One Rule For Them

I've tried very hard to make this blog non-political, and to keep it focused on the more mundane aspects of life. Today, though, it's different, and I'm going to do something I never thought I'd be doing in my life, which is defending the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church.

Last week Pope Benedict was in Germany. He made a reference to an ancient description of Islam that was less than complimentary. This provoked outrage across the Muslim world, and now you have half the Christian world in Europe groveling before Islam. Yes, groveling. European leaders can’t say “sorry” fast enough.

I'm going to declare an interest here... I am Jewish... not a practicing Jew by any means, and I can't actually remember the last time I attended a Synagogue or Temple service. But I am a Jew nevertheless, and proud of the history of my people.

For that reason alone, I abhor racism of any kind. I wrote this two weeks ago as a comment on Blog-a-licious…

Care not for the colour of their skin, or their eyes, or their hair.
Care not what God (or Gods) they worship, or indeed whether they choose to worship a God at all.
Care not what language they speak, or what car they drive, or what clothes they wear.
Care only about whether they care, because if any of the above bothers them or causes them to act, say or do differently to one person as to another, then smack them down.

It therefore saddens me that I feel the need to write this blog at all, but to me, it’s more than a little rich that Islam rises up in protest whenever it perceives (or wishes to fabricate) some insult from the West, when every day, all over the world, Clerics and Imams preach the vilest anti-Semitism in history.

It is preached from pulpits, in village squares, in towns and in cities from Morocco to Jakarta. It is taught in schools as part of a formal curriculum. It fills newspapers and television. Don’t believe me? Go here and see what Arab TV teaches children about the Jews.

There is a common theme… that Jews are all liars, that it is the sacred duty of Muslims everywhere to kill Jews (and Christians too, I might add), that the Holocaust never happened and was Jewish conspiracy to gain sympathy from the rest of the world. Their anti-Semitism compresses all of the anti-Semitism in history, delivering it as truth to a people too uneducated to understand the manipulation.

And it’s not just Islam that has institutionalized this hatred. Anti-Semitism is an instrument of power, and is defacto state policy across more countries that I could name. I’m not talking about the loony Iranians here. Muhatir Mohammed, the former president of Malaysia, once banned Schindler’s List because, in his words, “this film perpetuates the myth of the holocaust”.

In the Jews, the failed states of the Middle East have found an easy “common enemy” against which they can unite their people.

In the Jews, the extremist Islamicists have found a common evil and simplistic explaination for why the rest of the world seems to enjoy prosperity while much of the Muslim world, and especially the middle east, is a cesspit of poverty and despair.

(That’s a topic for another time, but if you want a fresh perspective on politics in the middle east, go here.)

And remember the Danish cartoon fiasco? The same day that cartoon was published in Denmark, dozens of vile, anti-Semitic cartoons were published in newspapers across the Arab world.

Cartoons like this from Ash-Sharq, February 19, 2006.

"Islam" is caricatured on the left, peaceful and scholarly, about to be stabbed by the pen of "Western Media". On the right, the "Western Media" bows in front of a toilet bowl, labeled "Zionism," from which fire, labeled "the Holocaust," emanates. Behind stands the devil, above which are the Menorah and the Star of David.

Or this, from Al-Watan, March 18, 2006.

The headline reads “Bird Flu In Israel”.

So, when I hear that “the whole of Islam” is offended by the words of the Pope, I have but one thing to say…

Go away you pathetic little people.

Until you get your own house in order, your whining is meaningless. It has no moral authority and no credibility. Western Civilisation makes the mistake of dealing with you as though you share at least some of our values. By your actions, you demonstrate that you do not.

We react with political correctness to a foe that laughs at our weakness. I have always believed that there comes a time in the history of any civilization that it must draw that proverbial line in the sand. THIS is such a time.


I will qualify all of the above by saying I still believe that, mostly, people are just people. Some are misguided and others are poorly led, but most are decent folk. I’d also like to acknowledge (and encourage) the moderate voice of Islam, in which values of peace, harmony and tolerance are central.