An Open Letter to the Palestinians from an Agnostic : Cleveland IMC (((i)))

Speaking Truth to the Powerless:
Open Letter to the People Commonly Called "Palestinians".

Greetings to any Palestinian who may be reading this.
My name is David White.
I am a citizen of New Zealand, a small, Western, nominally Christian country in the South Pacific Ocean. I am not Jewish, or Christian, I guess I'm vaguely agnostic.
Writing this letter is a good way for me to discuss the horrible mess in the
Middle East, spell out as many relevant points as possible concerning the state of the Palestinian people, and to see what can be made of them I don't speak Arabic, so I can only communicate with English-speaking Palestinians.
There aren't many here in NZ, though, and I haven't yet met any. I don't know how many will ever see these words, but here's hoping someone does.
I have a post-graduate university education, and I suppose I could be called an intellectual. Unfortunately, many such people have supported abhorrent ideologies such as Nazism, and continue to support Communism, so I refuse to describe myself in this way. I don't want to be considered as just another "trendy leftie" academic, as we would say in NZ. So, unlike many university-educated types, I am anti-totalitarian, pro-peace up to a point, pro-democracy, pro-capitalism (except the capitalists running Enron), and skeptical about the "cult of victimhood." I'm quite safe here in New Zealand, and no one I know has been killed by a Palestinian.
My perspective of Palestinians is something like this - you're Arabs (of course), mostly Muslim, but with a Christian minority. Many of you live outside Gaza/West Bank, mostly in Jordan and other Muslim countries, with some groups living in Western countries as well. You feel that you have been wronged by Israel and are fighting to destroy them.
As for my perspective on Israel, I see them like this. They are a mainly Jewish, small, free-market democracy with a large Arab minority surrounded by hostile Arab dictatorships. They have an ancestral claim to Israel, their state was created as a refuge from persecution, they have a right to exist, and, having survived a holocaust in Europe, they should not have to sit still and wait for another one in the Middle East.
A Down Under Overview.
Over the last few months, the conflict in the disputed territories of Gaza and the West Bank has turned into a war between the Palestinian people and Israel. (I will not apologize for using the term "disputed", as I believe it reflects a rather complicated situation more accurately than "occupied").
Your interpretation, as far as I can tell, seems to be something like this: You have no state of your own, and you are fighting a war against those you call "Zionist oppressors" and "colonial imperialists", in order to create a Palestinian state.
Accusations of massacre and human rights violations by the Israeli Army are being tossed around like confetti. Your leader, Yasser Arafat, vows to "martyr" himself rather than "surrender", and that bungling and incompetent organization, the United Nations (again, no apologies for venting personal opinions), is trying to do what it is constitutionally incapable of doing, i.e. "saving future generations from the scourge of war".
The Israelis see things differently, of course. For them, it's a simple battle for survival. They offered you a state, and you attacked them instead. They have occupied Palestinian towns, have fought it out with various armed groups, and desperate attempts are being made by the US, other Arab countries and the UN to break the so-called "cycle of violence". As a result, the Palestinian situation at the moment generally, can be explained by putting it into New Zealand idiom.
Put bluntly, the Palestinian people are buggered. Munted. Stuffed. Rooted.
(American equivalent=screwed. British equivalent: done over). It's like this: Yasser Arafat turned down the Israeli offer of a Palestinian homeland in Gaza and the West Bank. You want, or Arafat claims that you want, a Palestine "from the river to the sea" in other words, "all or nothing".
There is one insuperable obstacle to this- Israel. No matter how eloquent your arguments or numerous your martyrs, no matter how many European diplomats are angered by, or UN resolutions are passed against, Israel, the Israelis are not going to pack up and leave. The only way you will get the Palestinian State you want is to destroy Israel.
This is what you have been trying to do since 1948, and the current "intifada" launched in 2000 is your latest effort. However, the Israelis are not standing there and letting you kill them. They are fighting back, and if they have to choose between their own survival and yours, guess which choice they'll make.
A Vast Wringing of Hands, A Great Fluttering of Diplomats.
That has been the overall response to the disaster you have created for yourselves. You, the Palestinian Arabs, are obviously hoping for some kind of international intervention to save you. As we in New Zealand would say, "Get Real!".
The European Union and the UN have demonstrated on numerous occasions in the past their incompetence and total incapacity to take any sort of firm action without American leadership. Ask your Muslim brothers of Bosnia-Herzegovina, about how effective the EU and the UN were in protecting them without American intervention. In spite of the impression that American diplomatic efforts have created, the US will not take sides against Israel, and will eventually abandon its futile attempts at evenhandedness. If they do join forces militarily with Israel in their war against terrorism, your fighters will be snuffed out like candle flames.
As for your "beloved Arab brothers" in the Middle East, they make a great deal of noise about your "liberation struggle", and have sent money and arms, but have not sent a single tank to save you. Their diplomatic proposals are ones that could have been offered at any time, and are aimed at benefiting them, not Palestinians. The Egyptians themselves will not declare war on Israel unless they receive $100 billion to cover their costs.
Do you really believe that the rest of your Arab Muslim brothers think you are worth that much? Do you really believe they will put your interests ahead of their own? Although your friends and Arabs in Europe are passing sanctions and burning synagogues in your support, not a single EU warship has sailed to your aid, and not a single NATO aircraft has dropped a single bomb on your "Zionist oppressors".
I have noted that large numbers of people, including university-educated intellectuals support the Palestinian cause. Don't be misled by this. No matter how many western intellectuals, news media and international organizations may support the Palestinian struggle, none of this matters because America stands by Israel.
The Unbearable Burden of Life
How did you get into such a mess? As you yourselves would say and have indeed said on many occasions, it isn't your fault. It's always the "Great Satan" America, and it's "Lesser Satan", Israel, that you blame for all your woes. Everything that you do, such as your "martyrdom operations", are described as the products of your "rage" at being "dispossessed of your land", and of your "helplessness" in the face of "Zionist" might.
There are only 300 million Arabs against over 5 million Jews! How unfair! How unjust, that so many can do so little against so few!
A number of Western commentators have put Arab failures down to numerous cultural factors, not the least being Islam. Your religious beliefs in martyrdom and jihad, coupled with a total inability to accept any blame for your own predicament, have combined to do you great and lasting damage.
Look closely at why Western countries such as Israel have succeeded, and Muslim countries have not. Western countries are free-market democracies. Muslim countries (other than Turkey) aren't. Surely that should tell you something.
Why I Stand With Israel
As I said, I do not, and I will not, support the Palestinian cause. Why not? I have a number of reasons, and here they are:
1. You have made it clear beyond any shadow of doubt that you intend to destroy Israel and kill or drive out its Jewish population. This is genocide, pure and simple. You justify this by saying that Israel has committed many crimes against your people, and that you seek "justice". I say this in response - NOTHING WHATSOEVER is an acceptable justification for genocide. Loss of land, humiliation at being militarily defeated? Others have suffered these and moved on to create new nations and opportunities for themselves.
Examples abound- the Germans thrown out of East Prussia in Europe, 1945, the Nationalist Chinese who fled to Taiwan in 1949, to name but two. Germans and Taiwanese have coped with military defeat and the loss of land. They haven't warred with their neighbors, nor have they launched terrorist attacks upon them. Both countries have more wealth than any Arab nation. Why can't Palestinians cope? Are Germans and Chinese better able to deal with adversity than Arabs?
2. You have accused the Israelis of "genocide" against you. Here's a question for you: Israel has atomic bombs and powerful military forces. If they really, truly wanted you all dead, they could easily do it. Why haven't they? If the Israelis went all-out, you would be, as we say in New Zealand, "dog tucker". Why did they spend so much time negotiating with your leaders? Because Israel wants peace and secure borders. You refuse to give them even that. You plan genocide and accuse Israel of the same crime. Prove it!
3. The use of terrorism. Killing people for being Jewish is despicable. Terrorist attacks on innocent civilians are also despicable. (At this point, I'd like to pause and get a question of nomenclature cleared up, regarding those Palestinians who kill themselves and others with explosives strapped to their bodies. You call them "martyrs". Western media sources and academics debate the precise term to use in describing them. Others, including the Israelis, call them terrorists.
I have a better, more appropriate term. I prefer to use the word "kamikazes". The original kamikazes appeared in 1944, in the war in the Pacific. They were Japanese Navy and Army pilots, organized into "Special Attack Units" with orders to crash their planes into American warships, in the hope of destroying them - "one plane, one ship". Their initial impact was similar to that of the Al-Quaeda attacks on New York and the Pentagon- shock and horror. (I noted that many Palestinians appeared on Western TV celebrating the September attacks). Note: The American response, in both cases, was not the one hoped for.
Once the shock had worn off, the US set out to destroy the kamikazes, and terrible destruction was rained down on Japan, ending only with 2 atomic bombs. You know what is happening right now in Afghanistan to the Al-Quaeda group).
1. Using children as suicide bombers. Anyone who teaches children to kill themselves in suicide attacks is not worth supporting under any circumstances. For you to do this to your children is an abomination. A commentator on a Web magazine said that if the Palestinians laid down their arms, they would get peace and land. If the Israelis laid down their arms, they would be killed. You know that is true, even if most of Europe doesn't. Your cause is evil, because it seeks destruction at any price. Genocide is not justice. Sacrificing your own children for the sake of your leader's personal ambitions is wicked.
That's why I cannot support you. That's why I stand with Israel.
Palestinian Past or Future?
The Second World War in Europe ended with Hitler's suicide. He was replaced by Admiral Doenitz who quickly made peace with the Allies. Japan's leader, Emperor Hirohito, decided on surrender rather than see his nation destroyed.
If Arafat chooses surrender, though, will the rest of the Palestinians go along with it? If he dies, will the war end? If the answer to both of these questions is No, then the Palestinian people are doomed. Do you really prefer death as a people?
Do you fully comprehend what you are doing? If you are indeed aware that the path you have embarked on leads to destruction and if you have freely chosen to walk in that direction, then as a people you are truly beyond hope.
Are Palestinians really going to be a "Kamikaze Nation"? Are you really going to give Israel no other option except your destruction? If they must choose, then as Israeli historian Martin Van Creveld said "better a terrible end than terror without end".
Do not think that kamikaze tactics can get you what you want. The Israelis can tell you all about Masada, if you ask them. Remember what happened to the Japanese at places like Okinawa and Iwo Jima. Palestinians deserve better than the current mess you are in now - but before you can be given anything, you must offer a sincere peace, you must stop teaching your children to hate, you must stop believing that "victimhood" justifies everything and - above all other things - GIVE UP ISRAEL! Accept that you will never go there again except perhaps as workers or tourists. Accept that Jews are human beings. Accept the verdict of 1948 and learn to live with it.
Invest in banks, not bombs. Build computer chips, not Kalishnikovs. Teach science and mathematics, not hate. Look to the future, not the past. Stop blaming Americans and Jews for all your problems, and take responsibility for your own actions. Read those parts in the Quran about living with the "peoples of the Book".
Golda Meir, the former Israeli Prime minister, is quoted as saying "there will be peace in the Middle East only when the Arabs love their children more than they hate Israel ". Every time I see pictures of Palestinian children waving guns and wearing dummy explosives, then I can only say she is right. The alternative to peace is not victory but death.
Think about it - before it's too late.
From an Infidel to Those Who Submit, and are living in the Holy Land - May God grant you steadfastness in the face of things that cannot be changed, the capacity to cope with those that can be changed, and the wisdom and the ability to tell the difference.
David White
Auckland, New Zealand

The Zionist's enablers like posting this letter from time to time. The points made are total dung and all it shows is that the author is a brainwashed tool.

Does anyone need me to trash it again?

It's always interesting when some D/ass gets himself involved in evaluating and commenting on another people's problems and dilemma's. Sort of like having an Arab lament (well, kind of) of the plight of the Jews under the Nazi's and why 'crystalnaught' come around one enchanted evening after the German people had decided that they had had enough of the Rothchilds and all the other 'steins and 'man's who had, through the fine science of Jewish 'creative usuary' and the fine art of 'Jewing' the goyems - the arrogant incorrigible Khazarians had just about 'taken over the German Republic. - including the kitchen sink (Think Palestine, 1948/2008 why doncha).

New Zealand has its own sordid histroy of decimating their own aboriginies and stealing their land and water resources - thus, senor 'Kiwi' here should be minding his own business and perhaps doing a little more 'reporting' of 'Kiwi racism; and how New Zealand got to be the 'Whitie's heaven' reputation is now has.

Adieu,

TheAZ CowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.

when in history have the losers set the terms?

to the victor go the spoils.

Dear Mr. White,

Excellent letter.

The only point I know of that you did not include is that the Arabs or "Palestinians" living on land that is now Israel were never displaced. The Israslis never kicked anyone off of their own land, though they did fight those who attacked them. Muslims who didn't try to murder Jewish people were not only allowed to stay, they were welcomed.

At the urging of other Muslim nations, many Palestinians abandoned Israel to avoid Jewish people, but they left by their own free will. The many Muslims who remained in Isreal are among the best educated and most successful Muslims in the world, right up there with American Muslims.

It is pretty appalling that other Muslims told them to leave, to refuse to "submit" to Jewish government, but refuse to offer them safe harbor. Other Muslims have nothing but contempt for the Palestinians, why on earth to they expect Christians, Jews and Hindi to help them when fellow Muslims refuse to do so, especially when they only use any help given them to commit murder?

Most of their foreign aid comes from Israel and the U.S....and that is who they hate. If it weren't so tragic, it would be comical. I find it really difficult to comprehend stupidity of such magnitude.

Best regards,
Gail

and bonnie and clyde were not REAL murderous thieves because they ONLY killed the bank guards who tried to defend the bank's money. Right. That is the very definition of a MURDEROUS THIEVES, dumbass.

if someone were to come to YOUR home and take YOUR tv set god, then that person would be a thief. And if you were to try to stop the THIEF'S theft of YOUR tv set god, only for the THIEF to pull a gun and blow YOUR brains out all over your family and frinds, then that THIEF would be a MURDER as well as a THIEF. DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And here we see YOU saying that Zionists ONLY MURDERING the Palestinians who DARED to resist the Zionist's chosen THEFT of Palestinian lands makes the MURDEROUS THIEVING ZIonist crusaders something other than MURDEROUS THIEVES>

WOW!!!!!!!!

it is ONLY when one is NOT thinking about what they are saying/ writing that you can be SURE that they are saying/writing exactly what they are thinking.

Zionist propaganda doesn't get ANY better than this. It just makes you wonder how prejudiced our parents and grand parents could have been to even consider taking such filth into their hearts.

palestinians are the loosers in the Zionist's chosen war of conquest for palestinian lands. And the Zionists are the victors in the Zionist's chosen war of conquest of palestinian lands.

That still makes Zionists MURDEROUS THIEVES of the Palestinoan's homeland and the democraps and republitrash who support the MURDEROUS THIEVING Zionist crusaders acomplieses to ZIonist's MURDEROUS THEFT of palestinian lands.

Democraps and republitrash have sold out America's peace by using public taxes to supply the MURDEROUS THIEVING Zionist VICTORS with the means to destroy Palestinian lives and lifes.

Khurafat al-Islamophobia”

http://www.news.faithfreedom.org/index.php

During the lifetime of the USSR, it was customary for the Russian Communists and their fellow-travelers, to attempt to silence anyone who disagreed with their Marxist ideology. So they resorted to vilifying their adversaries by painting them as “bourgeois reactionaries” and “enemies of the toiling masses.” They acted according to the age long principle that attack was the best defence.

Nowadays, we find a similar strategy being used by Islamists and some “moderate” Muslims. They work hard to silence anyone who unveils the belligerent components of Islam. One of their tactics is to brand critics of Islam as manifesting “Islamophobia.”

On 23 July, 2007, I noticed an article on http://www.kwtanweer.com with this title: “Khurafat al-Islamophobia?” (Khurafat is the Arabic for myth.) Do we dismiss the author as someone trying to endear himself to the West? That would constitute an unwarranted conclusion. In fact it would amount to a condescending attitude towards any Arab intellectual who spoke boldly about a serious blind spot in the Arab-Muslim mind.

So, let me share with you excerpts from this article, and follow that by my analysis and comments. The author began with these introductory words:

“We have heard and read a great deal about “Islamophobia,” i.e. the fear of Islam. It is claimed that Western Intelligence Services have invented this term to generate fear of Islam among their peoples. This was necessary, we are told, after the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Socialist camp in Eastern Europe. This theory claims that the West has always needed a common enemy to maintain its cohesion and its alliances. The Communist threat served that purpose for around half a century, and now it is Islam’s role to do the same.

“Let’s be realistic: how did the term “Islamophobia” originate? And, who benefits from it? Who is threatening whom? Is it true that the West is afraid of Islam? If there is a fear of Islam in the West, which Islam is the West afraid of? Is it Islam as a religion, or is it rather political Islam, that has produced Irhab,* and continues to commit its ugly crimes against humanity in the name of Islam? Which side suffers the most from these crimes, is it the West, or the Islamic peoples?

Who is behind “Islamophobia?”

“Now, if the West is truly afraid of Islam, who caused the rise of this phobia? Aren’t Muslims themselves responsible for that? Arabs suffer from an incurable disease known as the Conspiracy Theory of History. They know they are terribly underdeveloped, but at the same time, they resist joining modern civilization. They have nothing to offer save oil, Irhab, and destruction. And notwithstanding their backwardness, as their illiteracy (reading ability) stands around 60%, while their cultural illiteracy is around 90%; Arabs believe they are the best people on earth! They regard the West, with all its sciences, technology, modernity, philosophy, democracy, and human rights; as living in the days of Jahilyya,** according to the theory of Sayyed Qutb.***

“So, if you tell Muslims they are underdeveloped, they will respond loudly and tell you that Western imperialism, Zionism, and Crusaderism are responsible for their underdevelopment. They add that the West wants nothing less than the destruction of Islam and to appropriate the Muslims’ possessions! This theory has contributed to filling the minds of Muslim youth with hatred and enmity for the West, and has encouraged them to join the ranks of Irhabis.

“Unfortunately, such theories do not emanate only from the propagandists of political Islam, but equally from some liberal-minded writers. For example, the columnist Ouled Abahu contributed an article to the online daily, Al Sharq al-Awsat on 20 July 2007, in which he blamed the rise of Islamophobia on the West. He wrote: ‘It is clear that this negative picture [of Islam] has been fashioned by the Neo-Conservative Movement in the United States, the new British Literary Movement, and the French Conservative-Leftist intellectuals who supported the new Rightist French President Sarkozy.’

This writer went on blaming these groups for “regarding Islam as the greatest threat facing Western civilization.’ To prove his point, he referred to two recently-published novels that dealt with Islamic subjects. The one was Salman Rushdie’s ‘Shalimar.’ ‘Its Muslim hero had only one goal: forcing people to build mosques, and hiding women under chadors. The second novel, ‘The Last Days of Muhammad Atta’ depicts Atta as a woman-hater who acquired this attitude from the Qur’an and the Sirat [Life] of the Prophet of Islam.’

“The question remains: Do these quotations from the aforesaid novels accurately describe the actions of Muslims, or were they false accusations of Islam? Aren’t Muslims those who require women to wear the hijab? Don’t they also claim that women are mentally and religiously deficient, and are therefore inferior to men? Don’t Muslims quote various Hadiths attributed to the Prophet Muhammad as having said, ‘No man should embark on a project without seeking another man’s advice; but if he fails to find a man, let him ask a woman’s advice, and then do exactly the very opposite of what she had advised?’ Another Hadith shows the low esteem for women in Islam: ‘When you obey women, you’ll soon regret it!’ Another similar Hadith: ‘Men have perished when they obeyed women!’

“As for Muslims’ attitude toward non-Muslims, the fuqaha of Irhab love to quote this Hadith: ‘I have been commanded to fight people until they say La Ilaha illa’l Allah; when they utter these words, they have my promise that I would not shed their blood, or acquire their possessions.’ Isn’t it political Islam that urges young men to kill innocent non-Muslims, as well as Muslims who don’t agree with them? Aren’t Muslim religious leaders who use texts from the Qur’an and Hadith, to blame for transforming Muslim doctors living in the West, into Irhabis? If all that I have detailed is true, why then blame Westerners for the invention of the term, “Islamophobia?”

Is it true that the West is afraid of Islam?

“Had the West been really afraid of Islam as a religion, Western governments would not have allowed Muslim communities to settle in their countries, or offered financial aid in building their mosques, or allowed them to bring Imams from Muslim lands. If the West was truly afraid of Islam, why were some propagandists of political Islam allowed to settle in Western countries? Millions of Muslims come to the ‘Infidel West’ and live in it, in peace and tranquility. In fact the proportional number of mosques in the West is greater than in Islamic lands. For example there are more than one thousand mosques in Britain, while the number of Muslims living there is around two million! At the same time, Copts in Egypt are not allowed to build new churches unless they get permission from the President; and obtaining the needed permit for that is almost impossible. Furthermore, when a Christian comes to Saudi Arabia, he is not allowed to bring his Bible with him; if he has one, it is confiscated at the airport!

“Muslims enjoy complete freedom of worship in the West; in fact they have more freedom in Western lands than in Islamic countries. Actually, religious freedom for Muslims is granted only and uniquely to the type of Islam that is sanctioned by the state. Thus, Shi’ites living in Wahhabi Saudi Arabia don’t enjoy the freedom to express their own type of Islam. As for Iran, the case is reversed, since Shi’ism is the official religion of the state, Sunni Muslims do not enjoy complete freedom. It is a fact that no mosque has been bombed in any Western country, whereas attacks on mosques, [both Sunni and Shi’ite mosques] often happen in Islamic countries.

Who Benefits from the “Islamophobia” Lie?

“It was the followers of political Islam who invented the term “Islamophobia” and they are the ones who benefit from it. Their goal is to place the Muslim communities in the West in a state of confrontation with the host nations; pushing them to adopt a radical form of Islam, and thus, inflaming the struggle with the West. They have succeeded, up to a point, to gain the sympathy of some moderate Muslims who criticize the West, and rail against its “Islamophobia.”

“For example, after the failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow, an Arab organization in Britain issued a statement criticizing the terrorist attack, while at the same time it blamed Britain’s foreign policy as a possible reason for that attack. But such a claim is nothing but a pack of lies! There can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terror. Let’s never forget that those who were involved in the terrorist attack were medical doctors who betrayed the honor of the medical profession. It was a religious ideology that changed Muslim doctors into Irhabis. Now, aren’t Westerners justified if they fear people like them? After all, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second in command in al-Qaida, is a doctor and the son of a doctor!

To sum up.

“Yes, political Islam is a threat to the world. The majority of terrorists are Muslim, who have been brainwashed and made to hate the West and its civilizational values. Those who encourage this attitude rely on religious texts to convince would-be terrorists to commit their terrible crimes. Thus, it is the duty of reasonable Muslims to save Islam from those who have high jacked it and use it to reach their goal, namely to recreate the Islamic Caliphate. But such a dream can only be realized within their sick minds. What is needed is to bring certain Islamic texts, the Ayat al-Sayf wal-Qital (The Qur’anic Sword Texts) in line with the conditions of the present time. Unless peaceful coexistence with the rest of mankind is advocated, Islam and Muslims would find themselves in a perpetual confrontation with the rest of the civilized world. The results would be catastrophic for Muslims themselves. Actually, in the West, there is no fear of Islam as a religion; but there is fear of political Islam, the source of Islamic Irhab, whose danger is greater for Muslims than for the West.”

Analysis

The writer is at pains to explain that the West did not invent “Islamophobia” as a means to combat Islam and Muslim nations in this new century. It is radical Muslims and their fellow-travelers who use this term, in order to silence any honest and needed critique of certain aspects of Islam. He points to the fact that many Muslims have settled in the Western world, where they enjoy freedom of worship, and an opportunity to earn a decent livelihood. If there is a fear of Islam, it is of “Political Islam.” He holds it responsible for the spread of fear of Islam, in other words, “Islamophobia.” He insists that radical Islam, and not the West, is responsible for the rise and spread of this term.

Comments

It is indeed refreshing to read such an article on a widely-visited website. The author is very frank and extremely bold in telling a truth that is seldom heard from the side of Arab and Muslim writers.

My problem with the article is that the distinction the author makes between Islam as religion, and political Islam, can be sustained only on a theoretical level. In reality, however, it is Islam as religion that eventually gave birth to Islam as a state with its political ideology. This is the verdict of the history of the last 1400 years.

Islam began in 610 A.D. as a religious movement. Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, claimed that Allah was giving him a definitive word for mankind. The revelations that “descended” on Muhammad in Mecca (610-622) dealt with purely religious themes: the unity of God, the vanity of idols, and the necessity to submit to Allah according to His holy shari’a or law. As one begins to read the Qur’an in Arabic, he will notice at the head of every chapter a superscription that gives its name, and the place of its “descent.” For example, Surat al-Fatiha (Chapter One) is “Makkiya wa-Ayatuha Sab’a” (It is Meccan, and has Seven Verses); while Surat al-Baqarat (Chapter Two) has 281 verses, and was the first to “descend” in Medina.

It was during his sojourn in Medina (622-632) that Muhammad became both Prophet and Statesman. The revelations “descending” upon him in this new place dealt with both religious and political issues. When he died in 632, his successors, the Caliphs, began their futuhat or conquests of the world. They built within one hundred years, a huge empire stretching from Spain in the West to India in the East. It is very doubtful that Islam, as a religion (or the Islam of the Meccan chapters of the Qur’an) would have spread as it actually did, without the aid of the political-military complex it had become.

Not long ago, an Islamic Caliphate or Empire still existed. I have in mind the Ottoman Empire that had once succeeded in finishing off the Byzantine Empire in 1453. It controlled the Middle East, the Balkans, several parts of Central Europe, and twice reached the gates of Vienna (1529 and 1683.) But since the abolishing of the Caliphate in 1924, by Mustapha Kemal Ataturk, a powerful malaise has set in within Daru’l Islam. Muslim intellectuals kept asking, “What Went Wrong?” The dream of resurrecting the old glory of the Caliphate has never died. Soon after the end of Western colonialism and the various nationalistic-socialist experiments in the Arab world proved their utter bankruptcy, attempts to revive Islam as a political power have gained momentum. It is at this point that Islamic triumphalist ideologies gained popularity among Arab and Muslim young men. Thus, what is now called political Islam, or Islamism, was born. It is not, however, entirely unconnected with Islam per se. For this faith, unlike all other major world religions, has never been simply and purely a religion in the accepted meaning of the word.

It is next to impossible to bring in line or modify the warlike Qur’anic texts, known as Ayat al-Sayf, wal-Qital, and adapt them according to the demands of a globalized world, where various worldviews may peacefully coexist. Such a project requires the “re-opening of the door of Ijtihad **** and the rise of a new hermeneutic that would consider as non-normative, many parts of the Medinan Chapters of the Qur’an.

I don’t want to be pessimistic, but the forecast for the future remains rather disturbing. As long as Islamic Terrorism continues to threaten the world, non-Muslims are justified in being afraid of Islam. On the other hand, no one should charge the West for inventing “Islamophobia” as a means to subjugate the Islamic world. It’s high time to bury this dangerous myth that plays into the hands of the Irhabis.

*Irhab: terrorism

**Jahilyya: In Islamic historiography, the period in Arab history that preceded the rise of Islam is regarded as the Days of Ignorance. It is a term used by Islamists to denigrate and vilify their opponents.

*** Sayyid Qutb: A prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Because of his opposition to President Nasser, he was tried and executed, by hanging, on 29 August, 1966. He is considered as the intellectual “father” of radical Islam.

**** Ijtihad an Arabic word that designates a theological activity, especially in interpreting the sacred texts of Islam. It is generally agreed that the early activities or endeavors in theology (Kalam) and jurisprudence (fiqh) came to an end with the death of Imam al-Ghazzali around 1111 A.D. He played a major role in the “Closing of the Door of Ijtihad.”

U.K.: "Radicalization" of Muslims "more widespread than previously feared"
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2171300/Young-Muslims-'are-turning-to-extremism'.html

Iraq: US Army detains four jihadists with connections to Iranian intelligence
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx

Muslims in Germany: "It appears the quiet settling-in period has been replaced by a loud and demanding phase"
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,559927,00.html

Islamic Saudi Hate Academy
Occupying northern Virginia since 1984.
frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=17FD2E44-F8C9-422F-9617-A9

It’s nearly unanimous; terrorist groups and cruel dictators have made a clear choice in the US presidential election: OneFreeKorea - Obama Gets Another Unwanted Endorsement.
freekorea.us/2008/06/22/obama-gets-another-unwanted-endorsement/

ABC News reports that the Lebanese Islamic terrorist group Hizballah is preparing to strike at “Jewish targets” in the West.
abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5203570&page=1

*Islamic Saudi Academy Protested: "These children are being taught to hate,"... "Honk to Stop Islamic Terrorism"..."This Saudi School Is Anti-Semitic and Anti-Christian"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/17/AR2008061702336

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Canadian Intel Report: 'Lone Wolf' Terror Threat On Rise - Al Qaeda Strategy To Distract, Exhaust Western Counter-Terror?
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html

Case Closed - Government Documents Reveal CAIR Is Hamas

Court documents name the Council on American Islamic Relations, CAIR as being among "individuals/entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee and/or its organizations." In a precedent setting revelation, the government's trial brief sets forth in great detail incontestable evidence linking CAIR to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. According to documents seized from co-conspirator Ismail Elbarrasse, there is a straight line of associations going from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood and terminating with the Islamic Association for Palestine, CAIR's immediate antecedent ... Such excuses will no longer pass muster, the court documents and evidentiary materials that have been amassed for use in the Holy Land Foundation case now prove beyond all doubt that CAIR is Hamas. The evidence developed by Federal law enforcement places CAIR within a top down hierarchical arrangement of terror supporters ...

http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm

I can’t seem to get this comment written by a commenter named Ahem out of my head. The following is what he or she said on my thread (on Dovbear) linking Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s poignant and timely (IMO) article, “Why My Torah is Crying.”

“Please. Efrat was built on stolen land. He hears the torah crying? I hear the tears of Arabs, and others he and his fellow zionists displaced in the name of their foolish religion.”

When I think about what Ahem said, I can't help but feel terribly guilty. I live on stolen land too. The land I live on was stolen from Native Americans. The Native Americans who used to inhabit my land were very badly treated. So I have decided to do something about it. I decided to live up to my blogger name and right my wrongs. It is time to give back my land to the Native Americans.

So, I have been doing my research. It seems that, mostly likely, before my land was stolen by the colonists, who after a couple of generations sold it to me, it was inhabited by a Native American tribe called the Lenape. I have read about the Lenape. It seems that these folks were and are very good people. And some good news, there are some Lenape still living whom I can contact to offer my land! So at first I am thinking, YAY!

So here I am thinking this is going to great. I will be doing this wonderful thing. But then it gets more complicated. Of course. Why should doing the right thing ever be easy? I find out, low and behold, before the Lanape inhabited my land, the Munsees may have lived there. The Lenape may have stolen it from them for the natural resources! So what am I to do now? Who is the rightful owner? The Lenape, because they inhabited the land directly before the White Men who sold it to me, or the Munsees, who may have had their land stolen from the Lenape. And what if the Munsees killed off some other tribe in order to steal the land. My head is spinning trying to figure out who to contact here!

And to make matters worse, no sooner am I stressing over which Native American tribe to contact, when it occurs to me that there is a whole other problem that I haven't even considered. Where do I go after I give back my land? I am not even sure where I belong. I don't even know what my native land is. I mean, I know that my recent ancestors were Eastern European. I am afraid though, that when I go to Poland and knock on the door of the house that my great-grandparents once owned before it was seized by the Nazis and tell the people there to move out, they might not comply. And I figure, I know that my family must have lived somewhere before Poland anyway. Jews didn't *always* live in Poland right?

So I figure I should keep looking further back to figure out where exactly my native home is. This might take a while and some serious research. So now this is what I am afraid of. What if, at the end of all the exhausting research, I find out when I trace my ancestry all the way back to when the Hebrews entered the land of Canaan, that my family lived in a little hut in Efrat!

So basically, I am in a serious pickle and it looks like I am going to end up homeless.

'Christians in Gaza must accept Islamic rule'

Posted by http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3414753, on Sunday, June 22nd at 4:37 AM

'Christians must accept Islamic rule'
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3414753,00.html

Militant leader in Gaza says missionaries will be 'dealt with harshly,' demands women wear headscarfs

Aaron Klein, WND

Christians can only continue living safely in the Gaza Strip if they accept Islamic law, including a ban on alcohol and on women roaming publicly without proper head coverings, an Islamist militant leader in Gaza told WND in an exclusive interview.

The militant leader said Christians in Gaza who engage in "missionary activity" will be "dealt with harshly."

The threats come two days after a church and Christian school in Gaza was attacked following the seizure of power in the territory by the Hamas terror group.

"I expect our Christian neighbors to understand the new Hamas rule means real changes. They must be ready for Islamic rule if they want to live in peace in Gaza," said Sheik Abu Saqer, leader of Jihadia Salafiya, an Islamic outreach movement that recently announced the opening of a "military wing" to enforce Muslim law in Gaza.

Jihadia Salafiya is suspected of attacking a United Nations school in Gaza last month, after the school allowed boys and girls to participate in the same sporting event. One person was killed in that attack.

"The situation has now changed 180 degrees in Gaza," said Abu Saqer, speaking from Gaza yesterday.

"Jihadia Salafiya and other Islamic movements will ensure Christian schools and institutions show publicly what they are teaching to be sure they are not carrying out missionary activity. No more alcohol on the streets. All women, including non-Muslims, need to understand they must be covered at all times while in public," Abu Asqer told WND.

"Also the activities of Internet cafes, pool halls and bars must be stopped," he said. "If it goes on, we'll attack these things very harshly."

'Fatah behind church attack'

Abu Saqer accused the leadership of the Gaza Christian community of "proselytizing and trying to convert Muslims with funding from American evangelicals."
"This missionary activity is endangering the entire Christian community in Gaza," he said.

Abu Saqer claimed there was "no need" for the thousands of Christians in Gaza to maintain a large number of institutions in the territory.

About 2,000 Christians live in the Gaza Strip, which has a population of over 1 million.

Abu Saqer said Hamas "must work to impose an Islamic rule or it will lose the authority it has and the will of the people."

His comments come after gunmen on Sunday attacked Gaza's Latin Church and adjacent Rosary Sisters School, reportedly destroying crosses, bibles, pictures of Jesus and furniture and equipment. The attackers also stole a number of computers.

The attack was the first targeting of Christian institutions since Hamas last week staged a coup against the rival Fatah party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, seizing all Fatah positions and security compounds, essentially taking complete control of the Gaza Strip.

Hamas officials in Gaza claimed to WND Fatah was behind Sunday's church attack in an attempt to discredit Hamas to the international community.

Abu Saqer claimed he had "good information" that the attack really was a robbery aimed at the church's school computers, even though bibles and Christian holy objects were destroyed.

Cleveland Indy Media Center