in LA said: "Oh, he is crazy. he is not hateful" The Sheriff's Dept bagged this lowlife relative shortly after the incident btw. I don't trust him, or any other Muslim Arab. I would walk 5 miles with a container to get gas, rather than finance jihadists. They are the enemy in our midst. I do not, and will not feel any guilt over not bguying from any of them. they would destroy us all, and we should be very mindful of that! Have the jihadists ever apologized or shown remore for the evil done in the name of Islam? The silence is deafening.
There is no suprise in these numbers. But -- assuming that Encyclopedia USA is correct, then the Jewish population is apparently 2.3%, and the Muslim population is only 0.1%. So, the fact that the anti-Jewish incidents are 6 times larger than the anti-Muslim incidents appears less dramatic if the Jewish population really is more than 20 times larger than the Muslim population.
Can you still buy Matzo at Rainbow?
The synagague here had to hire security guards before they could begin their services --- so much for freedom of religion --- we bring in the muslims, they don't have much tolerance for the free practice of religion -- except their own obviously. Too many of the Sharia laws are in conflict with the US Constitution.
Not sure I follow. By this math, doesn't that mean that a much tinier fraction of people (Muslims) are responsible for a disproportionately high amount of "hate-crime"? This would cast the Arabs in a worse light, yes?
Stay armed!
(Ceterum Censeo Arabiam Esse Delendam -- Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit)>>>
Screw that exterminationist bullspit, Nazi. Some of us can read Latin.
It is amazing how so few people understand that concept.
The term anti-Semite was coined by the Austria Anti-Semitic league. They choose to create a "scientific" term to differentiate their race-hatred of Jews as opposed to the medieval religious hatred.
I think I know that station or one similar to it near Normandy and Adams. It always has very cheap gas. I would rather take the bus.
If you read Latin, you probably also know the context of the Ceterum Censeo ... Esse Delendam tag line: Cato the Censor (or the Elder) spoke it at the end of every speech in the Senate. Like my screenamesake, I warn. I've been warning with variants of that line since the first Gulf War, back on the old Prodigy and Compuserve boards.
I think Bush is going to be in for a big disappointment when he sees that Moslem Iraq is too f**cked up to be anything other than a totalitarian cesspool. I'll still vote for him because he deserves an "A" for effort. But I don't think the mad Moslems have it in them to be anything but murderers. Just like their role model, mad Mohammed the murderer of women and children.
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