“Until Muslims reject
racism in all forms, they can’t expect Islam to enjoy full respect
as a political and spiritual force.” |
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Racism in the Islamic World
How can peace prevail in the Middle East in
the face of Islamic bigotry and hate? When will moderate Muslims speak
out?
For years, the U.N., led by Islamic and Arab nations
and their sympathizers, has accused Israel of racism and “apartheid.”
That is nonsense, of course. But the world consistently turns a blind
eye to open, seething anti-Semitism in Islamic society.
What are the facts?
In one of the most astonishing propaganda coups
ever, a United Nations conference on racism, which took place
in Durban South Africa, declared that Zionism is racism. No wonder the
U.S. and Israel walked out of the meeting, which was dominated by representatives
of Islamic and Arab states and other anti-Israel forces, and whose conclusions
were predictable from the outset..
The supreme irony of this conference was that it accused
no other nation of racism—only Israel. In truth, Israel is perhaps
the most racially and ethnically diverse and tolerant country in the world.
More than half of Israel’s Jewish population consists of people
of color—blacks from Ethiopia and Yemen, as well as brown-skinned
people from Morocco, Iran, Syria, Egypt and Israel itself. In addition,
Israel’s population includes more than one million Arabs, who enjoy
the same civil rights as Jewish Israelis. In Israel hate speech is banned,
and it is against the law to discriminate based on race or religion.
In contrast, anti-Semitism—a poisonous form of racism
directed specifically against the Jewish people—is rampant in most
all Islamic societies. Not only is anti-Semitism commonplace in Muslim
nations, but it is propagated shamelessly by their leaders, in state-sponsored
media, and by Muslim clergy.
For example, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed
declared in a speech to the Organization of Islamic Conference that, “today
Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.”
Imagine if an American president had made a similarly sweeping and bigoted
statement about blacks, Latinos or any other race—what a justifiable
uproar, perhaps even an impeachment, would ensue. Yet there was no condemnation
by the Muslim world of Mr. Mohamed’s comments. Rather, virtually
all of the conference’s Muslim leaders actually voiced their approval.
In response to a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia in May
2004, Crown Prince Abdullah declared that “Zionism is behind [these]
terrorist actions in the kingdom.” (Zionism is the code word often
used by Islamic anti-Semites for Jews.) Tom Lantos, the late U.S. Congressman,
called the Prince’s assertion “an outrage . . . blatant hypocrisy,”
but Islamic leaders were silent. In fact, millions of Muslims still insist
that Zionists were behind the September 11 attacks on the World Trade
Center.
Anti-Semitism is expressed so freely and ubiquitously
in most Islamic societies that no citizen can escape it. During
Ramadan a few years ago, Egypt’s state-controlled TV aired “Horseman
Without a Horse,” a program based on the notorious forgery, The
Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in which Jews allegedly use the blood
of non-Jews to make Passover matzot. In Iran, a TV series, “Zahra’s
Blue Eyes,” portrays “Zionists” kidnapping Palestinian
children and harvesting their organs..
Perhaps nowhere is the hatred of Jews more virulent than
among the Palestinians. Most perniciously, Palestinian children are taught
in school that Jews are descended from apes and pigs and that the most
noble thing they can do is to kill Jews. Muslim clerics like Imam Ibrahim
Madiras, an employee of the Palestinian Authority, declared in a television
sermon, “Jews are a cancer” and later that, “Muslims
will kill the Jews . . . [and] rejoice in Allah’s victory.”
No surprise, then, that the 1982 doctoral dissertation of Palestinian
president Mahmoud Abbas makes the astounding claim that “Zionists”
collaborated with the Nazis to annihilate the Jewish people in order to
drive the survivors to Palestine.
Anti-Semitism and the prospects for peace. Islamic
anti-Semitism permeates the Arab Middle East and creates an atmosphere
in which Jews are reviled and represented as subhuman. How can the Palestinian
people embrace peace with a people represented by their religious and
political leaders as dehumanized, evil beings? Even more importantly,
how can Israel be expected to trust a so-called peace partner who expresses
abject hatred and murderous intent toward Jews on a daily basis? Yet the
U.S. and many European nations continue to demand that Israel make one-sided
sacrifices for peace with a people steeped in racism and committed to
its destruction..
Until Islamic leaders muster the integrity to relentlessly
condemn anti-Semitism (and its evil twin, anti-Zionism), we can’t
expect Israel to accept a forced peace with the Palestinians. Likewise,
until moderate Muslims reject racism in all forms, they can’t expect
Islam to enjoy full respect as a political and spiritual force among the
world’s people..
This ad has been published and paid for by
Facts and Logic About the Middle East
P.O. Box 590359
San Francisco, CA 94159
Gerardo Joffe, President
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