(LOS ANGELES, CA, 10/29/09) - The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today condemned a shooting incident in the parking garage of a North Hollywood synagogue in which two worshipers were injured. The worshipers are reported to be hospitalized in good condition.
A motive for the shooting has yet to be established, but a bias motive is being investigated.
SEE: Police Search for Gunman in North Hollywood Synagogue Shooting (LA Times blog)
In a statement, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said:
"We condemn this attack near the Adat Yeshurun Valley Sephardic Orthodox synagogue in the strongest possible terms and offer our prayers for the victims and their families.
"No worshiper -- whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, or other -- should be made to feel unsafe or intimidated at a house of worship. We also appreciate the LAPD's investigation and enhanced security in response to the attack."
CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
About Me
- Hussam Ayloush
- Hussam has been a lifelong human rights activist who is passionate about promoting democratic societies, in the US and worldwide, in which all people, including immigrants, workers, minorities, and the poor enjoy freedom, justice, economic justice, respect, and equality. Mr. Ayloush frequently lectures on Islam, media relations, civil rights, hate crimes and international affairs. He has consistently appeared in local, national, and international media. Full biography at: http://hussamayloush.blogspot.com/2006/08/biography-of-hussam-ayloush.html
Showing posts with label anti-semitism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label anti-semitism. Show all posts
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Friday, July 03, 2009
Did FBI informant actually inspire Bronx synagogue plot?
By Amira Hass
Haaretz
6/15/2009
NEWBURGH, New York - The first time Kathleen Baines saw Maksud was on Wednesday, May 20. Like everyone else, she knew the well-to-do Pakistani by his first name only. He had started appearing here the previous September, wandering around outside Masjid al-Ikhlas (the "mosque of devotion") in town, meeting people in a popular local restaurant, paying for their meals and offering financial help.
Frequenters of the mosque, some of them immigrants from East Asia and others African Americans, could not help but notice that Maksud had five vehicles, including a Mercedes, a BMW and an ATV.
On that Wednesday in May, Maksud arrived in the neighborhood in one of his cars at about 4 P.M. and stopped at Baines' house. He has a narrow face, she recalls now, and peroxided hair. He would wear sunglasses and expensive shoes. Whenever he came to look for her partner, James Cromitie, in recent months, he would remain outside, and this time was no different.
"Where is the brother?" he asked, and she answered from the window: "James is on his motorbike with my son." Maksud asked her what his cellular phone number was. The question sounded strange to Baines since he was the one who had given James the phone.
When Cromitie returned with her son on the motorbike, he gave her a kiss and went over to Maksud's car. She saw on the seat of the car that three cellular telephones had been placed alongside one another and this also seemed strange.
"Where are you going?" she asked and James replied, "We're going to eat." "When will you get back?" she asked and Maksud answered, "about 8 P.M."
At around 8 P.M. she called her partner, but there was no reply. She was not surprised. "Maksud would always force him to turn off his phone when they met. He always tried to persuade James to leave me. He called me the 'boss-woman.' He would ask: Where is the bitch?" she said when we met last week in Newburgh.
Cromitie did his best to avoid Maksud, Baines says. They were relieved when he said he was leaving for Pakistan in November 2008, but in January 2009 he returned.
"I'm taking the brother to the mosque," Maksud would tell her. He paid for Baines' rent several times, gave Cromitie money and promised to bring them gifts. "Listen, sister," she remembers him saying, "if the brother wants $10,000, I'll give it to him." Maksud would add that this was in the spirit of Islam.
Baines is 42 and has two grown daughters, a 6-year-old son from a different man and a 2-year-old grandson.
"James treated all of us like his family," she says. She met him in a hostel for men, where she worked, four years ago. Cromitie, 53, was born in Brooklyn and spent 12 years in jail for various drug offenses. In 2005, a few months after he was released, he moved to Newburgh. "He is a gentleman. One doesn't find men like that today. He asked me to stop working. He converted to Islam in jail and from that I understood that Islam must be good because he treated me well."
On that day in May when she tried to reach him by phone, Baines did not know that Maksud, Cromitie and three of their friends were on their way to Riverdale in the Bronx, to carry out what Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Snyder described later as an unimaginable, blood-curdling plot: planting bombs in parked cars next to a Riverdale synagogue and Jewish cultural center, and shooting missiles at a helicopter at Newburgh's Air National Guard base.
The lethal plot was foiled, however. One of the five men put the bombs in place while three others kept watch. But no one was aware that the bombs had been defused earlier by the Federal Bureau of Investigation - and that FBI officers, members of the New York Police Department and a joint anti-terror force were lying in wait for them.
When the men returned to the car, they were arrested at the height of an "painstaking operation," as one source said to The New York Times. According to official reports, the investigation started in June 2008. The FBI received a tip-off then that the men were planning to attack targets in the United States. Four of the men are converts to Islam; three were born in the U.S. and the fourth (said to have psychiatric problems) is from Haiti. They were all jailed in the past for drug offenses.
In a press conference held outside the Jewish center in the Bronx on May 21, the commissioner of the New York City Police Department, Raymond Kelly, said the four had been overheard saying they wanted to carry out a jihad because so many Muslims were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Democratic Party Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who represents the Bronx in the state assembly, said in an interview with the Times that people are sometimes motivated by religious hatred and hatred of Jews, but it was fortunate that the FBI and police had uncovered this plot at an early stage.
On that fateful Wednesday evening, Baines still knew nothing - even when FBI agents carried out a search of her house and detained her for five hours. The following day, when it was reported that the driver of the car had cooperated with the FBI, Baines realized that this was Maksud - "the man who destroyed my life."
Salahuddin Muhammad, the imam of the local mosque, was not surprised. "We thought he was an informer," he told both journalists and the children who study in the mosque. The children saw all the media buzz and were disturbed that the name of their mosque had come up in connection with the plot. "We wondered what to do," the imam explained to the youngsters. "How should we tell the authorities that we suspected him? But it was the authorities who had sent him."
Maksud, it later transpired, is a Pakistani immigrant who was arrested in 2002 for selling fake driving licenses to immigrants. In order to avoid serving a jail sentence and being exiled, he agreed to work for the FBI. An on-the-ball journalist from The New York Post realized this was the same federal informer who had worked five years earlier in Albany, New York, in a similar fashion. He had appeared near a local mosque there, presented himself as religious and rich, and had become friendly with Musharaff Hussein, an immigrant from Bangladesh who owned a pizzeria and was having money troubles. According to the official version, the informer eventually helped to thwart a dangerous terror plot planned by the pizzeria owner and the mosque's imam, Yassin Arif, originally from Kurdistan. They were plotting to kill a Pakistani diplomat and to finance the murder by selling weapons. In Albany, Maksud used a different name.
An FBI spokesman in New York refused to confirm or deny that this was the same informer, but said, in a telephone conversation, that the prosecution had to prove the guilt of the four men while the defense had to prove that they had fallen into a trap.
Rights groups intervene
At the end of March, a federal judge demanded that the FBI provide 100 documents with details of the techniques used by agents tailing Islamic organizations in southern California. The directive came in the wake of a 2007 petition from the American Civil Liberties Union after Muslim communities revealed a number of incidents involving FBI informers in mosques. They said at least one such agent-informer, Craig Montal, had tried to convince people to blow up buildings in Los Angeles.
According to lawyers and activists in human rights organizations, Montal's system was used in most of the incidents involving exposure of terrorist plots in the U.S, since the September 11, 2001 attack. Agents, some of them with dubious backgrounds, have infiltrated the Muslim communities, and in at least one case, in Miami, communities of non-Muslim blacks. Without strong evidence, they hone in on weak elements in the society, spread around ideas for attacks and sometimes even supply explosives, rights groups say. According to this version, such exposure leads to giant headlines that feed the public's fear of Islam, makes heroes out of the FBI and garners support for aggressive internal security policy. When the details become clear at a later stage, no one is interested in them or in the families that have been destroyed.
The timing of the incident in Riverdale coincided with a stormy debate over changes required in America's internal security policy. On June 2, indictments were submitted against the four men from Newburgh. The following day they pleaded not guilty. Salahuddin Muhammad, the imam, does not make light of the fact that the four men who were presented as Muslims were part of a plot to place explosives next to Jewish institutions. He says, however, that the four were not regular worshipers at his mosque.
"I saw Cromitie only a few times in the mosque. If they had come to pray regularly, they would have known we were suspicious of 'Maksud' and they would have distanced themselves from him," Muhammad explains. "They would have continued to this day to wander around the streets and get high together."
Haaretz
6/15/2009
NEWBURGH, New York - The first time Kathleen Baines saw Maksud was on Wednesday, May 20. Like everyone else, she knew the well-to-do Pakistani by his first name only. He had started appearing here the previous September, wandering around outside Masjid al-Ikhlas (the "mosque of devotion") in town, meeting people in a popular local restaurant, paying for their meals and offering financial help.
Frequenters of the mosque, some of them immigrants from East Asia and others African Americans, could not help but notice that Maksud had five vehicles, including a Mercedes, a BMW and an ATV.
On that Wednesday in May, Maksud arrived in the neighborhood in one of his cars at about 4 P.M. and stopped at Baines' house. He has a narrow face, she recalls now, and peroxided hair. He would wear sunglasses and expensive shoes. Whenever he came to look for her partner, James Cromitie, in recent months, he would remain outside, and this time was no different.
"Where is the brother?" he asked, and she answered from the window: "James is on his motorbike with my son." Maksud asked her what his cellular phone number was. The question sounded strange to Baines since he was the one who had given James the phone.
When Cromitie returned with her son on the motorbike, he gave her a kiss and went over to Maksud's car. She saw on the seat of the car that three cellular telephones had been placed alongside one another and this also seemed strange.
"Where are you going?" she asked and James replied, "We're going to eat." "When will you get back?" she asked and Maksud answered, "about 8 P.M."
At around 8 P.M. she called her partner, but there was no reply. She was not surprised. "Maksud would always force him to turn off his phone when they met. He always tried to persuade James to leave me. He called me the 'boss-woman.' He would ask: Where is the bitch?" she said when we met last week in Newburgh.
Cromitie did his best to avoid Maksud, Baines says. They were relieved when he said he was leaving for Pakistan in November 2008, but in January 2009 he returned.
"I'm taking the brother to the mosque," Maksud would tell her. He paid for Baines' rent several times, gave Cromitie money and promised to bring them gifts. "Listen, sister," she remembers him saying, "if the brother wants $10,000, I'll give it to him." Maksud would add that this was in the spirit of Islam.
Baines is 42 and has two grown daughters, a 6-year-old son from a different man and a 2-year-old grandson.
"James treated all of us like his family," she says. She met him in a hostel for men, where she worked, four years ago. Cromitie, 53, was born in Brooklyn and spent 12 years in jail for various drug offenses. In 2005, a few months after he was released, he moved to Newburgh. "He is a gentleman. One doesn't find men like that today. He asked me to stop working. He converted to Islam in jail and from that I understood that Islam must be good because he treated me well."
On that day in May when she tried to reach him by phone, Baines did not know that Maksud, Cromitie and three of their friends were on their way to Riverdale in the Bronx, to carry out what Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Snyder described later as an unimaginable, blood-curdling plot: planting bombs in parked cars next to a Riverdale synagogue and Jewish cultural center, and shooting missiles at a helicopter at Newburgh's Air National Guard base.
The lethal plot was foiled, however. One of the five men put the bombs in place while three others kept watch. But no one was aware that the bombs had been defused earlier by the Federal Bureau of Investigation - and that FBI officers, members of the New York Police Department and a joint anti-terror force were lying in wait for them.
When the men returned to the car, they were arrested at the height of an "painstaking operation," as one source said to The New York Times. According to official reports, the investigation started in June 2008. The FBI received a tip-off then that the men were planning to attack targets in the United States. Four of the men are converts to Islam; three were born in the U.S. and the fourth (said to have psychiatric problems) is from Haiti. They were all jailed in the past for drug offenses.
In a press conference held outside the Jewish center in the Bronx on May 21, the commissioner of the New York City Police Department, Raymond Kelly, said the four had been overheard saying they wanted to carry out a jihad because so many Muslims were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Democratic Party Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, who represents the Bronx in the state assembly, said in an interview with the Times that people are sometimes motivated by religious hatred and hatred of Jews, but it was fortunate that the FBI and police had uncovered this plot at an early stage.
On that fateful Wednesday evening, Baines still knew nothing - even when FBI agents carried out a search of her house and detained her for five hours. The following day, when it was reported that the driver of the car had cooperated with the FBI, Baines realized that this was Maksud - "the man who destroyed my life."
Salahuddin Muhammad, the imam of the local mosque, was not surprised. "We thought he was an informer," he told both journalists and the children who study in the mosque. The children saw all the media buzz and were disturbed that the name of their mosque had come up in connection with the plot. "We wondered what to do," the imam explained to the youngsters. "How should we tell the authorities that we suspected him? But it was the authorities who had sent him."
Maksud, it later transpired, is a Pakistani immigrant who was arrested in 2002 for selling fake driving licenses to immigrants. In order to avoid serving a jail sentence and being exiled, he agreed to work for the FBI. An on-the-ball journalist from The New York Post realized this was the same federal informer who had worked five years earlier in Albany, New York, in a similar fashion. He had appeared near a local mosque there, presented himself as religious and rich, and had become friendly with Musharaff Hussein, an immigrant from Bangladesh who owned a pizzeria and was having money troubles. According to the official version, the informer eventually helped to thwart a dangerous terror plot planned by the pizzeria owner and the mosque's imam, Yassin Arif, originally from Kurdistan. They were plotting to kill a Pakistani diplomat and to finance the murder by selling weapons. In Albany, Maksud used a different name.
An FBI spokesman in New York refused to confirm or deny that this was the same informer, but said, in a telephone conversation, that the prosecution had to prove the guilt of the four men while the defense had to prove that they had fallen into a trap.
Rights groups intervene
At the end of March, a federal judge demanded that the FBI provide 100 documents with details of the techniques used by agents tailing Islamic organizations in southern California. The directive came in the wake of a 2007 petition from the American Civil Liberties Union after Muslim communities revealed a number of incidents involving FBI informers in mosques. They said at least one such agent-informer, Craig Montal, had tried to convince people to blow up buildings in Los Angeles.
According to lawyers and activists in human rights organizations, Montal's system was used in most of the incidents involving exposure of terrorist plots in the U.S, since the September 11, 2001 attack. Agents, some of them with dubious backgrounds, have infiltrated the Muslim communities, and in at least one case, in Miami, communities of non-Muslim blacks. Without strong evidence, they hone in on weak elements in the society, spread around ideas for attacks and sometimes even supply explosives, rights groups say. According to this version, such exposure leads to giant headlines that feed the public's fear of Islam, makes heroes out of the FBI and garners support for aggressive internal security policy. When the details become clear at a later stage, no one is interested in them or in the families that have been destroyed.
The timing of the incident in Riverdale coincided with a stormy debate over changes required in America's internal security policy. On June 2, indictments were submitted against the four men from Newburgh. The following day they pleaded not guilty. Salahuddin Muhammad, the imam, does not make light of the fact that the four men who were presented as Muslims were part of a plot to place explosives next to Jewish institutions. He says, however, that the four were not regular worshipers at his mosque.
"I saw Cromitie only a few times in the mosque. If they had come to pray regularly, they would have known we were suspicious of 'Maksud' and they would have distanced themselves from him," Muhammad explains. "They would have continued to this day to wander around the streets and get high together."
Thursday, June 25, 2009
American Jewish Professor Cleared of Anti-Semitism Charges!
What? I know, that sounds absurd.
How can a Jewish professor be accused of anti-Semitism for criticizing Israel's brutal actions in Gaza? Can I or other Arab Muslims be accused of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bigotry for continuously criticizing Egypt's shameful role in the inhumane siege on Gaza. Can Archbishop Desmond Tutu be accused of being anti-Christian for speaking out against the Apartheid that was then practiced by the South African rulers?
Such charges are nothing short of an attempt to defame and silence those who challenge injustice. This is not just a matter of free speech; it is about speaking and acting for peace, liberty and justice for all people.
May Allah/God bless those brave people, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or whatever they claim to be.
---
U.S. professor cleared over comparison of Gaza war to Holocaust
By Cnaan Liphshiz,
Haarez and The Associated Press
A committee at a California university has cleared a professor who sent an e-mail comparing Israel's policies in Gaza to the Holocaust.
Officials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sent a letter Wednesday to sociology professor William I. Robinson saying the committee had closed the matter.
In January, Robinson offended some students and others with an e-mail to his "Sociology of Globalization" class that juxtaposed grisly photos from the Nazi era with a recent Gaza offensive. (The link I am providing as FYI possibly shows those images in the e-mail. Those images were sent over many e-mails during Israel's onslaught on Gaza.)
Jewish groups called the e-mail "hate spam" and claimed Robinson violated university policies barring professors from intimidating students and using campus resources for political reasons.
A leading pro-Israel student group blasted the move on Wednesday. "[The university] has blurred the lines between education and peddling of propaganda," the L.A.-based Israel advocacy group StandWithUs told Haaretz.
The affair was exposed by Santa Barbara student Leah Yadegar ? a graduate of the StandWithUs Emerson Fellowship program, which trains students in campuses in "response techniques" to anti-Israel efforts on campus.
"We are surprised and disappointed that the university chose not to uphold their standards for professional conduct," said Roz Rothstein, director and founder of StandWithUs, which filed the original complaint against Robinson.
"It is unfortunate that students will continue to be victims of partisan indoctrination and misinformation."
Robinson, who is Jewish, has said his justified criticism of Israel's policies should not be confused as anti-Semitism. Before the ruling, he had circulated a petition rallying colleagues and supporters against the internal probe into his actions.
How can a Jewish professor be accused of anti-Semitism for criticizing Israel's brutal actions in Gaza? Can I or other Arab Muslims be accused of anti-Muslim or anti-Arab bigotry for continuously criticizing Egypt's shameful role in the inhumane siege on Gaza. Can Archbishop Desmond Tutu be accused of being anti-Christian for speaking out against the Apartheid that was then practiced by the South African rulers?
Such charges are nothing short of an attempt to defame and silence those who challenge injustice. This is not just a matter of free speech; it is about speaking and acting for peace, liberty and justice for all people.
May Allah/God bless those brave people, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or whatever they claim to be.
---
U.S. professor cleared over comparison of Gaza war to Holocaust
By Cnaan Liphshiz,
Haarez and The Associated Press
A committee at a California university has cleared a professor who sent an e-mail comparing Israel's policies in Gaza to the Holocaust.
Officials at the University of California, Santa Barbara, sent a letter Wednesday to sociology professor William I. Robinson saying the committee had closed the matter.
In January, Robinson offended some students and others with an e-mail to his "Sociology of Globalization" class that juxtaposed grisly photos from the Nazi era with a recent Gaza offensive. (The link I am providing as FYI possibly shows those images in the e-mail. Those images were sent over many e-mails during Israel's onslaught on Gaza.)
Jewish groups called the e-mail "hate spam" and claimed Robinson violated university policies barring professors from intimidating students and using campus resources for political reasons.A leading pro-Israel student group blasted the move on Wednesday. "[The university] has blurred the lines between education and peddling of propaganda," the L.A.-based Israel advocacy group StandWithUs told Haaretz.
The affair was exposed by Santa Barbara student Leah Yadegar ? a graduate of the StandWithUs Emerson Fellowship program, which trains students in campuses in "response techniques" to anti-Israel efforts on campus."We are surprised and disappointed that the university chose not to uphold their standards for professional conduct," said Roz Rothstein, director and founder of StandWithUs, which filed the original complaint against Robinson.
"It is unfortunate that students will continue to be victims of partisan indoctrination and misinformation."
Robinson, who is Jewish, has said his justified criticism of Israel's policies should not be confused as anti-Semitism. Before the ruling, he had circulated a petition rallying colleagues and supporters against the internal probe into his actions.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Promote a two-state solution and you will be called anti-semitic; even if you are Obama
Poor President Obama! What was his crime to deserve this wrath?
He dared to ask the newly-elected right-wing Israeli government to support a two-state solution and to end its illegal building of settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Both demands are long-time unfulfilled demands stated by numerous U.N. resolutions.
---
'We're launching a campaign against anti-Semitic Obama'
By Raphael Ahren, Haaretz
6/3/2009
Photo caption: A collage portraying U.S. President Obama wearing a kaffiyeh which is set to be posted across Israel by rightist group Hazit. (Hazit)
Some 130 protesters gathered in front of the American Consulate in Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon to rally against U.S. President Barack Obama, who had just launched his Middle East tour, during which he is expected to reach out in friendship to the Muslim world...
Far right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who attended the protest, told Channel 10 that "it appears that we've arrived at a red line, which has already been crossed by the most anti-Semitic American president."
"We are launching a campaign against Barack Hussein Obama. He is bad for the people of Israel and for the state of Israel and his policies could bring about disaster. We expect our prime minister to say 'no' to anyone who tries to harm us," Ben-Gvir added.
National Union MKs Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben Ari addressed the crowd, largely made up of native-English speaking Israelis.
"I'm here to tell Obama that Eretz Yisrael belongs to the Jewish people," said Scottish-born Edith Ognall, who drove to the capital from her hometown of Netanya to attend the event. "What right does anybody have to tell us to stop building in the land that was given to us by God? I'm not going to stand by and let Obama, or anybody else, tell me where I can live and where I can't live."
He dared to ask the newly-elected right-wing Israeli government to support a two-state solution and to end its illegal building of settlements on occupied Palestinian land. Both demands are long-time unfulfilled demands stated by numerous U.N. resolutions.
---
'We're launching a campaign against anti-Semitic Obama'
By Raphael Ahren, Haaretz
6/3/2009
Photo caption: A collage portraying U.S. President Obama wearing a kaffiyeh which is set to be posted across Israel by rightist group Hazit. (Hazit)Some 130 protesters gathered in front of the American Consulate in Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon to rally against U.S. President Barack Obama, who had just launched his Middle East tour, during which he is expected to reach out in friendship to the Muslim world...
Far right activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, who attended the protest, told Channel 10 that "it appears that we've arrived at a red line, which has already been crossed by the most anti-Semitic American president."
"We are launching a campaign against Barack Hussein Obama. He is bad for the people of Israel and for the state of Israel and his policies could bring about disaster. We expect our prime minister to say 'no' to anyone who tries to harm us," Ben-Gvir added.
National Union MKs Aryeh Eldad and Michael Ben Ari addressed the crowd, largely made up of native-English speaking Israelis.
"I'm here to tell Obama that Eretz Yisrael belongs to the Jewish people," said Scottish-born Edith Ognall, who drove to the capital from her hometown of Netanya to attend the event. "What right does anybody have to tell us to stop building in the land that was given to us by God? I'm not going to stand by and let Obama, or anybody else, tell me where I can live and where I can't live."
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Never Again?
never again? Simon Wiesenthal Center to screen Islamophobic film "The Third Jihad"
Tuesday May 19, 2009
Aziz Poonawalla
beliefnet.com
I've argued in the past that muslims and jews in the West should make common cause in fighting against prejudice and tolerance - and in doing so, lead by example in terms of demonstrating the value of tolerance and respect based on our shared Abrahamic heritage. One ideal joint project would be for the ADL and CAIR to join forces and compile a national database of anti-semitic and Islamophobic incidents and hate crimes, for example, and perhaps start a group blog project discussing various issues.
Unfortunately, despite many previous examples of common cause that move such a vision forward, sometimes the innate prejudices of both groups moves the process backwards. Case in point - the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles will screen the grotesquely Islamophobic film The Third Jihad. As CAIR's Los Angeles chapter explains in a letter to the SWC, The Third Jihad is the equivalent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as far as its intention in portraying muslims in the United States and Islam as a whole as a fifth column, a Dolchstoßlegende for the modern era...
Read More
Tuesday May 19, 2009
Aziz Poonawalla
beliefnet.com
I've argued in the past that muslims and jews in the West should make common cause in fighting against prejudice and tolerance - and in doing so, lead by example in terms of demonstrating the value of tolerance and respect based on our shared Abrahamic heritage. One ideal joint project would be for the ADL and CAIR to join forces and compile a national database of anti-semitic and Islamophobic incidents and hate crimes, for example, and perhaps start a group blog project discussing various issues.
Unfortunately, despite many previous examples of common cause that move such a vision forward, sometimes the innate prejudices of both groups moves the process backwards. Case in point - the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles will screen the grotesquely Islamophobic film The Third Jihad. As CAIR's Los Angeles chapter explains in a letter to the SWC, The Third Jihad is the equivalent of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as far as its intention in portraying muslims in the United States and Islam as a whole as a fifth column, a Dolchstoßlegende for the modern era...
Read More
"Museum of Tolerance" to Screen Intolerant Islam-Bashing Film
'The Third Jihad' compared to Anti-semitic screed, racist propaganda productions
(LOS ANGELES, CA, 5/15/2009) - The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) to cancel a Sunday screening of a film called "The Third Jihad" that the civil rights group says portrays Muslims as a "fifth column within the United States."
In a letter to SWC founder Rabbi Marvin Hier, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush wrote in part:
"This film, like its discredited predecessor 'Obsession,' seeks to portray American Muslims as a fifth column within the United States. It is the moral and ethical equivalent of the scurrilous 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion.' You, of all people, should know the negative impact such false and defamatory portrayals can have on a minority community.
SEE: Obsession with Hate
http://www.obsessionwithhate.com/
"Screening 'The Third Jihad' is akin to showing the Nazi-era 'Triumph of the Will,' which stereotyped Jews, or 'Birth of a Nation,' which vilified African-Americans...
"The film disingenuously claims it is only targeting "radical Islam," yet a twitter account of the Washington, D.C., screening on Wednesday night stated: '`Three Jihads' First, 7th century burst out of Arabia...Second, Turks push to gates of Vienna...Third, TODAY...The 1400-hundred year war' clash has been going on since the beginning of Islam.'
SEE: http://twitter.com/No2RadicalIslam
"These statements encompass the entirety of Islamic history and culture. Is that what the Wiesenthal Center believes we are fighting and have been fighting since the inception of Islam?...
"In a pluralistic society in which healthy community relations are a necessity, agenda-driven films such as this do little to diffuse confusion about religious minorities and educate the public in an honest and credible manner...
"As an institution that claims as its goal battling of hatred and bigotry across the world, I am disappointed to see the Wiesenthal Center engage in promoting hatred and bigotry against another minority - American Muslims..."
SEE: Letter to Simon Wiesenthal Center
http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=25944&&name=n&&currPage=1
Last year, CAIR-LA denounced the Wiesenthal Center for building a "Museum of Tolerance" in Jerusalem on what was once the largest Muslim cemetery in Palestine.
SEE: An Intolerable Spot for a Museum (Forward)
http://www.forward.com/articles/14592/
(LOS ANGELES, CA, 5/15/2009) - The Greater Los Angeles Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today called on the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) to cancel a Sunday screening of a film called "The Third Jihad" that the civil rights group says portrays Muslims as a "fifth column within the United States."
In a letter to SWC founder Rabbi Marvin Hier, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush wrote in part:
"This film, like its discredited predecessor 'Obsession,' seeks to portray American Muslims as a fifth column within the United States. It is the moral and ethical equivalent of the scurrilous 'Protocols of the Elders of Zion.' You, of all people, should know the negative impact such false and defamatory portrayals can have on a minority community.
SEE: Obsession with Hate
http://www.obsessionwithhate.com/
"Screening 'The Third Jihad' is akin to showing the Nazi-era 'Triumph of the Will,' which stereotyped Jews, or 'Birth of a Nation,' which vilified African-Americans...
"The film disingenuously claims it is only targeting "radical Islam," yet a twitter account of the Washington, D.C., screening on Wednesday night stated: '`Three Jihads' First, 7th century burst out of Arabia...Second, Turks push to gates of Vienna...Third, TODAY...The 1400-hundred year war' clash has been going on since the beginning of Islam.'
SEE: http://twitter.com/No2RadicalIslam
"These statements encompass the entirety of Islamic history and culture. Is that what the Wiesenthal Center believes we are fighting and have been fighting since the inception of Islam?...
"In a pluralistic society in which healthy community relations are a necessity, agenda-driven films such as this do little to diffuse confusion about religious minorities and educate the public in an honest and credible manner...
"As an institution that claims as its goal battling of hatred and bigotry across the world, I am disappointed to see the Wiesenthal Center engage in promoting hatred and bigotry against another minority - American Muslims..."
SEE: Letter to Simon Wiesenthal Center
http://www.cair.com/ArticleDetails.aspx?ArticleID=25944&&name=n&&currPage=1
Last year, CAIR-LA denounced the Wiesenthal Center for building a "Museum of Tolerance" in Jerusalem on what was once the largest Muslim cemetery in Palestine.
SEE: An Intolerable Spot for a Museum (Forward)
http://www.forward.com/articles/14592/
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Is criticism of Zionism and Israel equivalent to anti-Semitism?
The new documentary "Defamation" (see post about it) triggered a question on my mind.
Is criticism of Zionism and Israel equivalent to anti-Semitism?
Until recently, the Israel Lobby propaganda groups such as the ADL, AJC, the Wiesenthal Center, AIPAC, ZOA and others had our country (and most of the world) convinced that any legitimate criticism of Israeli actions or policies is a clear form of anti-Semitism that must be demonized and stopped. Similarly, they have equated any criticism of Zionism - the political ideology on which Israel justified its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the theft of their land - with anti-Semitism. The objective was to equate Israel and Zionism with the sanctity of Judaism and vice versa; therefore, rendering it disgraceful or at least controversial to debate Israeli policies or Zionism.
The intellectual (and sometimes physical, by groups such as JDL) terrorism exerted by Israel lobby groups and their well-funded attack dogs (Pipes, Emerson, Horowitz, “JDL-fan” Kaufman, Gaffney and others) contributed to a climate of fear and intimidation for many activists, academics, religious leaders, politicians and media professionals who have contemplated addressing what they clearly concluded to be repressive, racist, illegal, and dangerous behavior by a state that is considered to be closely allied and strongly supported – financially, politically and militarily – by our country. Many have come to the conclusion that the perception of our country as an accomplice in Israel’s war crimes and brutal occupation is creating a major public relations and political nightmare for us.
The hypocrisy this climate of fear allows is astounding. How can our government demand that Iran abandon its nuclear ambitions when Israel, as the only nuclear country in the Middle East, has a reported arsenal of 240 nuclear warheads?
How can we reasonably pressure Egypt, Syria and other Arab countries to respect the human rights of their citizens (and rightly so) when our closest “ally” every day violates the rights of the Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories?
How can the world believe our claims about promoting freedom and democracy when our spoiled “friend,” Israel, has been controlling the lives (and certainly the deaths) of Palestinians and denying them the right to have their own country on their own ancestors’ land?
How can we convince the Muslim world to isolate and reject extremism when we support, fund, and approve of the worst brand of religious and political extremism in the government of Israel?
Our country stands for some of the greatest values and most noble of hopes. It is not fair for us to be tainted by (and often hated because of) the behavior of the State of Israel.
The election of President Obama represents a fresh opportunity to push a new agenda that can genuinely bring a just and lasting peace to the people of that region, promote human rights and democracy, and rebuild America’s credibility and stature among all people of the world.
For this to happen, it must become acceptable for us in America to discuss, analyze and criticize the policies and actions of Israel as is commonly done in Israel by Israelis themselves.
It is not acceptable for the Israel lobby propaganda machine to label President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Professor Norman Finkelstein (who is Jewish himself) and many others as anti-Semites in order to silence their criticisms. An open debate on all legitimate political issues, including Israel, is the first step toward building support among all peace-seeking people for policies and attitudes that advance justice, peace, and mutual understanding among all people.
At the same time, we must all be vigilant to challenge and reject anyone who espouses racism, anti-Semitism or Islamophobia and tries to claim those twisted views in the name of legitimate political discourse. I truly believe that we are intelligent enough to be able to sort out the difference between people.
Therefore, the answer to the question, “Is criticism of Zionism and Israel equivalent to anti-Semitism?” is a clear “No.”
Here are a few previous blog posts that I published in relation to this topic:
Message to Muslims and Jews: Political Debate, Yes. Bigotry, No
Dissenting at your own risk
Ayloush comments on ADL's smear tactics
Denying the Holocaust is immoral and un-Islamic
Rosa Brooks: Criticize Israel? You're an Anti-Semite!
"Defamation" - A new Israeli documentary on anti-Zionism, antisemitism and the Arab-Israeli conflict
Turning His Lens on the ADL
Director Yoav Shamir on Courting Controversy on Camera
The Forward Newspaper
By Nathan Burstein
Published April 14, 2009
Director Yoav Shamir on Courting Controversy on Camera
The Forward Newspaper
By Nathan Burstein
Published April 14, 2009
Controversy isn’t new terrain for Yoav Shamir. And controversy is the likely response to “Defamation,” his new documentary focused on anti-Zionism, antisemitism and the Arab-Israeli conflict, among other lightning rods. The Anti-Defamation League and its director, Abraham Foxman, figure prominently in the film, as do “Holocaust Industry” author Norman Finkelstein and a group of Israeli teens taking a school trip to the Nazi death camps.
The 38-year-old Shamir, who appears briefly on camera and narrates the film, ricochets among his native Tel Aviv, the United States and Eastern Europe...
First screened last February at the Berlin International Film Festival, “Defamation” arrives in New York in late April at the Tribeca Film Festival, and will open Tel Aviv’s DocAviv documentary festival in early May. “Defamation” joins such earlier Shamir films as “Checkpoint” (2003), about Israeli soldiers’ interactions with Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and “Flipping Out” (2008), about Israeli solders’ drug-fueled misadventures in India following their army service. “5 Days” (2005), the documentary that inspired the antisemitism accusation, generated anger of a different sort — with organizers of Scotland’s Edinburgh International Film Festival warning Shamir not to attend a 2006 screening for fear of violence by anti-Israel protesters. (He attended without incident, under added security.)
Shamir recently spoke with writer Nathan Burstein, a frequent contributor to the Forward, about “Defamation.”
Nathan Burstein: Some people might be surprised by your assertion that you never seriously considered the term “antisemite” until it was used against you.
Yoav Shamir: What I’m getting at is that I never felt antisemitism. I was never a victim of antisemitism, and I would think that probably 99% of Israelis, if you asked them, would tell you the same thing. … If a Palestinian upsets me, I don’t think it has anything to do with the fact that I’m Jewish, that I hold the Jewish religion. It’s because either I took his land, or, if it’s an Arab-Israeli, it’s some kind of conflict which happens when you have two communities coming from different backgrounds and values living in the same place...
The film doesn’t paint a very flattering portrait of the organization or of Foxman. Have they seen the film yet?
They haven’t seen the film yet — they’ll see it now at the Tribeca Film Festival. [Regarding how they come across], that is your interpretation. Some people will see it differently...
You argue quite reasonably that anti-Zionism is not always antisemitism and that criticism of Israel can be legitimate. Do you see times when anti-Zionism does cross over into antisemitism?
There are many, many gray areas. Obviously there are going to be people who will have antisemitic tendencies, and they will express them by being anti-Zionist. They are part of the story. But the film is not really about that; it’s mostly about what we as Israelis and Jews make of this experience. How do we view ourselves, how we want to define ourselves...
You take a fairly negative view of March of the Living programs and trips by Israeli high school students and soldiers to visit the Nazi death camps. What do you think would be a more appropriate way for Israelis and other Jews to learn about the Holocaust?
[A]s I see it, in many ways, Israelis and Jews look at antisemitism as something different from racism — as a kind of almost mystical phenomenon that goes along with us for 2,000 years and that almost [has not changed]. For me, that is a bad understanding of history. It’s a negative way to look at and interpret the world. Obviously, the Holocaust is something that should be learned, and the Arab world is the biggest example of how stupid it is to be ignorant about such an important event in human history. But how you use this and how you navigate your life from now on is a different issue. If Israel and Jewish people see this as a colossal, demonic thing that happened only to us, that makes any other suffering seem irrelevant, [which] is the wrong lesson...
The film’s trailer is below.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Boston Jewish community split on how to deal with anti-Muslim bigot
I am still waiting to read a statement from the ADL and the Museum of "Selective" Tolerance (MOT) denouncing the Nazi-style hate speech of Geert Wilders which was sponsored by Daniel Pipes' MEF and the Republican Jewish Coalition. Of course, I will not be holding my breath.
It is just very puzzling for me to witness how, of all people, a Jewish person can support or even accept this new form of Nazism, but this time against a new group: the Muslims. Aren't the horrific memories of the Holocaust and Auschwitz on their mind? May be the ADL and the MOT should sponsor free visits to the MOT for such people. You know what, I would love to contribute to such a project, especially if Pipes would go. May be he can learn something.
Fortunately, I hear from enough Jewish friends and activists denouncing such bigotry that I would never judge the whole Jewish community by the actions of the few hatemongers such as Pipes, Emerson, and others.
Such expressions of support for hate and racism makes me even more committed to continue challenging anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of racism.
----
Synagogue Hails Dutch Lawmaker as a Hero
Stoughton, Mass.
Penny Schwartz
JTA Wire Service
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
“If our collective voice is impeded from speaking” or “shut down,” said [Daniel] Pipes, then “the way is paved for radical Islam to move ahead.”...
Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matt Brooks takes a similar position, saying that while he also opposes banning the Koran, he believes Wilders’ views should still be given a hearing...
It is just very puzzling for me to witness how, of all people, a Jewish person can support or even accept this new form of Nazism, but this time against a new group: the Muslims. Aren't the horrific memories of the Holocaust and Auschwitz on their mind? May be the ADL and the MOT should sponsor free visits to the MOT for such people. You know what, I would love to contribute to such a project, especially if Pipes would go. May be he can learn something.
Fortunately, I hear from enough Jewish friends and activists denouncing such bigotry that I would never judge the whole Jewish community by the actions of the few hatemongers such as Pipes, Emerson, and others.
Such expressions of support for hate and racism makes me even more committed to continue challenging anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of racism.
----
Synagogue Hails Dutch Lawmaker as a Hero
Stoughton, Mass.
Penny Schwartz
JTA Wire Service
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
In his home continent, Dutch politician Geert Wilders is something of a pariah, banned from the United Kingdom and facing prosecution in the Netherlands for his harsh views of Islam.
His calls to end immigration from Muslim countries and ban the Koran—he compared it to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” and said it incites to violence—have earned him broad condemnation in Europe and forced him under the protection of a security detail, a rarity for Dutch leaders.
But in some quarters of the American Jewish community, Wilders is more akin to a hero. At the very least, he was greeted as such by about 250 people last week at a Conservative synagogue in this Boston-area town.
The boisterous crowd at the Ahavath Torah Congregation gave Wilders, who heads the Dutch Party for Freedom and serves in the parliament, a standing ovation and shouted “Bravo” at the conclusion of his speech.
In an event co-sponsored by the Middle East Forum’s Legal Project and the Republican Jewish Coalition, Wilders made his only synagogue appearance on his recent tour of the United States, where he appeared on cable news networks and radio talk shows, spoke at the National Press Club and held a private showing of his anti-radical Islam film “Fitna” for senators and their staff on Capitol Hill...
“If our collective voice is impeded from speaking” or “shut down,” said [Daniel] Pipes, then “the way is paved for radical Islam to move ahead.”...Republican Jewish Coalition executive director Matt Brooks takes a similar position, saying that while he also opposes banning the Koran, he believes Wilders’ views should still be given a hearing...
Bjorn Larsen, whose International Free Press Society arranged Wilders’ U.S. tour, said the Dutch politician was invited personally by the rabbi at Ahavath Torah, Jonathan Hausman...
There were no protests at Wilders’ speech—there was little advance publicity—and many in the crowd were sympathetic to his arguments. Andrew Warren of Sharon said he wanted to judge for himself whether Wilders is xenophobic, and said afterwards that Wilders had not crossed the line.
“The unfortunate reality is that a lot of troubling passages in the Koran are being embraced by militant ideology,” Warren said.
Louise Cohen of Brookline described Wilders as a hero and a man of courage...
While unaware of Wilders’ call to ban the Koran, Cohen said his film makes a case that the Koran is a hate document.
That view troubles Ron Newman, who said Wilders took certain verses from the Koran that appeared to promote violence and used them to generalize about all of Islam.
Saying that a similar approach could be used with portions of the Torah, Newman cautioned that the line of reasoning could be used to produce an anti-Semitic film.
“I don’t like that being done to us,” he said. “I don’t support people who do that to others.”
Friday, January 30, 2009
Message to Muslims and Jews: Political Debate, Yes. Bigotry, No
By Hussam Ayloush
Jewish Journal, January 29, 2009
In face of Israel’s latest killing spree in Gaza, the Muslim community has made sure to steadfastly and unequivocally condemn even the slightest attempts at defaming, demeaning or blaming Judaism or its followers for Israel’s brutal attacks on Gaza.
Islam not only denounces, in the strongest manner possible, all forms of bigotry, but specifically teaches Muslims to revere and follow all Hebrew prophets who are praised in the Quran. Actually, those Hebrew prophets and their followers are considered to be the early Muslims, according to Islamic theology.
Muslims are touched and inspired by many of the protests and vigils in the United States and Israel on Gaza’s devastation that were led by strong Jewish voices critical of Israel’s barbaric actions. Thousands of Israeli and American Jews spoke out against the killings and destruction in Gaza. Those courageous voices include those of Amira Hass, Gideon Levy, Akiva Eldar, Jeff Halper (the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions), LA Jews for Peace, and Jewish Voice for Peace, among thousands others.
As is the case in large protests, one cannot control every person’s shout or sign – although organizers in Los Angeles and Chicago made hundreds of signs that featured political and non-religious, nonviolent messages – in keeping with the Islamic spirit. We additionally took care to promptly remove the few individuals who did not share our respectful messages.
I am sure Rabbi Abraham Cooper does not want us believing that every Jewish protester in support of Israel harbors anti-Islam bigotry as expressed by several protesters in New York and documented in many online videos.
It is ironic that the day we read this column by the leaders of the so-called Museum of Tolerance, Israel’s leading English newspaper published two news reports: one in which Israeli soldiers were accused of writing racist graffiti (“Arabs need 2 die,“ “Make war not peace”, and “1 is down, 999,999 to go”), and another report on Israeli soldiers being distributed pamphlets by Jewish extremists, urging them to show “no mercy” toward Palestinians in Gaza and stating “this is a war on murderers.”
I wonder if such hateful language constitutes intolerance worth denouncing by the Museum of Tolerance. I will surely not be holding my breath.
Of all those who speak out on intolerance and hate, the Wiesenthal Center should be the last to speak on this matter, considering its outrageous involvement in the desecration of one of the largest historic Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem, where it is building a “Museum of Tolerance” over Muslim graves and removing dead bodies, against the overwhelming objections and pleas of Muslim and Jewish religious leaders in Israel. Such desecration of Muslim graves continues as the Wiesenthal Center marks the liberation of Auschwitz – the largest Jewish cemetery in the world.
These ironies have earned the Wiesenthal Center the dubious name of “Museum of Selective Tolerance.”
It is clear that Rabbi Cooper has other objectives in penning his op-ed.
First, Rabbi Cooper and his organization seek to silence any legitimate criticism of Israel by wrongly equating such criticism with anti-Semitism. We can freely criticize any policy of the U.S. government any time but that’s not the case with Israel.
Second, by taking isolated and publicly-condemned incidents of anti-Semitism worldwide, the Wiesenthal Center insists on promoting paranoia and victimization in the Jewish community for cheap, selfish goals of shoring up support for extremist groups such as Mr. Cooper’s.
We must respect that many Muslims and Jews will continue to disagree politically but we must also be vigilant about and reject extremist voices amongst us who engage in bigotry, fear and the demonization of the other.
Jewish Journal, January 29, 2009
On January 27, the Jewish Journal published a commentary by Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein. The commentary, entitled "Upgrade to Holocaust 2.0", states, in part, "the ceasefire in Gaza seems to be holding, but on the streets of Los Angeles, Paris, London, Chicago –wherever Jews live – a new front has opened up. The battle against openly voiced hatred of the Jewish people and calls to annihilate us is just beginning."
I suggest that you read the whole piece to better understand the rabbis' disingenuous arguments.
The following is my rebuttal which was published today by the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. I thank the Journal for allowing me the chance to address the Los Angeles Jewish community.
-----
Political Debate, Yes. Bigotry, No
Hussam Ayloush is the Executive Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations for the Greater Los Angeles area.
While the conflict in the Middle East generally sparks a lot of passions, including religious and national, let us remember that it remains a political conflict – not a religious one. In face of Israel’s latest killing spree in Gaza, the Muslim community has made sure to steadfastly and unequivocally condemn even the slightest attempts at defaming, demeaning or blaming Judaism or its followers for Israel’s brutal attacks on Gaza.
Islam not only denounces, in the strongest manner possible, all forms of bigotry, but specifically teaches Muslims to revere and follow all Hebrew prophets who are praised in the Quran. Actually, those Hebrew prophets and their followers are considered to be the early Muslims, according to Islamic theology.
Muslims are touched and inspired by many of the protests and vigils in the United States and Israel on Gaza’s devastation that were led by strong Jewish voices critical of Israel’s barbaric actions. Thousands of Israeli and American Jews spoke out against the killings and destruction in Gaza. Those courageous voices include those of Amira Hass, Gideon Levy, Akiva Eldar, Jeff Halper (the Israeli Committee against House Demolitions), LA Jews for Peace, and Jewish Voice for Peace, among thousands others.
As is the case in large protests, one cannot control every person’s shout or sign – although organizers in Los Angeles and Chicago made hundreds of signs that featured political and non-religious, nonviolent messages – in keeping with the Islamic spirit. We additionally took care to promptly remove the few individuals who did not share our respectful messages.
I am sure Rabbi Abraham Cooper does not want us believing that every Jewish protester in support of Israel harbors anti-Islam bigotry as expressed by several protesters in New York and documented in many online videos.
It is ironic that the day we read this column by the leaders of the so-called Museum of Tolerance, Israel’s leading English newspaper published two news reports: one in which Israeli soldiers were accused of writing racist graffiti (“Arabs need 2 die,“ “Make war not peace”, and “1 is down, 999,999 to go”), and another report on Israeli soldiers being distributed pamphlets by Jewish extremists, urging them to show “no mercy” toward Palestinians in Gaza and stating “this is a war on murderers.”
I wonder if such hateful language constitutes intolerance worth denouncing by the Museum of Tolerance. I will surely not be holding my breath.
Of all those who speak out on intolerance and hate, the Wiesenthal Center should be the last to speak on this matter, considering its outrageous involvement in the desecration of one of the largest historic Muslim cemeteries in Jerusalem, where it is building a “Museum of Tolerance” over Muslim graves and removing dead bodies, against the overwhelming objections and pleas of Muslim and Jewish religious leaders in Israel. Such desecration of Muslim graves continues as the Wiesenthal Center marks the liberation of Auschwitz – the largest Jewish cemetery in the world.
These ironies have earned the Wiesenthal Center the dubious name of “Museum of Selective Tolerance.”
It is clear that Rabbi Cooper has other objectives in penning his op-ed.
First, Rabbi Cooper and his organization seek to silence any legitimate criticism of Israel by wrongly equating such criticism with anti-Semitism. We can freely criticize any policy of the U.S. government any time but that’s not the case with Israel.
Second, by taking isolated and publicly-condemned incidents of anti-Semitism worldwide, the Wiesenthal Center insists on promoting paranoia and victimization in the Jewish community for cheap, selfish goals of shoring up support for extremist groups such as Mr. Cooper’s.
We must respect that many Muslims and Jews will continue to disagree politically but we must also be vigilant about and reject extremist voices amongst us who engage in bigotry, fear and the demonization of the other.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Dissenting at your own risk
Dissenting at your own risk
By CECILIE SURASKY
Special to the Star-Telegram
Last year, I agreed to speak to a Jewish youth group about my organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, and our opposition to Israel's occupation. My talk was to follow one from a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself "America's pro-Israel Lobby."
A week before, a shaken program leader said the AIPAC staffer had threatened to get the entire youth program's funding canceled if I was allowed in the door. The threat worked, and in disgust, they canceled the whole talk.
Pundits will surely argue for years about professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's explosive new book, The Israel Lobby, which blames poor U.S. policy in the Middle East on a loose network of individuals and pro-Israel advocacy groups.
But the book, and the response to it, opens up another controversy: the stifling of debate about unconditional U.S. support for Israeli policies.
Why is Israel's increasingly brutal 40-year occupation of Palestinian land regularly debated in the mainstream media abroad, including in Israel, but not here? And why is there an almost total lack of discussion among presidential candidates about the dollars that subsidize this occupation and the American diplomatic support that makes it possible?
In a society built on the free exchange of ideas, as Walt and Mearsheimer point out, one answer can be found by looking at the many self-appointed gatekeepers, such as Abraham Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League, or Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who use their Jewish identity as both a shield and cudgel. They work diligently to silence those who question ill-conceived policies of the Israeli and U.S. governments.
Non-Jewish critics, even former President Carter, are denounced as anti-Semites. Special ire is reserved for Jewish dissenters, who are branded as "self-hating" or "marginal," while Muslim and Arab-Americans are easily smeared and even criminalized with charges of supporting terrorism.
Stunned by the stifling of dissent, we decided to start a Web site, Muzzlewatch, to track the incidents. Just as we launched, Stanford Middle East Studies Professor Joel Beinin was disinvited from a speaking engagement at a high school with just 24 hours' notice.
After an unprecedented campaign of outside interference waged by Dershowitz, Professor Norman Finkelstein was refused tenure by DePaul University because of his criticism of U.S.-Israeli policy.
Palestinian-American anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj is fighting a political campaign to deny her tenure at Barnard.
Even Walt and Mearsheimer, who are getting plenty of exposure, couldn't have asked for better proof of their point that the lobby works to stifle dissent when an embarrassed head of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs told them that their scheduled speech was canceled. (They did speak before the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth on Sept. 17.) This was apparently because Foxman was not available that day to "balance" their talk.
(They had initially been booked by themselves. The talk was not rescheduled.)
Many groups that started with the important work of fighting real anti-Semitism now rely on anti-Semitism to insist that to show one's love of Jews, one must offer uncritical support to Israel. They are especially displeased by Jews who believe that enabling Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights is not good for anyone.
Unless this atmosphere of intimidation is confronted, Americans will continue to lack access to information and perspectives necessary to formulate effective Middle East policies, virtually ensuring that Israel and the United States will be at war for many years to come.
'The Israel Lobby'
A podcast of Walt and Mearsheimer's presentation is available at http://podcast.dfwworld.org/2007_09-17_The_Israel_Lobby.MP3
Cecilie Surasky is communications director for the Oakland-based Jewish Voice for Peace.
By CECILIE SURASKY
Special to the Star-Telegram
Last year, I agreed to speak to a Jewish youth group about my organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, and our opposition to Israel's occupation. My talk was to follow one from a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself "America's pro-Israel Lobby."A week before, a shaken program leader said the AIPAC staffer had threatened to get the entire youth program's funding canceled if I was allowed in the door. The threat worked, and in disgust, they canceled the whole talk.
Pundits will surely argue for years about professors Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer's explosive new book, The Israel Lobby, which blames poor U.S. policy in the Middle East on a loose network of individuals and pro-Israel advocacy groups.
But the book, and the response to it, opens up another controversy: the stifling of debate about unconditional U.S. support for Israeli policies.
Why is Israel's increasingly brutal 40-year occupation of Palestinian land regularly debated in the mainstream media abroad, including in Israel, but not here? And why is there an almost total lack of discussion among presidential candidates about the dollars that subsidize this occupation and the American diplomatic support that makes it possible?
In a society built on the free exchange of ideas, as Walt and Mearsheimer point out, one answer can be found by looking at the many self-appointed gatekeepers, such as Abraham Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League, or Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, who use their Jewish identity as both a shield and cudgel. They work diligently to silence those who question ill-conceived policies of the Israeli and U.S. governments.
Non-Jewish critics, even former President Carter, are denounced as anti-Semites. Special ire is reserved for Jewish dissenters, who are branded as "self-hating" or "marginal," while Muslim and Arab-Americans are easily smeared and even criminalized with charges of supporting terrorism.
Stunned by the stifling of dissent, we decided to start a Web site, Muzzlewatch, to track the incidents. Just as we launched, Stanford Middle East Studies Professor Joel Beinin was disinvited from a speaking engagement at a high school with just 24 hours' notice.
After an unprecedented campaign of outside interference waged by Dershowitz, Professor Norman Finkelstein was refused tenure by DePaul University because of his criticism of U.S.-Israeli policy.
Palestinian-American anthropologist Nadia Abu El-Haj is fighting a political campaign to deny her tenure at Barnard.
Even Walt and Mearsheimer, who are getting plenty of exposure, couldn't have asked for better proof of their point that the lobby works to stifle dissent when an embarrassed head of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs told them that their scheduled speech was canceled. (They did speak before the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth on Sept. 17.) This was apparently because Foxman was not available that day to "balance" their talk.
(They had initially been booked by themselves. The talk was not rescheduled.)
Many groups that started with the important work of fighting real anti-Semitism now rely on anti-Semitism to insist that to show one's love of Jews, one must offer uncritical support to Israel. They are especially displeased by Jews who believe that enabling Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights is not good for anyone.
Unless this atmosphere of intimidation is confronted, Americans will continue to lack access to information and perspectives necessary to formulate effective Middle East policies, virtually ensuring that Israel and the United States will be at war for many years to come.
'The Israel Lobby'
A podcast of Walt and Mearsheimer's presentation is available at http://podcast.dfwworld.org/2007_09-17_The_Israel_Lobby.MP3
Cecilie Surasky is communications director for the Oakland-based Jewish Voice for Peace.
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