Canary In The Coal Mine

Protestors Decry Presentation on “Islamophobia” at Manhattan JCC

by Phyllis Chesler & Fern Sidman  |  IsraelNationalNews.com  |  March 16, 2012

 

Over 30 protestors gathered in front of the JCC in Manhattan to express their outrage over a forum entitled “Combating Islamophobia.”

 

On Wednesday evening, March 14^th,over 30 protestors representing both Jewish and human rights organizations gathered in front of the Jewish Community Center on Manhattan’s upper west side to express their outrage over a forum entitled “Combating Islamophobia.”

Moderated by former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, the panelists included Rabbi Marc Schneier, co-founder of the Foundation For Ethnic Understanding, which fosters “twinning” programs between mosques and synagogues and Imam Shamsi-Ali, the spiritual leader of the Islamic Cultural Center of New York and the chairman of the Al-Hikmah mosque in Astoria.

Holding aloft signs and banners reading “What Are Muslims Doing for Peace???”, “Burning Churches, Honor Murdering Women. Where is the Muslim Protest?”, “Sharia Equals Death”, “Since 9/11, Radical Islamists Committed 11,961 Attacks, Killed 75,038, Injured 115,255”, “Wake Up! Islam's Goal: Destruction of Our Way of Life”, “Stop Billions of Saudi Oil Monet Funding Worldwide Radical Islamic Intolerance and Terror”, “The Right of Jews to a Jewish State in Israel,” “The Right of Muslims to Convert to Other Religions,” the protestors took aim at what they perceived to be the hypocrisy that this event represented. 

Narain Kataria, the President of the Indian American Intellectual Forum, declared, “We should not be talking about Islamophobia but about whether Islam is a religion of peace. This should be debated all over the country. We Hindus have suffered at the hands of radical Islamists. I believe that somehow the organizers of the conference on Islamophobia have been either heavily funded or misguided by Muslim organizations into believing that Islam if the religion of peace.”

Joining Kataria was protestor Dr. Arish Sahani who declared, “Shame on our intellectuals! Why don’t they teach their students that for 1400 years Muslims have been persecuting non-Muslims?”

 

Helen Freedman, the executive director of Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI), said, “The JCC, in sponsoring ‘Combating Islamophobia’, is suggesting that it is un-American to fear Islam. Our liberal upbringing causes us to be offended by the accusation that we are racist when it comes to Islam, but isn't there ample justification for concern about a political agenda disguised as a religion which promotes hatred of infidels and women? The radical, militant, hate-filled Islam that has spread across the world, butchering and maiming millions in its path, deserves to be feared and eradicated.”

Speaking of the recent controversy that has swirled around New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly for authorizing police surveillance of mosques in the New York area and for using the documentary entitled “The Third Jihad” as a training tool for his department, protestor Marion Dreyfus, addressed the gathering passionately, “Commissioner Kelly is defending us. He should not be castigated. He should be admired and supported.”

(On the JCC panel, Imam Shamsi Ali, a very soft-spoken Indonesian, called for Muslim consultants to supervise the training materials for the NYPD where terrorism is concerned).

Dr. Marvin Belsky, of the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam told those gathered, “There can be no legitimate partnership between Muslims and Jews until there is tangible evidence that the greater Muslim community supports rights for all religions, rights for women, rights for converts, the right of Jews to inhabit and maintain a Jewish state in Israel, and the right of free speech.”

According to columnist and protestor, Marion Dreyfus, “Two supporters of Islam, one wearing a crucifix, and one presenting himself as Jewish, stood a few feet away holding magic-markered cardboards, and tried to convince passersby that non-existent ‘Islamophobia’ is a bugaboo we must all foreswear. The ‘Jewish’ gentleman asserted he had read the Koran ‘five times’ and found no racial bigotry or desire to kill non-Muslims.”

The woman wearing the cross would not engage in discussion at all, repeating that her reason for being there was just to hold the sign.

It is not known if the crowd was persuaded, as one self-professed Muslim woman confided inside the JCC that “almost all Muslims are peaceful,” and that “only a few ‘nutters’” exist to “give the rest a bad name.”

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/153830#.T2Ph4mJWqq4

VIDEO: Avi Lipkin Discusses Islam and It's Deceptions

Uploaded to YouTube.com by ocpacvideo on March 10, 2012

 

Avi Lipkin (Screen Shot)

 

Avi Lipkin at Fairview Baptist March 7, 2012:

 

 

 

Muslim Persecution of Christians: February 2012

by Raymond Ibrahim  |  StonegateInstitute.org  |  March 16, 2012

 

A pastor was attacked with acid and blinded by Muslims screaming, "Allahu Akbar!" ["Allah is Greater!"]

Half of Iraq's indigenous Christians are gone, due to the unleashed forces of jihad [holy war]. Many Christians fled to nearby Syria; yet, as the Assad regime comes under attack from al-Qaeda and others, the jihad now seeps into Syria, where Christians are experiencing a level of persecution unprecedented in the nation's modern history. Similarly, some 100,000 Christian Copts have fled their native Egypt since the overthrow of the Mubarak regime; and in northern regions of Nigeria, where the jihadi group, Boko Haram, has been slaughtering Christians, up to 95% of the Christian population has fled.

Meanwhile, the "big news" concerning the Muslim world in the month of February—the news that flooded the mainstream media and had U.S. politicians, beginning with President Obama, flustered, angry, and full of regret—was that some written-in [in Islam it is forbidden to write anything in a Korans] in Afghanistan were burned by U.S. soldiers because imprisoned Muslim inmates had been using them "to facilitate extremist communications."

Categorized by theme, February's batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed in alphabetical order by country, not severity.

Church Attacks

Algeria: Armed men raided and ransacked a church that had been formally recognized since 1958, and dismantled the crucifix. The pastor and his family, trapped inside, feared that "they could kill us." The pastor "has been repeatedly threatened and attacked since being ordained in 2007. In the summer of 2009, his wife was beaten and seriously injured by a group of unknown men. Then, in late 2011, heaps of trash were thrown over the compound walls while an angry mob shouted death threats."

Egypt: Thousands of Muslims attacked a Coptic church, and demanded the death of its pastor, who, along with "nearly 100 terrorized Copts sought refuge inside the church, while Muslim rioters were pelting the church with stones in an effort to break into the church, assault the Copts and torch the building." They did this because a Christian girl who, according to Islamic law, automatically became a Muslim when her father converted to Islam, fled from her father and was rumored to be hiding in the church.

Iran: Iran's Ministry of Intelligence has ordered the last two officially registered churches holding Friday Farsi-language services in Tehran—Farsi being the nation's Persian language—to discontinue the language: "Friday services in Tehran attracted the city's converts to Christianity as well as Muslims interested in Christianity, as Friday is most Iranians' day off during the week." Banning church use of Farsi prevents most Iranians from hearing the Gospel.

Kazakhstan: A new report notes that "Churches are being raided, leaders fined and Christian literature confiscated as the Kazakh authorities enforce new laws intended further to restrict religious freedom in the country."

Kuwait: A parliamentarian is set to submit a draft law banning the construction of churches. Originally, Osama al-Munawer announced on Twitter his plans on submitting a draft law calling for the removal of all churches in Kuwait. However, he later "clarified" his statement, saying that existing churches can remain, but the construction of new ones must be banned.

Macedonia: A two-century-old Christian church famed for its valuable icons was set on fire in response to "a carnival in which Orthodox Christian men dressed as women in burkas and mocked the Koran." Earlier, "perpetrators attacked a[nother] church in the nearby village of Labunista, destroying a cross standing outside" and "also defaced a Macedonian flag outside Struga's municipal building, replacing it with a green flag representing Islam."

Nigeria: A Muslim suicide bomber forced his way into the grounds of a major church, killing two women and an 18-month-old child during Sunday morning service; 50 people were injured in the blast. In a separate incident, Muslims detonated a bomb outside a church building, injuring five, one critically: "The bomb, planted in a parked car, was left by suspected members of Boko Haram, which seeks to impose sharia [Islamic law] throughout Nigeria."

Pakistan: A dozen armed Muslims stormed a church, seriously wounding two Christians: one man was shot and is in critical condition, the other risks having his arm amputated; another church member was thrown from the roof, after being struck repeatedly with a rifle butt. "The extremist raid was sparked by charges that [the] church was trying to evangelize Muslims in an attempt to convert them to Christianity. The community several times in the past has been the subject of assault and the pastor and his family the subject of death threats." As usual, the police, instead of pursuing the perpetrators, have opened an investigation against the pastor and 20 other church members.

Syria: Some 30 armed and masked jihadis attacked a Catholic monastery—unprecedented in Syria's modern history—demanding money. According to the Catholic Archbishop of Damascus, "the situation in the country is spiraling out of control as the armed opposition spreads its influence to different regions of the state."

Dhimmitude

[General Abuse, Debasement, and Suppression of non-Muslims as Second-Class, "Tolerated" Citizens]

Bangladesh: Three American Christians were injured after their car was attacked by a Muslim mob who suspected they were converting Muslims into Christians: at least 200 angry locals chased the missionaries' car and threw stones at it, leaving three with cuts from broken glass.

Egypt: Rather than punishing the perpetrators who opened fire on and ran tanks over Christians protesting the constant destruction of their churches, the government arrested and is trying two priests in connection to the Maspero massacre. And although Egypt's new parliament has 498 seats, only six are Copts, even though Copts make up at the very least 10% of the population, and so should have approximately 50 seats. Finally, indicating how bad the situation is, Coptic protesters organized a demonstration on Tuesday in front of Parliament to protest "the disappearance and abduction of Coptic girls."

Indonesia: The Islamist Prosperous Justice Party complained about the Red Cross' symbol of a cross; they said it was too identifiable with Christian culture and traditions. Red Cross volunteers and activists rejected the claim, saying that any changes to the logo would be "tantamount to giving in to the extremists."

Iran: A pastor of a major house church movement began serving a five-year prison sentence for "crimes against the order." According to one activist, "His 'crimes' were being a pastor and possessing Christian materials." He is being beaten in jail and has grown ill, to the point where his hair has "turned fully gray."

Israel: A mob of around 50 Palestinian Muslims stoned a group of Christian tourists atop Jerusalem's Temple Mount, wounding three Israeli police officers in the process. The attack is believed to have been instigated by the former Muslim mufti of Jerusalem.

Pakistan: Yet another Christian woman, a teacher, has been targeted by Muslims on allegations that she burned a Koran. A mob stormed her school in an attempt to abduct her, but police took her into custody. Also, a Christian student who missed the grade to get into medical school by less than 0.1% would have earned 20 extra points if he had memorized the Koran—although no bonus points for having similar knowledge of the Bible.

Turkey: A new report notes that "Christians in Turkey continue to suffer attacks from private citizens, discrimination by lower-level government officials and vilification in both school textbooks and news media." The report adds that there is a "root of intolerance" in Turkish society toward adherents of non-Islamic faiths: "The removal of this root of intolerance is an urgent problem that still awaits to be dealt with."

Turkmenistan: A 77-year-old Christian man was detained and questioned by police for six hours after he tried to print copies of a small book of Christian poetry. He was forced to write a statement and banned from travelling outside his home region while the case is being investigated.

Uganda: Not long after a pastor was attacked with acid and blinded by Muslims screaming, "Allahu Akbar!" ["Allah is Greater!"], his friend, another pastor, was shot at by "Islamic extremists" in what is being described as "a new wave of persecution against Christians in Uganda."

Murder, Apostasy Issues, and More

Egypt: Two Christians were killed "after a Muslim racketeer opened fire on them for refusing to pay him extortion money." The local bishop "hold[s] security forces and local Muslims fully responsible for terrorizing the Copts living there, who are continuously being subjected to terror and kidnapping."

Iran: After enduring five months of uncertainty in a prison, a Christian convert who was arrested in her home by security authorities has been sentenced to two years in prison by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. Authorities further arrested six to ten Christian converts from Islam while they were meeting for worship at a home in the southern city of Shiraz.

And of course Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani awaits execution for refusing to renounce Christianity.

Nigeria: A 79-year-old Christian woman and choir singer was found dead at her home, her throat slit with a note in Arabic left on her chest reading: "We will get you soon," a message believed to be directed at her son, a pastor at a local church.

Somalia: Al-Shabaab Muslims beheaded a 26-year-old Muslim convert to Christianity who had worked for a Christian humanitarian organization that the terrorist organization had banned. He is at least the third Christian to be beheaded in Somalia in recent months.

Turkey: A 12-year-old boy, Hussein, publicly professed his Christian faith by wearing a silver cross necklace in school. Accordingly, Muslim classmates began taunting and spitting on him. When the boy threatened to report one of the bullies, the bully's father threatened to kill him. His religion teacher beat him severely: "Like in most Islamic countries, students of all faiths are required to attend Islamic studies in school. Those who refuse to recite the Koran and Islamic prayers are often beaten by the teacher. And so it was for Hussein. He said he was punished regularly with a two-foot long rod because he wouldn't say the Islamic Shahada."

About this Series

Because the persecution of Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching epidemic proportions, "Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of Muslim persecution of Christians that surface each month. It serves two purposes:

1. To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, Muslim persecution of Christians.
2. To show that such persecution is not "random," but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Sharia.

Accordingly, whatever the anecdote of persecution, it typically fits under a specific theme, including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols; sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam; apostasy and blasphemy laws that criminalize and punish with death to those who "offend" Islam; theft and plunder in lieu ofjizya (financial tribute expected from non-Muslims); overall expectations for Christians to behave like coweddhimmis, or second-class, "tolerated" citizens; and simple violence and murder. Sometimes it is a combination.

Because these accounts of persecution span different ethnicities, languages, and locales—from Morocco in the West, to India in the East, and throughout the West wherever there are Muslims—it should be clear that one thing alone binds them: Islam—whether the strict application of Islamic Sharia law, or the supremacist culture born of it.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

 

Source: http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2949/muslim-persecution-of-christians-february-2012

Refuting Apologetics Over Islamic ‘Creative Lying’

by Raymond Ibrahim  |  FrontPageMag.com  |  March 16, 2012

 

Sam Shamoun of Answering Islam recently forwarded me an article titled “Tawriya: Islamic Doctrine of ‘Creative Lying’? Response to Raymond Ibrahim,” appearing on a website called Muslim Debate Initiative, and written by one Shadid (“Severe”) Lewis in response to my recent exposition on the doctrine of tawriya. Although this response—poorly written, poorly argued—would normally be ignored, I address it for three reasons: 1) To date, it is the only rebuttal I have seen from a Muslim concerning tawriya; 2) Far from rejecting tawriya, it actually validates it (the author spends his time chasing red herrings, not disproving the doctrine); 3) It is a good example of the speciousness and sophistry employed by those who try to downplay or rationalize some of Islam’s more problematic doctrines, in this case, tawriya. (Note: Although Shadid’s original article is littered with grammatical and punctuation errors, in the interest of readability, I have corrected the more egregious when quoting him.)

At the start, after informing readers that he “read the article of Raymond Ibrahim posted on Frontpagemag.com and I just had to respond,” Shadid argues that tawriya really “means deliberate ambiguity rather than creative lying.” Discerning readers understand such euphemisms change nothing about the doctrine.

After I pointed out that most Muslim scholars (or ulema) are agreed that tawriya should not be used to commit an “injustice,” I added “‘injustice’ as defined by Sharia, of course, not Western standards.” To this, Shadid responds: “Says who? None of the sources he [me] cited said as only defined by Sharia. A commonly known wrong is a commonly known wrong just the same in Islam (stealing, cheating, murder, etc. is wrong and accepted as such in Islam).”

First, of course the Muslim authorities do not bother pointing out that they mean justice and injustice as defined by Sharia; that’s a given. Likewise, anyone familiar with Islamic law and doctrine—presumably Muslims like Shadid himself—know that many of Islam’s views on “right” and “wrong” do not agree with “universal standards.” One example: Islamic law holds that any Muslim who converts out of Islam and refuses to return is an apostate to be executed. Whereas in Islam, such executions are deemed “just,” from a Western point of view, which acknowledges religious freedom, they are unjust. In this context, then, it is “just” to use tawriya (lying) to enable the execution of an apostate.

Next, Shadid distracts the issue by making irrelevant points: “Sheikh Al-Munajjid, another source cited by the article’s author, said excessive use of puns leads to lying. So the claim that this [tawriya] can be used whenever and wherever is a lie in itself.”

Yes, at the very end of his fatwa, after giving many proofs validating tawriya, Munajjid warned that too much tawriya can “lead one to slip into a lie,” meaning that, by getting caught up in one’s own dissembling game, one can end up committing an actual lie—one that is not “technically” true, a criterion of tawriya—without realizing it. More to the point, saying that some ulema warn against using tawriya too much, does not change the fact that Islam permits lying through tawriya, and that it is up to the individual Muslim to decide how much is too much.

Shadid continues: “Al Munajjid said this [tawriya] is used for embarrassing circumstances. Yet the author would have us believe Muslims can use this to lie in business transactions, and to take peoples’ property and other commonly accepted wrong activities.”

Seems like Shadid is engaging in his own bit of tawriya here: yes, Munajjid did say tawriya can be used for embarrassing circumstances, but he mentioned embarrassment as an example of, not the sole justification for, tawriya. Rather, the two criteria he gave, and which I noted in my original article, are 1) that the words literally fit the alternate meaning, so that the lie is technically true, and 2) that there is a “legitimate need” (i.e., a Sharia compliant need).

Caught up in his own convoluted logic/tawriya, Shadid next contradicts himself: “Another source cited by the articles author which he ignores is: Al-Nawawi, who said the deliberate ambiguity [tawriya] is permissible if the need arises or a legitimate interest …”—there it is again, “legitimate interest.” In other words, Nawawi, just like Munajjid, is simply another Muslim scholar who confirms that tawriya is permissible if it serves a “legitimate interest,” i.e., if the lie enables something deemed “legitimate” according to Sharia.

Then there are Shadid’s ridiculous arguments:

Mr. Ibraham told us Muhammad is recorded saying “Allah has commanded me to equivocate among the people inasmuch as he has commanded me to establish [religious] obligations”; and “I have been sent with obfuscation”; and “whoever lives his life in dissimulation dies a martyr” (Sami Mukaram, Al Taqiyya Fi Al Islam, London: Mu’assisat al-Turath al-Druzi, 2004, p. 30).

However the source he cites clearly is Al Taqiyya Fi Al Islam, London: Mu’assisat al-Turath al-Druzi, 2004, p. 30). Did you catch it? The source is about AL TAQIYYA not about TAWRIYA. And taqiyya deals with a situation only when a Muslim’s life is in immediate danger [not true] and they utter words of disbelief because they are threatened with being killed or tortured. Thus this citation does not support any proof for “creative lying.”

Apparently Shadid’s point is that any quote contained in a book that is not specifically devoted to the topic of the quote, is to be ignored. This is tantamount to saying “I reject any quote on jihad, regardless of the authority, unless it comes from a book with the word ‘jihad’ in its title. But if the title of the book is, say, ‘Islamic Law,’ or ‘War in Islam,’ then the quote on jihad is inadmissible.”

Better for you, Shadid, to address the actual quote itself—that your prophet’s mission was rooted in obfuscation, according to his own words—rather than quibble about the title of the book containing the quote.

Next he complains that I misrepresented a hadith when I wrote:

Muhammad said: “If any of you ever pass gas or soil yourselves during prayers [breaking wudu], hold your nose and leave” (Sunan Abu Dawud): ” Holding one’s nose and leaving implies smelling something offensive—which is true—though people will think it was someone else who committed the offense.”

According to Shadid:

Those familiar with this hadith can quickly see that Ibrahim has added his own conclusion about this hadith not endorsed by the Islamic position. No where is it taught that this hadith teaches for one to pass gas and leave thereby allowing some one else to take the blame for passing gas and the offensive smell.

Yet, he fails to mention that this hadith figures in the literature devoted to justifying tawriya, including Munajjid’s fatwa. And if this hadith does not teach “one to pass gas and leave thereby allowing some one else to take the blame for passing gas and the offensive smell,” then what is its significance, why does Muhammad teach to hold the nose, and why are the ulema referring to it in the context of tawriya? After all, wasn’t Shadid himself arguing earlier that tawriya is to be used only for “embarrassing” situations—and what’s more embarrassing than this?

In light of all the above, readers are free to conclude whether, as Shadid put it, my article on tawriya is “a clear example of how these haters just make up blatant lies to taint Islamic teachings and draw false conclusions based on their over zealous bias against Islam,” or whether Shadid’s entire rebuttal—which strains out a gnat while accepting that Islam permits lying—is itself an example of obfuscation.

 

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/16/refuting-apologetics-over-islamic-creative-lying/

Remembering The Massacre

by Giulio Meotti  |  FrontPageMag.com  |  March 16, 2012

 

There is no better time than the first anniversary of the Itamar massacre to call for a halt to the demonization of “the settlers,” the thousands of Jews who live beyond the “Green Line” and their reduction to second-class citizenship. They are Jews who live in constant uncertainty, having no idea whether they will keep the homes for which they have worked hard and risked much. The manner in which these Israeli citizens are being portrayed is disconcerting.

It will be remembered as a seminal case in the history of blood libels.

These citizens have been called “leeches,” “snakes,” “vicious,” “primitives,” “medieval,” “obscurantists,” “corrupt” and “parasites.” They are the target for the arrows of Israel haters, both domestic and foreign.

The media paint them as being separate from Klal Yisrael. Their villages are branded “illegal” and in the end they find that they themselves have become “illegal beings.” Pariahs. Vilified as a needless burdens on the defense budget. They have been chosen as Israel’s scapegoats, the ever-guilty, the Jewish state’s Jews.

Their houses have been demolished, their children traumatized, their businesses ruined. They have been portrayed as those who take advantage of all those benefits the government threw at them: low taxes and subsidized housing. Their human and democratic rights are often trampled underfoot and disregarded. Their lives have been condemned to be reversible. A sinister equivalence has been created between their caravans in the wilderness and suicide bombers and has turned their houses into something even more urgent to dismantle than the Iranian bomb.

THEY ARE the Israelis who choose their place of residence by what’s best for the country, rather than where it’s more comfortable or stylish to live.

They are normal people, just persevering and tough, who see themselves as part of a work in progress: Israel. Their lives are a living statement: this is home and for this land we are ready to fight and lay down our lives.

Whether in agriculture or industry, education or social services, their commitment is not just to themselves but to the land and people of Israel.

They have lovely faces, glowing with solidarity and community spirit, and make the most daring soldiers in the army, just like the left-wing youth from the kibbutzim used to. The memory of friends and relatives who paid with their lives is almost everywhere around their towns. The hilltop teenagers, with their long hair flying in the wind, their yarmulkes askew, and their fringes peeking out from under faded T-shirts, are instilled with ideals that their government ministers can only envy.

People in the West ignore the amount of blood spilled in their communities.

Overwhelmingly, the Western media and intellectuals ignored and downplayed the terrorist atrocities suffered by the “settlers.” They are like the early pioneers who drained the swamps and fought malaria as they built the foundations of Israel’s land. They are the builders.

Mordechai and Shalom Lapid, who literally gave their lives to build Kiryat Arba and Elon Moreh, are like the four families who in 1891 made their way from Russia to take home in Hadera.

Their bodies served as Israel’s frontline, like in 1948, when the heroic resistance of isolated settlements – Mishmar Ha’emek, Ramat Yohanan, Negba and Yad Mordechai – held back the invading Arab armies from attacking the heartland of the newly formed and beleaguered Jewish state.

They achieved agricultural breakthroughs by planting tomatoes in the sands of Gush Katif. They endanger their lives traveling to work or going to the dentist. On the Golan, they keep the roads open and the children of the Jordan Valley out of bomb shelters.

What other word is there for people who have lived where most Israelis even fear to tread, not only with little recognition, but increasing vilification from part of their own society? They arouse hostility for the same reasons Jews throughout history have been reviled – an unwillingness to compromise on issues of Jewish principle.

I know a settler woman who lives in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida neighborhood, which became a round-the-clock target of shooting and sniper fire. She and her husband have six children.

He is studying to become a rabbi and he is a caretaker of the historic graves of Ruth and Yishai which lie next to his home. His wife is studying about children with disabilities. This stubborn woman, like Ruth Fogel of Itamar, is a living, wonderful reminder to the world of what a Jew is.

 

Source: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/03/16/remembering-the-massacre/

Video: The Muslim Brotherhood’s Progress in the Middle East and What it Means for the World

by Erick Stakelbeck, CBNNews Terrorism Analyst  |  CBN.com  |  December 13, 2011

 

 

 

 

 

 

On this week's edition of the Stakelbeck on Terror show, CBN News analyzes the Muslim Brotherhood's recent success across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the group's plans for global domination.

See how the Brotherhood is making major inroads across Europe and even in the United States government.

CBN News also sits down with Israeli Defense Forces spokeswoman Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich to discuss the rising threats toward Israel and the rest of the Middle East.

Also, a leading Iran expert explains why the country wouldn't hesitate to use a nuclear weapon.

 

 

 

Source: http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/Archive/News/Stakelbeck_Terror_121311_WS&search=stakelbeckepisodes&p=1&parent=0&subnav=false

Coming War Threat: Terrorists Developing a Safe Haven in Egypt to Attack Israel

by Barry Rubin  |  PJMedia.com  |  December 18, 2011

 

 

 

 

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her? What would he do,

Had he the motive and the cue for passion

That I have? He would drown the stage with tears

And cleave the general ear with horrid speech…. 

–William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”

Or, in other words, do these writers, policymakers, and “experts” care  what happens in the Middle East? War? Bloodshed? Repression? Christians fleeing; women being turned into chattel? Just a possible boost to their careers and a test for their theories. A good luncheon topic. But this is real, all too real.

First, a word on contingencies. Governments and political analysts are supposed to examine likely problems in order that they can be evaded or minimized. The time to be alarmed is not when problems become visible but when governments refuse to recognize their existence. Western regimes and analysts are generally taking a best-possible-case view on Egypt and other developing issues in the region. I’m tempted to say they are taking a fantasy view. They dismiss not just worst-case but highly likely case scenarios. Now that’s what’s alarming.

In the Sinai Peninsula, Hamas is building support bases and arms-manufacturing facilities including those for building rockets. Over time, these rockets will no doubt be upgraded.  In other words, Egypt is becoming a safe haven for anti-Israel terrorism. We know that these attacks will come from the Gaza Strip. The only question is whether at some point they will come directly across the Egypt-Israel border.

Israel had a long experience with three comparable situations. In the  1950-56 era, Egypt was a safe haven for terror attacks into Israel; in the 1967-1970 period, Jordan played this role. During the 1970s and 1980s, even down to today, Lebanon did so, with the safe haven in Syria. The difference was that Israel did attack into Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and even occasionally into Syria in reponse to this situation.

Such an attack into Egypt in response to Egyptian involvement in attacks through the Gaza Strip is unthinkable given what an Egypt-Israel war would look like. And that doesn’t mean there won’t be sporadic attacks across the Egypt-Israel border also that would present similar problems.

There is a pattern here.

Israel, of course, is quickly building a border fence, paid for by a 2 percent cut in the budgets of government agencies, and thus the salaries of government employees.

Meanwhile, too, Libyan weapons, including Russian-made anti-plane rockets that can be fired by one man, are also making their way into the Gaza Strip. From there, or from Egyptian territory, one of them could be fired at an Israeli passenger plane on the Tel Aviv-Eilat route.

Israel has permitted more Egyptian military units to enter Sinai even though this was restricted by their peace treaty. But that doesn’t mean those forces will do anything, or at least do much, against these activities. After all, would Egypt’s army dare suppress Hamas though it is seen by most Egyptians — and soon by a majority in Egypt’s parliament — as heroic? What! Will they act as bodyguards for the evil Zionist entity that is allegedly committing genocide right next door? (That last sentence was a paraphrase of what a leading Egyptian “moderate” claimed in speaking to an American university audience.)

And let’s not forget that there are corrupt officers and also officers who sympathize with Hamas. What if they just don’t follow orders from Cairo?

So Israel’s first step is to go to the Egyptian army and ask that it do something. If it says “yes,” well and good. But what if it doesn’t do much or anything? Have you noticed that even now, the army keeps backing down to the Brotherhood? For example, the military junta claimed a share in writing the new Constitution and when the Brotherhood rejected this, the generals then pulled back. The parliament dominated by the Brotherhood and Salafists will write the Constitution without outside interference.

What does this tell us about the army’s future willingness or ability to stop the Islamists from running wild, attacking Israel, etc.?

There will also be the large Salafist contingent in parliament to keep happy. The Salafists will build networks to protect and help Hamas and small groups that might want to attack Israel from Egypt. Indeed, large parts of the Sinai are already developing toward anarchy and becoming a safe haven zone for international terrorists.

Next, what happens when there is an Islamist parliament, a president who is either Islamist or dependent on Brotherhood support, and an Islamist constitution? Who is going to order Egypt’s army to crack down on Hamas and to close its facilities?  Nobody.

And finally, what happens when Israel goes to the United States and asks President Obama to put pressure on Egypt to close down Hamas operations? Just guess.

Here’s a wonderful example of how this system works in another country. In Lebanon, Hizballah is creating its own secure strategic communications network without any government sanction. In one place, local people attacked workers building Hizballah facilities in their village. The Lebanese communications minister refused to interfere, supporting Hizballah’s actions. He explained that the Lebanese government accepted the project since almost anything was justified since Hizballah was fighting Israel. The opposition publication, Now Lebanon, responded that this is “a phone network that will be used by Iran and Syria (let’s not mince words) to carry out its regional ambitions.”

But Lebanon’s government has no interest in restricting any war-making activities on Israel. So what can we expect in Egypt?

What counter-forces are going to make the problems go away? The army does not have to close Hamas facilities to maintain its own interests. Nor does it have to do so to keep U.S. aid. There is nothing that is going to block this from happening unless Hamas makes the huge mistake of interfering in Egyptian politics and becoming involved with those staging armed struggle within Egypt. Hizballah made that mistake a few years ago.

Want to know how Middle East politics really work? A couple of years ago Israel noted that the Egypt-Gaza smuggling level had gone way down. Western media praised Egypt for acting. In fact, what had happened was that Egyptian officers on the border had demanded a higher price in bribes; the smugglers had refused, so the officers had cracked  down until they got more money at which point they opened the gates again.

I repeat: to point out the likelihood of such contingencies is of vital importance. The Israeli government is aware of these things and working to deal with them. What kind of planning and thinking for such dangerous situations is going on in the West? Little or none, because they don’t take these things seriously.

Source: http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/12/18/a-coming-war-threat-terrorists-are-developing-a-safe-haven-in-egypt-to-attack-israel/?singlepage=true

Winnipeg Teen Accused of Anti-Semitic Attack Defiant on Facebook, Finding Fans

by Gabrielle Giroday and Mike McIntyre, Winnipeg Free Press  |  NationalPost.com  |  December 6, 2011

 

A Winnipeg teen accused of a racist attack on a Jewish high school student is now stirring debate about the incident through his very public Facebook page. Photo: Ken Gigliotti, Winnipeg Free Press

 

WINNIPEG — A Winnipeg teen accused of a racist attack on a Jewish high school student is now stirring debate about the incident through his very public Facebook page.

Police confirmed Monday a 15-year-old boy had been charged with assault with a weapon for allegedly using a lighter to burn the hair of a Jewish classmate while uttering anti-Semitic remarks in the halls of Oak Park High School.

But while police said it was still being determined whether the boy will be charged with hate crimes, the boy had a message of his own — a picture of himself on his Facebook page wearing a shirt with a slogan relating that he loves “haters.”

And he’s being lauded by others online for the alleged attack.

The incident happened after school on Nov. 18 in the hallways of the school.

Police were contacted a week later and launched an investigation, which led to a charge against the boy Friday. The teen was released on a promise to appear.

The girl was not physically hurt in the attack and has since returned to school.

One of the boy’s friends, a young woman, posted her support for him on his Facebook page.

“What you did should have been applauded. But s-happens,” she wrote, drawing an immediate response from some of his other Facebook friends.

While two people supported her views, two others responded negatively. One called the boy a “skinhead,” while another insisted what he did should “not be applauded.”

The teen’s Facebook page is also filled with other vulgarities, including repeated use of a derogatory term for homosexuals.

The boy has since withdrawn from Oak Park, said Lawrence Lussier, Pembina Trails School Division superintendent.

Lussier said a second student has been suspended indefinitely while the police investigation continues. It’s alleged the second boy was present when the girl’s hair was scorched, although Lussier said the boy’s part in what happened is “not clear.”

“I’m hearing that the police investigation may turn up another person who was involved but that has not been declared as yet,” he said.

Winnipeg Police Service spokesman Const. Rob Carver said officers are aware of a second individual associated with the incident, but no charges are pending.

School officials have since disciplined that boy and a third 15-year-old boy for “one comment each on social media” after the Nov. 18 incident, said Lussier. The comments were “related to anti-Semitism,” he said.

“We can’t claim to police the Internet really. Whatever we can intervene in . . . are things that kids report to us normally, that are affecting the learning environment. Kids come to school scared or they’re bothered by what someone said to them, or generally on some site,” said Lussier.

Carver noted the age of the accused is “particularly unusual” and called the allegations around the case “disturbing.”

“I have been doing policing for upwards of a couple of decades and don’t think I’ve ever seen an incident like this,” said Carver. “This is very young to be holding such … hardened, racist views, and have a lot of violence associated with it.”

As of Monday, police had not laid any charges related to hate crimes, but that could still occur.

“Certainly, when you read this, you wonder about potential hate-crime charges,” said Carver. “The case has been forwarded on to the Department of Justice … and they’ll be looking into that.”

David Matas, a prominent Winnipeg lawyer who is senior honorary counsel for B’nai Brith, said the case shows the “durability of anti-Semitism.”

“The fact that it should arise in somebody so young shows that it’s going to be projected into the future,” said Matas. “It just seems never to end.”

 

 Source: http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/12/06/winnipeg-teen-accused-of-anti-semitic-attack-defiant-on-facebook-finding-fans/

Washington - Feds Agree To Investigate Complaint Against Rutgers Over Anti-Semitic Harassment

From: Vos Iz Neias  |  VosIzNeias.com  |  December 3, 2011

 

 

Washington - The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating the formal complaint filed by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), alleging that Jewish students at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, have been subjected to anti-Semitic harassment, intimidation and discrimination, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Title VI requires that recipients of federal funding (such as Rutgers) ensure that their programs and activities are free from racial and ethnic discrimination, or risk losing their federal funding.

The government probe will investigate the ZOA’s charges that the Outreach Coordinator for Rutgers’ Center for Middle East Studies harassed a Jewish student by physically threatening him and by posting anti-Semitic comments about him on Facebook.  The Outreach Coordinator referred on Facebook to the Jewish student as “that racist Zionist pig!!!!!!!!”  and encouraged others to “put his name in fb [Facebook] search . . .  he has a fb hate page” – as if celebrating that there was a Facebook page with hateful comments about the Jewish student, and encouraging others to find it so that they could read the comments and post their own hateful messages.

OCR will also investigate the ZOA’s charge that this same Jewish student was physically threatened on Facebook.  One Facebook posting said, “As I was reading the . . . [Jewish student’s] column [in the Rutgers student paper] this morning, I realized how Im [sic] a pretty angry person.  Id [sic] be happy to see him beat [sic] with a crow bar.  Violence doesnt [sic] solve problems but it shuts up people who shoudnt [sic] speak.”  At least seven of the writer’s Facebook friends clicked “like” on this message, indicating their approval of the violent threat.  One responded with a threat of his own.  The Jewish student sought police protection and removed his contact information from the Rutgers directory.  He also filed a bias incident report with the Dean of Students, which the university is supposed to respond to within 24 hours.  But no one from the university contacted the Jewish student until more than a month after he filed his bias report.  When the student was finally contacted, the Dean of Students informed him that there were insufficient grounds to formally charge the student who threatened him.  The offender was simply given a warning, even though Rutgers’ Student Code of Conduct specifically states that threatening to use force against another person is prohibited and could lead to suspension or expulsion from the university.

OCR is also investigating whether a vicious anti-Israel student group called BAKA (an acronym for “Belief Awareness Knowledge and Action”) discriminated against Jewish students at one of its anti-Israel events entitled “Never Again for Anyone.”  The event was advertised as free and open to the public.  But when a large number of Jews and Israel supporters showed up at the event, the admissions policy was abruptly changed and a mandatory admission fee was imposed, in violation of university policy prohibiting false advertising.  According to witnesses, the fee was selectively enforced:  Those perceived to be friendly to BAKA’s cause were observed being admitted to the event for free, while those perceived to be Jewish and pro-Israel were charged.

Prior to filing its Title VI complaint, the ZOA tried informally to rectify the problems that Jewish students were facing at Rutgers.  The ZOA sent two letters to Rutgers President Richard L. McCormick, detailing the problems and proposing several steps that Rutgers should consider taking to comply with its obligations under Title VI.  Jewish students at Rutgers also made their own efforts to resolve the campus problems, reaching out to and meeting with university officials to seek solutions to the hostilities they were being subjected to.  These efforts were fruitless.

Morton A. Klein, ZOA National President, and Susan B. Tuchman, Esq., Director of the ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, praised the Office for Civil Rights for opening an investigation into the ZOA’s Title VI complaint and examining Rutgers’ response to campus anti-Semitism:  “Rutgers is a fine institution, but Jewish students there have faced anti-Semitic hostility that is simply unacceptable.  Fortunately, after a six-year campaign led by the ZOA, these Jewish students now have the same legal recourse that other ethnic and racial groups have had for close to 50 years, since Title VI was enacted in 1964.  Title VI investigations on behalf of Jewish students are also in progress at UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, and Columbia University.  We strongly praise OCR for recognizing that the harassment, intimidation and discrimination that Jewish students have been subjected to at Rutgers merits the government’s scrutiny.  We urge the agency to thoroughly and vigorously investigate Rutgers’ response to campus anti-Semitism; the ZOA will assist in any way we can, so that Jewish students there will be assured the kind of campus environment that every student deserves – one that is physically and emotionally safe and conducive to learning.”

 

 Source: http://www.vosizneias.com/96144/2011/12/03/washington-feds-agree-to-investigate-complaint-against-rutgers-over-anti-semitic-harassment/

U.S. Lawmakers Call on Cuba to Release Imprisoned Jewish U.S. Contractor Alan Gross

From: JTA  |  JTA.org  |  December 4, 2011

 

U.S. aid contractor Alan Gross and his wife Judy pose for a picture in Jerusalem in the spring of 2005. Photo by Reuters/Family Photograph/Handout/Files

 

Nearly 100 U.S. lawmakers called on the government of Cuba to release imprisoned Jewish U.S. contractor Alan Gross.

Nineteen senators and 72 members of the House of Representatives sent letters to the government of Cuba at the urging of the Jewish Federations of North America and its members. Also, eight congressmen sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urging the State Department to demand the immediate release of Gross, who marked his second year in prison on Saturday.

“The release of Alan Gross is a humanitarian issue for all Americans,” said Michael Gelman, chair of the Executive Committee of the board of The Jewish Federations of North America. “Cuba should not hold captive this individual who belongs at home with his family in Maryland.”

The White House on Friday had called for the release of Gross, 62, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence in Cuba for “crimes against the state” for distributing laptop computers and connecting Cuban Jews to the Internet. He was arrested in 2009 as he was leaving Cuba. 

In a statement released the same day, the Cuban Interests Section in Washington said that the Cuban government would be willing to find a humanitarian solution on a “reciprocal basis,” likely referring to several Cuban nationals held in U.S. prisons, the Associated Press reported.

The statement said that all Cuban synagogues had Internet access before Gross arrived and that he was arrested “while implementing a covert program financed by the U.S. government and aimed at disrupting the constitutional order in Cuba.” It said the activities Gross conducted would “constitute crimes in many countries of the world, including in the United States."

Gross' family and U.S. State Department officials say that Gross was in the country on a U.S. Agency for International Development contract to help the country's 1,500 Jews communicate with other Jewish communities using the Internet. The main Jewish groups in Cuba have denied any contact with or knowledge of Gross or the program.

Gross’ wife, Judy, spoke last month at a protest on her husband's behalf outside the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. Judy Gross said that when she last spoke with her husband, he sounded “hopeless and depressed.” 

Alan Gross reportedly has lost 100 pounds while in prison and suffers from several ailments. His mother and his daughter are both currently battling cancer.

Source: http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/12/04/3090561/congressmen-call-on-cuba-to-release-gross