Anti-Semitism A Christian Thing? Holocaust Memorial Day Shut Down in British Neighborhood

(Hat-Tip: LGF)
Oh, don't worry. You'll see that both articles go very nicely together.

(Reprinted from e-mail)
Anti-Semitism a Christian disease? Not so fast.
David A. Harris
January 25, 2007

The recent Holocaust denial conference in Iran was beyond the pale, or so any thoughtful person might conclude. After all, the Holocaust is among the most documented events in human history.

Yet, to conclude that this macabre event was an isolated event would be a mistake. For example, in an editorial (December 14), the respected Financial Times declared that the Iranian president, who sponsored what the paper aptly called this "grotesque carnival," is out of step with the larger Muslim world. His blatantly anti-Semitic remarks, the editorial stated, "give the impression that anti-Jewish bigotry is widespread across the Muslim world," when "in historical reality, anti-Semitism is a Christian disease."

Not so fast.

The truth is far more complicated. While anti-Semitism historically has been more virulent in European Christendom, leading up to the Holocaust, it has not been absent in the Muslim world. Some Muslim spokesmen would like the world to believe that any hostility is recent and linked to Israel, not Jews. But that is disingenuous in the extreme.

As Hebrew University professor Robert Wistrich noted in a study entitled Muslim Anti-Semitism: A Clear and Present Danger, "The most basic anti-Jewish stereotype fostered by the Koran remains the charge that the Jews have stubbornly and willfully rejected Allah's truth¦. There are some notably harsh passages in which Muhammad brands the Jews as enemies of Islam." These deeply entrenched images of the Jews have caused much grief over the centuries. READ THE REST...

Rather than debate the past, however, let's focus on the present.

A 2003 American Jewish Committee study revealed widespread anti-Semitism in the Saudi educational system. As a ninth-grade language textbook typically asserted, "The Jews are wickedness in its very essence."

Similarly, an eighth-grade grammar textbook, reflecting on the fate of the Jewish people, states, "Their end, by God's will, is perdition."

An entire generation of Saudis - not to mention pupils in Saudi-funded schools elsewhere in the world, including, reportedly, some in the United States - is being taught this unvarnished hatred and contempt.

In his widely-covered valedictory speech before the Tenth Islamic Summit Conference, outgoing Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad raged about the Jews who "rule this world by proxy."

What was the reaction of the hundreds of leaders in attendance? Did any walk out? To the contrary, Mahathir received a standing ovation.

Today, Hitler's Mein Kampf, the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion (the century-old tsarist forgery asserting a secret Jewish plot to control the world), and Der StÃrmer-like cartoons depicting Jews in the most grotesquely obscene manner enjoy widespread popularity and resonance in large swaths of the Arab and greater Muslim world.

Fiery sermons in some major mosques rail against the Jews as the "sons of monkeys and pigs," and bizarre conspiratorial theories link Jews to every known calamity from 9/11 to the spread of communicable diseases.

An important new documentary, "Anti-Semitism in the 21st Century: The Resurgence," was aired on PBS on January 8. It presented excerpts from Egyptian and Syrian television programs that propagate myths of Jews scheming to assert their rule and kidnapping non-Jewish children in a modern-day reenactment of the "blood libel." When the Egyptian producers were asked on camera if their work was anti-Semitic, with straight faces they claimed it was about history, not Jews, while a Syrian professor, with great solemnity, insisted that, yes, the portrayal of the Jews was accurate.

To be sure, there are other Muslim voices urging mutual respect and interfaith harmony, reflecting an entirely different perspective. And while ancient Jewish communities that long predate the arrival of Islam have been driven out of most Arab countries, there remain small but significant Jewish populations in Morocco and Tunisia, and Jews in predominantly Muslim Turkey maintain an active communal life.

The demonization and dehumanization of Jews has become a prominent feature of life in too many Arab and other majority-Muslim countries such as Iran. Yes, there is a long-standing conflict with Israel. But for the leaders of these tightly run governments to permit unvarnished anti-Semitism to become part of the daily fare of media broadcasts, school textbooks and Holocaust-denial conferences - whatever the denials or rationalizations - must be deemed unacceptable by the international community.

Leaders and governments must be held accountable for their actions. And Western nations that have close contact with offending countries should raise concerns in bilateral and multilateral settings. Can it really be, for instance, that the US is prepared to turn a blind eye to what is being taught in Saudi textbooks about Jews (and Christians) because of our need for energy and export markets? Or that European nations will continue to deal with Iran in a business-as-usual fashion while its leaders deny the Holocaust and, for that matter, pursue nuclear weapons that they might one day use?

Anti-Semitism, it should be recalled, is not only an assault on Jews, but on our common democratic values of mutual respect and pluralism.

The writer is executive director of the American Jewish Committee.

Now, read on to what is going in Great Britain.

Bolton bans Holocaust Day
IN A move widely seen to be bowing to Muslim pressure, Bolton Council has scrapped its Holocaust Memorial Day event.

The council is to replace it with a Genocide Memorial Day in June. This is in line with the policy of the Muslim Council of Britain, which continues to boycott HMD and is asking for a Genocide Day, which will also mark "the ongoing genocide and human rights abuses of Palestinians" by Israelis.

The council decision was made in consultation with the town's Interfaith Council.

But Rabbi Joseph Lever of United Synagogue who has participated in the Bolton event for around three years was not consulted on the decision. He said: "I mourn the fact that the Holocaust Memorial Day event will not take place in Bolton this year."

Louis Rapaport, president of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester, was equally disappointed that the Jewish community was not consulted.

He said: "Bolton, alone of all the local authorities in our area, is not having an HMD event which is a government recommendation." He added: "There may not be many Jews in Bolton but the day is supposed to have an educational message to the whole community.

"I can't help feeling the decision was influenced by Bolton's large Muslim community."

Holocaust educator David Arnold said: "It is more than unfortunate that Bolton has seen fit to trivialise the remembrance of the Shoah."

Mr Arnold regretted the intrusion of "politics" into the issue.

He said: "It is entirely inappropriate and stems from a failure to understand the issues."

I wonder how long it will be until this becomes a trend in the future Londonistan...?

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