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In this mailing:
by Denis MacEoin
• January 27, 2016 at 5:00 am
- "Christian
children are massacred, and everything is done in plain sight.
Islamists proclaim on a daily basis that they will not stop until
Christianity is wiped off the face of the earth. So are the world
Christian bodies denouncing the Islamic forces for the ethnic
cleansing, genocide and historic demographic-religious revolution
their brethren are suffering? No. Christians these days are busy
targeting the Israeli Jews." — Giulio Meotti, Italian
journalist.
- The Kairos
document seems to be so egregiously discriminatory that in 2010, the
Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) declared it
"supersessionist" and "anti-Semitic."
- We must ask why
a presentation of the work of Kairos in an Anglican church made no
reference whatever to the many associations with extremism and
denial of a more rational Christian approach to the problems faced
by Palestinian Christians.
Rifat Odeh Kassis, co-author and general coordinator
of the Kairos Palestine initiative, is pictured above giving an interview
to Al-Manar TV, the official TV channel of Lebanon's Hezbollah terrorist
organization. (Photo source: Kairos Palestine)
Last September, during the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel
-- an initiative of the Palestine Israel Ecumenical Forum (PIEF) of the
World Council of Churches, St. Thomas' Church in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK,
hosted an event titled "Wall Will Fall".
For anyone unfamiliar with the history, legal issues, and
distortions of the Israeli-Arab and Jewish-Muslim conflicts, the deeply
one-sided presentations and literature of the event may seem reasonable
in the lack of such a context, and this report will, therefore, attempt to
rebalance the narrative.
by Burak Bekdil
• January 27, 2016 at 4:00 am
- A criminal
indictment was filed against Sedat Ergin, editor-in-chief of the
country's most influential newspaper, Hurriyet. Prosecutors
demanded up to five years in prison for Ergin, for allegedly
insulting President Erdogan. The indictment claims that Hurriyet
insulted the president by paraphrasing what the president had said.
- "[T]his is
a 'democracy' with a growingly diminishing freedom of speech. It is
'democracy' where the 'voice of the nation,' which practically is
the voice of the political majority and its glorified leader,
intimidates and silences dissenting voices." — Mustafa Akyol,
columnist, Hurriyet.
- According to a
report by the Turkish Journalists Association, 500 journalists were
fired in Turkey in 2015, while 70 others were subjected to physical
violence. Thirty journalists remain in prison, mostly on terrorism
charges. Needless to say, the unfortunate journalists invariably are
known to be critical of Erdogan.
- Europe,
cherishing its "transactional" relations with Turkey,
prefers to look the other way and whistle. All the EU could say
about the prosecution of academics was that it is "extremely
worrying." Brussels cannot see that Turkish affairs passed the
threshold of "extremely worrying" a long time ago.
A criminal indictment was filed against Sedat Ergin
(left), editor-in-chief of the country's most influential newspaper, Hurriyet.
Prosecutors demanded up to five years in prison for Ergin, for allegedly
insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (right).
Defending his quest for an executive presidential system Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited Hitler's Germany as an effective
form of government. Yes, he said, you can have the presidential system in
a unitary state as in Hitler's Germany. His office later claimed that the
president's "Hitler's Germany" metaphor had been
"distorted" by the media. Erdogan's words on Hitler's Germany
may or may not have been distorted, but the way he rules Turkey reminds
one powerfully of how Hitler ruled the Third Reich.
The Value
of Tolerance
Today
is "Wear a Kippah Day" - Il Foglio Wants Your Selfie
by Shoshana Bryen
• January 27, 2016 at 3:00 am
- The question is
not whether a Jew wears a kippah [Jewish skullcap]. It is whether
others -- Jews and non-Jews -- insist that Jews have a RIGHT to wear
a kippah -- and Christians a cross -- and whether non-Jews join Jews
in wearing a kippah as a test of tolerance.
- "A Jew who
hides in fear of being recognized as a Jew is the perfect symbol of
a world that forces the West to hide for fear of provoking a
reaction among those who want to stab the West." -- Il
Foglio, Italian newspaper.
- Please wear a
kippah on Wednesday, January 27, 2016. Do it for freedom of religion
-- for all of us. And send Il Foglio -- kippah@ilfoglio.it
-- your selfie!
The defining value of Western politics is tolerance -- not that
anyone is always tolerant, and not that other people are not also
tolerant, but in order to have the freedom of speech, freedom of
religion, equal justice under law and multiple political parties. The
demand that we be tolerant of that which we do not observe and do not
believe and even/especially with which we do not agree is paramount.
"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness," and
"Liberté, égalité, fraternité" require tolerance. "I may
not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to
say it." The First Amendment's protection of a free press and
freedom from prior government censorship is the definition of tolerance.
Think Nazis in Skokie or "Piss Christ."
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