Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Monday 28 May 2012

The Imported Racism Puncturing The Great Australian Innocence

Fanatical Islamists in Australia's Motherland
Several weeks ago, the great Melanie Phillips (no stranger to audiences in Australia, but who has in the past been excoriated by some opinion-leaders there, including Jewish communal ones, as an alarmist and Islamophobe) wrote in the Jewish Chronicle (30 March) of the foolish denial that elements of the Anglo-Jewish leadership are in regarding "the threat of Muslim antisemitism and jihadism"; the leadership continuously issuing "statements warning of the dangers of Islamophobia which paled beside the violence and threats levelled against Jews....
[M]uch of the leadership ... seems to believe that to identify the threat from Islamic religious extremism is "Islamophobic"' ; she also pointed to the effective "smearing of those who fight Islamic religious fascism [thereby] leading the surrender to the enemies of the Jews – and thus indirectly encouraging them to double their attacks.'

And in Holland
A year or two prior to 9/11 a Jewish academic of my acquaintance remarked, during an interview with the Australian Jewish News, that large-scale Muslim immigration to Australia was a development likely to prove disastrous for Australian Jewry's representations to government on behalf of Israel, since politicians would court the votes of the very much larger Muslim community that would result.

The paper's resident cartoonist depicted the academic as lacking compassion.  (Yes, woe betide any Jew who fails to perceive an exact parallel between every so-called "asylum seeker" of today and his co-religionists seeking sanctuary from the Nazis.)

And a small group of incorrigible hard-left  members of the Jewish community (none of them, as far as I'm aware, of conspicuous pro-Israel principles) maliciously sent air mail letters to the head of the academic's department and to the vice-chancellor of his university  reporting what he had said and suggesting that given his views he was not the type of person with whom their institution would wish to be associated!

Ah, the totalitarian left! What a delightful free speech-muzzling mindset they have!  But the university officials contacted, as surprised and bemused as the academic himself, quite correctly consigned the hard leftists' extraordinarily mischievous letters to what is often jocularly termed the "circular file".

In February 2007, a few months before the atrocities in London indelibly etched into public memory as 7/7, and ahead of a speaking tour in Australia sponsored by the Shalom Institute of the University of New South Wales, Moroccan-born Professor Raphael Israeli, a distinguished academic at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem whose specialist area is Islamic and oriental history, warned during an interview by the Australian Jewish News [AJN[ of the possible consequences of unfettered Muslim immigration and advocated its curtailment.

His words unleashed an immediate furore within the Australian Jewish community, as well as outside it.  The AJN thundered its condemnation of what he had said, Jewish communal organisations roundly denounced his viewpoint and dissociated themselves from it, his scheduled appearances were cancelled, and, though Islam does not constitute a race, the inevitable accusations of racism dogged him.

One of his strident Jewish critics fumed (letter, AJN, 23 Feb. 2007):
"Who needs Pauline Hanson [who led the populist anti-immigration allegedly white supremacist One Nation party] when we have Professor Raphael Israel?  It is completely chutzpahdik for  someone from Israel to arrive and start telling Australia how to run its immigration policy."
And added for good measure:

"Yes, some Muslims are fanatics, some are fundamentalists, and a few are terrorists.  This is true for all other peoples, including Jews."
A supporter, on the other hand, noted (letter, AJN, 23 Feb. 2007):
'The visiting Israeli expert on Islam is very well qualified to give his views....
It is unfortunate that some Jewish spokespeople have now demanded that the Jewish organisations that sponsored the professor distance themselves, even if many of them privately agree with his alleged "politically incorrect" statements.  After all, there is no shortage of universities with both local and visiting academics who vilify Israel and Zionism on an almost daily basis and those Jewish spokespeople don't demand that these academics be silenced or that the universities sack them.
It appears that only if the controversial speaker is on the extreme left and Americans or Israelis are the ones being offended or vilified is freedom of speech cited.
From Australia's point of view, there are around 400,000-500.000 Muslims living here, with the majority of refugees and asylum seekers Muslim, and Islam is Australia's fastest-growing religion.  So Professor Israeli and many others are only pointing out the problems in UK/Europe and how Australia is already experiencing similar problems.  It is a clear case of "shooting the messenger".'
A racist message in Melbourne
In The Australian (incidentally, the most robustly and consistently pro-Israel newspaper Down Under) Professor Israeli responded to his critics:
'As an Israeli, one becomes used to the bias of the world's media and the frustrations of being misrepresented in the face of hysteria. But as a visiting academic to the land of the fair go, I didn't expect to find the same thing here....
I came to Australia to speak about Islam and the Middle East and to share the fruits of my books and research. But I've been dragged into an argument on a sensational issue that was not part of my schedule here. The many audiences who were to attend my lectures throughout the land were deprived of hearing them, except that private organisations, Jewish and non-Jewish, picked up the sponsorship of those lectures and I will end up giving more lectures than previously planned.
I am vastly rewarded by the multitude of supporting voices and the outpouring of calls and emails, from Jews and non-Jews, in Australia and abroad, and by the pressing queues of learners who've signed up for my classes. (There have also been a few hostile callers, some of whom identified themselves as Muslims or Muslim converts who typically use abusive language instead of a civilised voice of reason.)
I have been researching Islam in Europe and have come to some disturbing findings about the new third Islamic invasion of Europe: specifically, the Muslim neighbourhoods that breed violence and trouble and the home-grown European Muslims who have sworn to change Europe to their tune, to Islamise it and to use violence, if necessary, to that end.
So much so that erstwhile proponents of immigration such as France, The Netherlands and Britain have had to revise their laws, introduce new restrictions and shelve the marvellous utopia of multiculturalism as simply unfeasible and counterproductive.
There is nothing racist about adopting those policies, much less about describing them in a scholarly fashion. Moreover, it's fair, honest and educative to infer from those data to other parts of the Western world, such as Australia, which face the same issues. 
I do not wish to play the victim and I appreciate that Australia is noted for robust debate. But when a scholar who has no axe to grind honestly describes and analyses what policy-makers in Europe have done, and draws a straightforward conclusion about Australia, to be abused and branded as a racist is extraordinary.
Shouts and abuse are not a policy, nor do they encourage public debate. If someone wishes to dismiss data by providing alternative sets of facts and arguments, that is a debate, but by shooting the messenger instead of addressing the issue, no public cause is served. It is a fact that since 2000, Jewish facilities were attacked by Muslims in Europe and Australia, but never the other way around. To state that is racism?
Some, of course, prefer to hide behind hollow slogans of "inter-communal harmony", "inter-faith co-operation" and "multiculturalism" instead of exposing Muslim violence and inflammatory rhetoric and act, together with Muslim moderates, to uproot these phenomena.
Aware of the European parallel, I am neither surprised by the Muslim leaders' attempts to shut off any debate in Australia and intimidate anyone who raises his voice against such actions, nor by the Australian press complicity in that process. Only yesterday I received threats from a Chechen Islamic website. So much for civilised debate....'
He added:
'People who lack courage and stamina to stand up for principles, who whisper in my ear that they agree with me but then act in public to protect their positions and the illusions they are trying to cultivate in this society, do not act in a Jewish, Australian or even civilised fashion.'
Obviously, not all Muslims are Jew-hating extremists.  But there's a world of difference between, for instance, the Turkish Australians who in Melbourne have featured strongly in Jewish-Muslim dialogue, and certain of their co-religionists who have arrived from the Islamic world.  This notorious photo of a Melbourne child, for example, tells its own tale.

On 6 July 2007 Wassim Dourehi, the Sydney representative of the Islamic organisation Hizb-ut-Tahrir was interviewed by Virginia Trioli on the ABC's Lateline.  Here's part of the transcript:
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: All right, then talking about values, in Denmark a few years ago, the Hizb ut Tahrir leader was found guilty of racist propaganda of distributing leaflets including threats against Jews to "kill them wherever you find them". Is that part of your philosophy in Australia?
 .... 
WASSIM DOUREHI: What we have innuendo, half-truths and significant degree of misinformation. This is a direct quote from a particular verse in the Koran. Are you going to read the rest of the leaflet are we going to extol the virtues of the rest of the Hizb ut Tahrir literature? It is very easy to be selective about statements. We issue leaflets on a daily basis.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Do you stand by that quote in that leaflet, to kill Jews wherever you find them?
WASSIM DOUREHI: That is a verse in the Koran. Our position towards non-Muslim citizens of the Islamic state has been documented from day one. Non-Muslims lived under the banner of the Islamic caliphate, enjoyed the most prosperous period in history. This is a fact that has been established and identified not just by Muslims but by non-Muslims. We advocate the caliphate which will serve all citizens irrespective of their religion or creed. So I don't see any contradiction whatsoever and we very strongly, in the harshest of words, condemn any charge of anti-Semitism or racism or exclusivity. The caliphate is an Islamic state.
...
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: You reject this line, kill them wherever you find them?
WASSIM DOUREHI: No, I don't reject this line. The inference is you have taken one quote out of a whole leaflet, and a leaflet which we have been issuing for over 50 years so you can draw inferences and cast aspersions against this particular line...
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: I'm after clarification of a simple line here.
WASSIM DOUREHI: It's not a simple line. We do not recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli state.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: So you would like to get rid of the state of Israel.
WASSIM DOUREHI: Our opposition to the state of Israel has been unfortunately identified as anti-Semitism. That is a charge we strongly reject. We are against the Zionist state. We are not in any ways against Jews.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: Let's try and clarify this then. If you're against the state of Israel, is one way of getting rid of the state of Israel to kill Jews where you find them, as this says, in the state of Israel?
WASSIM DOUREHI: Again, this is a verse in the Koran.
VIRGINIA TRIOLI: I'm try to be specific about your intention to get rid of the state of Israel.
WASSIM DOUREHI: We completely reject the employing of any violence or aggression from a party perspective. We completely reject that. That has been our position from day one. But the assertion and inference that we in some way would advocate violence towards any individual irrespective of their creed is a charge we strongly reject.
Some mixed messages there, then.  But the  Jew-vilification and threatening cries of "Khaybar, Khaybar, ya-yahood, jaish Mohamed sama’ud" displayed by Nakba Day marchers in Sydney (see here and here)  provide another stark reminder of the extremism that has been imported into Australia by certain elements from overseas.

15 comments:

  1. An excellent post
    The Bolt link should be
    Why does the Left excuse this hate-speech?
    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/why_does_the_left_excuse_this_hate_speech/
    Also covered by Tim Blair
    HATE FANNED (note the URL is “Drooling Animals”)
    http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/drooling_animals/

    The blatantly dishonest John Lyons is the unfortunate exception at “The Australian”.

    The point about the Turks is well put:
    Threat from enemy within makes anti-terrorism laws indispensable
    ''while Lebanese-Australian Muslims make up 60 per cent of those charged over alleged jihadist activity, they constitute only 20 per cent of all Australian Muslims''
    http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/threat-from-enemy-within-makes-antiterrorism-laws-indispensable-20120206-1r1rn.html

    A great parody of the MSM’s wilful blindness
    Refusing to Name the Enemy in the War on Terror
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpM8qk3t52A

    FBI Statistics Belie Islamophobia Hysteria
    http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/11/20/fbi-hate-crime-stats-islamophobia-anti-semitism/

    How long till Australia has its own Ilan Halimi? Abducted, tortured and killed just for being Jewish, by a multicultural gang who only had a religion in common.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilan_Halimi

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Ian. I've amended the Bolt link.

    ReplyDelete
  3. An excellent article. I hope this article goes a long way in shedding some truth on the realities of Muslim immigration and multiculturalism in Australia.

    The hate speech perpetrated by Muslims is disturbing and why does the left remain silent? It seems multiculturalism trumps everything in the troubled minds of the left.

    Professor Raphael needs to be heard and taken seriously. We see the advanced signs of Muslim aggression, demographics and multiculturalism in Europe and it is entirely regressive.

    As Churchill said, "Islam is the gretaest retrograde force known to man". We all have so much to lose with muslim immigration and in particular the Jewish community. It is insane for either Jew or Christian to embrace a failed utopian experiment when it is clear Muslims are incompatible with our way of life, values and human rights.

    Thank you for such a brilliantly written piece. Cheers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Nick.
      It is very hard to write or talk about these things without being smeared, as Melanie Phillips says.

      Delete
  4. Daphne sorry to use this as a message board, but I need to get a message to Ian

    Ian please can you contact me on cockneydoll@gmail.com
    It's a 'safe' address.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's OK, Shirlee. Use this as a message board any time you like...

      Delete
    2. What’s up Shirl??
      If you want to chat, I also comment at elderofziyon.blogspot.com as you guessed it “Ian”. I usually post some off topic links at about 10pm AEST. There’s no approval for comments there, so you can have a good back and forth conversation.

      Delete
  5. Excellent article; I have just one little quibble with it:

    "... The Australian (incidentally, the most robustly and consistently pro-Israel newspaper Down Under)

    I am so sad that the reality forces us to call a decent newspaper "pro-Israel". All they do is being fair and report things as close to the truth as is possible. Unfortunately it takes a lot of courage now to tell the truth with the great majority of the press having become nothing more than shameless enforcers of the Goebbels type propaganda. Any half-way decent and objective news-service should be "pro-Israel" - it should be the default setting.

    Re-reading my post I see that it could be mis-understood. I meant to point my finger at the present media-landsape which forces us to call a normal and honorable stance (as the Australian has) "pro-Israel". Personally I see the raised eye brows when I declare I am PRO-ISRAEL, whereas it is being "ANTI-ISRAEL" that should incur vehement disapproval, instead of being accepted as "the way to be" by intellectuals and other idiots.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great article. Only one thing: you say "But there's a world of difference between, for instance, the Turkish Australians who in Melbourne have featured strongly in Jewish-Muslim dialogue, and certain of their co-religionists who have arrived from the Islamic world."

    If you examine the Turkish 'interfaith' partners, you find they are often linked to Turkish organizations, like Fetullah Gulen, which pose as moderate, but just as much advocates of jihad as Muslims from other parts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have no way of knowing whether that applies to any of the participants in question. A friend who used to who participate in such dialogue from the Jewish side told me a few years ago that he'd become disillusioned, concluding that it's a waste of time.

      Delete
    2. Sorry- I didn't edit a change - meant to say "used to participate"

      Delete
  7. I would be surprised if a right leaning site allow this comment as they tend to omit opposing views but wasnt racism imported to Australia with the first fleet of boat people?

    Congratulations if you post this, isnt free speech great

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don’t choke on your black arm band there anon.

      I’m sure you’d say the same thing about Venezuela with a 1% native population. Which is the average indigenous population in Central and South American states.

      Central and South America took 60%+ of the African slave trade. Funny you don’t hear about that when people talk about the “Atlantic slave trade”.

      Ever seen a black face at a Castro rally? They’re 20% of the population. Juan Almeida Bosque was the only token African in the “people’s revolution”.

      If I repeated what Che Guevara said about Africans or gays, I doubt that would get posted here.

      Ever wonder why Haiti (85% black) is poor and Dominican Republic (11% black) is 8 times wealthier per capita, even though they share the same island? It must be Americas fault right? It couldn’t be the descendants of colonialists from Italy, Spain and Portugal being racist.

      Who would you rather be colonised by the British or the Spanish? Not to mention the Germans or the Belgians or the Arabs.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_conquests

      Re Free Speech: I’m sure Andrew Bolt appreciates your support.
      If we had free speech laws like the US, we’d be able to root out Pretendian’s like Elizabeth Warren and help people who deserve it like Bess Price.
      http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pretendian

      Delete
  8. Racism was imported with the first boat people

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. your right, although it will be conveniently over looked

      Delete

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