The Cartoon Controversy from the Jews' Perspective

In the Mohammed-cartoon controversy, the Western world faced fundamental questions that will continue to evolve in the coming years. These include: the nature of Western identity; the internal solidarity of the Western world; to what extent Western societies can be intimidated; how Muslim violence should be confronted; whether a Western Islam can evolve; to what extent some of the Muslims living in the West are a fifth column for a violent non-Western culture; and whether right-wing trends in the West will increase.

Israel and the Jews were drawn - almost inevitably - into the controversy between Muslims and the West once the violent protests against the cartoons rapidly accelerated in the first week of February 2006. This was yet another manifestation of the hard core of anti-Semitism that portrays the Jews as responsible for all evil in the world.

Western media contrasted Muslims' sensitivity about the cartoons with the stream of far more offensive anti-Semitic cartoons published in Muslim media. The Middle Eastern boycott of Danish firms also raised some questions about Danish boycotts of Israel.

Israel faces a serious risk of Western scapegoating as the Muslim-Western controversy develops over the coming years. In an increasingly unpredictable world, Israel may need to establish a rapid-analysis force to assess emerging global events. The Mohammed-Cartoon Controversy, Israel, and the Jews: A Case Study by Manfred Gerstenfeld

Mark Alexander

Adieu Ayaan!

Courtesy of the Ayaan Hirsi Ali Web-log

Her Dutch citizenship withdrawn, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is packing her bags for Washington. SPIEGEL spoke to her about leaving the Netherlands, her book project and the American Enterprise Institute, which has offered her a fellowship.

She apologizes for the mess in her apartment. But it's a mess that says volumes about her life. Still to be unwrapped bouquets, complete with messages of support, are strewn everywhere. A treadmill stands in the center of the room -- running in the nearby park would be way too risky. Newspapers lie scattered across the glazed white desk, her portrait on the front pages. She looks spiteful, with a touch of fear and anger in her eyes.

"I never really got a chance to settle down," says Ayaan Hirsi Ali as she steps into the small kitchen, "and yet I felt very much at home here." Now, though, the luxury apartment high above the roofs of The Hague -- her refuge from the death threats of Islamic fundamentalists -- has become foreign to her. The neighbors have sued her out of the building because they were tired of dealing with the security detail assigned to protect Hirsi Ali from attack. Even worse, the Dutch Minister of Immigration and Integration, Rita Verdonk, stripped her of her citizenship early last week, citing minor lies on Ali's citizenship application. A chapter in Hirsi Ali's life -- and an era in Dutch politics -- has come to an end. Settling Scores with Old Europe and Source: Der Spiegel By Gerald Traufetter

Mark Alexander

The Future of France: Islamic of Secular?

PARIS - Al Fath Mosque is in a scruffy immigrant neighborhood not far from the neon-lit kitsch of Pigalle. On Friday afternoons the mosque is jammed, and the overflow of worshippers - all men - spills into the streets.

Tourists who stumble on the scene reflexively reach for their cameras, struck by this unusual public manifestation of religiosity in a country where Christian belief has become passe.

In France and in almost every other European country, Christianity appears to be in a free fall. Although up to 88 percent of the French identify themselves as Roman Catholic, only about 5 percent go to church on most Sundays; 60 percent say they "never" or "practically never" go.

But Islam is a thriving force. The 12 million to 15 million Muslims who live in Europe make up less than 5 percent of the total population, but the vitality of their faith has led some experts to predict that Islam will become the continent's dominant faith.

Princeton University historian Bernard Lewis, the dean of American Middle East scholars, flatly predicts that Europe will be Islamic by the end of this century "at the very latest." In France, Islam and secularism spread as Christianity lapses by Tom Hundley

Mark Alexander

France Commemorates Muslim War Dead

Photo courtesy of the BBC

French President Jacques Chirac has marked 90 years since the Battle of Verdun by unveiling a monument to Muslims who fell in the key WWI battle.

The memorial is the first to Muslims who died in 300 days of clashes over the strategically located French town and in other World War I battles.

Mr Chirac hailed the French army in Verdun as "France in its diversity". France marks Muslim dead of WWI

Mark Alexander

Will Shari'ah come to Canada?

Mark Alexander

An important note to all my visitors
I have just taken the unprecedented step of deleting some comments on this website.

This is not something I do lightly, for I am committed to free speech. However, these deleted comments crossed the line of respectability. I cannot tolerate them any longer.

All are welcome to comment on this website: left-wingers, right-wingers, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, people of all other religions, and people of no faith at all.

But one thing I ask is that comments be placed in a reasonable and rational manner, without vulgarities and profanities, and without any racist intent. Please do not overstep the bounds of respectability and decency, for to do so can be very offensive to others. Furthermore, arguments written in this manner are never enhanced in any way.

From now on, any comments which I feel overstep these limits will be erased as soon as possible.

Mark Alexander

Is this what the 'religion of peace' is all about?

I wonder how many of these demonstrators were arrested and charged after this demonstration? Is it really a strength of the West that we allow such demonstrations? Or should we, perhaps, start seeing this extreme tolerance as a weakness?

Video courtesy of You Tube

Mark Alexander

More softening of the brain? A disturbing glimpse into the mindset of some Texans

Courtesy of Google Video and Turn to Islam

Mark Alexander

Is this a classic case of softening of the brain?

Video courtesy of Google Video and Turn to Islam

Mark Alexander

Ayaan Hirsi Ali

In this very interesting interview by Danish television, Ayaan Hirsi Ali speaks out. It starts in Danish, but soons moves to English:

And here is the now famous short film, SUBMISSION:

Videos courtesy of Google Video

Mark Alexander

In the beginning there was darkness; in 2006 there is still darkness!

Images courtesy of Google Images

The world's scientific community united yesterday to launch one of the strongest attacks yet on creationism, warning that the origins of life were being "concealed, denied or confused".

The national science academies of 67 countries warned parents and teachers to ensure that they did not undermine the teaching of evolution or allow children to be taught that the world was created in six days.

Some schools in the US hold that evolution is merely a theory while the Bible represents the literal truth. There have also been fears that these views are creeping into British schools.

The statement, which the Royal Society signed on behalf of Britain's scientists, said: "We urge decision-makers, teachers and parents to educate all children about the methods and discoveries of science and foster an understanding of the science of nature. Knowledge of the natural world in which they live empowers people to meet human needs and protect the planet. World scientists unite to attack creationism by Sarah Cassidy

Mark Alexander

Blair: The Would-Be President!

Cartoon courtesy of Google Images

Tony Blair, mere Prime Minister, needs the trappings of President! He cannot stem the growth of Islam in the United Kingdom, but that doesn't matter! He can luxuriate in his Blair Force One instead!

One suspects that, like certain African heads of state, Tony Blair feels truly at ease these days only when he leans back in his upholstered seat and feels the jet engines propel him away from his own country, towards other lands where he is not responsible for the state of the streets and can luxuriate in the dignity of a world leader.

How galling, then, to have to travel in a rented plane, or, worse, on a scheduled service. How embarrassing to step on to the tarmac, to be greeted with all the courtesies of diplomatic protocol, from a jumbo jet bearing a commercial logo. How unlike the dignity of the American President!

Blair should check in like the rest of us

Mark Alexander

Osama bin Laden: A video
I would like to share this interesting video with you about Osama bin Laden:

With thanks to Who Is bin Laden?

Mark Alexander

When doing business with Saudis, use smoke and mirrors!

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph

The Government used "special accounting arrangements" on a controversial £20bn oil-for-arms deal with Saudi Arabia to make sure MPs were not able to vet it, The Daily Telegraph has learned.

The news comes as ministers put finishing touches to a multi-billion pound successor to the original Al-Yamamah arms deal, agreed in 1985 by Margaret Thatcher.

Controversy has raged over claims that millions of pounds were paid in bribes to secure the original contract.

Two years ago the Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation into the claims that bribes were paid by companies used by BAE Systems, one of the main beneficiaries of the deal, to win orders for equipment.

Government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that deal was structured to avoid Parliamentary scrutiny. Saudi deal 'hidden from MPs' by Christopher Hope

Britain's multi-billion pound Al-Yamamah arms contract with Saudi Arabia is the UK's biggest ever overseas defence order.

Yet little is known about it. The original deal was agreed by Margaret Thatcher, the then-prime minister, in 1985 and signed by Michael Heseltine and HRH Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud in the following year.

Analysts have estimated the value of the contract to be anything from £15bn to £150bn. Twenty years of smokescreen over Saudi deal by Christopher Hope

Mark Alexander

Disturbing images of suffering!
The following images were sent to me this morning from Australia by a friend. I want to share them with you. They show the suffering that went on in the Sudan in 1994 during the famine in that country. I dare say that it wouldn't take a photographer long to find similar images today.

The Sudan is largely an Islamic country. One can but ask oneself the question: What do the fabulously wealthy of countries like Saudi Arabia do to alleviate such suffering? Wouldn't they be better off spending their gazillions trying to alleviate such poverty and hunger than by spending it on trying to promote Islam in the West, trying to promote their religion where it is certainly NOT WANTED! By the way, for your information, the photographer that took these photos, Kevin Carter, committed suicide three months after taking them. From depression!

Mark

Ridiculous suggestions on Britain's race laws by Trevor Phillips

Photo courtesy of the BBC

The Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, has shown that he has no understanding of the nature of the Jihad, and therefore no understanding of the danger posed to the West by Islam.

Britain's race laws need updating to help in the battle against terrorism, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) has said.

Trevor Phillips has called for a debate on positive discrimination in favour of Muslims applying to join the police.

In a speech to be delivered on Monday he will question whether the police are "fit for purpose" for anti-terror campaigns.

He will also say race relation laws are stopping diversification in the police.

Mr Phillips will emphasise that it is not just a matter of fairness and equality, but an issue of national security.

Muslim commitment

In the speech to be given at the Social Policy Forum at the Government Office for London, he will say that British Muslims are as committed to tackling "terrorism" as anyone else. Race law update needed, Phillips

Mark Alexander

Split in Anglican Communion looks increasingly likely

Photo courtesy of Google Images

A woman was last night elected as the first female leader of the American branch of Anglicanism in a historic but divisive development that could hasten the break-up of the worldwide Church.

The Bishop of Nevada, the Rt Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, who is a leading liberal on homosexuality, is the first women primate in the history of Anglicanism.

Her role as Presiding Bishop is the equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Her surprise election was greeted with whoops of joy by pro-women campaigners at the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, where she was chosen by her fellow bishops in four hours of voting.

But conservatives predicted that she would lead the Episcopal Church further along its liberal path on issues such as homosexuality, and her election will dismay traditionalists opposed to women priests. Anglican crisis as woman leads US Church by Jonathan Petre, Religion Correspondent, in Columbus, Ohio

Members of the Church of England take pride in portraying it as able to tolerate a wide diversity of opinion. By extension, they would like to apply this judgment to the Anglican communion as a whole. However, as the general convention of the Episcopal Church in Columbus, Ohio, reminds us, such optimism in regard to the wider Church is looking more and more like wishful thinking.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, speaks dramatically of "virtually two religions in a single Church". A guest at the convention of the American branch of Anglicanism, he was dismayed to see its House of Bishops pass a resolution last Friday, without theological debate, in support of civil marriages for gay couples.

He believes that the Episcopal Church has departed so far from what is generally held to be Anglican theology that a point of no return has been reached. And he implies that Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, should recognise this fact by expelling it from the Anglican communion. The spectre of schism

Mark Alexander

Self-delusion wins no wars!
I have been alerted to two very well-written, and extremely accurate, essays on the threat of Islam, and how to deal with it. These essays were written a little while ago by my good friend and colleague Jason Pappas, whose weblog, Liberty and Culture has much to contribute to the war we are engaged in.

Please take a look at these. The first is long, but well worth the time it takes to read it. It is full of insight and facts. The second one is somewhat shorter, but no less important for that.

Do conservatives recognize the threat?

Rarely, in the course of history, has a nation gone to war while praising the enemy’s ideology. We can, however, see this absurd spectacle today. While terrorists attack our greatest cities in the name of Islam, we are told that these ideas have nothing to do with their actions. As Muslims cheer with joy throughout the Islamic world, we are told that we mustn’t rush to judgment and stereotype another culture. With each report of repression, misogyny, self-imposed poverty, anti-Semitic hatred, and suicidal glorification, we are told that they are human beings just like us – don’t judge! There is a pathological fear of saying anything negative about the motivating force driving our enemy: Islam.

At first this may seem like an exaggeration. But is it? We do condemn radical Islam but notice how we unduly minimize our criticism. We add the qualifier “radical” or “militant” to imply that it is something added to Islam. The problem must be this additional element – not Islam itself. Or we borrow a word from Christianity and call them fundamentalists as if there were differing versions of Islam. We presume fundamentalist Islam is spurned by the average Muslim, who, we imagine, sees this 7th century practice as a relic relevant to Mohammad’s time. How enlightened we imagine the modern Muslim!

Or we may complain that Islam needs some missing element that will transform it and bring it into the 21st century. We make a moral equivalence between Christianity’s failures centuries ago and Islamic backwardness today. If Christianity can move forward and adapt to the modern world, why can’t Islam? It must be this missing element, modernity, which Islam needs. It took Christians two thousands years to grow up, we are told; you can’t expect Islam to do that in 1400 years. At no point must we question the Islam religion itself.

The taboo against subjecting a religion to critical analysis is even greater when that religion is part of a foreign culture. Conservatives are quick to attack the relativism inherent in contemporary multi-cultural analysis – particularly on the left. There is indeed a wide-spread relativism and vitriolic anti-Americanism on the left but it is by no means universal. I will address this at another time. The contention of this article is that conservatives’ response to the Islamic threat is inadequate and they need to change if we are to fight this enemy effectively. The Conservative Response to the Islamic Threat. by Jason Pappas © September 5, 2004

Saudi Arabia spearheads the worldwide Islamist movement by the establishment of educational institutions around the globe dedicated to reawakening the jihadist ideology. A vast recruiting and training network produces hate-filled warriors eager to kill anyone in their path for the glory of Islam. Saudi powerbrokers finance global terror groups from Hamas to Al Qaeda. (See our review.) The time has come to reconsider our repugnant association with these duplicitous international criminals. What should we do in the face of this threat? Let’s start by severing all ties with Saudi Arabia – military, trade, travel, and diplomatic.

Impossible, you say? Given that 15% of our oil imports originate in Saudi Arabia, the idea of ending our Saudi trade relationship is deemed unimaginable or only possible in the distant future after the development of alternative sources of energy. Neither political party dares suggest such a move in the current context. Unfortunately, the economics is poorly understood but far worse, moral leadership is next to non-existent. First the economics:

Oil is a commodity. Like any commodity its price is determined by the market and it can be sold and resold any number of times. Oil isn’t made-to-order for a particular buyer like a custom suit from one’s personal tailor. The production, purchase, resale, and consumption of oil in today’s modern global economy are determined by market forces – not personal relationships. The path from producer to consumer is spontaneously rearranging. The Saudi Problem by Jason Pappas©

Mark Alexander

Sarkozy gets tough on immigration

Photo courtesy of the BBC

The upper house of the French parliament has passed a tough new immigration bill, weeks after it was adopted by the lower chamber.

The bill makes it harder for unskilled migrants to settle in France and abolishes the rights of illegal immigrants to remain after 10 years.

Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who drafted the bill, says it will bring France into line with other countries.

Critics say it is racist and accuse Mr Sarkozy of pandering to the far-right.

Mr Sarkozy, who is seen as a potential contender in presidential elections next year, says France must be in control of immigration, rather than a passive recipient. French immigration bill approved

Mark Alexander

The West’s Problems with Islam Exacerbated by Bush’s Determination Not to Identify the Enemy!
9/11, a day that will go down in history as a ‘day of infamy’, should have marked a turning point in our dealing with the Islamic world. Alas, no such ‘turning point’ came about.

Instead, the President of the US, George W Bush, insisted that the US was not at war with the Islamic world. I dare say it was true – to a point. What he failed to say was its corollary: namely, that the Islamic world was at war with America, and by extension, the West!

That this was so should have been made clear to all Americans, and to all Westerners alike. It wasn’t. The result of this is that we now have fuzzy thinking on the war we are engaged in, fuzzy thinking on the problems we face, fuzzy thinking on the growth of Islam in the West, fuzzy thinking on how to tackle our enemy: Islam!

Make no mistake about it: Islam is our enemy. Islam represents all that is abhorrent to the West: coercion, lack of religious freedom, totalitarianism, and much else besides. But, as the West was built up on largely Christian principles, it is also the negation of the notion that Jesus Christ is man’s Saviour, man’s Redeemer. They say that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God; we say that He was! The West, as a civilization, has been built up on that notion.

No problem, you say. Let them believe what they will. Wrong! You are wrong, so wrong, to take this viewpoint.

Muslims have principles. Indeed, it may be said that they have very strong principles. And they fight for them. How many of YOU have principles that you will fight for? It would appear that Westerners have few principles they are willing to fight for; indeed, many Westerners are not sure what their principles are! And therein lies one of the major problems we face today: not knowing what the West stands for; and, by extension, not knowing what we must fight for.

Yes, all right, we have some vague notions of freedom and democracy. But let’s face it, they are just that: vague notions! How many people truly understand what freedom is, still less what democracy entails? Do we really understand both concepts? Freedom is not just being able to go on your favourite foreign holiday when you please; democracy isn’t just about voting for this handsome guy, or that one. No! It’s about more than that. Much more!

How is the West going to deal with the onslaught of Islam when Westerners don’t even know what they should believe in? In years gone by, Westerners knew exactly what they should believe in: in Judeo-Christian principles. But as churches have emptied, many people now know sweet little about Judeo-Christian principles, and care still less about them.

It may be said, in no uncertain terms I have to say, that we ignore our Judeo-Christian heritage at our own peril! Islam is knocking on our door; in fact, we have already let it in. And the religion is growing apace in the West; and make no mistake about it: it is DIAMETRICALLY-OPPOSED to EVERYTHING we stand for; and it is only biding its time to take us over. The sickness of out time is that ordinary folk have no understanding of what is going on!

It is my belief that George W Bush must shoulder a lot of the blame for this ignorance. For, in stubbornly refusing to apportion blame for the atrocities of 9/11 on Muslims, he has also brought confusion into the minds of many Westerners. Westerners, as a result, have little understanding of what motivates Muslims. To be fed the nonsense that Muslims are our friends is a lie. A damn lie! And Bush, unless he is stupid, knows that very well. Islam is our enemy. It has to be, for it seeks to destroy us.

Make no mistake about it: Islam is waiting in the wings; it is just ready to take us over. Do you think that Muslims don’t realize and understand that Westerners have little stomach for a fight? Have none of it! They perceive YOU as WEAK! Really weak! After all, look what we are allowing them to get away with!

Only this week, it has come to our attention that our bankers are allowing the ideas of Shari’ah banking to be put in place here in the West. Now, in the United Kingdom, Shari’ah banking is to be made available to Muslims and Muslimahs across the United Kingdom, on every high street. Imagine the uproar in the UK in the 1940s with headlines such as Nazi banking to be made available to Nazis by all high street banks across the United Kingdom! It would have been totally unacceptable to people then; and it should be totally unacceptable to people now, too.

In the States, shrines to Islam, our enemy, are to be built by the US Marines. Just how stupid and naïve is that? How many shrines to Christianity are there in Saudi Arabia? We are giving these people an importance above their station!

A war – and George W Bush tells us we are at war – has to be fought from a position of strength. Furthermore, for a war to be successful, it has to be fought in the right atmosphere. The enemy has to be - yes, wait for it – demonized! I make no apologies for the use of that word. We are either at war with an enemy, or we are not! It’s as simple and straightforward as that!

No war in history has been fought like this ridiculous war! We are trying to fight a war without demonizing the enemy. It cannot be done! Either we are at war, or we are not. To say that we are at war with some vague notion of terrorists is nothing less than absurd. Terrorism equates to the Jihad. Indeed, the Jihad is terrorism unadulterated. The Jihad is nothing more and nothing less than terrorism used for the furtherance of the cause of Islam. It is used to Islamize your country and mine. Make no mistake about that!

I am reading a very good book at the moment entitled Defying Hitler. In it, the author , Sebastian Haffner, talks about how the enemy was demonized during the Great War. He talks about France’s “lust for revenge”, England’s “commercial envy”, and Russia’s “barbarism”. That’s how to do it, folks! You cannot win a war when everything has been sanitized. Everything, today, must be sanitized! No war has ever been so won! No war will ever be so won! Either we are at war; or we are not. It’s as simple as that! If we are at war, then we have to demonize the enemy.

President Bush, the day after 9/11, came on TV, almost embracing the Qur’an, stating that the US was not at war with the Islamic world. What he should have stated was that the Islamic world was at war with America and the West. And it still is. Indeed, the war has been intensified. Had he done this, we wouldn’t today be seeing the growth of Islamic banking in the West, the building of shrines to Islam in the US Marines, and we wouldn’t be in such a mess with Islam in general. President Bush! You have failed! You have failed miserably! You’ve had your chance, and you’ve blown it. Move over, Sir! Let someone else try and clear up your mess!

©Mark Alexander

All rights reserved