Suppose I'm reporting on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Could I say without fear:
Yes, of course, Islam is a religion of peace but these people want to hijack and distort it. So what they do is look at certain basic texts and important Muslim theologians and interpet their statements to mean that ultimately no compromise is possible, Egypt must become an Islamic [oops] state, America is going to be their enemy, and Israel must be destroyed. Of course, this is just a distortion of Islam [which is a religion of peace] but many people believe it because they have been taught an interpretation similar to the one the Brotherhood is using.
Or would I have to say:
Since Islam is a religion of peace and is really moderate and there's nothing in it that lends itself to a radical [mis]interpretation, therefore, the Brotherhood will realize this and become moderate or the Muslim masses--who, of course, understand their own religion--will inevitably reject the Islamists [oops!] false interpretation. In short, no worries and every little thing's gonna be all right. [Footnote: Bob Marley.]
A few updates and additional thoughts on the Revolution Muslim VS South Park saga which is still continuing to develop and still getting no real reaction from anyone important.
First from foxnews.com there is some background information on the group and the guy who allegedly made the threat against Matt Stone and Trey Parker.
From the article:
By all appearances, Zachary Adam Chesser was the boy next door. He played football and was on the crew team at one of the best high schools in the country. He even studied Japanese. He was hardly the sort of boy you'd expect would suggest on a radical Islamic website that the creators of the edgy cartoon series "South Park" will be targeted for death...
Two years later, Chesser is literally a changed man. He now uses an alias and has a new set of hobbies. He now likes to be called Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee, and his primary interest in this world appears to be Islamic radicalism.
Born Joseph Cohen, Khattab says he converted to Islam after coming across a Muslim from the United Arab Emirates in a Jewish chat-room while in Netivot, Israel in 1998. Their to and fro on religion lasted two years, and for Khattab, the exchange confirmed previous doubts about Judaism and eventually prompted him to embrace Islam after reading an English translation of the Quran. The exchanges, he says, reaffirmed his belief that rabbis use deception to keep Jews subservient to them...
Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, characterized Revolution Muslim as a loosely-organized group with such outrageous beliefs he believes it may be a "setup" to smear Islam.
"They say wild and irresponsible things periodically," Hooper told FoxNews.com. "There's a strong suspicion that they're merely a setup to make Muslims and Islam look bad. They say such wild and crazy things that you have to wonder."
Once upon a time, when I would browse hate sites for easy blog material, I came across someone named Curtis Maynard.
I feel sorry for the wife and step-daughter as well as the other kids who were in the house. |
Even though there are regular stories in the Palestinian Arabic press that Hamas and Fatah are close to reconciliation, they are all a sham, according to Palestine Today. |
From The JC:
I briefly followed a blog war between Peter Eyre of the Palestine Telegraph who is convinced that Israeli soldiers steal organs from Palestinian Arab children and the Harry's Place blog, which appears to have been the first to notice the David Duke video. I posted a link to the TongeLashing website in the comments to explain to Mr. Eyre why the blood-libel accusations are absurd, but for some reason they never posted my comment. |
I am not as enamored of the "Palestinian Zionist Organization" as others seem to be. From what I can tell, it is one guy with a website, and hardly the harbinger of major change. |
Sheikh Ahmed Kubaisi, whose Friday sermons out of Dubai are watched by tens of millions of people, has stated that some of the more recent rulings of other sheikhs show that they have mental disorders. |
Forbes' Claudia Rosett asks a good question:
UPDATE: Commenter Sshender asked whether this hotel was not that expensive in comparison with other Dubai hotels. I just did a quick check and the al-Bustan Rotana is relatively inexpensive for a five-star hotel - mid week rates are about $180 a night. On the other hand, other 5-star hotels range from $100 a night to well over $1000. And Dubai does have budget hotels at around $50 a night. |
Wow.
There sure have been a lot of changes in this country over the past couple of years. We have nationalized banks, nationalized car companies, nationalized health insurance and pretty soon it looks like nationalized stock trading as well. We have an administration that has significantly altered the USA's approach to the Middle East...in a way that they now regularly make demands of sovereign, democratic allies while giving hostile, terrorist entities a free pass. The America we live in today is a vastly different place than it was just two years ago.
And now we have entered the realm of speech as well.
If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
--George Washington
One week ago, the creators of South Park aired their 200th episode. In the episode they attempted to poke fun at the ridiculous idea that you can make fun of every topic, every human being, every leader, every celebrity, every religious figure...everyone except for the Prophet Muhammad.
South Park's relationship with the Prophet goes back a while...he actually appeared in an episode from nine years ago that involved many major religious figures or gods (think Jesus, Moses, Krishna) teaming up in as Power Rangers-style super heroes and fighting crime. Then, in a rather brilliant statement on censorship and Muhammad, the created a storyline where al Qaeda threatens to attack the United States if an image of Muhammad is aired on Family Guy. In the end, the terrorist "retaliation" turns out to be one of the most insane segments of television ever aired, as Jesus, George W. Bush and several stereotypical Americans are shown performing some pretty disgusting acts.
Though we just celebrated 62 years since the establishment of the sate of Israel which is definitely a momentous occasion to celebrate, we can’t forget that we are still in a time of mourning. Thousands of years later we are mourning the 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva that died in a plague. It is customary during this time not to listen to music and have weddings as a symbol of our mourning. Through the ages during this time many other terrible decrees have been made against the Jewish people. It has always amazed me how in Judaism we are constantly trying to keep the balance between times of sadness and mourning and times of joy and celebration. As we see between the mourning of Rabbi Akiva’s students and celebrating the state of Israel. Though thousands of years separate these two events, I think that there is a strong connection between them.
Though Rabbi Akiva tragically lost many of his students, he was still able to rebuild his yeshiva from his five students that were left. His students were not just ordinary students but they were some of the greatest Torah scholars in Jewish history. They were Rabbi Meir, Rabbi Yehudah, Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Yose and Rabbi Nechemia. It was to their credit that we have the Talmud today. How was Rabbi Akiva able to get over this great loss and rebuild his yeshiva and what can we learn from him? I read an interesting answer to this question. Rabbi Akiva got his strength to continue on teaching Torah to his five remaining students from the same thing that brought him to Torah observance, a single drop of water. The way Rabbi Akiva first began to embrace Torah was when he was 40 years old and one day while he was tending to his sheep, he saw a rock and he noticed a cavity in it. He wondered what was so powerful that could cause this cavity. Then he looked up and saw a drop of water falling from the mountain and he realized that overtime this drop of water had affected the rock. He then reasoned that if a drop of water could make an impression on a hard rock, then so to can Torah penetrate his mind. It was after that incident that Rabbi Akiva began his journey towards living a Torah lifestyle and he eventually became one of the Torah leaders of his generation.
So we can ask why did this incident cause Rabbi Akiva to change his whole life around ?
What was so special about that single drop of water and how did Rabbi Akiva identify with it? When Rabbi Akiva saw what a difference one drop of water made to the rock, he understood how much power and potential each individual has. He realized that what he did and how he reacted to life mattered and how his decisions could affect the world. So when his 24,000 students died he thought back to that day that first gave him strength to take something that before seemed unreachable and impossible and it strengthened him once again to move forward.
Now, fast forwarding thousands of years later lets try to find the connection between Rabbi Akiva and modern times. I believe that just like Hashem gave Rabbi Akiva with the strength to spread his Torah wisdom to his five remaining students, Hashem also provided the Holocaust survivors with the strength and will power to rise above the nightmares they experienced and helped them rebuild their lives in Israel. It was because of each one of the pioneer’s individual will power and perseverance, that we can now celebrate 62 years of the state of Israel. As we celebrate this milestone with joy we can’t forget how Hashem has always and will always help us rise above our persecution and will eventually fully redeem us with the coming of the redemption. May we see it speedily in our days. Amen!
Nick Clegg (pictured) is the leader of the Liberal Democratic party, and is currently leading both Gordon Brown (Labour) and David Cameron (Conservatives) in the polls.5. Clegg harbors strong anti-Israeli views.
To describe Clegg as a vociferous opponent of Israel would be an understatement — I’ve written in greater detail on this issue here. Clegg has penned a number of articles condemning Israel’s handling of Gaza, and has been the most prominent British critic of Israel’s response to Hamas attacks. He has alleged that the Israeli government “continues to imprison 1.5 million Palestinians and prevent the rebuilding of its shattered infrastructure,” and supports the U.N.’s use of the highly offensive term “collective punishment.” Clegg has drawn parallels between Israel’s defensive actions and the terrorist campaigns of groups such as Hamas, and has urged the European Union in the past to isolate and even sanction Israel.
As most of you know already, I'm a fan of American team sports. The one thing your coach always tells you is not to talk trash before a game because all you do is get the other team mad and riled up to play. Trash talk before a game is usually a sign of overconfidence.Iranian Minister Ahmad Vahidi said that because of Israel's diplomatic isolation, it is unable to attack Iran.
Vahidi said Wednesday evening that, "Given the political isolation of the Zionist regime, they do not have the courage to attack, and they are unable to open war with our armed forces."
The following is a guest post from Michael Fenenbock. In Los Angeles recently Daphne and I had an opportunity to breakfast with Martin Sherman.
Professor Sherman has proposed a compelling, workable, pragmatic alternative to 2-State. And his proposal has an eye-catching curtain raiser – get rid of UNRWA.
My view is we must forcefully project an alternative vision of the future, a pragmatic option to 2-state. And now more than ever.
The current state-of-play is alarming. The situation is dire. The threat to the Zionist enterprise from the imposition of 2-State is immediate. The unceasing pressure from the Obama Administration on the Jewish State is myopic. The need to respond is urgent.
Very soon the Obama Administration plans to submit a “peace plan” centered on 2-state and calling for a partition of Jerusalem. They have already sent former President Bill Clinton out front to clear the way. Publicizing Senator Kerry’s negotiation with Damascus to halt a missle allocation to Hezbollah is part of the game plan. Spin designed to neutralize Jewish American resistance to the Obama plan. And President Obama’s smarmy letter to Alan Solow, an Obama supporter and chairman of the Conference of Presidents, of is more of the same.
Believe it. The train to 2-state is roaring down the track and its due date is before the November American election. 2-state is the sin qua non of their foreign policy.
Unless we propose – and seriously market to the world - alternatives to 2-state we will continue be labeled by world opinion as obstructionist.
The stakes could not be higher. If we fail to stop the rush to 2-state we will certainly forfeit the central touchstone of our history our culture and our religion – we will lose Jerusalem.
While differing in detail with alternatives to 2-state advanced by Arieh Eldad and Benny Elon, the important fact is Martin Sherman has placed on the table a rational alternative.
Much of this looming tragedy is of our own making. Leaders in Israel and the Diaspora continue to publicly position themselves as in support of a 2-state solution. The Prime Minister finds himself locked in this in this dead-end trap.
And while I applaud Ron Lauder’s recent statement it repeated the party line on 2-state.
This course of action, saying we are for 2-state, must be reversed.
Those of us who oppose 2-state must make our voices heard and if we do friends will join our fight.
Promoting rational, pragmatic alternatives to 2-state arms us with a powerful political weapon in this battle. It allows us to seize the initiative in the debate. It provides an opportunity to reclaim lost momentum. It means we can go on the offensive.
If we call for an alternative view we will have friends who will stand with us in opposition to the imposition of 2-state. Powerful friends.
I recommend Martin Sherman and his work personally. And I strongly associate myself with the need to present to the world a rational 2-state alternative.
Those of us who are of a disposition to fight 2-state and to do our best to see the culmination of the Zionist dream have a responsibility to our history and a duty to future Jewish generations. We can only benefit by uniting our efforts and pooling our resources.
Standing together it is possible to make our voices heard.
Michael Fenenbock
New York
April 22, 2010
Dennis Prager cites a reason that many Americans support Israel which many Israelis will find hard to believe: The Bible. There is a fifth reason tens of millions of Americans, including many conservative commentators, support Israel and worry about America as American support for Israel wanes. To the Left in America and around the world, this reason is dangerous nonsense. But for a vast number of America’s Christians, for many Jews, and even many non-religious conservatives, it is deeper than any military or political reason. The reason is based on a verse in Genesis in which God, referring to the Jewish people, says to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.”
One need not be a Jew or Christian or even believe in God to appreciate that this verse is as accurate a prediction as humanity has ever been given by the ancient world. The Jewish people have suffered longer and more horribly than any other living people. But they are still around. Its historic enemies are all gone. Those that cursed the Jews were indeed cursed.
And those who blessed the Jews were indeed blessed. The most blessed country for over 200 years has been the United States. It has also been the most blessed place Jews have ever lived in. Is this a coincidence? Many of us think not.
Those who curse the Jews still seem to be cursed. The most benighted civilization today is the Arab world. One could make a plausible case that the Arab world’s preoccupation with Jew-hatred and destroying Israel is a decisive factor in its failure to progress. The day the Arab world makes peace with the existence of the tiny Jewish state in its midst, the Arab world will begin its ascent.
The converse is what worries tens of millions of Americans — the day America abandons Israel, America will begin its descent.
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