Category Archives: Israel

The case against banning the Koran – according to D. Pipes

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Daniel Pipes rejects calls by Geert Wilders, Roberto Calderoli et al for a ban on the Qur’an and/or Islam. Can’t see that going down too well with some of his admirers. But fear not, Daniel hasn’t succumbed to the disease of liberal appeasement. He writes: “More practical and focused would be to reduce the threats of jihad and Shari’a by banning Islamist interpretations of the Koran, as well as Islamism and Islamists.”

Jerusalem Post, 28 August 2007

Update:  See “US Islamophobes fall out”, Islamophobia Watch, 29 August 2007

Islamophobia is a myth, says neocon

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Douglas MurrayAuthor and commentator Douglas Murray, a strong public advocate of Israel, addressed a packed audience at Hendon United Synagogue on Monday. The 27-year-old was invited to speak by a congregant who had seen him on the BBC’s Question Time in July where he denounced Hamas and defended Israel amid loud boos from the audience. He was joined on Monday by Jeremy Newmark, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council.

In response to Mr Newmark’s comments on the Jewish community being aware that Islamophobia also exists, Mr Murray called Islamophobia “a myth”. “A phobia is something irrational, but there’s a very rational fear in being scared of Islam today and wanting to act against it. Islam is not a race, it’s an ideology. Its not bad to dislike someone for their ideology. That is not racism,” he maintained.

Jewish Chronicle, 3 August 2007

Gay rights, Islamophobia and double standards

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pride flagOver at the neocon blog Harry’s Place, Brett Lock of gay rights group OutRage! finally gets round to addressing the disgraceful campaign in Israel to ban the Jerusalem Pride march, which takes place tomorrow.

Brett omits any condemnation of, or indeed reference to, the threats of violence from Orthodox Jews or the appeal by the Mayor of Jerusalem to Israel’s High Court to stop the march, and it is now fully two weeks since the anti-Pride bills successfully passed their first reading in the Knesset.

This tardy and rather half-hearted response by Brett – and the failure of OutRage! or the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association to make any statement at all on the issue – stands in sharp contrast to the energy with which they all laid into Russia’s grand mufti last year over Moscow Pride. Somehow, OutRage! and GALHA seem to find homophobia so much more worthy of denunciation when it’s Muslims who are responsible for it.

In fact one might suspect that Brett’s belated post at Harry’s Place is little more than an attempt to cover OutRage! against criticisms by the Lesbian and Gay Coalition Against Racism, who issued a statement last weekend accusing Brett and his chums of hypocrisy. We can only endorse those criticisms.

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Pipes in search of ‘moderate Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Pipes5“When I suggest that radical Muslims are the problem and that moderate Muslims are the solution, the nearly inevitable retort from most people is: ‘What moderate Muslims?’ … My response: Moderate Muslims do exist. But of course, they constitute a very small movement when compared to the Islamist onslaught.”

Daniel Pipes in the New York Sun, 17 April 2007

Given that Pipes categorises the Progressive Muslim Union as “really another Islamist organization – but with a hip tone”, you can see that there are very few Muslims who qualify for the appellation “moderate”, as far as Pipes is concerned. The one “moderate Muslim” Pipes does enthusiastically endorse is Irshad Manji – who, not entirely coincidentally, is a great admirer of the state of Israel.

Film on ‘radical Islam’ tied to pro-Israel groups

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A controversial documentary on the threat of radical Islam, promoted by the two most-watched U.S. cable news networks, was marketed and supported in part by self-described “pro-Israel” groups, according to an IPS investigation. Abbreviated versions and segments of “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” ran on FOX News and CNN, but neither station disclosed the film’s connection to HonestReporting, a watchdog group that monitors the media for allegedly negative portrayals of Israel.

While watching the film, it becomes clear that the controversy surrounding “Obsession” has less to with what it says about the threat of radical Islam, than how it presents the information. While the film contains disclaimers stating that “it’s important to remember most Muslims are peaceful and do not support terror,” critics argue that it makes little distinction between the religion of Islam and the political realities that inform terrorism. “It’s all part of that industry of Muslim bashers,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

“The sentiment is there, you can see in the [1995] Oklahoma City bombing that it was originally seen as an act of Islamic terrorism,” said Peter Hart of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. “It’s almost a default position for the media, so you’re going to have work like this received uncritically.” The Oklahoma City bombing, initially attributed by the mainstream media to Islamic terrorists, was actually perpetrated by right-wing extremists from the U.S. midwest.

IPS, 26 March 2007

Israeli ‘expert’ on Islam draws sell-out audiences in Australia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Raphael Israeli (2)Controversial Islam expert Professor Raphael Israeli has delivered two sell-out lectures in Melbourne – but avoided the question of whether his grim warnings about Muslim population growth in Europe also applied to Australia.

Professor Israeli, a Hebrew University academic with more than 20 books to his name, told more than 360 people on Sunday night that Islam was at odds with the fundamental pillars that support a democracy.

In a talk sponsored by Issues of Concern for Justice and Society (ICJS), he said a clash between the Koran and democratic principles was inevitable because of Islam’s rigid adherence to shari’a law. Earlier, he told a separate audience of about 350 people that Turkey’s possible entry into the European Union (EU) could cause a major headache for Europe, effectively doubling the EU’s Muslim population.

The two talks proceeded despite a major controversy over Professor Israeli’s visit, triggered when the visiting academic told the AJN he believed the Australian Government should place a cap on Muslim immigrants.

One of the primary sponsors of the trip, the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, withdrew its support following a storm of protest over the comments. But the State Zionist Council of Victoria (SZCV) and the Australian Friends of the Hebrew University continued to back the scholar, as did the Shalom Institute at the University of NSW, which initially brought the academic to Australia as a scholar-in-residence.

Members of Zionist youth movement Habonim Dror protested the SZCV’s support of Professor Israeli last Wednesday night, handing out flyers critical of his remarks and the council’s decision to give them voice.

“As an affiliate of the SZCV, we express our deepest disappointment at the council’s decision to co-sponsor this event,” the flyer said. “The suggestion that Australia should cap Muslim immigration to our country is racist and an allegation that we find deeply offensive and counterproductive.”

Australian Jewish News, 15 March 2007

Islam motivates terrorism: Canadian psychologist

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Nearly a month since Israeli Apartheid Week was held on campuses across North America and Europe, campus and community groups answered back with Freedom and Democracy Week, a series of lectures about home-grown terrorism, religious extremism and the “war on terrorism”. The event, which was held at the Bahen Centre at the University of Toronto from March 5 to 8, was sponsored by Zionists at the University of Toronto, a chapter of Betar-Tagar Canada; B’nai Brith Canada; Hasbara Fellowships; Stand With Us; and the Canadian Coalition for Democracies.

Steven Stein, a psychologist who has offered his expertise to the US Air Force, Canadian Forces and special units of the Pentagon, and is the CEO of Multi-Health Systems, the largest Canadian publisher of psychological tests, presented a lecture titled “The Psychology of Terror: Inside the Head of Religious Extremists”. He said that while some may cite the “Israeli occupation” as the reason for terrorism in Israel, he believes that religion is the main reason. He said that it is the passion for the religion that drives terrorism. “It is a duty, a call to God, it’s what Allah wants.”

Canadian Jewish News, 15 March 2007