Garbanzo Toons

Muslims vs Freedom of Speech - Again

I first wrote about Egyptian Coptic priest Zakaria Botros, when I discovered him through Victor Davis Hanson. The gist of Hanson's article was that Fr. Botros, through his radio show, was inspiring huge numbers of Muslims to convert to Christianity. Imagine my surprise, while thumbing through (sort of, since I read it on-line) The Arab American News, that Fr. Botros is carried on a local Detroit station, WNZK (690 AM). If I read the article correctly Botros' program airs every Wednesday from 3:00 to 5:00 PM. According to the whining from the local Muslim community,

Egyptian Coptic priest Zakaria Botros, known around the world for his controversial theological rants about Islam, had been featured regularly for weeks on a Chaldean Christian programming broadcast by WNZK (690 AM), enraging many with frequent assertions that Islam's Prophet Mohammed, was, among other things, a homosexual.


Muslim leaders feared the weekly programs could cause tension between local Christian and Muslim communities, and sought out talks between interfaith leaders and the station owner about pressuring producers and the host of the show to keep the more radical commentaries off the air, said Ghalib Begg, Chair of the Council Of Islamic Organizations Of Michigan.

and

Another local Arab Christian leader, Fr. George Shalhoub of St. Mary Antiochian Orthodox Church in Livonia, said that Botros' outbursts may come from a bitterness felt by many Egyptian Christians, who he said have struggled to practice their faith in that country for years.


"Historically, Christians in Egypt have been persecuted," he said.


Religious life for Copts in Egypt, said Shalhoub, whose congregation is made up primarily of Palestinian, Syrian, Jordanian and Lebanese Americans, is much harder than in other Arab countries with large Christian populations, where, he said, there is mutual respect and tolerance between Muslim and Christian groups.

Mutual what? Between Muslim and infidel dhimmi? Huh? But wait. No defense of Islamic terrorism or the Islamic assault on free speech is complete without the moral equivalence argument.

"Father Zakaria is fueled by desperation, but no one should be condemned by other people's faith," he said. "Just leave him alone and he'll go away… There are fanatics among Christians. There are fanatics among Muslims. There are fanatics among Jews. If we pay attention to fanatics, we become fanatic… Don't forget we have freedom of speech here. No one can silence another by force."

Our intellectual elites have become so weak and degraded that Muslims no longer need force to shut down debate. All they have to do is claim humiliation and hurt feelings. Their prophet has been insulted - oh dear.

It's obvious that local Muslims are up in arms over Fr. Botros. That makes him A-OK in my book. As AM stations sometimes have weak signals, I hope I can still hear the show. As I have to report back to school next Wednesday, this will be an even bigger problem, but I will at least be able to hear part of the show. I have to assume too, that he's syndicated in other markets, possibly on a station near you.

And another thing. The Arab American News has a lot of nerve complaining about so-called hate speech after publishing their assault on the Israel at 60 Celebration. They can dish it out, but when it comes to taking it . . .

As soon as I'm done with this post, I'll be sending a short email to WNZK in support of Fr. Botros. If anyone else is interested, you can contact Operations Manager:
Mr. Sima Birach at Sima@BIRACH.com.

UPDATE: Fr. George Shalhoub, a local "Palestinian" Orthodox Christian priest who is quoted in the article speaking against Fr. Botros. Shalhoub, demonstrates in this article, that he is a well trained, well behaved, dhimmi.

Labels: Arab American News, Muslims, Zakaria Botros

posted by Harry @ 9:01 PM 4 comments

The Struggle for Equality

I found an interesting op-ed in the Arab American News. The writer, Will Youmans, is interested in establishing equality between Arabs and Jews . . . (punchline ahead) . . . in Israel! First he complains,

Though often called the "only democracy in the region," Israel does not have one of the basic elements of what makes states democratic. That is a constitution.

But then he has to admit,

While constitutions are not enough — almost all the Arab states have one and they are worth less than the paper they are written on . . .

And near the end of his piece he says,

Still, Israel's Palestinian citizens have more rights of citizenship and voting rights than they do in any Arab country.

In spite of these facts which Youmans admits, he still calls on Israel, the tiny Jewish nation that has been under attack by "Palestinians" and their Islamic brethren since before their nationhood was established, to give more to the Palestinians. He never calls any of the forty some Islamic states to recognize Israel, help Palestinians build a civilized society that's not predicated on terrorism and begging for handouts from the civilized world, or even tone down their vicious Jew-hatred a bit. He never suggests that Islamic nations call off their continuous war to destroy Israel or condemns their many attempts at the genocide of the Israeli people. Rather, his big idea is,

Israel should become a country for all its citizens, and terminate its . . . rule in the West Bank and Gaza. American politicians should back the calls by Adalah and the others. This is an example of Arabs pushing for democracy. If America supports this movement, it would inspire similar calls in the rest of the Arab world, where change is needed badly.

Who is he trying to kid? The apartheid state of Gaza was created by Israel for the Palestinians. It's a Jew-free state, as the West Bank would have been had not the Palestinians opted for war instead of peace. Protesters are being jailed and murdered in Iran for demanding democracy. Islamic terrorists in Afghanistan and Iraq are doing their best to make sure a true democracy never takes hold. Arabs need to push a lot harder for democracy in Islamic countries in order to be believable.

Every Muslim country in the world is a country for Muslims. Remaining Jews, Christians, and other religious minorities are being squeezed out. That's a condition that has been ongoing since the beginning of Islam. That should be remedied before telling Israel how to treat its citizens.

Update: I forgot to include the link to the original article. It's here.

Labels: Arab American News, islam, Israel

posted by Harry @ 4:31 PM 8 comments

Notes from the Islamic Ministry of Truth

The Detroit News, seems to have become home to any Muslim voice that wants to subvert the truth in order to further its agenda of destroying Israel and the West.

First off, we have the Detroit area's Islamic Minister of Truth, Imam Mohammed Ali Elahi, weighing in on the currrent cartoon controversy. His column is in regular rotation with other local religious leaders. Among other typical pronouncements in his truth-free zone, he lets us know that

Muslims, who believe in the virgin birth of Jesus and the revelation to Moses, never ridicule other people's faith symbols and would appreciate the same respect in return. We wouldn't mind if the terrorists were ridiculed: Those who hijack the name of Islam and kidnap the innocents like Jill Carroll and sometimes behead them and even bomb peaceful religious observances -- but to dishonor a prophet is inexcusable.

and

It's so sad to see how Prophet Muhammad is misunderstood and poorly appreciated in the West. Mohammad's life was filled with concern for his fellow human beings. He was a sincere servant and messenger of God.

Muhammad never attempted to forcibly convert anybody to his faith. It was his wisdom, patience, forgiveness and the humility of his teachings that attracted people. The prophet was asked to curse his enemies who tortured his followers in brutal and barbaric ways. Instead, he asked God to forgive them and save them from ignorance.

and of course

The animosity between Europe and the Muslim world hurts both sides, but it gives power to those who don't like to see the Western world cooperating with Muslims, who ignore humanity's basic needs and who love to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to launch more wars under the banner of "Christian crusade" or "democracy."

Imam Elahi must not have read this article at The American Thinker.

(1) Before Muhammad’s Hijrah, he used to sit in the assembly and invite the Meccans to Allah, citing the Quran and warning them of God’s punishment for mocking his prophets. A Meccan named Al-Nadr bin al-Harith would then follow him and speak about heroes and kings of Persia, saying, “By God, Muhammad cannot tell a better story than I, and his talk is only of old fables which he has copied as I have.” On other days al-Nadr would interrupt Muhammad until the prophet silenced him.

It was al-Nadir’s bad fortune to join Mecca’s army, riding north to protect their caravan, which Muhammad attacked at the Battle of Badr. The story-telling polytheist was captured, and on Muhammad’s return journey back to Medina, Ali, Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, at Muhammad’s order, beheaded him instead of getting some possible ransom money. He was one of two prisoners who were executed and not allowed to be ransomed by their clans—all because he wrote poems and told stories critiquing Muhammad.

[Source: Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, trans. A. Guillaume, (Oxford UP, 1955, 2004), pp. 136 (Arabic pages 191-92); 163 / 236; 181 / 262; 308 / 458. Reputable historians today consider Ibn Ishaq to be a good source of early Islam, though they may disagree on his chronology and miraculous elements.]

That's only one. There are other examples of wonton cruelty of course, including the beheading of the male Jews of the Qurayzah tribe, whose families were then enslaved, except for th beautiful Jewess who was forced to become one of his wives.

The News also printed this appalling piece of reality inversion in defense of Hamas by M. Kay Siblani, executive editor of Arab American News in Dearborn Michigan. She informs us that

T he political party in power in Israel is the direct descendant of a terrorist organization that bombed and killed Palestinians and Westerners alike while trying to establish a Jewish state on someone else's land.

and

For one thing, Hamas is not part of an effort to take someone else's land away. Its struggle is defensive, not offensive.

Neither does Hamas want to create a state wherein one religion reigns supreme. In Israel, Jews have automatic citizenship and other rights not afforded to people of other faiths. The double standard applied to Hamas -- and Arabs and Muslims -- is fueling support for more extremist groups.

It's OK to have a Jewish state, but not an Islamic one, even though the Jewish state is undemocratic, consistently violates international law, commits state-sponsored terrorism, has no constitution and no defined, internationally recognized borders.

The double standard is glaring on peace negotiations. The Palestinians are portrayed as an equal partner required to make all sorts of concessions before anyone will talk to them. But they have no land, no money, no arms and a compromised leadership.

and of course

If there's any doubt about who is the aggressor and who is the victim in this struggle, take a look at the statistics. Six times as many Palestinians have been killed by the Israelis as Israelis by the Palestinians. For children, the ratio is seven to one.

It's important to realize that standing against what Israel does -- or even whether it should exist -- is not anti-Semitic. Israel is a political aspiration of a particular group of people, some of whom are Jewish and some of whom are not. There are Jews who don't believe a state where Jews have rights above others should exist.

and the kicker

Those who know that the time has come for justice for Palestinians and believe that it will somehow detract from Israel's well-being have descended into name-calling and demonizing. People like this are irresponsible and should not have a public podium.

Short version: It's all the fault of Israel. Isn't everything?

Obviously Ms. Siblani hasn't paid much attention to recent history or read the Hamas charter, you know, the one that quite explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel.

Attempting to be fair to the Detroit News, I have to point out that Siblani's "blame the Jews" rant and the following example of a Muslim "moderate's" undisguised anti-semitism was in response to this column by Detroit News Editor, Nolan Finley. The headline is: "Palestinians failed democracy, not the other way around."

Democracy didn't fail when the Palestinians used their first truly free vote to install terrorist leaders. The Palestinians failed. Again.

Those who see the Hamas victory as evidence that democracy is not the answer for all people in all places ignore the unique nature of the Palestinians. They lack a key ingredient for sustaining freedom - self-interest.

The Palestinians' lust for Jewish blood is stronger than their desire to lead peaceful, secure lives, to rule an independent state, to lift themselves out of their misery.

That, given the opportunity, they would give their votes to terrorists should not be a shock. This is the same people who deified Yasser Arafat, the father of modern-day terrorism.

Terror defines Palestinians

Under Arafat, terrorism became an inseparable part of the Palestinian identity. He perfected the use of terror as a means of gaining a political wedge, proving that those willing to shed blood without relenting, without remorse and without regard to external pressure will be rewarded with a seat at the table.

Their suicide bombers should have made the Palestinians international pariahs. Instead, apologists depicted the violence as the natural response of a persecuted people. The excuses invited more terror, from more sources and in more places.

It's obvious why the usual cast of terror-supporters, "human rights activists", and Muslim spokesliars were upset.
This letter, "presenting another point of view", is reprinted in its entirety:

Following the revolting experience of reading Nolan Finley's extremely racist piece of garbage, several thoughts came to mind. First, I wondered how many Israeli shekels it took to purchase The News. The News has become an ambassador of hate by regurgitating the lies bigots have historically used to dehumanize and terrorize the Palestinian people.

It was none other than your employer, Ariel Sharon, and his Zionist predecessors who defined terrorism in the region and unleashed countless campaigns of brutality and unrelenting terror upon the innocent.

I'm sure the News sees itself as brave and selfless for printing this letter. They probably congratulate themselves on being even-handed and presenting both sides of a difficult issue. What they miss, or don't care to notice is the anti-semitic libel of "The Jewish control of the media." When discussing Israel, lies and anti-semitic slurs are not seen as the bigoted statements of hatred that have caused the deaths of millions over the past millenia. Now they are just another point of view. But they won't insult those delicate Muslim sensibilities by printing those "offensive" cartoons.

And that scares me.

Labels: American Thinker, anti-semitism, Arab American News, Detroit News, Hamas, Imam Elahi, Israel, M. Kay Siblani, Mohammed, Nolan Finley, Palestinians

posted by Harry @ 1:50 PM 2 comments