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Jews who survived wartime Europe have more cancer! http://ow.ly/wHwL beatcancer war jews

93.5% of Jews Say Goldstone Report is Biased

Today's Quote : Mel Gibson

The Jewish Museum of Girona

Girona was home to a large and flourishing religious, cultural and economic community of Jews from the 9th to the 15th century when they were forced to choose between converting to Catholicism or leaving the country.

           

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The_Jewish_Museum_of_Girona.zip (7664 KB)

Religion Kills

via cad-comic.com

The Consequences are Tragic

The Consequences are Tragic
 
There is no monopoly on extremism. The wing-nuts are both left and the
right. Many of us have been saying for years (I've been saying it for over
40 years) that differences between parties and the wing-nuts on both the
left and the right are so miniscule to be barely noticeable.
 
Politics and Political campaigns are a scam. Voting is invariably
a vote AGAINST someone, for a personality or an amorphous idea, i.e.
"change and hope."
 
Politics is public relations and benefits accrue to the over-lords; the
wealthy and the privileged class. It is a con game and apparently it
works.
 
Hank Roth
 
----------------
 
The Bloodthirsty Left, Extreme Rhetoric, and Murder
 
AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | June 15, 2009
 
The Wright comments undercut the left-wing campaign to depict Von Brunn as
a right-winger and blame conservatives for inspiring him.
 
James Von Brunn, who believed that "Obama does what his Jew owners tell
him to do," attacked the Holocaust Museum and killed a guard on the same
day it was being reported on a national basis that Obama's former pastor
Jeremiah Wright had said that "Them Jews ain't going to let him [Obama]
talk to me." It sounded as if they were reading from the same tract.
 
The Wright comments undercut the left-wing campaign to depict Von Brunn as
a right-winger and blame conservatives for inspiring him. It seems like
Von Brunn's anti-Semitic views are shared by some on the political left,
even those backing and very close to Obama himself.
 
Wright had actually made the statement one day earlier, on June 10, to
David Squires of the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia. Wright also
said the "Jewish vote" and the "AIPAC vote," referring to the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee, are "controlling" him, and that Obama was
in danger of becoming a "puppet."
 
If Von Brunn's anti-Semitism is shared by Jeremiah Wright, a left-winger
who was Obama's pastor for 20 years, then anti-Semitism is not a
right-wing phenomenon. That is why the attempts by various "progressives"
to blame the Holocaust Museum murder on the right-wing are political
nonsense and flat-out dishonest.
 
As veteran investigator Herbert Romerstein points out, anti-Semitism is a
condition that affects the left as well. In fact, he points out that "Some
Weather Underground activists were born into Jewish families, but they
were as anti-Semitic as their gentile born colleagues." Their
anti-Semitism seems to have been an outgrowth of their anti-Americanism.
They despise Israel because it is an ally of the United States.
 
This is critical because Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and
Bernardine Dohrn were also political associates and backers of Barack
Obama. The wall outside Ayers' university office depicts Israel as an
imperialist lackey of the U.S., as an "American-made missile" falls on
"Palestinian youth."
 
However, Joan Walsh of the far-left Salon.com has reportedly been on MSNBC
trying to blame "extreme right-wing rhetoric" for the murder at the
Holocaust Museum. She decries this "ugly rhetoric." This claim reminded me
of something that one of her staffers had written personally to me several
weeks ago.
 
I had asked Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com about his acceptance of an "Izzy"
award named after communist and Soviet agent-of-influence I.F. Stone, and
what he would say of the article in Commentary magazine about new evidence
linking Stone to Soviet intelligence.
 
Part of Greenwald's response was an attack on Commentary. He said, "The
fact that Stone is being smeared by the likes of the consummately
chicken-hawk, nepotistic, bloodthirsty Podhoretz family and the truly
deranged, sex-obsessed, conspiracy-monger Cliff Kincaid will make me place
my Izzy Award on an even more prominent shelf in my office."
 
The term "sex-obsessed" was apparently a reference to my opposition to
giving special rights to practitioners of the homosexual lifestyle. It
turns out that Greenwald is gay and has a "lover" in Brazil but I didn't
know that at the time. I hadn't thought about commenting on the
"bloodthirsty" comment until the attack on the Holocaust Museum and the
controversy over whether anti-Semitism is a right- or left-wing
phenomenon, and whether right-wingers are too "extreme."
 
Norman Podhoretz is the editor-at-large of Commentary and the author of
the book World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism. He was not
one of the authors of the piece on I.F. Stone in Commentary, and his
family had nothing to do with writing it. The authors were John Earl
Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev. Haynes and Klehr are
historians and Vassiliev is a Russian journalist who worked for the Soviet
KGB.
 
Members of AIM who had received our AIM Report on this matter have
been encouraged to contact Joan Walsh, editor-in-chief of Salon.com,
with postcards that read:
 
  Dear Ms. Walsh:
 
  One of your bloggers, Glenn Greenwald, reacted with vile
  insults when questioned about his acceptance of an award named after
  Soviet agent I.F. Stone. Why would a staffer for Salon.com accept
  such an award? If there is any doubt in your mind about Stone's
  service to the old Soviet Union, we suggest you consult the new book,
  Spies, by Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev. The section on Stone begins
  on page 126, in the chapter titled "The Journalist Spies." Does
  Greenwald also believe that Soviet spy Alger Hiss was innocent of the
  charges against him? Would he accept an Alger Hiss award? What would
  be your opinion on that?
 
  Note that Greenwald's natural impulse, in response to an article in
  Commentary attacking his icon, was to smear Podhoretz as
  "bloodthirsty." This speaks volumes about the "rhetoric" of the left.
 
  What makes this even more interesting is where the Greenwald comments
  ended up first. Before I even had a chance to comment, they surfaced
  on the blog of someone named Jane Hamsher, who advertises herself as
  "the author of the best-selling book Killer Instinct" and the producer
  of such films as "Natural Born Killers."
 
  Directed by Oliver Stone, "Natural Born Killers" is about two
  psychopathic killers who thrive on media attention. The two characters
  "travel across Route 666 conducting psychedelic mass-slaughters not
  for money, not for revenge, just for kicks," noted one review.
 
  I'll never forget Jeff Cohen, the founder of Fairness and Accuracy in
  Reporting (FAIR) -and the one who would subsequently give Greenwald
  his "Izzy"-once telling me that he rejected Stone's idea of holding a
  fundraiser for FAIR by showing the film "Natural Born Killers" because
  he found it too gruesome.
 
  Hamsher's Killer Instinct book is said to be the story of how she came
  to be involved in "Natural Born Killers." Defenders of the film said
  it was a commentary on media violence. But it inspired real life acts
  of violence. Indeed, a study, The Influence of Technology, Media, and
  Popular Culture on Criminal Behavior, found that the 1994 movie was
  linked to a dozen murders and the 1999 Columbine school massacre (the
  killers who killed 12 students and wounded another 24 were reportedly
  fans of the film). The academic study was by Jacqueline Helfgott, an
  associate professor at Seattle University who specializes in "the
  criminogenic effects of pop culture."
 
  A lawsuit was filed, Byers v. Edmondson, alleging that Sarah Edmondson
  and her boyfriend, Benjamin Darrus, went on a crime spree after
  watching the film. The suit claimed that the film producers were
  liable to the victims for distributing a film "which they knew or
  should have known would cause and inspire people" to acts of violence
  by "glorifying" such violence and "treating individuals who commit
  such violence as celebrities and heroes."
 
  The suit was filed on behalf of Patsy Byers, who was shot during an
  armed robbery of a convenience store where she worked in Ponchatoula,
  Louisiana. As a result of the shooting, Patsy Byers was rendered a
  paraplegic. Another victim was William Savage, who was murdered. The
  suit was dismissed when a court ruled that there was no evidence that
  the producers of the film had knowingly intended to incite violence.
 
  But in an affidavit, Edmondson admitted that "During the two weeks
  prior to the robbery and shooting of Mr. Savage on March 7, 1995 and
  the robbery and shooting of Mrs. Byers on March 8, 1995, Benjamin
  Darrus [and] I watched Natural Born Killers several time[s] in
  Oklahoma. We also ingested a quantity of LSD, a hallucinogen, during
  this time. Had we not seen the movie repeatedly we would not have
  taken a gun. It wouldn't have occurred to me. As well, had we not been
  under the influence of LSD; we never would have left Oklahoma. The
  movie did have a numbing influence concerning the effects of violence
  and a desire to experience it. The shooting did not take place as much
  from a need for money as from a desire to experience the power of
  violence."
 
  Despite her proud role in producing "Natural Born Killers," Hamsher
  wants us to believe she is against real-life violence and thinks that
  the right-wing should be blamed for the attack on the Holocaust
  Museum. She is recommending as a TV guest somebody named David Neiwert
  who has written a book on How Hate Talk Radicalized the Radical Right.
 
  "If any media folks need contact info for David, drop me a line," she
  said. BINGO. Just like that, he was on Anderson Cooper's CNN show on
  June 12.
 
  Neiwert runs his own website called "Crooks and Liars." This seems
  somehow appropriate.

Bleak for Jews of Iran

Permalink: http://inyourface.info/ArT/Chi/ARn.shtml
 
 
Jews of Iran
 
"On the eve of the Khomeini Revolution, 80,000 to 100,000 Jews lived in Iran . Today, there are still more Jews in Persia than any other Islamic state. Despite the dangers and threats, about 25,000 Jews (it is difficult to accurately assess their numbers) still remain and show no signs of budging. In this regard, there is no difference between the Jews of Europe and the Jews of the Orient, as significant portions of both groups refuse to learn from the lessons of the past." (Prof. David Menashri, Tel-Aviv University)
 
Today 250,000 immigrant olim from Persia (Iran) live in Israel and as noted 25,000 remain in Iran as do thousands who stayed on in Germany and Poland - and other European countries where they have been persecuted.
 
Iran is now again ruled by Islamic priests and has shed it's pre-Islamic past, becoming a religious caste society which penalizes non-Muslims and imposes strict religious law and inequity on it's women.
 
During the reign of the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi Iran was a national, secular royalty. It had excellent relations with Israel and it's policies were favorable to the West and dissent was quickly squelched with it's hated secret police, the Savak.
 
"By the 1970s, Iran 's Jews formed the most affluent and most educated community per capita in the Jewish world." (Menashri)
 
The Shah did away with the special tax (Jizah) on Jews. The Jews did very well under the Shah but that has hardly been the history of Jews in Iran (in spite of those who try to tell us otherwise). There are many researchers who have documented the treatment of Jews and other minorities. An example are the mass conversions of 1839 (see Professor Bernard Lewis, "The Jews of Islam)
 
Shiites, though a minority in the Muslim world, a majority in Iran, have been much less tolerant - of the Jews pursuant to the informed writing of Lewis. Professor Lewis is a respected and also an acclaimed writer, just as Edwin Black is and neither one are considered foolish nor sloppy with their research.
 
Dr. Heshmat Kerman, Chairperson of the Iranian American Jewish Federation writes:
 
"Over 2,000 years of Iranian Jewry constitutes a unique phenomenon. In the ancient period, the Jews had a certain degree of autonomy and even maintained their own armed force . For practical purposes, the establishment of the community can be traced back to 733 BCE. There was also a substantial amount of immigration during Cyrus's time. Already with the Scroll of Esther, we have a depiction of the Jewish people and anti-Semitism." (Kerman)
 
"Compared to the illustrious days of the ancient period, the last 500 years have witnessed a noticeable decline in the status of the Iranian Jewry. The government of Shah Ismael implemented extremely rigid Muslim religious codes with respect to the Jews. These laws had a detrimental effect on Jewish property, status, and honor, impoverishing the Jews and stripping them of their rights." (Kerman)
 
"The arrival of the Alliance Israelite Universelle to Persia in 1896, the legislative revolution of 1907, and especially the rise of the Reza Shah dynasty brought tidings of hope to the community. Other communities ~W refugees from other countries - moved to Iran: the Bucharian Jews in the 1930s and the Ashkenazi Jews, notably the "Teheran children," during the 1940s. As noted above, their conditions improved under the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi; the Jews prospered in a wide array of fields, including the economy, culture, and education. Needless to say, the miraculous founding of the State of Israel inspired Iran's Jews and enhanced their communal life. The Jews left the ghetto and dispersed among the affluent neighborhoods. The community board was freely elected, and the community ran its own schools, hospitals, and institutions, including their first senior-citizens home. A younger, more educated generation began to manage the community's affairs. A fair share of Jews secured positions in the Iranian academia and sciences. Moreover, the number of Jewish students enrolled in institutes of higher learning was well above the national average." (Kerman)
 
"However, the Islamic revolution put an end to this halcyon age , as under the new regime there is no longer any room for Judaism. Many have departed to Israel, the United States, and other countries. The remaining Jews face heavy pressure to convert, especially its younger members. In addition, the old anti-Jewish legislation has returned: for example, only a member of the Muslim faith may inherit property; a Muslim that kills a heretic may redeem himself and procure his freedom for $2,500; and travel abroad is restricted." (Kerman)
 
"It is one of the many paradoxes of the Islamic Republic of Iran that this most virulent anti-Israeli country supports by far the largest Jewish population of any Muslim country." (Sephardic Studies)
 
"While Jewish communities in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria have all but vanished, Iran is home to 25,000 - some here say 35,000 - Jews. The Jewish population is less than half the number that lived here before the Islamic revolution of 1979. But the Jews have tried to compensate for their diminishing numbers by adopting a new religious fervor." (ibid)
 
Jews in Germany didn't believe their neighbors would become part of the killing machine either. That is the way it is in Iran. Many of the Jews have lived there longer than their Iranian neighbors. In some respects some feel more Iranian than Jewish. But, that won't save them.
"I sat among a group of Iranian soldiers watching "Lebanon, My Love" ("Lobnan eshq-e man") in a movie theater in Shiraz. Of the two general types of Iranian action films -- killing Iraqis and killing Israelis -- it was the latter. People cheered as the Hezbollah members infiltrated into the southern Lebanon security zone and ambushed the Israelis. Every time a Zionist was killed, there would be loud cheers. When the "freedom fighters" approached an unsuspecting Israeli, those around me would shout "kill the Jew!" in anticipation." (From "Freedom, within limits" published in February 1997 by "Forward" in New York. See also "Singing the blues" about Iranian Jews in the 19th century.)
 
It is pretty obvious that the situation for Jews remaining in Persia (Iran) is very bleak and they would do well to heed history and leave.
 
  Hank Roth

###
 
Any excerpts provided here are pursuant to the Fair Use Doctrine
for educational and discussion purposes per
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, Copyright Law.
 
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Resurgent Antisemitism

Jews and the Left

"Modern political history indicates a clear connection between being Jewish and being radical, Both as individual theorists and activists of the stature of Marx, Luxemburg, Trotsky and Emma Goldman, and as organized mass labour movements in, for example, revolutionary Russia and early 20th century Britain and the USA, Jews have made a disproportionate contribution to the Left." (Philip Mendes)

Hitler came to power in January of 1933 promising the German people economic recovery. He blamed the problem on the nonnegotiable conditions imposed on Germany at Versailles and to some extent that was Germany's greatest problem along with a world-wide depression and Hitler put the responsibility for all this on Bolshevik, Communist and Marxist conspiracies, which he believed the Jews were behind in every case, therefore, Germany's terrible economic conditions were a result of this international Jewish conspiracy. And, it didn't take much to convince the Germany people that the Jews were behind all their problems. They were again the convenient scapegoat. Edwin Black writes that "The paranoid Nazis believed in the legendary, almost supernatural economic power of the Jews." The motto often stated by even ordinary Germans was:

The Problem is Nobody Wanted the Jews

Many Europeans already had deep antisemitic beliefs that were based on Christian myths about the Jews. Hitler believed that to getting rid of the Jews must be one of his most important objectives and he didn't care how he did it. He said he would give them all tickets on a luxury ocean liner if that would get rid of them. The problem is nobody else wanted them either - until the Zionist leadership agreed to transfer many of them to Palestine.

FDR Refused to Get Involved

"Roosevelt himself had shown little official concern for the plight of Germany's Jews. Shortly before the inauguration in the first week of March, one of (Rabbi Wise was a major leader of American Jewry) Wise's friends, Lewis Strauss, tried to convince the outgoing President Hoover and President-elect Roosevelt to send a joint message of alarm to the German government. Although Hoover sent word of his concern through the American ambassador in Berlin, FDR refused to get involved.".... (Quoted from Morton Rosenstock, "Louis Marshall, Defender of Jewish Rights (65) by Edwin Black, "The Transfer Agreement" (84) p16)

First Plan was Expulsion

Hitler wanted to get rid of the Jews but nobody wanted them.

Hitler wanted to get rid of the JEWS, but his first plan was not extermination, it was expulsion. He was willing to send all the Jews away from Germany if the rest of the world would just take them - and he said he would do it even on luxury liners if they would just take these Jews from him. The world refused and there was the Holocaust. The transfer of 60,000, arranged by the Zionists was only a partial payment. If the British had opened the gates up to "Palestine" they could have had hundreds of thousands of Jews. If America had lifted the quotas, Hitler would have given to America as many Jews as transportation could have been arranged for, but it didn't happen. There were antisemites in America and in Britain who refused to take the Jews.

"We haven't had this level of antisemitism since World War II," Avi Beker, secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, told a meeting of Jewish leaders in Brussels. "European governments cannot just shrug their shoulders and say it's all part of the Middle East problem. On many occasions when there is a deterioration in the social fabric, it starts with the Jews, especially here on this continent where there has been a history of antisemitism." ("Prejudice returns from the graveyard of evil: Antisemitism in a native tongue - (05-02-2002) - The Washington Times - Suzanne Fields, a nationally syndicated columnist)

What about the Left?

Jews have been disproportionately in left social welfare and socialist movements and the Jews were frequently radicalized by antisemitism. The more Jews were persecuted and oppressed by right ring goverments, the more politically active Jews became on the left, but when the left no longer seemed be the answer to antisemitism, the idea of returning to the Jewish homeland became a consideration and many Jewish leftists turned to Zionism.

And, Many (so-called) "Progressives" also Traffick in Antisemitism:

"In recent ABC "Nightline" coverage of a rally in Berkeley, Calif., a reporter took a certain pride in telling viewers that "Nightline" chose not to run the image of a young woman holding up a caricature of Ariel Sharon, wearing a swastika prominently displayed on his armband, giving the Hitler salute. He found it too offensive. Notes Ron Rosenbaum in the New York Observer, that kind of "cover up" prevents us from observing how much "anti-Israel protests have become antisemitic.""(Fields)

"This great new surge of European antisemitism--if that is what these events signify--solves a puzzle that has been taxing a lot of Americans. Israel is a victim of terrorism, much as America was a victim of terrorism in September. Israel is defending itself against pitiless murderers with all available means, much as America is defending itself. Right and wrong in the matter, or so most Americans believe, could hardly be clearer. Why, then, Americans ask, is Europe taking the side of Palestine's suicide bombers, passing lightly over their crimes, while vilifying Israel's government for its restrained (under the circumstances) assault on the terrorist infrastructure of the West Bank? These perverted sympathies seem quite inexplicable--unless the answer, albeit painful to contemplate, is obvious. Anti-Semitism, it is argued, explains it all." (Leaders: Europe and the Jews; Anti-Semitism - (05-04-2002)-The Economist)

And these perverted sympathies always existed and the Jews are quite accustomed to it. When Britain decided to leave Palestine it did not cooperate with the Jews who sided with them in two wars, it fully cooperated with Arabs in the region by turning over whole garrisons to them in expectation that they would eliminate the Jewish hope for an independent state. There were several reasons which seem most obvious in retrospect; concern for their continued access to oil, a romantic, idealized version of Arab culture, and latent and sometimes overt antisemitism.

Jews do owe a debt of gratitude to Britain for the Balfour Declaration which in 1917 recognized the historic, Jewish attachment and claims in the land - at a time when there was a mere shadow of a Jewish and an Arab presence in what was then a mere backwater, unproductive, waste and swampy territory of the former Ottoman empire after WWI.

However, successive British governments and colonial authorities managed to choke off the Balfour policy almost from the beginning, and while Arabs managed to emigrate freely, Jewish emigration was practically cut off entirely by the 30s when it was needed the most to escape the "Final Solution."

"At the same time that the British slammed the gates on Jews, they permitted or ignored massive illegal immigration into Western Palestine from Arab countries Jordan, Syria, Egypt, North Africa. In 1939, Winston Churchill noted that "So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied . . . ." Exact population statistics may be problematic, but it seems that by 1947 the number of Arabs west of the Jordan River was approximately triple of what it had been in 1900."\

"The current myth is that these Arabs were long established in Palestine, until the Jews came and "displaced" them. The fact is, that recent Arab immigration into Palestine "displaced" the Jews. That the massive increase in Arab population was very recent is attested by the ruling of the United Nations: That any Arab who had lived in Palestine for two years and then left in 1948 qualifies as a "Palestinian refugees". " (Josesph Katz in the February 15, 2001 issue of "Time to Speak") "Casual use of population statistics for Jews and Arabs in Palestine rarely consider how the proportions came to be. One factor was the British policy of keeping out Jews while bringing in Arabs. Another factor was the violence used to kill or drive out Jews even where they had been long established." (Katz)

 

The British maintained strict immigration quotas for the Jews. At the same time the British allowed unencumbered, free immigration by Arabs.

"There is no such thing as a Palestinian Arab nation . . . Palestine is a name the Romans gave to Eretz Yisrael with the express purpose of infuriating the Jews . . . . Why should we use the spiteful name meant to humiliate us? (Katz)

 

"The British chose to call the land they mandated Palestine, and the Arabs picked it up as their nation's supposed ancient name, though they couldn't even pronounce it correctly and turned it into Falastin a fictional entity." (Golda Meir quoted by Sarah Honig, Jerusalem Post, 25 November 1995)

It is the left which is supposed to be progressive which all too often today also indulges bigotry, including antisemitism, thinly cloaked as Anti-Zionism.

"Modern political history indicates a clear connection between being Jewish and being radical, Both as individual theorists and activists of the stature of Marx, Luxemburg, Trotsky and Emma Goldman, and as organized mass labour movements in, for example, revolutionary Russia and early 20th century Britain and the USA, Jews have made a disproportionate contribution to the Left." (-- Philip Mendes)

After most revolutions instead of conditions improving for the Jews, which they sometimes did for awhile, the Jews very often became the scapegoat for all that goes wrong following the revolution, just as today the Jews are again being betrayed by a "left" it helped to create. Granting Jewish rights would frequently result in an antisemitic backlash. All over Europe, emerging nationalist movements blamed the Jews for all the problems of the new industrial society.

An anti-Jewish backlash seems to be emerging or is it exaggerated? Are Jews today the scapegoat because of policies in Israel or something else?

For some on the left to deny the right of the "Jewish State" to exist is tantamount to denying the right of Jews to exist.

Leftists love to quote the Jews - especially those Jewish ultra-orthodox fringe sects "as if" they are representative of Jewish opinion, or the "New Historians" but what they don't understand is that intellectual honesty requires self-criticism and revision. This is the Jewish scientific method. It is like a creationists quoting a scientist who is hyper critical of evolution - which is not a negation of evolution at all; it is a confirmation of the strength of that theory that it can stand the test of criticism - just as being critical of Zionism can be a affirmation of Zionism.

And, while we share a common heritage, Jews were hardly ever a monolith of common views, except a majority have come to realize that Zionism has for most Jews been a liberation from antisemitic persecution.

"The anti-Zionism of some sects of ultra- Orthodox Jews that is often used to refute the notion that "anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism" is based on a specious argument. These sects do not deny the right of the Jews to the Land of Israel. In fact, they assert the right of the Jews to all of it. Their anti-Zionist misnomer stems from denying that the Jewish right to Israel can be exercised before what they believe will be a future messianic age. (Ron Dermer, "Appeasement, not antisemitism"-(05-10-2002)-Jerusalem Post)

"In contrast, the Muslim fanatics who are murdering Jews in Israel and burning synagogues in Europe deny the right of the Jews to any inch of what they consider to be Islamic land." (Post)

"Palestine has never existed . . . as an autonomous entity. There is no language known as Palestinian...There is no distinct Palestinian culture...There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. ...."Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. ...Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of one percent of the landmass. But that's too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today . . . No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough." -- (from "Myths of the Middle East", Joseph Farah, Arab-American editor and journalist, WorldNetDaily.Com, 11 October 2000. Farah is a Lebanese Christian who supports Israel. He is often on the right side of issues but where truth is concerned there is no right or left, only what is true.)

"There is no such thing as Palestine in history, absolutely not" (Professor Philip Hitti, Arab historian to Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, 1946)

"It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria." (Delegate of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations Security Council, 1956)

It is not important that Palestine "never existed." What is important is peaceful coexistence and if that requires establishing a state for Palestinians, then it should be done if it can be done without sacrificing Israel's security and satisfies the national aspirations of the Palestinians. While I would rather see that done in one state it appears that may not be possible. If that means two states, and that is their decision, then they should endeavor to create a peaceful two-state solution.

For many anti-war activists, their Jewishness is the result of their exposure to antisemitism on the left - and the chief reason many retain their Jewishness is because of this current of antisemitism, which also manifests itself in antiZionism.

Many on the Jewish left are also very critical of the government in Israel, just as they are of governments elsewhere but many Jews on the left also support the existence of the State of Israel for the obvious reasons that history does tend to repeat itself.

"Anti-globalization activists have also adopted Israel as a symbol. For them, the Jewish state is the bagman for laissez-faire capitalists they see as out to turn the world and its people into one undifferentiated market in which everything is reduced to the level of commodity. Consequently, virtually every anti-globalization demonstration these days has some anti-Israel component, which is manipulated to the fullest by pro-Palestinian forces pushing their own agenda." (Ira Rifkin, "Globalization and the Jews"-(01-12-2003)-Jerusalem Post)

Likewise, every anti-war demonstration also has a very pronounced component which is anti-Israel. It does not have a component which is as vocal about injustices in Turkey, Egypt, Turkey, the mistreatment of women in every Islamic regime, execution of political prisoners in China, the injustices in Russia and right wing regimes in South America - but assuredly every "Peace and Justice" demo will have it's anti-Zionists.

"One reason for this is Israel's close relationship with the United States, seen by critics as the primary source of globalization's destructive economic and cultural values. In this sense, Israel is vilified as an unofficial 51st state, an American beachhead from which to assert control over Arab oil and spread a self-indulgent Western lifestyle." (Post)

Hateful Mythology of Hate

But even if Israel needs U.S. support and may have to call upon the U.S. for protection (which may or may not be there when that time comes), historic antisemitism prevails. Old canards are revived. Jews are thought to have too much influence, to be too wealthy, to be to elitist. Jews are accused of manipulation and for being global puppet masters for multinational corporations. Jews are considered too smart, too successful and especially too Jewish.

Most Jews support "progressive" causes; hold "progressive" positions; and many Jews are being alienated by an antisemitic left.

Antisemitism lives and there is often a deafening silence....from the Left

"Antisemitism is alive and well and living in the 21st century. Of course, now it is all couched in anti-Israel rhetoric, the new cover for the old malady, and somehow socially acceptable. But it is not only in the one-sided media that I hear its echoes. Its very real manifestations are being played out in firebomb attacks on synagogues and community centres and Jewish school buses around the world. And where are the politicians and religious leaders? Deathly quiet." (Michele Mandel, "Silence Greets the New Antisemitism\and Israel Left to Fight Alone Again" - 04-14-2002 The Toronto Sun)

"In Saskatoon a synagogue is firebombed and in Ottawa a synagogue is desecrated. In Toronto, a community centre and a Jewish agency that helps developmentally disabled adults are defaced. An arsonist breaks into the Anshei Minsk Synagogue in Kensington Market, one of the oldest synagogues in Toronto, and sets a fire 2,000 Jewish holy books, just as the Nazis did in the 1930s. And a Jewish heart surgeon has his shoulder broken after he is shoved into a parked car during an anti-Israel demonstration on Bloor St." (Mandel)

"In Europe, the birthplace of modern antisemitism, it rages with alarming impunity. Especially brazen in France, which has the largest Muslim community in Europe, Jewish institutions, cemeteries, schools and synagogues have been attacked by thugs and arsonists. Five French synagogues were firebombed last week alone. A school bus filled with Jewish children was stoned and another was torched. And the government, too afraid of angering its large Muslim population, does little to stop it." (Mandel)

"In Germany, two rabbis visiting from the United States were beaten by a group of six in Berlin after being asked "Are you a Jew?" The same scene has been replayed in Belgium, Caracas, Casablanca and Helsinki, and there are no international demands for the antisemitism to stop." (Mandel)

What you do hear is the mythology of Israeli mistreatment of Palestinian terrorists who are intent on destroying them. What you do hear is the antisemitism of the left which is very vocal in the anti-war movement.

"For weeks, Palestinian homicide bombers strapped with dynamite have targeted crowds of vulnerable civilians. Day after day after day, in pizza parlours and ice cream shops and discos. My, how quiet the world is. Where is the condemnation from church groups? Where are the non-Jewish protesters?" (Mandel)

Resurgent Antisemitism? - Consider what follows from "The Left's Anti-Semitic Chic", Washington Post, 2/25/2004; George F. Will - Will is not Jewish. He is a conservative writer but in this case the facts he outlines in his article are indisputable.

"A cartoon in a mainstream Italian newspaper depicts the infant Jesus in a manger, menaced by an Israeli tank and saying, "Don't tell me they want to kill me again." This expresses animus against Israel rather than twisted Christian zeal."

"The European Union has suppressed a study it commissioned, because the study blamed the upsurge in anti-Jewish acts on European Muslims and the European left."

"Nineteen percent of Germans believe what a best-selling German book asserts: The CIA and Israel's Mossad organized the Sept. 11 attacks."

"On French television, a comedian wearing a Jewish skullcap gives a Nazi salute while yelling, "Isra-Heil!""

If Israel is not the Great Satan, it is allied with him -- America. European anti-American demonstrations often include Israel's blue and white flag with a swastika replacing the star of David, and signs perpetuating the myth, concocted by Palestinians and cooperative Western journalists.

Omer Bartov, a historian at Brown University, writes in the New Republic that much of what Hitler said, "can be found today in innumerable places: on Internet sites, propaganda brochures, political speeches, protest placards, academic publications, religious sermons, you name it."

Certainly there are abuses and overreaction by some in Israel, but consider what you would do if threatened with constant suicide bombings and mortar attacks on your towns and settlements. Consider how you might feel if you lost a child or a brother or mother or father and the enemy is clearly visible and teaches it's children to kill you. Consider that most Palestinians are not progressives and they do not show the same concern for civilian life that many in Israel do, and consider that there has been no one to talk to about reconciliation. Fortunately this position of antisemitism on the left is a fringe of the most ignorant, least informed, least read, least intelligent among them. Reason must prevail. And peaceful coexistence with Palestinians must prevail.

Israel is a democracy and criticism is expected in a democracy. The government is constantly examining it's policies and subjects itself to constant criticism and changes in policy. No other country in the Middle East is as open and as self-critical as Israel - yet every criticism is magnified and repeated by the left and Israel's other detractors. But the left is quiet about the obvious contravention of human rights and abuses of the totalitarian Islamic regimes. Israel is called racist because it is a "Jewish" State (a term denoting nationalism) whereas every one of the Islamic countries in the region, all 22 of them are Islamic and the term denotes religion yet they are never labeled racist by the left and the world community. The charge of racism against Israel was overturned and was not appropriate in the first place, yet those on the left, while quiet about the racism of Muslim countries continues to accuse Israel of a charge which does not apply and never did.

Hank Roth

Is Obama Pretending to Be a Christian?

 Here is an interesting resource in regards to taqiyya - deception by Muslims. Pretending to be a Christian can be an act of taqiyya.
 
"Falsehoods told to prevent the denigration of Islam, to protect oneself, or to promote the cause of Islam are sanctioned in the Qur'an and Sunna, including lying under oath in testimony before a court, deceiving by making distorted statements to the media such as the claim that Islam is a "religion of peace". A Muslim is even permitted to deny or denounce his faith if, in so doing, he protects or furthers the interests of Islam, so long as he remains faithful to Islam in his heart." (http://www.islam-watch.org)
 
"Like many Islamic practices, taqiyya was formed within the context of the culture of Arab tribalism, expansionary warfare, Bedouin raiding and inter-tribal conflict. Taqiyya has been used by Muslims since the 7th century to confuse, confound and divide `the enemy'." (Islam Watch)
 
I admit, I didn't expect that Jews would vote for Obama in such overwhelming numbers. It has been estimated by some pollsters that as many as 78% of the Jews voted for Barack Hussein Obama in the last election. Only the Blacks voted in greater numbers; almost 98%, for Obama.
 
I don't know how many Jews today support Israel, but I suspect about as many as concern themselves with their history and the Holocaust while most of the Jews alive today do not have much knowledge of their 2,000 year history in the Diaspora nor were most of them around during the Nazi Holocaust.
 
And, there is a third factor - overwhelmingly Jews support Democrats.
 
Marc Stanley (chairman of the National Jewish Democratic Council) in an Op-Ed published by JTA in November 2008, wrote: "In fact, since 1972, when exit polls were first instituted, the Republican nominee has averaged only 27 percent of the Jewish vote. In recent elections, the Republican nominee has received even less, with Jewish support at 22 percent for Bush in 2004 and 19 percent in 2000, and 16 percent for Bob Dole in 1996. In 2006, the Jewish support of Democratic congressional candidates reached 87 percent."
 
Even Jews like Dershowitz, who fancies himself a Centrist Democrat but has written mediocre books and articles supporting Israel (though considered right wing by extreme left wing and anti-Zionist Jews, i.e. Finklestein, Chomsky et al) - is opposed to Israeli policies which have been so important to their survival, a halt to natural expansion of the "so-called" settlements and Israel's hawkish governments, which would also include the Labor wing with regard to military and security decisions.
 
Many Jews I have talked to doubt the accuracy of the 78% polling estimate. I doubt the accuracy of the election. The caucuses were rigged. There is little doubt that if the truth about Obama was ever disclosed by a media willing (and able) to report the truth about Obama he may not have won the election at all. I don't need to go into all the reasons for my views about this here; I have done so before (see TheCrypt at http://inyourface.info/crypt/).
 
The choice should have been to vote for the hero, not the zero. Obama's record is capricious and disgraceful; his friends antisemitic and anti-Israel - and Barack Hussein Obama is now on the job in training. OJT doesn't cut it in this job - and his words are an affront to Jews and a betrayal of the American partnership with the only democracy in the Middle East, Israel.
 
For older American Jews it just still about Israel, but for most of them who are younger Jews it was not about Israel.
 
In Commentary ( http://www.commentarymagazine.com ), "Why Jews Are Voting Obama," Shmuel Rosner - 10.22.2008 wrote:
 
"Commentators have suggested that Jews' concern for Israel may well serve to diminish their enthusiasm for the Democratic candidate. Indeed, Jews do care about the Israel-Palestine conflict more than other Americans. Yet, with that said, the Israel issue ranked 8th out of 15 issues in importance as a presidential election consideration for Jewish respondents. Aside from the economy (a prime issue of concern for the vast majority of respondents), ahead of Israel on Jewish voters' minds were such matters as health care, gas prices and energy, taxes, and education. Ranking just below Israel in importance for Jewish respondents were appointments to the Supreme Court and the environment. In fact, when asked to name their top three issues, just 15% of Jewish respondents chose Israel as one of the three, and these were heavily Orthodox Jews."
 
He continues, "While their political views tending in the liberal direction help explain their support for Obama, and their concern for Israel may actually pull them in the other direction, political views alone cannot explain their high levels of Democratic vote intention. Neither can the major socio-demographic variables. Rather, their vote intentions are a product of their political identities - their long-standing association with the liberal camp and the Democratic Party."
 
Obviously many Jews have not been thinking about the implications of their vote for Obama. They assimilate and become too comfortable. No matter that antisemitism is on the increase and their vote for Obama was a betrayal of Israel just as Obama is demonstrating his incompetence as president and disregard for Israeli security. He placates and appeases enemies and imposing his will on Israel to give up land for peace is a prescription for the destruction of the State of the Jews, not their survival.
 
There may have been other reasons for Jews to vote for a Democrat, but Obama wasn't one of them. Obama is a pretender to the job. But lest we forget, George W. Bush was not so terrific for Israel either. He was the first president to declare a two state solution and to call on Israel to stop settlement activity. It is not certain that any candidate would be good for the Jews, but Obama would be far worse; just look at who he has associated with, Jew-haters from Ayers, Rev Wright, General Merrill McPeak, Rashid Khalidi and dozens of others. You can know a lot about a person by the company he keeps. Having Jewish advisers doesn't make up for (nor cancel out) antisemitic mentors, friends and supporters. He didn't throw them under the bus; he just doesn't mention them now. It will be the Jews he throws under the bus. His style might be compelling but his actions are ignorant of Israel's existential risks and a substantial disadvantage to Israel's ability to survive.
 
Joseph Farah in "Between the Line" at WorldNet Daily says, "It's the 1930s all over again. This time, it's the enlightened liberal voices of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama who are telling Jews where they can live, how they can live and how far they must bend if they want to live at all."
 
He is right; it is the 30s all over again.......
 
Farah also says,
 
"Think about what I am saying: It is the official policy of the Palestinian Authority that all Jews must get off the land! Why is the United States supporting the creation of a new, racist, anti-Semitic hate state? Why is the civilized world viewing this as a prescription for peace in the region? Why is this considered an acceptable idea?"
 
Joseph Farah writes:
"I hope my Jewish friends remember this well. Many of them voted for Barack Obama. Many of them voted for Hillary Clinton. These are not your friends. These are the same kinds of people who turned away ships of Jewish refugees from Germany in the 1940s. These are the same kinds of people who appeased Adolf Hitler at Munich. These are the same kinds of people who made the reformation of the modern state of Israel so difficult."
 
He continues, "No more ethnic cleansing. No more official anti-Semitism accepted. No more Jew-bashing. No more telling Jews where they can live, how they can - and if they can live."
 
Obama refuses to disclose his birth certificate (which is not a certificate of live birth - not the forged document which appeared on his website). Where are his college records and his Illinois Senate records. What do you think Obama is hiding? It seems clear to me.
 
His grandmother said she was present at his birth in Kenya. Why is she now guarded and not being allowed to talk to reporters or investigators? Why has Barack Hussein Obama spent over a million dollars for just to conceal the truth about his part? How could he travel to Indonesia in 1981 if he only had an American passport - when it was impossible to travel in Indonesia on an American passport?
 
Barack Hussein Obama refuses to release the following documents:
 
  1. Occidental College records
  2. Columbia College records
  3. Columbia Thesis
  4. Harvard College records
  5. Selective Service Registration
  6. Medical records
  7. Illinois State Senate schedule
  8. Your Illinois State Senate records
  9. Law practice client list
  10. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate
  11. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth
  12. Record of baptism -- what else is he hiding? --
 
(also see excellent source and open discussion at:  http://opengov.ideascale.com/ ).
 
Some people call Andy Martin (author of the book, Obama: the Man Behind The Mask, a nutcase. Some agree with that assessment; others say it is because he asks tough questions. Andy Martin at ContrarianCommentary.Com is saying that Barack Obama "owes me an apology." Does he? Andy writes, (June 3, 2009) - "Almost five years ago I wrote the first stories focusing attention on Barack Obama's family roots. I pointed out that Obama's father and grandfather were Muslims. Under traditional Islamic law, Obama himself was therefore considered a Muslim." [ibid]
 
See:  www.pr-inside.com
 
"Islam is the polar opposite of Judaism. Under Judaism, religion descends through the mother. Under Islam, the father transmits religion. Obama's thugs responded with a firestorm of smears and attacks on me.
[ibid]
 
(See  www.thenation.com )
 
"Obama called my stories about his religious "heritage" smears, and said, "Who, my father? Didn't know him. He was an agnostic." But as Tapper at ABC news points out, Obama has now become "President Muslim," bragging about his Muslim dad:" [ibid]
 
I can't say with certitude that Obama is a Muslim, even if he appears to be. I can't say positively that he intends to destroy America from the inside even if it appears that way and what he is doing to American is intentionally orchestrated by him and others to tear this country down but it most certainly appears that way. You and I will have to wait and see and we MUST continue to challenge his destructive positions and demand also that he establish his bone fides, that he is who he says he is even though he appears not to be; he is a pretender who has managed to obscure truth. I think we do need hope and change, - "hope" we can survive Barack Hussein Obama and "change" to be safe through strength, a vanguard for democracy and freedom. I also "hope" it isn't too late.
 
Hank Roth
 
http://inyourface.info
 
 Permalink: http://inyourface.info/ArT/Chi/GeT.shtml

Pagan Cult of Islam

When it is said "If there is a will, there is a way," what is really meant is there are those who will always find a way to justify a their "means to an end" - to rationalize their preconceived ideas - to justify evil, even when done in the name of good. Having the ability to think is a biological necessity for survival even when it is faith based belief, even if it is wrong minded and morally repugnant belief and full of errors, as is the case with the Koran. Faith is rationalized belief because it cannot depend on evidence; it cannot be proved. There is no proof for it. And Jihad is justified on faith. Abuse of women is justified by religious dictum. Believers can and often do find justification even when faith ideas are predicated on falsehoods and full of hate and they advocate for conquest and plunder as with the pagan-based cult of Allah. -- Hank Roth
 
Pagan-Based Cult of Allah
 
Islams Pagan Rites
 
In fact, the pilgrimage ceremonies of Muslims today are in no way different from what Muhammad's ancestors and other desert Arabs did hundreds of years before him. Only the name is changed and the pagan cult has become Islamic rite.
Pre-Islamic Religion and its Influence on Muhammad
by Anwar Hekmat
 
The nomadic desert dwellers had worshiped a multitude of male and female deities for many centuries before the Arab Prophet was born. Al-Lat was a goddess widely revered on the Arabian peninsula. Some scholars maintain that the word al-Lat is possibly derived from the Babylonian god Allata.
 
Among the nomadic Arabs, the word El (or Il) was generally used to designate gods or deities. This is an old Semitic word which is found in different combinations such as Beth-El in Hebrew, which means the "house of God." Allah is a contracted form of al-Ilah. Al is a definite article used with all proper nouns, such as al-Medina (city) and al-Islam (Islam), and is preserved in English words such as Algeria, algebra, and so on. The definite article was also affixed before the names of deities. The ancient Arabs believed that Allah was a male god and therefore the father of three female deities, al-Lat, al-Uzza, and al-Manat. Hubel was also the city god of Mecca.
 
Thus, the word Allah was not coined by Muhammad. One can find many examples of this proper name in pre-Islamic literature. This word was used repeatedly among the pagan Arabs, especially with other combinations.The three daughters of Allah are even mentioned in the Koran: "Have you thought upon al-Lat and al- Uzza and al-Manat, the third, the other? Are yours the males and His the females?" (Koran 53: 19-21)
 
According to Muslim chronologists, Allah was the tribal god of the Quraysh, Muhammad's own clan. But at certain religious ceremonies held in pre-Islamic days, many of the tribes would call themselves "the family of Allah." In ancient Arabia, the deity of each tribe was respected according to the social status of that tribe. When the Quraysh clan became the overlords of Mecca, their god, Allah, was elevated to a supreme position and equal to the most important deities of Arabia, such as al- Uzza, al-Lat, and al-Manat.
 
We have clear proof that Allah was worshiped in Arabia before the time of Muhammad. Pre-Islamic personal names often contain the name of Allah as an element.It was the custom among the Arabs, in order to show their respect to their gods, to name their sons "the servant" or "the slave" of such and such deity. Muhammad's grandfather named his sons 'Abd-Allah and 'Abdul-Uzza, the slaves of Allah and Uzza, respectively, the father and daughter deities of his clan.
 
'Abd-Allah was Muhammad's father. He died before his son was born. Muhammad's own cousin, from his mother's side, was called 'Abd-Allah ben Djahsh (slave of Allah). His brother was 'Ubayd-Allah (humble servant of Allah). This brother migrated to Abyssinia as a Muslim, but there he became fascinated by Christianity, and subsequently repudiated Islam to become a Christian.
 
Another man whose name was associated with Allah before the time of Muhammad was 'Abd-Allah ben Djudan, a Qurayshite notable of the clan Tayn ben Murra; he lived at the end of the sixth century of our era. He acquired a fortune through the slave trade. 'Umar, the close associate of the Prophet and the second caliph, had two sons, 'Abd-Allah and 'Ubayd-Allah, born before Islam.
 
Thus, Muhammad universalized Allah as the Supreme Being because this god was the tutelary deity of his own clan and his own father was named "the slave of Allah" ('Abd-Allah). STONE WORSHIP, THE KA'ABA, AND PILGRIMAGE)
 
The Ka'aba was the sanctuary in Mecca where the different pre-Islamic deities were worshiped.Among the images of the various gods and goddesses, the image of Allah was preserved alongside those of the female deities mentioned above. The sanctuary of Mecca, like any other house of god among the Semitic peoples (e.g., Beth-el), was in a rectangular shape and for this reason the Arabs called it Ka'aba, which is an Arabic word meaning "cube." Some scholars maintain that the word means house and they have suggested that it comes from an Ethiopic word meaning double or two-storied building." But this does not seem to be correct, as the Arabic meaning of Ka'aba very clearly signifies rectangular.
 
The different idols were placed either around the rectangular structure in the open air or inside a niche (qibla) under the vault. It is believed by some circles that the rectangular structure was probably constructed after the shape of the typical nomad's tents. The Ka'aba dates back to the second century c.E.; thus, contrary to the text of the Koran and Muslim exegetes, it could not have been made by Abraham. The Old Testament makes no mention of the patriarch traveling to Arabia, much less building a sanctuary in Mecca! More importantly, there is no chronological or archeological evidence to prove that Mecca is older than the first century C.E., and Abraham, if he really existed, probably lived around 1800 B.C.E. The story was apparently fabricated by Muhammad himself to attract the attention of Jewish Arabs in the early days of his mission to win converts.
 
In the pre-Islamic period stones, especially soft and cube-shaped ones, were often considered sacred by desert Arabs and were venerated as the residences of gods. Nomads living in cube-shaped tents themselves probably thought the gods, too, would have similar abodes but of stone.
 
Among the many places of worship in Arabia, the Ka'aba was respected more than other sanctuaries because it held the Black Stone, which the pre-Islamic Arabs believed was given to them by the deities of the skies to be worshiped. The Black Stone is thought to consist of hardened lava, or basalt, but it is not easy to determine its real nature as it has been touched and kissed rapturously by millions of people since it was placed in the structure. It may have a meteoric origin. Islam has thus perpetuated the ancient pagan rite of stone worshiping by ordaining the pilgrimage to the Ka'aba as the fifth pillar of the religion.
 
Millions of Muslim pilgrims visit Mecca each year to pay tribute to the Black Stone placed at the east corner of the structure. Mecca was already in existence in the second century of our era, and it is recorded as "Mecoraba" by Ptolemy, the famous astronomer and geographer who flourished in Alexandria about 130 C.E.
 
From the early Muslim chronologists, we learn that Qussay, one of Muhammad's early ancestors, developed a carefully regulated cult for the worshiping of the sanctuary of Ka'aba. He appointed two of his sons as the supervisors (around 450 C.E.) of the cult.These two sons were named, 'Abd al-Dar and 'Abd al-Manf, i.e., "the slave of the house (of the pantheon of Ka'aba)" and "the slave of Manf" (another stone idol), respectively. A number of stone idols were placed in Ka'aba, each of which belonged to a different tribe as their tribal god. The nomadic Arabs would travel each year to Mecca to pay homage to their clan's deity. The pilgrimage was traditionally made on the last month of the Arabian calendar, the month of pilgrimage (Dhu-Hajjathe word hajj is perhaps the Arabic equivalent to the Hebrew word hug meaning to draw around). The early nomads who visited the sanctuary each year would go around the structure (the rite is called tawaf) to pay tribute to the deities there.
 
In the months of pilgrimage and the month immediately before and after, the Arabs, according to an old custom, would stop all armed warfare with one another. No blood was to be spilled during those sacred months to make it safer for all the pilgrims to travel to Mecca for the ceremonies.In these sacred months, no armed robberies, ambushes, or vendettas were permitted.
 
The sanctuary of Mecca was known as the "harem," literally, the "reserved space"; for this reason the whole area of Mecca was also considered a sanctified territory. The word harem was used later for the women's quarters in large palaces, where usually more than one wife was kept. In this sense, it signified a private space to which no trespassing was permitted, allocated for women only.
 
In the month of festival (or hajj), each pilgrim brought his or her offering for a particular deity and sacrificed animals to please a particular god. Upon arrival, the devotees circumambulated the pantheon and then ran between two great stones called Safa and Marva upon two distant hills, which were believed to be the residences of a male and female deity.
 
Another practice in this festival was the ceremonial abstinences. The pilgrims would stay away from profanity, irreverence, and sexual intercourse, since each of these practices is prohibited in the presence of the gods of the pantheon.
 
The most diverse pagan tribes of the Arabian Peninsula would take part in the festivities of the pilgrimage. Since the performing of ceremonies was possible only when there was peace in the land, and as the Arabs were constantly fighting one another, the carrying of arms in Mecca during the pilgrimage was forbidden.
 
All of these ancient pagan rites survive in Islam today. Each year Muslims from all over the world make pilgrimages to Mecca during the Arabian month of Dhu- Hajja, and they perform the same rituals that prevailed several centuries before Islam.
 
The pilgrims put on a special white robe, circumambulate the rectangular structure in the middle of the Sacred Mosque, behead their animals while calling Allah's name, stay away from sexual intercourse during the ceremonial period, abstain from profane language, run between the two distant hills of Safa and Marva, and throw pebbles at the abode of Satan, a rock believed by the heathens to be the residence of the devil.
 
In fact, the pilgrimage ceremonies of Muslims today are in no way different from what Muhammad's ancestors and other desert Arabs did hundreds of years before him.Only the name is changed and the pagan cult has become Islamic rite. What Muhammad actually did was to perpetuate his ancestral customs and make them divine laws for his followers, calling it Islam.
 
There is only one difference: in pre-Islamic days, everyone was allowed to go to Mecca for pilgrimage pagans, atheists, polytheists, as well as monotheists. Today, no one but Muslims are permitted in Mecca's sanctuary. And Muhammad's private god became the deity of all the clans.
 
Before Muhammad, each tribe had its own deity, but when they went to Mecca for pilgrimage, they would also worship, or at least respect, the other prominent gods. The followers of the goddess al-Lat would pay their tribute to Allah, her father. Those who believed in al-Uzza, would pay homage to her sister goddess, al-Manat.Relations among gods were thought to be friendly if the tribes were at peace with one another. When hostility prevailed, each tribe devoted its attention solely to its individual deity, ignoring the other members of the pantheon.
 
This is clearly seen from the life history of Muhammad's ancestors. As mentioned earlier, his great-grand- father, Qussay, named his sons after different gods. It is therefore obvious that at his time Arabian clans of the desert and especially clans of the towns were on friendly terms.When Muhammad started his preaching of Islam, his own clan, Quraysh, opposed him.His uncles, cousins, and all of his kinfolk were against him because he wanted to elevate his god, Allah, above all the other clan deities.When he saw the great opposition, he took a step backward and tried to quiet his adversaries by accepting their deities on an equal footing with his Allah.
 
That is why some of the early Muslim chronologists held that first Muhammad agreed to pay homage to the other deities, especially the three goddesses who were believed to be the daughters of Allah. But, later, after hostilities had broken out between him and many of the other Arab clans, including his own, he changed his mind and insisted upon the superiority of his god, Allah, the god of his father, 'Abd-Allah.
 
From then on he did not miss an opportunity to make Allah the supreme lord. He repeatedly affirmed that there were no other gods except Allah. One of the last chapters of the Koran, called "Unity" (at-tawhid), reads:
 
"Say: He is Allah, the One! Allah, the eternal Besought of all! He begotteth not nor was begotten.And there is none comparable unto Him." (Koran 112: 1-4)
 
The point of this sura is to insist on the fact that his Allah is the only god. Furthermore, he emphasizes that Allah does not beget children, otherwise the followers of the three goddesses, sometimes called the daughters of Allah, would also claim the same privileges as the believers of Islam. Since there is no god comparable to him, the other pagan gods or goddesses are not in equal standing with Allah.
 
THE INFLUENCE OF OTHER RELIGIONS ON THE
FORMATION OF ISLAM
 
The Muslim claim that before Muhammad the whole Arabian Peninsula was polytheistic and that he, for the first time, presented a new monotheistic religion in the region is simply not true. Many centuries before Muhammad, the two great empires that exerted their never-ending influence in Arabia the Byzantine and Persian were both monotheistic in their creed. Christianity had penetrated into the north of Arabia, and Zoroastrianism as well as Manicheism had prevailed in the eastern and southern parts of the peninsula long before Christianity and Judaism came to Arabia.Moreover, various Jewish tribes were the residents of Medina and Khaybar. By Muhammad's time, many of them had business relationships with Syria to the north and Yemen to the south of Mecca.These people were later destroyed by Muhammad and their wives and children sold to the other Arab tribes.
 
A few Sabian inscriptions of the fourth and fifth centuries C.E. permit historians to conclude that Sabians believed in Allah as the supreme deity, calling him compassionate and the lord of heaven and earth, a title which is ubiquitously found in the Koran. "Above all," says Zwemer, "this tutelary and mediator god was the supreme deity whom they called Allah.This name occurs very frequently in pre-Islamic poetry on the inscriptions and in proverbs and personal names."
 
For many years before Islam, the Arabs, though in a sense polytheists, were worshiping one supreme God, whom they thought was ta'ala (superior) to others. St. Clair-Tisdall says, "Although polytheism had even in a very early time found an entrance into Arabia, yet the belief in the one true God had never entirely faded away from the minds of the people."
 
But perhaps the most important document proving the existence of monotheism among the pre-Islamic Arabs is the text of the Koran itself. The Koran talks about four groups of people ( Koran 22: 17) who were monotheists and had their own scriptures, viz, Sabians, Christians, Magians (Zoroastrians), and Jews. Some of the Sabians' cult was incorporated into the Koran, such as thirty days of fasting, praying several times a day, and breaking the fast by observing the new moon (fitr). In fact, Islam and Sabianism are so interrelated that, "When Banu Jadhimah of Taif and Mecca announced to Khalid (Ben Walid) their conversion to Muhammadaism, they did so by crying out loud, 'We have become Sabian.' "madaism, they did so by crying out loud, 'We have become Sabian.'"
 
Moreover, there are several hundred Persian words in the Koran which prove the influence of the Iranian cult in Islam. A great part of the Islamic belief regarding the resurrection and the hereafter is based on Zoroastrianism. The similarities between some of the Islamic rites and the Persian customs were so striking that some of Muhammad's opponents accused him of being taught by a Persian teacher. To this allegation Muhammad snapped back: "And we know well that they say, 'verily a human being teaches him.' The language of him at whom they aim is Persian, and this book (Koran) is clear Arabic speech." (Koran16: 103)
 
As far as the story of the Jewish prophets is concerned, the Koran is a poor imitation of the Old Testament. Muhammad did not know any other language except Arabic. Some biographers held that he could not read or write even that language correctly and for this reason he was called ummi, which means unlettered. There are others who maintain that he was schooled enough to write in his native vocabulary. He was a merchant; therefore, he must have had some rudimentary capacity to read and write. One thing, however, is certain: he was unable to speak Greek or Hebrew, much less read it.
 
For this reason, he could not have read the stories of the ancient Jewish personalities in the Old Testament. He must have heard these tales from the people who were monotheistsnot necessarily Jews or Christians alone and adapted their ideas of monotheism. The difference in the accounts of the prophets in the Bible and the Koran proves that Muhammad's source of information was not the Old Testament; rather he must have taken these accounts from the common people's hearsay.
 
Thus, monotheistic tenets were quite prevalent in Arabia at the time of Muhammad, and he did not present something unknown or extraordinary as a cult on the peninsula. "More fascinating and more tangible are the indications that in the last few pre-Islamic centuries, an Arabian monotheism developed."
 
Besides these religious influences on Muhammad, he may also have come into conflict with the Hanifs, monotheistic Arabs who rejected all of the other Arabian deities associated with Allah. The Hanifs believed in one supreme God, but they also practiced an ancient cult.Among the features of this cult were regular pilgrimages to Mecca, sacrifice of animals to the Lord of the Ka'aba, and a belief in doomsday and the hereafter. It is possible that the presence of Christianity and Judaism provided the necessary requirements and conditions for the development of such a faith. The word hanif may be related to a Hebrew term meaning "to conceal, to pretend, to lie." Apparently, it is a Syriac word meaning "heathen" or "impiety."
 
It is not unreasonable to suppose that these people were probably acquainted with Jewish and Christian tenets, for the Hanifs claimed they were promoting the religion of Abraham. While believing in one God, they also maintained and preserved their old customs, which were mostly pagan rites.For this reason they were called Hanifs, or "heathens," because they could or would not renounce their ancestral beliefs.
 
The early history of Islam shows that there were at least four Hanifs among the relatives and close friends of Muhammad. One who had a great influence upon Muhammad before he started his preaching of the new faith was Zayd ben 'Amir. It is narrated from Ibn Hisham (who reported from Ibn Ishaq) that Zayd's uncle persecuted him because he had denied his ancestral religion. He, therefore, left Mecca and traveled around the neighboring towns. He eventually came back and resided in the cave of Hara near Mecca.
 
It is a well-known fact that Muhammad was a regular visitor to the cave, and sometimes he would stay there for days. There is no doubt that Zayd played an important role in shaping Muhammad's mind as he was developing his new faith. Muhammad always respected Zayd, and later even called him his precursor. The word Islam was used by Zayd for the first time, and there are many verses in the Koran that are merely a repetition of what Zayd had said earlier. For example this verse: "Lo! Religion with Allah is Islam (i.e., to surrender to Allah's will)." (Koran 3: 19)
 
Zayd died five years before Muhammad made his prophetic call. It is possible that Muhammad was waiting for his teacher to pass away before he began preaching these new ideas as his own. Apparently, Muhammad's association with the Hanifs, especially Zayd and Nufel ben Warqa (his wife's cousin), made the people of Mecca angry against him and they accused him of being a Hanif. It was against such allegations that Muhammad defended himself and the Hanifs. The Koran clearly explains Muhammad's tendencies toward Hanifs and his own beliefs when he states: "And (O Muhammad) set thy purpose resolutely for religion as a Hanif and be not polytheist." (Koran 10: 105)
 
Muhammad claimed that Abraham was a Hanif: "Lo! Abraham was ... obedient to Allah, by nature a Hanif, and he was not a polytheist." (Koran 16: 120) According to the Koranic verse, the term "Hanif" is equated with monotheist, and so Abraham was also a monotheist. Moreover, Hanif is taken to mean one who is obedient to Allah, a submissive believer.There are many verses in the Koran in which Muhammad repudiates the idea that a Hanif is a pagan or a heathen. For example, he tells his adversaries that Abraham was a Hanif, therefore a Muslim. (Koran 2: 130-32) In another passage, he denies that Abraham was a Jew: " Abraham was not a Jew, not yet a Christian; but he was Hanifian and submissive, he was not of the idolators." (3: 67)
 
In the light of the above, it is perfectly clear that Muhammad, through a close association with the Hanifs of Mecca, the most distinguished among whom were his relatives, became acquainted with their beliefs, which were called Islam. He became an ardent devotee of the new religion and, when fully convinced, started to act as a promulgator of Islam, which was originated by the Hanifs as a mixture of Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manicheism, and, last but not least, ancient Arab paganism.
 
It is interesting to note that not only his adversaries, but his ardent followers and even his close friends, pointed out to him on many occasions the inconsistencies in his scriptures. It was to impugn his opponents' accurate criticisms that he came up with a verse like, "This is a clear Arabic Koran with no crookedness in it." (Koran 39:28; see also 18:1; 41:3) And again on another occasion, he tried to quiet his critics when he said: "But those in whose heart is doubt pursue, forsooth, that which is allegorical seeking (to cause) dissension by seeking to explain it. None knoweth its explanation save Allah." (Koran 3: 7)
 
Anwar Hekmat
 
The above has been excerpted from the Introduction to "Women and the Koran: The Status of Women in Islam" by Anwar Hekmat, published by Prometheus Books - 1997, are in accordance the Fair Use Doctrine per
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, Copyright Law.
 
 
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Hank Roth
 
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