edmundstanding

Update

2009-10-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

I am now blogging here.

Update

2009-02-07T04:24:00.000-08:00

I have a new article over at Butterflies & Wheels:

'A Critical Examination of the Qur'an'.

It's spread over four pages and starts here:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=384

If you would like to comment on the article, please do so at the B&W comments section:
http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/letters.php

Cheers.

CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

2009-01-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

Since I have become part of the Harry's Place team and I'm busy in the real world, I have decided to finish posting here.

I will continue to contribute posts to Harry's Place and articles to Butterflies & Wheels, and you may see writing of mine popping up at Jewcy and the Z-Word Blog (and possibly elsewhere) from time to time as well.

Thanks for the support and comments at I Kid You Not.

'Israel is an impossibility. It is an offense against God'.

2009-01-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

In a blog post at The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg recalls a meeting he had with Nizar Rayyan, a Hamas leader recently killed during Operation Cast Lead.

I saw him last in Gaza two years ago, at a mosque in the Jabalya Refugee Camp ... He was one of the more Islamically-learned Hamas leaders I've met ... In particular, Rayyan was interested in the hadith, the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, with a special interest in hadith that painted Jews in a negative light.

And what did this learned Hamas leader have to say?

This is what he said when I asked him if he could envision a 50-year hudna (or cease-fire) with Israel: "The only reason to have a hudna is to prepare yourself for the final battle. We don't need 50 years to prepare ourselves for the final battle with Israel." There is no chance, he said, that true Islam would ever allow a Jewish state to survive in the Muslim Middle East. "Israel is an impossibility. It is an offense against God."

I asked him if he believed, as some Hamas theologians do (and certainly as many Hezbollah leaders do) that Jews are the "sons of pigs and apes." He gave me an interesting answer that reflects a myopic reading of the Koran. "Allah changed disobedient Jews into apes and pigs, it is true, but he specifically said these apes and pigs did not have the ability to reproduce. So it is not literally true that Jews today are descended from pigs and apes, but it is true that some of the ancestors of Jews were transformed into pigs and apes, and it is true that Allah continually makes the Jews pay for their crimes in many different ways. They are a cursed people."

What are our crimes? I asked Rayyan. "You are murderers of the prophets and you have closed your ears to the Messenger of Allah," he said. "Jews tried to kill the Prophet, peace be unto him. All throughout history, you have stood in opposition to the word of God."

And here's some more on Rayyan from the BBC:

"We will never recognise Israel," he told Reuters news agency in early 2007. "There is nothing called Israel, neither in reality nor in the imagination."

[...]
When Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, he said there would be no dialogue with Fatah, the secular Palestinian movement it ousted, "only the sword and the rifle".

Operation Cast Lead was launched to combat men like Rayyan, someone who drew his inspiration not simply from injustices against Palestinians but from an extreme and vitriolic form of Islamist theology, a man for whom hatred of Jews was a duty to God, and a man who presented not simply Israel itself, but the Jewish people as a whole throughout history as 'cursed' enemies.

Nizar Rayyan is a reminder of exactly what Israel is up against in its fight against Hamas, a group that puts out TV shows aimed at indoctrinating children with ideas of anti-Jewish genocide:

And a group whose ideology promotes a hateful and supremacist version of Islam:

Those who delude themselves that Hamas is simply a 'resistance movement' would do well to listen to the words of Nizar Rayyan and to take seriously the real message being promoted by Hamas, a message that presents cease-fires as re-arming periods and which proclaims the long-term existence of Israel to be 'an impossibility'.

Che and what he stood for

2009-01-03T07:15:00.000-08:00

This entry is cross-posted at Harry's Place.

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The BBC website has a feature on 'Che today' in which we read:

Most in Latin America could probably not tell you specifically what Che stood for. They use him mainly as a symbol of hope, of independence, of freedom, of something to sing about.

Most of the 'progressives' in the West who are so addicted to Che's image probably couldn't tell you much about what Che stood for either. Take this lady with a pink Che flag at a London 'Stop the War' rally for example.

Well, here are a few things that Che stood for:

1. Hatred. Che wanted to see 'Hatred as an element of struggle; unbending hatred for the enemy, which pushes a human being beyond his natural limitations, making him into an effective, violent, selective, and cold-blooded killing machine'. He considered Americans to be 'hyenas ... fit only for extermination'.

2. Mass murder. Che wanted to launch a nuclear attack on New York City. He desired 'atomic extermination' of the 'hyenas' (read civilians) who lived there and in November 1962 he boasted to The London Daily Worker of the nuclear weapons, 'We would have used them against the very heart of the US, including New York City'. Even Che's sympathetic interviewer from the Daily Worker considered him to be 'crackers from the way he went on about the missiles'. It's only thanks to the intervention of Nikita Khrushchev that Che's plans came to nothing.

3. Terrorism. With the nuclear attack plans shelved, Che instead attempted to launch a terrorist campaign in New York City. Had it have worked, Macy's, Gimbels, Bloomingdales, and Manhattan's Grand Central Terminal would have been hit with a dozen incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT. To give some perspective, the 2004 Madrid train bombings used 100 kilos of TNT and killed and maimed almost 2,000 people.

4. Sacrificing the people of Cuba. At the First Latin American Youth Congress in July 1959, Che proudly claimed: 'These people [of Cuba] you see today tell you that even if they should disappear from the face of the earth because an atomic war is unleashed in their names ... they would feel completely happy and fulfilled'.

5. Executions without trial. Che delighted in ordering and carrying out executions and considered the need to present a legal case and to give the accused the right to defend him or herself to be 'archaic bourgeois details'. 'I don't need proof to execute a man, I only need proof that it's necessary to execute him!', Che declared in 1959.

6. Persecution of gay men. In Che's Cuba, 'effeminate behaviour' became a crime and gay men were consigned to forced labour camps with the words 'Work Will Make Men Out of You' posted over the entry gates.

7. Totalitarianism. Che demanded that 'individualism must disappear!' Perhaps his greatest support for this principle is found in his relationship with the USSR. Indeed, according to KGB official Alexander Alexiev, 'Che was practically the architect of the Soviet-Cuban relationship'.

These are a few things to bear in mind next time a 'leftist' invites you to 'Party Like It's 1959' or you see a 'liberal' comrade sporting a Che t-shirt.

Holding Hamas Accountable

2009-01-03T05:59:00.000-08:00

Via the Counterterrorism Blog:

Hamas is dead set against a two-state solution, whether it joins a unity government or remains in the opposition. Indeed, Hamas deploys suicide bombers specifically aimed at derailing progress toward peace. Engaging Hamas will not help the peace process, but it will legitimize the group most violently opposed to such progress.
Meanwhile, as renewed rocket attacks make clear, Hamas remains committed to the use of violence targeting civilians. Engaging in direct diplomacy with Hamas while it targets civilian population centers would empower a movement designated as a terrorist group by both the United States and the European Union. It would also pull the carpet out from under Palestinian moderates who are truly interested in pursuing peace and are vying with Hamas for popular support.

Al-Qaradhawi on Hamas leaders

2009-01-03T05:51:00.000-08:00

Remember, Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, invited to London by then mayor Ken Livingstone?

"I welcome you as an honoured guest."

Here's his view on the Hamas terrorist organisation's leadership:

'a model of heroism and manliness'.

Solidarity with Gaza or solidarity with terrorism?

2009-01-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

This entry is cross-posted at Harry's Place.

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Socialist Unity, amongst many others, is excitedly promoting a series of Gaza demonstrations taking place in the UK tomorrow, coordinated by the umbrella organisation The Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

Let's take a look at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, beginning with its list of 'Who we work with':

There is strong support for the Palestinian people amongst many religious communities and PSC engages with churches and faith groups ... Links to faith-based organisations in the UK are in the UK based organisations page.

These links include the British Muslim Initiative, which, according to its website, is one of the organisers of tomorrow's National Demonstration. Fellow travellers at another demonstration recently promoted by the BMI included the usual Islamist linked suspects: Stop The War, MCB, MAB, Respect.

The British Muslim Initiative is a sister organisation of the terrorist group Hamas, and its President, Mohammad Sawalha, has been identified by the BBC as responsible for 'much of Hamas' political and military strategy' and for directing funds to Hamas' 'armed wing'.

The BMI's supporters and associates include Azzam Tamimi, a Guardian 'Comment is Free' contributor identified by the Malaysian National News Agency as 'Hamas' Special Envoy'.

In an appearance on BBC's HARDTalk, Tamimi stated of suicide bombing attacks on Israel:

I would do it ... If I have the opportunity I would do it ... If I can go to Palestine and sacrifice myself I would do it.

In addition to his connections to Hamas, Tamimi is also a fan of Hizbullah, and in an article praising the anti-Semitic terrorist group he has spoken glowingly of its members' 'love of death in martyrdom'. For more from Tamimi on 'martyrdom', look here.

Another organisation that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign works with is Friends of al Aqsa, which is of course also supporting tomorrow's demonstration. Friends of al Aqsa states that it seeks to further 'Peace in Palestine'. For a peace organisation it puts out some rather strange material.

Would-be suicide bomber Tamimi turns up here as well, with an article that chastises Islamists for promoting The Protocols of Zion and for using racist language about 'apes and pigs' (he might like to get his comrades in Hamas to remove references to the Protocols from their founding document, and he might also like to inform - for example - Hamas' female suicide bombers in waiting that the whole 'apes and pigs' thing needs to end). Tamimi's article also expresses his hopes for the future:

[T]he weakness of the Arabs and Muslims is only temporary and will sometime in the future be reversed. Evidently, the Muslim world is witnessing a massive awakening that is destined to initiate the transformation from weakness to strength. When the Arabs and Muslims’ gain of strength and confidence coincides with the retreat of the World Order due to the shrinkage of the material and military resources available to it and as a result of the augmentation of domestic crises, the end of the Zionist project will come and the State of Israel will be no more.

Friends of al Aqsa is willing to publish material by a man who supports terrorist attacks against Israel and dreams of its destruction. It also likes to indulge in the rhetoric of 'Zionism = Nazism'.

In an article on the current Gaza operations which makes the spurious claim that 'the bulk of the victims are innocent civilians', we read about 'Jewish Nazism', how Israel is now 'on equal footing with Nazi barbarianism', and how it is 'a sick and cannibalistic society that is as bestial as Nazi Germany was during the holocaust':

The genocidal Israeli onslaught against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip is strikingly similar to the German blitz in the initial stage of the Second World War. The pretexts are nearly the same and the behaviors of both Nazi and Israeli political and military leadership are nearly identical.

And as the German Nazis sought to justify their blitz against their neighbors to the east, using a plethora of carefully concocted lies and pretexts, Israel is doing virtually the same thing.

However, unlike the Nazis whose naked aggression was widely condemned around the world, the ongoing Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip is being condoned, even celebrated, by a huge media network throughout the western world from Sydney to Los Angeles.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign also works with the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, which is organising Scottish demonstrations to coincide with the National Demonstration in London. This month, the SPSC is organising a Holocaust Memorial Event, featuring a 'Palestinian academic and prominent member of the Stop the War Coalition'. Step forward, Mr Azzam 'love of death' Tamimi.

How did the SPSC choose to commemorate the Holocaust in 2007? Why, by

staging the entirely discredited play, "Perdition". The Royal Court Theatre in London had originally planned to stage the play, written by the British Trotskyist Jim Allen, in 1987. The play alleged that "the Zionists" collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust and went so far as to imply that "the Zionists" positively desired the slaughter of Jews in order to help them generate sufficient public sympathy and jewish emigration to found the State of Israel.

The SPSC is an arty crowd, it seems. It also likes to promote jazz concerts by Gilad Atzmon. That's the same Atzmon who has stated:

American Jewry makes any debate on whether the "Protocols of the elder of Zion" are an authentic document or rather a forgery irrelevant. American Jews (in fact Zionists) do control the world.

As well as:

To regard Hitler as the wickedest man and the Third Reich as the embodiment of evilness is to let Israel off the hook.

We have to admit that Israel is the ultimate evil rather than Nazi Germany.

The groups and characters cited above are some of the people who have been instrumental in organising tomorrow's Gaza protests, or are closely allied with those who have helped organise them. Here we find associates of, and/or supporters of, terrorists, rabid anti-Israel propagandists, as well as people who turn a blind eye to blatant anti-Semitism or even encourage it.

If you're planning on attending one of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign demonstrations tomorrow, you might like to be careful who you march with.

Women of Hamas speak

2009-01-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

From MEMRI:

'There are thousands of martyrdom-seeking women like me'.

'I am the mother of two martyrs, and I will sacrifice myself as a martyr, Allah willing. I will turn my blood into bombs that will burn them'.

'We are the granddaughters of Yassin, Al-Bana, and Al-Qassam. We are all the daughters of Palestine, the daughters of steadfast Gaza. We will set out, booby-trapped. From every home, a bomb will set out, and it will explode among the sons of Zion. We are no less than Fatima Al-Najjar and Rim Al-Riyashi [two Palestinian women who blew themselves up among Israelis]. We will blow ourselves up among those traitors, those apes and pigs'.

Celebrities and Science Review 2008

2009-01-02T12:39:00.000-08:00

From Sense About Science:

It’s that time of the year when Sense About Science asks scientists to review what celebrities have said about science and medicine, from detox and special diets to chemicals, MMR and radiation.

Scientists have responded to celebrities including: Kelly Osbourne on avoiding cancer risks, Tom Cruise on psychiatry, Demi Moore’s promotion of detoxing with leeches, Ivanka Trump and ‘spit’ parties, Amanda Peet defending MMR, Mariah Carey’s use of Einstein’s equation, Jenny McCarthy misunderstanding MMR, Nigella Lawson on special diets, Delia Smith on sugar addiction, Carole Caplin on food supplements and more! Scientists also couldn’t resist a response to US presidential candidates on the subjects of the MMR vaccine and fruit fly research.

Celebrities and Science Review 2008 - Download the PDF here.