Criticism of Israel and Anti-Semitism Are NOT Synonymous

Here's some thoughtful and engaging commentary by Johann Hari who, in addition to his time spent undercover in extremist Islamist and neo-Nazi organizations, has become a critic of (at least some of) the actions of the State of Israel:

The Loathsome Smearing of Israel's Critics
by Johann Hari
The Independent - Thursday, 8 May 2008

Although in years past Hari worked undercover as an investigative reporter uncovering the ugly face of anti-Semitism in various places, which included the unfortunately rather easy job of documenting its prevalence amongst Islamic extremists, he has now been labeled an anti-Semite since he has the gall to criticize the inhumane actions of the Zionist government and their oppression of the Palestinian people. This gem of an article discusses everyone from Melanie Phillips and former President Jimmy Carter to Alan Dershowitz and Norman Finkelstein, and is thus highly recommended. It demonstrates once again that not only do the pro-Zionists not entertain such effrontery very well, but their responses are getting increasingly irrational and transparent. This is probably because the non sequitur of the "Criticism of Israel = Anti-Semitism" formula should be obvious to any morally decent person with a single active brain cell...especially when an increasing number of the critics are Jews and Israelis themselves.

For readers who may have been duped into believing that Islam condones anti-Semitism, then I suggest taking a look at Holocaust Denial Undermines Islam, by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, as well as all of our postings on the topics of Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and Israel...keeping the title of this posting in mind while reading.

On that note, I'll add that there are a couple [(1)(2)] of new interviews with Norman Finkelstein out on YouTube.com that are well worth a watch. In the first one, although edited by the pro-Zionist group MEMRI, the truth still manages to come out...and it's great watching the former professor at DePaul University chastise the Lebanese interviewer. The latter video contains an interview with Riz Khan, formerly of CNN but now with Aljazeera, from July 2007, and focuses on the circumstances surrounding Finkelstein's denial of tenure by DePaul University, which was largely due to the efforts of Alan Dershowitz—Professor of Law at Harvard University, Advocate of Torture, Denier of the Plight of the Palestinian People, and Documented Plagiarizer.

Deen on...

Anis Shorrosh and the Fire

The American Muslim (TAM) recently posted an interesting story which contains some links [(1)(2)] about the infamous Islam-basher and Arab Christian Evangelist Anis Shorrosh:

Anis Shorrosh and the Suspicious Fire
The American Muslim - May 1st, 2008

Allahu 'alim, but since I don't see Dr. Shorrosh as the worst of the worst as far as Islam bashers go, maybe God is trying to send him a wake-up call before it's too late. However, we should not be surprised when people who knowingly lie about Islam and our Noble Messenger—salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salam—are brought low.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Shorrosh's book Islam Revealed: A Christian Arab's View Of Islam is a masterpiece of double-standards, bigotry and laughable ignorance. And for those who haven't seen it, his debate with Ahmed Deedat, which took place in London's Royal Albert Hall, is a classic. I believe that all or most of it can be found on YouTube.com.

Which reminds me...seventeen or so years ago when I first became interested in Islam, I ordered a copy of Anis Shorrosh's debate with Ahmed Deedat directly from his evangelical organization in Alabama. Even though one of his newsletters claimed that Muslims, allegedly fearing that more people would see his devastating anti-Islamic material, were editing out portions of his debates when they published them. However, I noticed that in the video that I received from his organization, Ahmed Deedat gave a very brief reply to a question from a Christian who wanted to know how we can be sure that Prophet Muhammad—salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salam—is not the Anti-Christ. Even at that time I'd seen enough of Shaykh Deedat to know that if you give the man two minutes for a rebuttal, he was going to take all or most of the two minutes. In this case, however, his reply was oddly brief.

My curiosity got the best of me, and I ended up ordering a video of the same Shorrosh-Deedat debate from the New York office of Deedat's own Islamic Propagation Centre International (IPCI). As soon as the video arrived, I anxiously fast-forwarded to the part where Deedat is asked the question about Prophet Muhammad—salla Allahu 'alayhi wa salam—being the Anti-Christ. However, on this tape...surprise, surprise...Ahmed Deedat was shown giving a lengthy response to the question...and a rather pointed one at that. Thus it was Anis Shorrosh, or at a minimum his organization, that I had caught red-handed editing the responses of the Muslims...seemingly out of fear of its potentially devastating impact. The TRUTH has a way of doing that, you know!

"Truly, those who oppose God and His Messenger will be disgraced, as those before them were disgraced..." (Qur'an 58:5)

Deen On...

Vatican: Islam is "World's Largest Religion"

I just saw this a few minutes ago:

Muslims More Numerous Than Catholics
Vatican: Islam Surpasses Roman Catholicism As World's Largest Religion

The article stated that the Vatican newspaper admitted on Sunday that "Islam has surpassed Roman Catholicism as the world's largest religion."

This should come as no surprise to believing Muslims, since the Qur'an says (9:33, 48:29 and 61:9): "It is He (i.e. Almighty God) Who has sent His Messenger with guidance and the religion of truth (i.e. Islam), to make it manifestly superior over all (other) religions even though the polytheists detest it."

Deen on...

Suhaib Webb on the Danish Cartoons

Imam Suhaib Webb, the notable American Muslim scholar, has provided some wise and balanced advice in response to the question, "Please tell me as to what you think we can do as Muslims on the issue of the Cartoons?" Also, since the Danish cartoon controversy unfortunately surfaced in recent days, an excellent answer by Ustadh Abdul Sattar has been posted on SuhaibWebb.com which states that "It is time for Muslims to stop burning flags, and start burning their desires". Amîn!

Deen on...

Memorizing at Mount Hira

A kufi-tip to Godblogger.org, which is a nice looking blog which I just came across this morning, since they let me know about MountHira.com—a site for memorizing the Qur'an and various du'a (supplications) that many Muslims will, insha'llah, find very useful.

Hifz on...

BBC: Sharia - The Clear Path

The BBC has seen fit to post an excellent overview of the Islamic shari'ah by Sidi Faraz Rabbani of Seeker's Digest and SunniPath fame.

Sharia: The Clear Path
What is the the Philosophy of the Shariah?
By Faraz Rabbani
BBC Religion & Ethics - February 13th, 2008

While on the subject of the shari'ah, and in light of the recent remarks by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, I'll mention that there is some interesting discussions ([1][2]) going on which point out that separate Jewish religious courts already exist in the UK. However, this article, although from an oft-Islamophobic source, argues that Muslims are going further in their demands for official recognition of their religious courts than British Jews ever have...but Allahu 'alim on that.

I'll say that I was disappointed by the sensationalist—if not outright incorrect—title on the Pixelisation blog which claims "British Jews Support Dhimmitude" since nothing in the posting, nor in any statement that I've heard coming from a Jewish spokesperson in Britain, seems to support such a claim. Perhaps it would have been better if the author explained what type or interpretation of "Dhimmitude" that Jews (and was he making a sweeping and generalized statement about all of them?) in Britain allegedly "support".

As usual, Sidi Abdal Hakim Murad had some wise and level-headed thoughts to offer on the subject of Islamic shari'ah courts in Britain and the Archbishop of Canterbury's statement...so please read them here.

The BBC Religion & Ethics entry on Sharia actually contains four ([1][2][3][4]) parts, and I'm relieved that they didn't call it "Sharia Law" since that sounds rather redundant to me.

Deen on...

Alan Dershowitz and the Identical Errors Issue

Here's a link to the latest CounterPunch Special Report, which offers a detailed analysis of the charges of plagiarism leveled against Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz by Norman Finkelstein. In his discussion of this ongoing debate, Frank J. Menetrez shows how Dershowitz is both desperately trying to avoid discussing the detailed evidence against him and has deliberately misrepresented the issues as presented by Finkelstein. This is a fascinating issue, which has still managed to stay under the radar of the mainstream media, that I've been tracking for a couple of years now since I find what Dershowitz has managed to get away with to be truly outrageous. Even though this latest article is rather lengthy, it actually serves as a rather useful summary of this ongoing and heavily documented saga. Due to this, I strongly recommend reading it since it not only cuts to the chase and focuses on the real issues, but also provides some perspective on what's really at stake in all of this:

The Case Against Alan Dershowitz
Plagiarism, Cover Up and Misrepresentations
By Frank J. Menetrez
CounterPunch.org - February 11, 2008

As the article points out, what lies at the heart of the case against Alan Dershowitz is the "identical errors argument"—which is why he has not only continually avoided discussing it, but deliberately misrepresented Finkelstein's case in order keep attention away from it. Upon looking at the evidence, Dershowitz's desperation is understandable, since he could be in some real hot water if Harvard ever initiated a forthright and detailed investigation. As Frank J. Menetrez states, "If Harvard never investigated the identical errors issue and Dershowitz has always known that, and if I am also right that Finkelstein's charge concerning the Twain quote is sound, then Dershowitz has committed academic misconduct on several levels." These "several levels" are then expounded upon. Once these are considered, along with the rest of the evidence that the article puts forward, I think any honest person should be outraged and frustrated by the fact that "No honest and competent investigation by Harvard would have held Dershowitz to a lower standard than Harvard sets for its freshmen." So what are they waiting for?

Well it seems that for awhile Dershowitz had them duped, but the article in question might just be one more step towards waking the Harvard University administration from their stupor. As Menetrez explains, "Dershowitz's characterizations of the dispute are demonstrably incorrect. The identical errors argument, which lies at the heart of Finkelstein's case, shows that the plagiarism charge is not a technical matter about citation style or about the definition of plagiarism. Rather, it is factual dispute about whether Dershowitz copied primary source material directly from Peters without citing Peters and without checking the primary source himself. Again, Dershowitz has known this since the fall of 2003. It thus appears that Dershowitz's strategy from the start has been to pretend that this factual dispute does not exist and to hope that no one will notice." Ouch!

And keep in mind, that this isn't just a petty squabble between a couple of Ivory Tower academics, since there are looming questions concerning not only ethics and the long-term reputation of one of the most respected universities in the world, but academic freedom as well. As Menetrez puts it, "this is not just between Harvard and Dershowitz, or between Dershowitz and Finkelstein. Rather, Harvard has a moral obligation to Finkelstein to acknowledge, at a bare minimum, that it has never completely cleared Dershowitz of Finkelstein's plagiarism charges, because it has never rejected Finkelstein's argument concerning the identical errors"—so don't let Dershowitz's smoke screen fool you.

We've blogged on The Dershowitz Hoax and related topics quite a few times before ([1][2][3][4][5][6]), so hopefully this latest post will server as a good synopsis for those who don't have the time to read Norman Finkelstein's entire book Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History and the whole host of articles on this topic. However, if you have time, take a few minutes and watch these videos, since they provide ample evidence on just how pathetic Alan Dershowitz really is.

Deen on...

James Carroll on Islam

Here's a link to a quick interview with James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews—A History, An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us and House of War: The Pentagon and the Disastrous Rise of American Power. In the former book, he—a former Roman Catholic priest—serves the church a large slice of humble pie, spiced up with a bitter dose of historical memory and topped off with some painful analysis. Indeed, the number of embittered one-star reviews on Amazon.com which the book spawned serve as sufficient proof that, at least in some cases, denial ain't just a river in Egypt. Keep in mind (since most of the one-star reviewers obviously didn't) that this certainly isn't the only reputable book that examines the Christian roots of anti-Semitism and the role the church played in Hitler's so-called Reich ([1][2][3][4][5][6][7]).

Anyway, I thought the brief interview with him was worth a link not only because he's someone who is trying to fight bigotry and educate people about Islam, but also because a few of his statements are real gems. Take, for example, the following:

"We reacted very quickly against the Muslim world after September 11, and we were unable to make distinctions within the Muslim world. We saw an enemy in a very generalized and undistinguished way. George Bush's ignorance was our ignorance—we'd never heard of Al Qaeda. Americans didn't know that the largest Muslim country in the world is Indonesia, and it's not Arab."

"Mark Twain said that God created war so that Americans would learn geography—there's some truth in that. I would add that it's so that Americans would learn about other religions. We didn't know the difference between the Sunni and the Shia, and all of a sudden we're discovering that the war in Iraq is about a conflict within the Muslim faith. The Taliban was a despicable dictatorial regime, but the Taliban did not attack us on 9/11—yet we went ruthlessly to war against them. Looking back, it's an astounding act of ignorance. I believe Osama bin Laden was counting on it. So we've learned a lot about Islam over the past five years, thank goodness, and we won't be that ignorant again, I hope."

That Mark Twain quote almost made me laugh out loud! And by the way, I'm a firm believer that educating people about history is one of the best ways to cure their bigotry. That's because it's a lot harder to have hypocritical double-standards once you become aware of the crimes and injustices committed in the name of, or by members of, your own religion. Although plenty of determined and hard-hearted bigots often show a remarkable ability to turn a blind-eye to the crimes of their own side, from what I've observed, most people out there are usually just passively ignorant about what has gone on in the past. Which is not meant to imply that two wrongs make a right, since I intend this more along the lines of not worrying about the speck in someone else's eye when you've got a plank stuck in your own...wa Allahu 'alim.

Deen on...

The Mercy Warrior

A big kufi-tip to Sidi Faraz of Seeker's Digest for pointing out this excellent article about Habib Ali al-Jifri:

Habib Ali al-Jifri - The Mercy Warrior
By Abdul-Rehman Malik
Q-News Magazine - May 2006

Please read the entire article and pray that Almighty God continues to bless and protect this pious sage.

Deen on...

More on Politics 2008...

Since Super Tuesday is tomorrow, I'll mention that I found James Antle's recent comments to be spot on:

Dark Side of the Clintons
Liberal disquiet with the tactics of Hillary and Bill suggests their critics on the right had a point
by James Antle
GuardianUnlimited - February 4, 2008

Recent issues of The American Conservative magazine have contained the four pieces below—which are all worth a read whether you agree with them or not:

Untested Savior
Barack Obama answers Democrats' longing for a candidate who is above politics, but he would probably lead them to disaster in November.
by Scott McConnell

The Audacity of Huck
The Religious Right roils the establishment by backing one of its own.
by Michael Brendan Dougherty

The Madness of John McCain
A militarist suffering from acute narcissism and armed with the Bush Doctrine is not fit to be commander in chief.
by Justin Raimondo

The Paleocon Dilemma…
The Ron Paul campaign illustrates the choices facing the antiwar Right.
by W. James Antle III

The American Conservative magazine, co-founded by Pat Buchanan, which purveys traditional conservative, paleoconservative, libertarian and even paleolibertarian views, has endorsed Ron Paul for the Republican nomination. I enjoy hearing their writers' points-of-view since they're hostile to both the so-called Religious Right and the Neocons, including their foreign policy misadventures and their blind support for Israel, and try to counter the media dominance which the neoconservatives currently enjoy.

And for the sake of balance, here's a bit about Mitt Romney which may raise a few eyebrows:

Romney believes Jesus visited America
by Damian Thompson
Telegraph.co.uk - 21 Jan 08

Deen on...