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)
For this goes far beyond condemnation of attacks on individuals who happen to be Muslim, and gratuitous baiting of members of the Muslim community, disgraceful behaviour which most decent people deplore.
I
am hardly the only Australian Zionist concerned that Jews are giving
aid and comfort to those who hate Israel, and that Jews are helping to muzzle free
debate on an ideology that is widely regarded as misogynistic, antisemitic, and
violent, and at odds with Western democracy, let alone that Jews are abetting the
concept of "Islamophobia".
The latter is, as Australian Jew Michael Burd put it in the Australian Jewish News (26 December) "an over-used term ... meant to shut down all debate and leave many an innocent person feeling like a racist".
This post by the Online Hate Prevention Institute has received "Likes" on Facebook by people who, frankly, should know better.
The attitude seen represents the thin end of a wedge which might well lead Australian Jewish leadership organisations to ban the likes of Dr Mordechai Kedar from addressing communal audiences, as the British Board of Deputies recently did.
"None so blind as those who won't see", as the old saying goes.
This, a tantalising glimpse, thanks to a new work of Shakespeare, at a little-known incident 100 years ago in the outback mining town of Broken Hill, is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer. (The pictures are from here, where more can be seen, including a note by one of the attackers in which he expresses willingness to die for his faith, along with a fascinating written account by Mike Dash)
Writes David Singer:
The Department of Veteran's Affairs announced last March that the centenary of the Battle of Broken Hill on 1 January 2015 would not be formally commemorated by the Australian Government. That decision will now be seen in hindsight by many as a wise one indeed – following the fallout resulting from the horrific Martin Place siege perpetrated by self-styled Islamic cleric Man Haron Monis just two weeks ago that claimed his life and those of two innocent civilians.
However Nicholas Shakespeare has written a novella – Oddfellows – based on this little known event – to be published by Random House in January, ensuring this centenary will not pass unnoticed. Shakespeare has written a poignant article – “Outback Jihad” – in which he graphically describes what the locals call “The New Year’s Day Tragedy”:
'The tragedy was a desperate response, in the least likely spot, to a jihad announced on the other side of the world. On 11 November 1914 – 100 years ago this month – the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed V, and caliph of all Muslims, who had earlier signed a treaty with Germany, declared a holy war against Great Britain and her allies, “the mortal enemies of Islam”. The Turkish sultan’s call overlooked the Christianity of his own allies in Germany and Austria-Hungary, and was virtually ignored by Muslims, save for some small-scale mutinies in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and in Broken Hill where two disaffected “Turks” decided to launch a suicide mission under a homemade Turkish flag. Their target: a train of 40 open ore wagons carrying more than 1200 holiday-makers…
At 10 am on 1 January 1915, the long and crowded train pulled away from the Broken Hill platform. It had been a town ritual since 1901: on New Year’s Day, the Manchester Unity Independent Order of Oddfellows, a friendly society founded to embrace education and social advancement, held a picnic 25 kilometres away at a shady creek in Silverton…
Less than ten minutes after leaving the station, the train slowed down, the driver having been warned that sand had drifted across the line. The engine stoker was standing out on the footplate when he noticed a red cloth fluttering above a white cart. His first thought: someone’s exploding defective ammunition. But he dismissed it. No one would be venturing out with a powder magazine on New Year’s Day…
… They chugged past. The driver noticed what looked like an insignia on the red cloth. What this was, he couldn’t make out. Then a breeze sprang up, the cloth unfolded, and the driver saw a yellow crescent, like a banana, and a star.
At that moment, a pair of white turbans bobbed up from the trench – dark faces, the tips of rifles – and the driver heard two gunshots. One bullet hit the sand, spitting dust against the engine. The second bullet struck the brake van, embedding itself in the woodwork…”
“The two soldiers of Allah were not Turks, but British passport-holders from India’s north-west frontier, a region now divided between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
One was Badsha Mahomed Gül:
“Born in the mountainous Tirah region, Gül had come to Australia as a cameleer. When the camel business declined, he had worked in a silver mine until the outbreak of war, and was laid off after all contracts with the German smelters were cancelled…
Three days after the tragedy, a confession was discovered, tucked under a rock and written in a mixture of Urdu and Dari, in which, astoundingly, Gül claimed to have visited Turkey four times – and even to have enlisted in the sultan’s army…"
Gül’s accomplice was Mullah Abdullah:
“.. a disgruntled old cameleer with a limp. Aged 60, he had lived in Broken Hill for 15 years. Different skin colour, strange clothes, not Anglo-Saxon – boys laughed when he hobbled by and chased him down the street, throwing stones. He never retaliated, but several times complained to the police, who failed to act.”
'He (Abdullah) was not trained as a priest, but he had priests in his family. In the absence of a religious leader, he had begun to take on that role in “Ghantown”, as the North Broken Hill camel camp was known.
As well as acting as imam, he served as the butcher of his community, slaughtering animals in the manner stipulated by Islamic law. The fact that he was not a member of the butchers’ union in the most unionist town in the country brought him into conflict with those who needed little excuse to treat a Pathan from north-west India as an enemy alien. The most aggressive of his persecutors was the local sanitary inspector, a short, mournful-looking Irishman called Cornelius Brosnan.'
Smithsonian.com
Broken Hill’s current mayor – Winston Cuy – acknowledges there are sensitive issues in the incident such as religion and civilian deaths.
"Broken Hill will be recognising it. What are the words you use and how do you commemorate it?"
Christine Adams – Curator of the Broken Hill Sulphide St Railway and Historical Museum – provides a sensible pointer:
"We think that it needs to be treated with a certain amount of tact. It was two people, what they did was a terrible terrible thing, it wasn't a nation".
Update: This incident has caused a great deal of interest online in recent days. Islam scholar Dr Mark Durie has a good article here
'.... Communities Secretary Eric Pickles today, warns that the “dark forces” of anti-Semitism have returned following an upsurge of anti-Semitic attacks this year.
In July and August there were 543 incidents, more than the entire previous year, prompting an urgent rethink into how to tackle what Mr Pickles describes as an “ancient evil”....
Mr Pickles says that new measures to stamp out anti-Semitism on university campuses will be introduced and pledged that all schoolchildren will be taught about the holocaust.
He also vows to kick anti-Semitism out of football, insisting work is already underway to achieve this, and warns that supermarkets and local councils will be hauled over the coals for “irresponsible” behaviour....
See also http://rt.com/uk/184976-rise-anti-semitism-britain/
... Mr Pickles said a sharp increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in the Summer meant there was a need for increased vigilance.
He also said the public need to be reassured that those who commit hate crimes will be punished with the full force of the law.
“The irrational hatred of Jews is like cancer,” he writes.
“Once beaten it can come back. It lurks in the shadows, and in 2014 there has been a revolting relapse of this ancient evil.
Sadly Britain has not been immune. We share this shame.
Over at BBC Watch, Hadar Sela has yet another revelatory article about Al Beeb's bias-prone reporter Yolande Knell.
It makes disturbing reading.
For in this, her latest plod along the Bowenesque, Donnisonian track of propaganda against Israel, Ms Knell has been helping to promote Palestinian director Leila Sansour's film "Open Bethlehem".
Notice, too, this tweet – recommending the (enthusiastic, no prizes for guessing) review of the film by Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, the paper that, like Ha'aretz, is clearly the rag of choice for the Al Beeb set.
And then take a look at this post on Facebook by Leila Sansour. It seems that the BBC reporter and the Palestinian activist are rather close.
As Hadar Sela observes over at BBC Watch:
"Whether or not Yolande Knell got the required permission from her Head of Department before agreeing to allow her name and BBC brand-linked title to be used for promotion of the ‘Open Bethlehem’ film we do not know. What is clear, however, is that her position as an ‘impartial’ BBC correspondent based in its Jerusalem bureau is compromised and indeed untenable after such political activity."
P.S. Al Beeb bias, is it something in the brew?! Donnison in 2011:
(Please don't overlook the other post on my blog today, the previous one by David Singer, who warns: "Growing Islamoparanoia needs to be contained – if rampant Islamophobia is not allowed to run riot")
Here is the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer. It's entitled "Islam Must Degrade And Destroy Islamic State".
He writes:
The impassioned plea by the father of a Jordanian F16 fighter pilot captured by Islamic State has shot down attempts by American President Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to distance Islam from the Islamic State (ISIL). Speaking to the media, the father of Islamic State’s star captive, 1st Lt. Mu’ath al-Kaseasbeh, said:
“I direct a message to our generous brothers of the Islamic State in Syria: to host my son, the pilot Mu’ath, with generous hospitality. I ask God that their hearts are gathered together with love, and that he is returned to his family, wife and mother.
We are all Muslims.”
This desperate cry for mercy stands in stark contrast to what President Obama stressed at a media conference in August:
“Let’s be clear about ISIL. They have rampaged across cities and villages killing innocent, unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence. They abduct women and children and subject them to torture and rape and slavery. They have murdered Muslims, both Sunni and Shia, by the thousands. They target Christians and religious minorities, driving them from their homes, murdering them when they can, for no other reason than they practice a different religion.
They declared their ambition to commit genocide against an ancient people. So ISIL speaks for no religion. Their victims are overwhelmingly Muslim, and no faith teaches people to massacre innocents.”
'We should be clear: this is not the “War on Terror”, nor is it a war of religions. It is a struggle for decency, tolerance and moderation in our modern world. It is a battle against a poisonous ideology that is condemned by all faiths and by all faith leaders, whether Christian, Jewish or Muslim.'
Abbott was eager to support Obama and Cameron’s statements – telling a media conference during the Martin Place siege in Sydney last week:
'But the point I keep making is that the ISIL death cult has nothing to do with any religion, any real religion.'
These presidential and prime ministerial statements had followed a most explicit condemnation of Islamic State by Iyad Ameen Madani – the Secretary General for the Organization of Islamic Cooperation – the collective voice of the Muslim world – representing 57 countries over four continents comprising 1.4 billion Muslims – the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations.
Must read: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4966/christians-churches-attacked
'In a statement, he [Madani] officially denounced the "forced deportation under the threat of execution” of Christians, calling it a "crime that cannot be tolerated.” The Secretary General also distanced Islam from the actions of the militant group known as ISIS, saying they "have nothing to do with Islam and its principles that call for justice, kindness, fairness, freedom of faith and coexistence.'
Yet the simple plea of one distraught Jordanian parent pleading for his son to be set free – stressing that “we are all Muslims” – will certainly sheet home the distinct unease being felt by non-Muslims living in Sydney – still reeling from the Lindt Chocolat Café siege and subsequent shoot out in Martin Place killing two innocent civilians and the self-styled Islamic cleric who perpetrated the siege.
Such unease subsequently found the head of the Australian Defence League and two other people being charged over a brawl near a mosque in Sydney's Islamic heartland – Lakemba.
The news that Sulayman Khalid, 20, was one of two men arrested on Christmas Eve as part of an ongoing counter-terrorism investigation into the alleged planning of a terrorist attack on Australian soil – has only increased such unease.
“Khalid, also known as Abu Bakr, appeared earlier this year on SBS’s Insight wearing a jacket emblazoned with the Islamic State flag and stormed off the set when questioned about his support for IS fighters.”
France has this week also seen three supposedly “lone wolf” incidents allegedly involving “deranged” Muslim perpetrators in:
1. Nantes – when a van was driven into a crowd killing one and wounding 9 other shoppers
2. Dijon – where a man shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest” in Arabic) injured 13 in a similar attack to that in Nantes
3. Tours – where an attacker – also yelling “Allahu Akbar” – was shot dead after stabbing three police officers
Meaningless OIC condemnatory statements designed to distance Islam from Islamic State are no longer sufficient. Surely the time has come for the OIC to galvanise its member States into pledging unified Islamic military action to degrade and destroy Islamic State.
Such steps could include:
1. OIC resolving that all 57 member States join the American-led coalition of 62 States presently fighting Islamic State.
Presently only 13 of those Islamic States have joined the coalition. Major Islamic States – such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Algeria, Pakistan and Nigeria remain uncommitted.
2. Making a unified Islamic approach to the United Nations Security Council by sponsoring a resolution calling for the use of armed force by the United Nations against Islamic State under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter.
Four Islamic States – Malaysia, Nigeria, Chad and Jordan – are members of the UN Security Council and provide an effective bloc to pressure the Security Council – particularly those States exercising a veto - into taking such action.
Growing Islamoparanoia needs to be contained – if rampant Islamophobia is not allowed to run riot.
In his Christmas message to Christians around the world, Bibi contrasts the freedom of religion inherent in Israel to the countries of the Middle East in which Christians are suffering for their faith:
"I wish Christians in Israel and all over the world a very Merry Christmas.
Christmas is a special opportunity to spend time with loved ones and to celebrate this most festive of holidays.
And as you gather with your families and your friends to celebrate this Christmas and as you enjoy the blessings of the New Year, I am sure you will remember those who are less fortunate because Christian communities across the Middle East are experiencing a particularly difficult time.
They experience violence, persecution and fear. This has become the daily staple of Christian communities throughout the Middle East. Not so in here in Israel, the one exception. Because here in Israel, religious freedom is a sacred principle. Israel's Christian citizens enjoy the full blessings of freedom and democracy, their equal rights enshrined in Israeli law.
So on this most important day in the Christian calendar, let us remember the common heritage and values that unite us in the face of extremism and hatred, which we will never accept.
From Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish People, the city of peace, I join Christians everywhere, and especially those in the Middle East, in a common prayer for a more peaceful and tolerant world.
In my previous post I linked to several unpalatable examples of Yuletide fare, including one that our old mate Stephen Sizer appears to be promoting (does the Bishop of Guildford know, or care?).
Here is another unpalatable nugget. I nearly called it "indigestible" but unfortunately there are many people with a vested interest in swallowing such crap with relish, and encouraging others to do so.
And because traditional religious instruction, like history itself, is not taught in schools, there will be an untold number of morons and dupes only too ready to digest this poison.
I have always said, and I will say again: one of the major reasons for the diminution of philosemitism in the Western world is because few people read the scriptures anymore, and in consequence fail to identify with the Jews and with Israel against Pharoah, Haman, and everybody else who seek to destroy them.
When I was a teenager I had a couple of French penfriends, Nicole and Sylvie, both of whom lived in Marseilles. Sylvie was Jewish, and I often wonder what she in particular thinks of her home city nowadays. Is she still there? Has she moved elsewhere in France? Is she, perhaps, one of the many French Jews who have nade aliya, or is seriously considering doing so? Does she encounter these maniacs when she goes shopping, spewing their bile?
This lot, many wearing Santa hats, took a little kid with them, bearing his share of BDS literature. Don't the useful idiots among the group ever worry that the fate of French Jews now might be that of his generation tomorrow?
No wonder a kit has been produced as an antidote to the Jew-hatred flooding France.
Our old mate the vicar of Virginia Water advertised this fact to his Facebook Friends:
The lady less than impressed, is, by the way, the lady who about a year ago anticipated this newly posted excrescence
From an editorial, entitled "The lone wolf", in the current Australian Jewish News, regarding the Sydney siege:
'The fearmongers aside, the reporting of the incident was largely responsible and respectful ....
[T]he Islamophobia flowed predictably and freely [did it?]. The response to it was life affirming.
As Jews, we bemoan the failure of many to make the distinction between criticising Israel andanti-Semitism. Our Semitic brothersface a similar malaise, with many tarring all Muslims with the "radical" brush. On Monday [last week], the hashtag #IllRideWithYou exploded on Twitter following the Tweet: "If you reg take the #373 bus b/w Coogee/MartinPl, wear religious attire, & don't feel safe alone: I'll ride with you. @ me for schedule. And it immediately went viral....'
All very noble of the newspaper, I'm sure, even if, by its use of the term "Semitic brothers" it omitted the many Muslims in Australia who are not of Arab origin, as well as, curiously, the female of the species who, if anecdotal evidence is to be believed, are more likely than Muslim men to experience "Islamophobia" on the streets.
Many people have said, and said rightly, that the "I'll ride with you" campaign is misplaced, insulting Australians as a whole by implying as it does that they are brutes and bigots about to declare "Open Season" on Muslims, and also placing more emphasis on the true victims of Man Haron Monis, the unfortunate hostages, by buying into the fiction that the primary victims of last week's tragic abomination are this country's Muslims. We've seen the ABC (Oz's answer to the BBC) aiding and abetting this nonsense with its interviews with Silma Ihram (the former Frances Beaumont), who to judge by the number of times she's been featured on their programming over the years, is rather a favourite of theirs. (The Left's Muslims-as-victims mentality was being hyped by the ABC in August, with input by the same lady.)
Indeed, so incensed have some commenters within and without Australia been with the Muslim victimhood approach that there have been a number of pictorial responses in response, showing the hashtag on pictures of atrocities by Muslims such as the 7/7 London bombing.
Of course, Australian Muslims are not responsible for Monis's crimes, and most Australians fully realise it. Muslims leaders have deplored his actions, and it's reported that no one is keen to give him a funeral.
But, as David Singer argues in the previous post, and as others have done over the past week, including The Australian's Chris Kenny, who incidentally had bought coffee at the restaurant just before the siege began, it is foolhardy and futile to present that Manis's outlook as entirely unconnected with Islamism.
As for that hashtag, Pam Hopf, an astute observer of Australian affairs, has a truly superb article on Shirlee Finn's Jews Down Under site in which she traces the hashtag to its source and absolutely nails the hypocrisy involved. (Hint: does the word Greens mean anything to you?)
I recommend Pam's article most heartily, and to the Pollyannas in the Australian Jewish community, including the author of the Australian Jewish News editorial cited above, I recommend it most of all.
In his latest article, appropriately entitled "Islamic State – The Bogeyman Haunting The Lindt Chocolat Café" Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer justifiably points to the folly, which has affected even the Australian prime minister, of trying to divorce Islam from the Sydney siege.
Incidentally, although this video (hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog) is not part of David Singer's article, it is nevertheless instructive as to what some uninhibited people are saying, and what certain other people are saying back to them, at the normally dignified site of the floral tributes to the murdered victims of Man Haron Monis: Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson.
Writes David
Singer:
The joint press conference given by Australian Prime Minister Tony
Abbott on 16 December after the siege at the Lindt Chocolate café in
Martin Place had finally ended - was particularly noteworthy for certain
viewpoints expressed by Mr Abbott during that conference.
The
Prime Minister – flanked by NSW Premier Mike Baird, Commissioner Colvin
of the Federal Australian Police and Deputy Commissioner Burn of the
New South Wales Police – made the following statement:
“It is
pretty obvious that the perpetrator was a deeply disturbed individual, a
long history of crime, a long history of mental instability and
infatuation with extremism. It’s interesting that the ISIL death cult
seems to attract people like that. I refuse to use the term Islamic
State and I would strongly caution anyone, anywhere, from using that
term, because that exults a movement which has nothing to do with any
real religion and is a travesty of a true and just state. It is very
wrong to identify the death cult that the individual concerned tried to
associate himself with; it is very wrong to identify that death cult
with any community or with any faith. The phrase that I like to refer
to, uttered by my friend, Prime Minister Najib of Malaysia, of the ISIL
death cult: it's against God, it's against religion, it's against
humanity.”
The Prime Minister’s description of the perpetrator –
self-styled Islamic cleric Man Haron Monis – failed to mention his
involvement - with his partner Amirah Droudis – in a long running legal
battle defending charges arising from letters sent in 2007 to the
families of Australian soldiers killed in Afghanistan.
Their
cases and appeals have so far progressed through eight separate court
hearings and appeals in which Monis and Droudis were separately
represented by two different legal teams.
Funded at enormous
public expense by Australian taxpayers – the matter first reached the
High Court in 2012 leaving the High Court’s six judges who heard their
case split neatly down the middle 3-3.
At this High Court hearing
three QC’s, Five Senior Counsel, and 10 Junior Counsel appeared for
Monis and Droudis the Queen and the State of New South Wales – with the
Commonwealth, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia and
Queensland intervening .
The latest hearing – a second
Application for removal of all the proceedings to the High Court – was
heard on 12 December 2014 by the High Court - comprising his Honour
Chief Justice French and his Honour Justice Gageler – who refused the
applications.
The matters are listed for mention in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal again on 12 February 2015.
The
opinions of these legal teams regarding Monis’s alleged mental
instability and ability to give instructions and comprehend what he was
being told could prove most enlightening.
The Prime Minister’s
comments exhorting people not to mention the term “Islamic State” fly in
the face of the unpleasant reality that has developed since Islamic
State and the restoration of the Caliphate were formally declared in
June and has since reportedly attracted 80 recruits to its ranks from
Australia.
Prime Minister Abbott’s attempt to downplay the threat
to world peace and security constituted by the actions of Islamic State
– as endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolutions 2170 and 2178 –
constitute a serious error of judgement. Mr Abbott’s ”death cult”
views were first expressed in September this year. At pains to
“de-islamize” the Martin Place siege – the Prime Minister stated at his
joint press conference:
“We are a very united society. Yes, we
have amongst us a few deranged individuals who may choose to try to wrap
their psychoses in a political ideology. But the point I keep making is
that the ISIL death cult has nothing to do with any religion, any real
religion. It has nothing to do with any particular community. It is
something to which sick individuals succumb and sick individuals exist
in all communities and in all societies. This idea that ISIL is somehow
spawned by any particular religion, frankly it's probably even less true
than saying that Catholicism spawned the IRA. They're just completely
separate things.”
Islam was clearly visible at the Lindt Chocolat
café when Monis forced hostages to hold up a black flag that declared
in Arabic script:
“There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”
“Islamic State” was also certainly at the forefront of his thinking.
In
a video – shot while the siege was ongoing and posted to Facebook –
Westpac executive and fitness business owner Marcia Mikhael relayed
three requests by Monis including:
"One is for him to get an IS flag and he will release one hostage.”
New
York Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counter Terrorism – John
Miller – had no reticence in stating that the Martin Place siege had the
hallmarks of Islamic State orders – telling the Daily Telegraph on
December 16:
“You have to go back to September when ISIS put out
the call through its official spokesman for people to attack in their
own countries with what they have at hand.”
Viewing Islamic State
as purely a death cult and not a well-armed and run State already
occupying an area larger than England denies the reality of what this
group poses.
The bogeyman in the Lindt Chocolat café won’t go
away because Australia’s Prime Minister wants to put the term “Islamic
State” out of sight and out of mind.
The European Union has, as reportedby the BBChere, alongside a photo of a sweet-looking boy toddler in Hamas gear, removed Hamas from its list of terrorist organisations.
In response, Bibi Netanyahu has demanded that the genocidal body be restored to the list immediately.
Not surprisingly, the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, exults:
"We, the leadership of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas, welcome the decision of the General Court of the European Union to remove Hamas from the European Union's terrorist list and we consider this to be a step in the right direction and a means of making right a position that was wrong. This past position was not based on objective facts. In addition to this, it was in violation of and contradictory to international law as well as legal and humanitarian norms that guarantee the right of nations to resist occupation. It would be in the European Union's best interest to align itself with international law and with legal and humanitarian norms and to refrain from violating these laws under the misguided pressure of Israel and its exploitation of the international community.
In this regard I urge the leaders and governments in the EU states to accept and cooperate with the decision of the Court and to take measures to make a brave political decision to remove Hamas from the European Union's terrorist list in coordination with the Court's decision and with the values of justice and law, as well as out of respect of the people's will and their rights. I also urge the leaders and governments in EU states to avoid stalling or wasting time by taking measures or making appeals attempting to circumvent international law and objective facts.
I also hope that all international forces, including the United States, take the initiative and right the wrong that has been made in the past, which, as everyone knows, is a result of Israeli pressure and not a result of the facts on the ground.
I would like to remind everyone that throughout its long history since its inception 27 years ago, Hamas has, and continues to confine its legitimate resistance and struggle to Palestine and exercises this against the Israeli occupation. This is a natural right for the movement and for all nations under foreign occupation and it is in accordance with our religious and international laws, just as the other nations in the East and the West resisted their occupying forces.
We believe that this step by the General Court of the European Union, along with the initiatives made last week by a number of EU states and the Swedish government to recognise a Palestinian state and the rights of the Palestinian people, are all considered important steps that must be followed through in the context of setting the record straight and making the historical mistake against the Palestinian people right again.
The Palestinian people, as well as other people who have suffered and continue to suffer from unjust occupation, are looking forward to the day, in the near future, when the international community and the global superpowers will call things by their true name and explicitly expose the true terrorist forces, countries, and parties that exercise real terrorism against humanity. Such parties work together to commit acts of terrorism in its ugliest forms, in the name of the state, before the eyes and ears of the world without any accountability or deterrence, starting with Israeli terrorism."
Exulting too are the types of usual suspects in the West who wish ill to the little Jewish state and seek its destruction; a sample of such individuals can be seen in comments below the line of the report at the above link.
If Wikipedia is accurate, Ms Silma Ihram, from the Australian Muslim Women's Association, has been round the block a bit as far as choosing a faith is concerned:
'Silma Ihram was born Anne Frances Beaumont, to a middle-class
agnostic family,and grew up in the suburb of Balgowlah, on Sydney's
Northern Beaches....
Despite the
Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist influences from her up-bringing,
Ihram ended up with the Baptists who she found to be "very
inspirational." She then moved to an Islander church in North
Queensland, and studied theology by correspondence from the Baptist
sector. Ihram became a born-again Christian in 1968, and participated in
missionary work with the Children's Special Service Mission (CSSM) in
the late 1960s and early 1970s.
In 1976, during an extended trip to
Indonesia, Ihram had a "personal revelation that I had to become a
Muslim" and converted to Islam, changing her name to Silma Ihram. come a Muslim" and converted to Islam, changing her name to Silma Ihram. She was followed soon after by her Irish Catholic husband.... '
"The long history of Islam is ... working with other faiths," she told the ABC in a breakfast time interview live from Sydney's Martin Place, in front of the pile of floral tributes to the victims of this week's tragedy at the hands of Man Haron Monis (pictured).
To a highly receptive and sympathetic Michael Rowland, co-anchor of the ABC's Breakfast show, the articulate Ms Ihram declared that while Muslim community leaders laid wreathes the previous day, they do not acknowledge that the gunman's action's had anything to do with Islam, and that "the reluctance in sometimes doing this" is because it would be seen as a confirmation on their part that such terrible acts are connected with Islam.
But the idea of Muslim victimhood, so keenly pushed by the ABC's Rowland, has been roundly condemned by the always worth reading Australian columnist Andrew Bolt.
That courageous realist of Aussie columnists, Bolt, has a
typically astute column out today in the Murdoch papers for which he
writes. He observes, inter alia:
'.... Must
we always feign this surprise when a terrorist is found to be – gasp –
Muslim? Surely we can drop this absurd game given 21 of the 21 people
jailed for terrorism offences here in the past couple of decades were
all Muslim, as are 19 of the 20 proscribed terrorist groups in
Australia.
Surely we’re entitled to conclude something
specific to Islam seems to license violence, given we have just as many
Buddhists here as Muslims, yet not one Buddhist has killed here for his
faith....
The ideology Monis followed was inspired in
large part by Islamic scriptures that urge believers to “kill the
polytheists wherever you find them” and exhorts “so when you meet those
who disbelieve (in battle), strike (their) necks”.
We’re told, as
always, that those who take seriously such passages in the Koran and
Hadith are a tiny, unrepresentative minority.
But wait. The
Sydney Morning Herald reports Monis had more than 14,000 “likes” on
Facebook and a Muslim community leader asked by counterterrorism
authorities to find the ISIS flag Monis demanded said: “I found plenty
of people who had one, but they didn’t want to give them up.”
So why this denial about Islam – and specifically about its role in this attack?
For
the authorities it is about public order. They fear reprisals against
Muslims and also do not wish to alienate the overwhelming majority of
peaceful Muslims here whose help they need against radicals.
For
the Left more generally, to admit the latent threat in Islam would be to
question disastrous Leftist programs that have left this country more
exposed to political violence – particularly our too-lax immigration
programs, multiculturalism and the much-rorted “refugee” programs that
let in Monis in 1996. It is also to seem unkind.
But the denial, the racism of the anti-racists, it all must end.
The
elements are shocking, true. But Islam contains a strong streak of
violence and intolerance of other creeds. Mass immigration from the
Middle East has left us in greater danger than before. Muslim leaders
were recklessly slow to help fight extremism in their doctrine and their
followers, including the mad.
And by screaming “racist” rather
than allow debate, our academics, commentators and politicians deafened
us to the warnings until it was too late.
Be sure to read the entire article here for he does address the issue of Monis's perceived madness.
Statement from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry:
ECAJ Statement on events at Martin Place, Sydney on 15 December 2014
The Australian Jewish community is shocked and appalled by the terrifying taking of hostages at Martin Place on December 15 and ensuing events, and is deeply saddened by the news that the incident has ended with the deaths of two innocent people, Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson.
We pray for their souls and share in the sorrow, grief and revulsion caused by the heinous crime which claimed their lives. May their families be granted strength at this time of great pain and may the survivors be healed fully, both physically and emotionally.
We pay tribute to the NSW police and supporting federal agencies for their dedication, professionalism and absolute commitment to the preservation of innocent life. Australians are fortunate to be served by people of their dedication and calibre.
The perpetrator of the crime was a lone disturbed individual with a criminal history who cloaked his personal grievances in Islam and Islamist ideology. His evil actions must not be allowed to sow discord in our tolerant, multicultural society, or to weaken the resolve of our government to fight those who seek to inflict terror on innocent people at home and abroad. On the contrary, we have every confidence that this terrible tragedy will unite Australians and harden our nation’s commitment to fighting violent extremism and incitement to ensure that this sort of tragedy is never visited upon our society again.
The (anti-Israel, pro-Islam) Socialist Alliance speaks
This is a postscript to my previous post. It's a very telling one.
Dr Rachael Kohn, the ABC's much-respected religious affairs broadcaster, notes inter alia:
"....Islam, they say, is not about the violent jihad which terrorists espouse, it is about peace. Yet in Australia, the Muslim community missed an opportunity to expose, denounce and shut down the antics of a religious extremist, who for at least the past two years has been using the internet, CDs and other means justifying violent jihad.
The trouble is that Sheik Haron, as he calls himself, can seem a bit too loony to take seriously, but this is a mistake. The self-styled mufti is no shrinking violet when it comes to promoting hatred of the West and justifying violence in the name of Allah. Nor is he lacking funds to produce his elaborate propaganda.
I have been one of his targets, along with other public figures, including the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and the Melbourne magistrate, Judge Peter Reardon, who presided over the case of five men charged with planning a terrorist attack against the Holsworthy Army base [The Australian, Aug 26 2009].
I have read the sheik's faxes, letters on custom letterhead, and CDs in which he openly promoted the glorious calling of jihad against the West and celebrated the deaths of Australians in war and in the Victorian bushfires.
According to him, the deaths of both soldiers and civilians were the work of Allah, who metes out punishment to those who offend or harm Muslims...."
Meanwhile, in The Australian, an excellent article (behind a paywall) by associate editor (national affairs) Chris Kenny:
'.... Each time there are attempts by sections of the media and political class to play down the Islamist element and each time there is a rush from the same cohort to leap to the “backlash” story, warning of repercussions against Australia’s Muslim communities....
And the much-discussed backlash never seemed to arise.
.... We need to come to grips with a blunt reality; Islamic extremist terrorism, whether it is carried out by highly organised groups or deranged loners, whether it is imported or homegrown, is a real and present danger....
The few isolated cases of Islamophobic responses have normally been strongly dealt with and denounced by our citizens, not to mention our authorities....
The idea that Australia needs to prove its plurality and tolerance is as wrongheaded as it is silly....
Denigrating ourselves and portraying all Muslims as the victims, rather than the drastically unlucky and blameless cafe customers and staff, is playing to the terrorist narrative....'
How ironic it is that below the line of this article in well-known Aussie leftie magazine New Matilda the commenters decrying "Islamophobia" (and ignorantly claiming that the profoundly anti-Christian Adolf Hitler was a practising Catholic) include this racist guy who one or two people have named but who prefers to go under a silly alias:
'Shall we vote?Who is the vilest pustule of Islamophobic hatred-Hall or ozgipsy, if they really are two different bigots? The Islamophobic urge to treat all Moslems as an undifferentiated mass of evil, dangerous, monsters, is mirrored by the 'antisemitism' smear, where Jews are also depicted as uniform and all alike, only this time they are perfection, who never, unique for all groups in history, do anything wrong or immoral (even regretable) and, therefore, any criticism of any Jew, anywhere, for any action (even mass child murder as in Gaza) is vilified as pure bigotry and hatred.
The strange symbiotic relationship doesn't end there, of course, because the Islamophobia industry in the West is in large part a Judeofascist and Zionazi project, with most of the big financers of Islamophobic bigotry being rich, Rightwing, Jews, ably abetted by Sabbat Goy Toys and admirers like the infamous Anders Brievik, and, on a more minuscule level, Iain Hall. The 'Australian Defence League', I would imagine, qualify as a tiny tentacle of this enterprise. The nomenclature alone reeks of Zionazi influence, mimicking the 'Jewish Defence League' of Kahane, and the UK off-shoot the 'English Defence League' of crude racist bullies, whose riots were decorated by as many Israeli flags as Union ones, until it became too obvious and they were instructed to 'cool it'. If the Judeofascists continue down this path, we will end up in a religious war, and not as safely one-sided as the West's war on Islam has been so far. For while we mourn our victims, in the few thousand (even counting obvious 'false-flags' like 9/11)the West has killed millions of Moslems and destroyed several countries, yet we still narcissistically whinge that it is we who are the victims. The sheer, crude, racism could not be plainer or more nauseating
Not half as nauseating as his blatant anti-Jewish racism, of course.
At the time of writing, the Sydney siege is still in progress, and an Islamic flag can still be seen in the window of the Lindt Café where it is taking place, despite the fact that the lights have been turned off for the night. There is no information regarding the identity of the perpetrator (it would seem, from television reports, that he uses a human shield, seemingly female, when he passes windows, that he barked out his demands via two females hostages forced, at different times, to a Channel Nine reporter, and that he is acting alone).
But what his demands are have not been divulged by the station on instructions by police. To date, five hostages have managed to escape. How many remain is unclear. [Two hostages dead, along with the gunman; four injured.]
On social media, a number of leftists who also happen to be dedicated anti-Israel activists have posted conspiracy theories regarding the identity of the hostage-taker. There's a marked reluctance to accept that he's a Muslim. One leftist suggests that he is "a Christian fundamentalist" seeking to pin the blame on Muslims, some allege a political ploy by Tony Abbott to demonise Muslims and win popularity: that sort of thing. I haven't seen any allegations that it is the work of Mossad, or the CIA, but given the intensity of Far Left antisemitism anti-Zionism on there, I wouldn't be at all surprised if such messages come, or have already been posted.
All that seems to be known for sure about the perpetrator is that he's a middle-aged man wearing a headband bearing Arabic writing (saying “We are your soldiers O Muhammad” according to some reports), that he is carrying a backpack, that he is armed, and that he forced two terrified female hostages to display the black Islamic flag in the window. A Muslim leader who is being interviewed as I write describes the use of the flag, with its legend that the only god is Allah and Mohammed is his prophet, as "blasphemous" in the circumstances. He points out that it's not certain as this stage that the perpetrator is a Muslim.
Channel Nine and other television channels I've seen today appear to be bending over backwards to assert that Muslims in Australia generally are not involved in this incident and that they deplore it. They are denouncing "Islamophobia" and talking up the "I will ride with you" hashtag.
On the other hand, the Sydney Daily Telegraph issued, this afternoon, this unsqueamish edition (pictured), and editor Piers Akerman wrote this no-holds-barred article. No political correctness there, obviously.
Various Muslim institutions in New South Wales issued the following press release:
On Facebook, the Online Hate Prevention Institute, which is a Jewish initiative run by Dr Andre Oboler, has issued this statement:
And this one:
All fine and dandy, eh?
But wouldn't it be great if the Online Hate Prevention Institute would (perhaps with the aid of the Muslims for whom it has gone into bat) exert itself in getting Facebook to remove some of the truly despicable antisemitic pages that still defile it.
Pages such as this and the page which produces outright racism:
