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A Slap in the Face for Anti-Israel BDS Movement
by Khaled Abu
Toameh
December 17, 2013 at 5:00 am
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Abbas's stance against the BDS
campaign should serve as a wake up call to all its supporters, especially
those who are not Palestinians, that negative campaigns only serve to promote
hatred and extremism in the region.
Many Palestinians seem to share
Abbas's view. That is why many Palestinians continue to do business with
Israelis on a daily basis and continue to hold joint conferences in Israel
and different parts of the world.
The international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS]
against Israel received a slap in the face last week from Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.As BDS supporters continue to campaign against Israel around the world, Abbas, asked about his position regarding the BDS campaign at a news conference in Johannesburg, where he was attending Nelson Mandela's funeral, stated that he does not support the boycott of Israel. It is ironic that while Abbas is saying no to a boycott of Israel, the American Studies Association, an association of U.S. professors with almost 5,000 members, voted to endorse an academic boycott of Israeli colleagues and universities. The U.S. professors obviously do not care about what the Palestinian Authority president has to say about the boycott of Israel. The professors, like BDS supporters, apparently believe that Abbas is a "traitor" because he is conducting peace talks with Israel. Abbas's attack on the BDS movement is a serious embarrassment for the anti-Israel activists, many of whom are not Palestinians. The statements have enraged BDS activists worldwide, with some calling into question Abbas's right to speak on behalf of the Palestinians. Prominent Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab noted that Abbas's statement in Johannesburg "naturally has angered many Palestinian and international supporters of the BDS movement." Kuttab wrote that Abbas's statement "reflects the absence of any clear strategy from the Palestinian political leadership except for negotiations. It is unclear whether the reason behind the Palestinian leader's public attack at the BDS movement is a result of trying to protect the Palestinian elite or not wanting to anger the Israelis and their US allies." Abbas did, however, call on people around the world to boycott products of settlements. "No, we do not support the boycott of Israel," Abbas said. "But we ask everyone to boycott the products of settlements because the settlements are in our territories. It is illegal." Abbas's statements conflict "with the Palestinian national consensus that has strongly supported BDS against Israel since 2005," Omar Barghouti, one of the founders of BDS, told Electronic Intifada. "There is no Palestinian political party, trade union, NGO [non-governmental organization] network or mass organization that does not strongly support BDS," Omar Barghouti continued. "Any Palestinian official who lacks a democratic mandate and any real public support, therefore, cannot claim to speak on behalf of the Palestinian people." Salim Vally, spokesman for the Palestine Solidarity Committee in South Africa, told The Electronic Intifada that Abbas's comments were "shocking" and represented an "attack on the global solidarity movement." The claim that Abbas does not represent the Palestinian "consensus" regarding a boycott of Israel is inaccurate. In fact, many Palestinians seem to share Abbas's view, which supports a boycott only of settlement products. That is why many Palestinians continue to do business with Israelis on a daily business. That is also why, despite the BDS campaign, Palestinians and Israelis continue to hold joint seminars and conferences in Israel and different parts of the world. In wake of Abbas's statements, the BDS movement should reconsider its strategy. Calls for boycotting any party do not contribute to the cause of peace. Abbas's stance against the BDS should also serve as a wake-up call to its supporters, especially those who are not Palestinians, that negative campaigns only serve to promote hatred and extremism in the region.
Related Topics: Israel
| Khaled Abu
Toameh
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Slaughter in Muslim Lands; Media, Governments Silent
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"Don't they know that the Koran
orders us to slit the throat of whoever is disrespectful to Allah's beloved
prophet?" — Representative of Jamaat ud Dawa.
Although Christians are habitually
killed in Muslim countries, as this series attests, the U.S. government
rarely condemns the practice or even acknowledges it.
Two of the most tragic Islamic attacks on Christians, killing several
women and children, took place in the month of October, one in Syria, another
in Egypt.On October 21 in Syria, U.S.-supported Islamist rebels invaded and occupied the ancient Christian settlement of Sadad for over a week, until ousted by the Syrian army. What took place that week was "the largest massacre of Christians in Syria," in the words of Orthodox Archbishop Alnemeh. Among other things, 45 Christians—including women and children—were killed, several were tortured to death; mass graves were discovered; all of Sadad's 14 churches, some ancient, were ransacked and destroyed; the bodies of six people from one family, ranging from ages 16 to 90, were found at the bottom of a well (an increasingly common fate for "subhuman" Christians).
The jihadis also made a graphic video (with English subtitles) of those whom they massacred, while shouting Islam's victory-cry, "Allahu Akbar!" ["Allah is Greater!," meaning "than anything"]. Another video, made after Sadad was liberated, shows more graphic atrocities.
The day before rebels invaded Sadad, on Sunday, October 20, the Church of the Virgin Mary in Warraq, near Cairo, Egypt, was attacked during a wedding ceremony. The attack left four dead and nearly two dozen wounded. According to a report issued by a forensic team, two of those murdered were young girls, each named Mary: 12-year-old Mary Nabil Fahmy, who was shot five times in the chest, and 8-year-old Mary Ashraf Masih ("Masih" meaning "Christ"), who was shot in the back.
The security forces charged with protecting the church were seen leaving their posts immediately before the massacre began, as happens frequently in Egypt and other Islamic nations. In the words of Asia News, "Eye-witnesses of the al-Warraq attack confirm that despite numerous distress calls, police and ambulances only arrived on the scene two hours after the shooting."
These massacres in Syria and Egypt received scant attention and even less condemnation from Western media and governments. Instead, people such as Mohamed Elibiary, an Obama administration Homeland Security adviser, condemned Copts who raise awareness of anti-Christian violence in Egypt as promoting "Islamophobic" bigotry.
Although Christians are habitually killed in Muslim countries, as this series attests, the U.S. government rarely condemns the practice or even acknowledges it. When five Muslims were killed in western Burma, however, the U.S. issued a formal condemnation, according to Voice of America, "urging authorities to do more to address the long-standing sectarian tension there."
The rest of October's roundup of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed by theme and country in alphabetical order, not necessarily according to severity:
Apostasy, Blasphemy, Proselytism
Bangladesh: "A local government official in central Bangladesh
has halted the construction of a church, forced Christians to worship at a
mosque and threatened them with eviction from their village unless they
renounce their faith," said Morning
Star News. "The Tangail Evangelical Holiness Church in Bilbathuagani
village… was created Sept. 8 by a group of about 25 Christians who had been
meeting secretly for three years. However, local council chairman Rafiqul
Islam Faruk joined around 200 demonstrators Sept. 13 to protest against the
start of the building of the church. The following day, the Christians were
summoned to his office. More than 1,000 Muslims waited outside, following an
announcement at all local mosques to gather at the chairman's office."
There, they were ordered to embrace Islam or suffer the consequences. Said
one of the Christians: "Their threats chilled me to the bone. That is
why I pretended to accept Islam, but faith in Christ is the wellspring of my
life." Another said: "The chairman is clipping the wings of our
faith. I do not know how long we can grin and bear it. We want religious
freedom. We want to practice our religion freely." Since Sept. 14, under
the chairman's orders, eight Christians agreed to return to Islam.
Apparently, the chairman and his associates had already beaten some of these
Christians three years ago for accepting Christianity.Iran: Mariam Naqqash, a female convert to Christianity, was sentenced to four years in prison by a court in Tehran. The Christian convert was found guilty of "endangering national security by spreading religious propaganda in the country," and allegedly being a spy for Britain and Israel. According to Adnkronos News, "renouncing the Muslim faith is punishable [in Iran] with the death penalty. Over 300 Iranian converts to Christianity have been arrested over the past two years, according to opposition websites."
Kazakhstan: After Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev, a 67-year-old pastor, was released from five months' detention, based on charges his family and others insist are spurious. After being reunited with his family, he was arrested again within minutes, now accused of "propaganda of terrorism or extremism, or public calls to commit an act of terrorism or extremism, as well as the distribution of material of the content indicated." His son, Askar, told Forum 18 News Service, "These new accusations are complete rubbish. They're trying to turn my father into a terrorist." Grace Church in Astana, where Kashkumbayev served, has, according to the report, long been subject to state harassment, including accusations of being involved in espionage, fraud, money laundering, distributing extremist texts and using hallucinogenic communion drinks.
Kenya: Charles Matole, pastor of the Redeemed Gospel Church, was found shot dead while still sitting with a Bible on his lap: "We found him with blood oozing from the head," said a choir member. The pastor had been receiving threatening phone text messages. Similarly, Pastor Ebrahim Kidata of the East African Pentecostal Churches was found murdered, strangled to death, in a patch of bushes.
Pakistan:
·
After a Muslim man slaughtered a Christian—in
broad daylight and in front of police—accusing him of being "an
infidel who blasphemed against Muhammad" (see September
report), a group of armed men broke into the dead man's family home,
threatening to kill its members if they did not withdraw their police
complaint against the murderer, and convert
to Islam. Fr. Arshad Gill, a priest in Karachi, told Asia News
"about this 'sad story' in which the victim is 'an innocent man' and his
family is told to convert to Islam or die. For him, the case epitomizes the
situation of Pakistan's minorities, forced to live 'in conditions of profound
insecurity' in which events such as this one tend to exacerbate the
situation…. Found in Article 295, B and C of the Pakistan Penal Code, the
[blasphemy] 'law' punishes with death or life in prison anyone who desecrates
the Qur'an or defames the name of the Prophet Muhammad." Those few
political activists who have tried to repeal the law—such as Punjab Governor
Salman Taseer, a Muslim, and Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, a
Christian—have been murdered.
·
Three other Pakistani Christians face a possible
death sentence on what lawyer Sardar Mushtaq Gill says are "trumped
up charges" of blasphemy. One of the Christians, Asif Pervaiz, is
accused of sending phone text messages with "abusive language against
Muslims, Islam, Prophet Mohammed and the Koran." Two other Christians,
Pastor Adnan and Mushtaq Masih, were also arrested for allegedly writing
"derogatory remarks" about Islam. Gill also said, "Days back
we received some heart breaking information that there is one group who forced
Christians to accept Islam at gun point."
·
Another Christian man accused of blasphemy,
26-year-old Adnan Masih, trained as a pastor at a United Pentecostal
seminary, is being hunted by police. In addition, the banned Islamic
extremist group, Jamaat ud Dawa, in Lahore, issued a fatwa, or Islamic
decree, calling
for his death because he sought to correct misconceptions about
Christianity in a Muslim book by noting biblical verses that refuted Islamic
characterizations of Christianity. A source said that the hunted man had no
idea that "pointing out false references in a book would land him in
such big trouble." In the words of a representative of Jamaat ud Dawa:
"The police better arrest the blasphemer and hand him over to us on
Saturday [Oct. 19]. We will not be responsible for any law-and-order
situation in the city if the police fails to keep its assurance. How dare
someone use derogatory language against our beloved prophet … Don't they know
that the Koran orders us to slit the throat of whoever is disrespectful to
Allah's beloved prophet."
·
Rana Tanveer, a chief reporter for The
Express Tribune, received a one-page letter in Urdu threatening him to
stop covering the plight of minorities. He was further accused of being an
"apostate"
for allegedly sympathizing with Christians and Ahmadis, instead of with their
Sunni Muslim oppressors. He was also threatened with death, "from where
you cannot even imagine." Tanveer, a Muslim, insists that all his
reports are objective and based on facts.
Dhimmitude
Egypt: After Muslims in al-Minya district accused a young man of
having an illicit relationship with a Muslim woman, violence erupted against
the village's Christians (see September
report). The father of the Christian man insists that there was no
relationship between his son and the Muslim woman, whose family, in his words,
"actually had their daughter undergo a gynecological exam, which proved
the woman is 'untouched' [a virgin]." Instead, according to the father
and many Copts in the village, "the whole story was fabricated by Muslim
hard-liners from neighboring village to cause sectarian strife."
According to a separate Arabic report, "criminal groups and gangs
managed to acquire guns and weapons and, as usual, have attacked and abused
the Christians … [and] forced Copts to pay
large amounts of money as tax [jizya] in order not to steal and/or
plunder their lands." The report also points out that no one does
anything to oppose these gangs: "they simply kill Christians and their
families as happened in the village of Shameiya when two Copts refused to pay
the tax: the gang killed them and this was repeated in many other villages
belonging to the governorate of Asyut. It is becoming
so normal now to watch as these crimes against Christians occur day by
day and nothing is done."Indonesia: Still insisting that Susan Jasmine Zulkifli, a Christian woman appointed governor of the sub-district of Lenteng Agung, in West Java, be removed solely because of her faith (see September report), Muslim protesters stepped up their threats, including carrying a coffin in a protest march of some 600 Muslims—a clear death threat —and waving flags symbolic of death. The Christian woman had been promoted in June by the Governor of Jakarta, who said in response: "I make my choices based on merits, not looking at religion."
Iran: After being arrested in a house church December 2012 and charged with consuming alcohol in violation of the Islamic theocracy's laws, four Christians were sentenced to 80 lashes for drinking communion wine. "The sentences handed down to these members of the Church of Iran effectively criminalize the Christian sacrament of sharing in the Lord's Supper and constitute an unacceptable infringement on the right to practice faith freely and peaceably," a human rights activist said.
Iraq: The nation's Christians, more than half of whom have fled since the U.S.-led invasion a decade ago, are now also being targeted in and fleeing from northern Iraq, which until recently was considered a relatively safe region for Christians fleeing violence in the south. Recently, for example, a suicide bomb went off outside the home of Christian politician Emad Youhanna in Rafigayn, part of the Kirkuk province, injuring 19 people, including three of his children. Several more bomb attacks have also taken place in the northern city of Erbil, for which al-Qaeda claimed responsibility. According to Christian News, "In early September, Christians in the village of Deshtakh complained that they were facing harassment from local police. A group of Christian young people said that policemen told them that they 'should not be in Iraq because it is Muslim territory.' Violence in the south of the country is also escalating. Church leaders in Baghdad say that there are attacks on Christians every two or three days."
Lebanon: Muslims in the historically Christian nation are appropriating Christian land. According to Agenzia Fides: "An urgent reminder to curb the misuse of land belonging to Christians in order to build housing for the Muslims was launched on Monday, October 14 from Talal al- Doueihy, leader of the Movement 'Lebanese Land, our Land'…. Across the Country there are outbreaks of clashes due to problem regarding land. Last week, in the Christian village of Alma (district of Zghorta) residents had complained that the Muslims of the area of al-Fuar had begun to build houses without permission. Already at the end of August, the same Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros Rai had called Christians to limit the sale of their property to avoid jeopardizing the demographic-confessional balance."
Pakistan: After the bombs in the church of All Saints in Peshawar, where nearly 90 people, including many women and children, died, Agenzia Fides reported that, "the situation remains tense in the Pakistani society: not only tragedy but also horror. The Christians said they were 'horrified' by the rumors that link the bombs in Peshawar to the vast problem of organ trafficking: this is what some members of NGOs in civil society in Pakistan told Fides. Some of the 'jackals,' presumably local paramedics, seem to have taken advantage of the high number of deaths and injuries in order to steal the bodies of victims and exploit them for the illegal organ trade. 'If this were true, it would mean that there are criminals who are taking advantage of the suffering of Christian victims in a truly blasphemous and sacrilegious manner,' notes Fr. Mario Rodrigues, a priest of Karachi." Meanwhile, some of the Christian survivors who mourned the deaths of loved ones too openly, were attacked, beaten, and threatened with death. Finally, in a separate story, a Christian, Harrison Masih, working in a store, who used to debate religion with a Muslim customer, Maulvi Khalad, got into an argument when Khalad tried to get him to convert to Islam, "telling him that he would enter paradise that way." But, as Harrison related, because he refused to convert and apparently did not want want any trouble, "I quit my job at the medical store but Khalid, and three other men, came to my house and threatened me and my family."
About this Series
While not all, or even most, Muslims are involved, the persecution of
Christians in the Islamic world is on its way to reaching pandemic proportions.
"Muslim Persecution of Christians" was developed to collate some—by
no means all—of the instances of persecution that surface each month. It
serves two purposes:1) To document that which the mainstream media often seems to fail to report.
2) To suggest that such persecution is not "random" but systematic.
These accounts span different ethnicities, languages, and locations.
Raymond Ibrahim is author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War in Christians (published by Regnery in cooperation with Gatestone Institute, April 2013).
Previous reports
- September, 2013
- August, 2013
- June, 2013
- May, 2013
- April, 2013
- March, 2013
- February, 2013
- January, 2013
- December, 2012
- November, 2012
- October, 2012
- September, 2012
- August, 2012
- July, 2012
- June, 2012
- May, 2012
- April, 2012
- March, 2012
- February, 2012
- January, 2012
- December, 2011
- November, 2011
- October, 2011
- September, 2011
- August, 2011
Related Topics: Raymond
Ibrahim
Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions is Bigotry Personified
by Alan M.
Dershowitz
December 17, 2013 at 3:00 am
December 17, 2013 at 3:00 am
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You would think that historians and
others who belong to the American Studies Association would understand that
in light of the history of discrimination against Jews, you can't just pick
the Jewish state and Jewish universities as the place to "start"
and stop.
President Mahmoud Abbas of the
Palestinian Authority himself opposes academic boycotts of Israeli
institutions.
The American Studies Association [ASA] has just issued its first ever call
for an academic boycott. No, it wasn't against China, which imprisons
dissenting academics. It wasn't against Iran which executes dissenting
academics. It wasn't against Russia whose universities fire dissenting
academics. It wasn't against Cuba whose universities have no dissenting
academics. It wasn't against Saudi Arabia, whose academic institutions refuse
to hire women, gay or Christian academics. Nor was it against the Palestinian
Authority, whose colleges refuse to allow open discourse regarding the
Israeli Palestinian conflict. No, it was against only academic institutions
in the Jewish State of Israel, whose universities have affirmative action
programs for Palestinian students and who boast a higher level of academic
freedom than almost any country in the world.When the association was considering this boycott I issued a challenge to its members, many of whom are historians. I asked them to name a single country in the history of the world faced with threats comparable to those Israel faces that has had a better record of human rights, a higher degree of compliance with the rule of law, a more demanding judiciary, more concern for the lives of enemy civilians, or more freedom to criticize the government, than the state of Israel. Not a single member of the association came up with a name of a single country. That is because there are none. Israel is not perfect, but neither is any other country, and Israel is far better than most. If an academic group chooses to engage in the unacademic exercise of boycotting the academic institutions of another country, it should do it in order of the seriousness of the human rights violations and of the inability of those within the country to seek redress against those violations. By these standards, Israeli academic institutions should be among the last to be boycotted.
I myself disagree with Israel's settlement policy and have long urged an end to the occupation. But Israel offered to end the occupation twice in the last 13 years. They did so in 2000-2001 when Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians a state on approximately 95% of the occupied territories. Then it did so again in 2008 when former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered an even more generous deal. The Palestinians accepted neither offer and certainly share the blame for the continuing occupation. Efforts are apparently underway once again to try to end the occupation, as peace talks continue. President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority himself opposes academic boycotts of Israeli institutions.
China occupies Tibet, Russia occupies Chechnya and several other countries occupy Kurdish lands. In those cases no offers have been made to end the occupation. Yet no boycotts have been directed against the academic institutions of those occupying countries.
When ASA president Curtis Marez, an associate professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, was advised that many nations, including all of Israel's neighbors, are far worse than Israel, he responded, "One has to start somewhere." This boycott, however, has not only started with Israel. It will end with Israel. Marez's absurd comment reminds me of the bigoted response made by Harvard's notorious anti-Semitic president A. Laurence Lowell, when he imposed anti-Jewish quotas near the beginning of the 20th century. When asked why he singled out Jews for quotas, he replied, "Jews cheat." When the great Judge Learned Hand reminded him that Christians cheat too, Lowell responded, "You're changing the subject. We are talking about Jews now."
You would think that historians and others who belong to the American Studies Association would understand that in light of the history of discrimination against Jews, you can't just pick the Jewish state and Jewish universities as the place to "start" and stop.
The ASA claims that it is not boycotting individual Israeli professors, but only the universities at which they teach. That is a nonsensical word game, since no self-respecting Israeli professor would associate with an organization that singled out Israeli colleges and universities for a boycott. Indeed, no self-respecting American professor should in any way support the bigoted actions of this association.
Several years ago, when a similar boycott was being considered, a group of American academics circulated a counter-petition drafted by Nobel Prize Physicist Steven Weinberg and me that read as follows:
We are academics, scholars, researchers and professionals of differing religious and political perspectives. We all agree that singling out Israelis for an academic boycott is wrong. To show our solidarity with our Israeli academics in this matter, we, the undersigned, hereby declare ourselves to be Israeli academics for purposes of any academic boycott. We will regard ourselves as Israeli academics and decline to participate in any activity from which Israeli academics are excluded.
More than 10,000 academics signed this petition including many Nobel Prize winners, presidents of universities and leading scholars from around the world.
Shame on those members of the American Studies Association for singling out the Jew among nations. Shame on them for applying a double standard to Jewish universities. Israeli academic institutions are strong enough to survive this exercise in bigotry. The real question is, will this association survive its complicity with the oldest and most enduring prejudice?
Related Topics: Israel
| Alan M.
Dershowitz
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