COMMENT: Time for Jewish-Muslim Solidarity ...

The following comment from the now-defunct Aussie Mossie blog was first published on Saturday 29 July 2006.

Israel may well gain its military objectives in Lebanon, just as it always has in the constructively occupied West Bank and Gaza. But Israel is fast losing the war of public opinion.

People across all sectors of Australian society, of all ethnicities and faiths are questioning what has clearly been a disproportionate response by Israel to the military incursions of Hamas and Hezbollah.

Australia’s Jewish community has been largely supportive of Israel. With a relatively higher proportion of Holocaust survivors compared to other Jewish communities in the Western world, many Australian Jews regard support for Israel as a kind of emotional life insurance policy.

But now even prominent Jewish writers and academics are beginning to make critical noises against Israel. This must prove unsettling for more hawkish pro-Israel lobbies. They now see Americans and Australians and New Zealanders and Europeans, people whose support they always took for granted, abandoning the blindly pro-Israel position.

Why is this happening?

Firstly, things haven’t been the same since Yasir Arafat shook hands with Yitzhak Rabin on the White House Lawn. Since then, the Palestinian cause gained respectability.

There was a time when Lebanese, palestinian or Muslim groups on Australian campuses faced a barrage of criticism when inviting speakers critical of Israel to speak. Today, on campuses across the country, Jewish, Muslim, Arab and other students are holding inter-faith gatherings and joint functions.

Secondly, the internet has opened up sources of information hitherto unavailable. Westerners now have access to Israeli and Palestinian newspapers and magazines online. Views and positions labelled anti-Semitic by rabid pro-Israel lobbies are now accessible on Israeli news websites. Previously, such views were only known to people in Israel.

Thirdly, Israel’s treatment of Christian minorities is also becoming known, thanks to the work of writers from various Christian denominations. Books such as William Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain are exposing the excesses of Jewish extremists in Jerusalem as they engage in blatant and often violent takeovers of Church land under the watchful and supportive eye of Israeli authorities.

Fourthly, Palestinians have also gained many articulate spokespeople actively building bridges for peace. Attempts to paint Sydney Peace Prize recipient Dr Hanan Ashrawi as a bloodthirsty supporter of suicide bombers in 2003 failed dismally.Attempts to discredit the recent study by two prominent American academics, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, on the power of the pro-Israel lobby seem to have backfired. In Australia, we see the paper profiled even on the pages of establishment papers such as the Australian Financial Review.

It also doesn’t help the more hawkish pro-Israel lobbies when their views are couched in the xenophobic and racist language of News Limited tabloid scribes. Today, many pro-Israel positions are represented by the most extreme, belligerent and imbecilic argument.

Recently Australia’s Ambassador to Lebanon declared that it is almost inevitable that Australians will be amongst the dead and wounded among Lebanon’s civilian population as Israel’s campaign in Lebanon continues. When Australians see their fellow countrymen and women being incinerated and blown to pieces by Israeli fire power, when the effects of this war begin to affect ordinary Australian families, goodwill toward Israel in Australia will nose-dive.

And should Hezbollah and Lebanon’s armed forces join forces under a unified command, it will be impossible for Israel’s friends in Canberra to cry “terrorist” when young Australians leave in droves to join in the fighting on either side of the war.

Lebanon is being seen as the victim. Israel’s apparent policy of “an Israeli eye for 30 Lebanese and Palestinian heads” is being exposed in all its ugliness.

So what should Australian Muslims do? Should we raise our voices in anger toward those we presume to be Israel’s die-hard supporters? Should we be demanding Jewish Australians to prove their loyalty the way we are demanded to prove ours when Aussie are killed in terror attacks in Bali? Should we be complaining that Jewish leaders aren’t condemning Israeli aggression enough as many complained (and continue to complain) about ours?

Should we produce our own Muslim versions of Mark Steyn and Daniel Pipes? No. We should rise above such divisive strategies.

Now is the time for us to engage our brethren of Jewish faith. Now is the time for us to hold out the hand of friendship. Because the reality is that we are all victims in this war.

We know there are many Australian Jews who are openly questioning Israel’s military policies. We also know there are many decent people inside Israel (including inside Israel’s Defence Forces) questioning and rejecting Israel’s current campaign.

As Israel’s army commits more atrocities, Hezbollah replies by firing more rockets. Who is killed? Ordinary Lebanese. Ordinary Israelis. Ordinary Jews, Christians and Muslims.

As Muslims, we should be the first to hold out the hand of friendship. Yes, we are opposed to Israeli government policies. But that doesn’t mean we show venom and resentment to our Jewish neighbours and colleagues and workmates and classmates.

Extra efforts should be made by Muslim organisations, particularly those representing young people, to arrange meetings and joint functions with Jewish organisations. Imams should go out of their way to meet with rabbis. Principals of Muslim schools should arrange visits to Jewish schools.

It makes me so pleased to see the disciples of Turkish Islamic scholar Muhammad Fethullah Gulen arranging functions with groups associated with the congregation of Temple Emanuel in Northern Sydney. More such gatherings need to occur.

With so much tension in the air, surely now is the best time for Muslims and Jews to interact and to build friendships. Let the hawks and extremists on both sides talk war and blood and death. Let us ordinary Australians, Muslims and Jews, speak the language of friendship.

Rabbi Hillel is quoted as saying: “Judge not your neighbour till you've been in his place.”

The Prophet Muhammad (peace & blessings of God be upon him) is reported to have said: “You are not a true believer until you want for your brother what you want for yourself.”

Muslims and Jews in Australia are fellow citizens and neighbours. Now more than ever, both our communities need to show we will not allow conflicts overseas to colour our relations with each other. We are already friends. We now must be seen to becoming better friends.

Words © 2006-9 Irfan Yusuf

UPDATE: The following comment was left in English by this rather friendly dual citizen:

I love your last paragraph. That is the 'ideal' isn't it. I think criticism and more in-depth examination of these conflicts is eessential. I am a practising Australian Christian currently living in the UK (I differentiate myself from 'cultural' Christians, of which most white Aussies/Brits would probably describe themselves as).

And this comment was left in Spanish by a Chilean Jewish brother:

Irfan,

He leído con atención tu blog, y concuerdo con tus ideas.

Como chileno, judío y activista del diálogo fraterno entre los "hermanos separados" te envío un caluroso abrazo desde Santiago de Chile.

Jorge

COMMENT: Just how un-Western is Christianity? And just how Christian is Australia?

I’m writing an article about Eastern Christianity. Actually, it’s an article about just how un-Western Christianity really is. I’m not writing about theology because I’m no theologian. I’ve written about these themes in various places over the years, and I hope this article will bring all that stuff together and take it a little further.

Interestingly, the article is for a Catholic website! I’m hoping the following notes will help clear my head about these issues a little.

[01] Muslims who are on the receiving end of allegedly Christian prejudice, who are often lectured to about how the West is the way it is because it has a distinctly Christian heritage, need to understand the reality of just how un-Western Christianity today is.

[02] The message also needs to get through to Christians who swallow this Christianity=West equation. Hopefully the spread of understanding of the true nature of Christianity will have a number of effects.

[03] It will help Muslims understand just how much they have culturally in common with Christians. It will also give Muslims an opportunity to remind allegedly Christian bigots just how ignorant and misplaced their bigotry is.

[04] It’s not enough to just be reminding ourselves at interfaith conferences just how similar our beliefs are. We also need to be talking about culture, politics, music, art, civilisation and much more.

[05] During the Howard era, religion frequently became the subject of cultural wars which rarely had anything to do with theology or dogma. So often we heard about the so-called “Judeo-Christian ethic”. Even today, former ministers of the Howard government like Tony Abbott talk about how ours is a nation built on the New Testament. On a recent episode of ABC TV’s Q&A program filmed at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival, Abbott remarked:

I think everyone who has grown up in a western country is profoundly shaped and formed by the New Testament, because this is the core document of our civilisation.

He went onto say that he gave up reading the Koran after 70 pages as it was:

… it struck me as the old testament on steroids …

So we can forget about the “Judeo” bit. It’s just Christian Australia, the land of the Holy Spirit.

[06] Peter Costello used to often refer to the Judeo-Christian tradition as some kind of cultural wedge.

On May 29, 2004, Treasurer Peter Costello addressed a crowd of Pentecostal Christians at Scots Church in Melbourne.

Costello provided his audience with a lesson in Australia’s colonial history. “If the Arab traders that brought Islam to Australia, had … settled or spread their faith among the Indigenous population, our country today would be vastly different. Our laws, our institutions, our economy would be vastly different.

“But that did not happen. Our society was founded by British colonists. And the single most decisive feature that determined the way it developed was the Judeo-Christian-Western tradition. As a society, we are who we are because of that tradition … one founded on that faith and one that draws on the Judeo-Christian tradition.”

Of course, all this talk about “Judeo-Christian heritage” is all a joke when you consider, as I wrote back in 2007, that:

… Judeo-Christian culture wasn’t exactly alive and well in England. Both colonists and convicts would have been aware of the passing of the Jew Bill through the English Parliament in 1753, allowing Jews to be naturalised by application to Parliament. Mr Costello’s ideological ancestors, the Tories, opposed the Bill, claiming it involved an “abandonment of Christianity”. Conservative protesters burnt effigies of Jews and carried placards reading “No Jews, no wooden shoes”.

Jews were forbidden from attending university and practising law in England until the mid 19th century. One can only imagine the prejudice the 750-odd First Fleet Jewish convicts faced from English jailors brought up in such an anti-Semitic environment.

More to come.

Words © 2009 Irfan Ysuuf


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BLOG: Keeping the Nazi dream alive ...

Bloggers at the far-Right Australian Islam Monitor website just can't stop thinking about me. After praising me for speaking out about chronic gender inequalities in Muslim communities, they are now making an issue about the size of my nose.

So I have a rather exotic-looking nose. What will they complain of next? That the spelling of my surname is more Israeli than Arab?

AIM blogger Cassandra then likens my attacks on the "Obama-was-a-Muslim-brigade" to attacks by the anti-Semitic French establishment on Captain Alfred Dreyfus. As if Dreyfus made it a habit to go around spreading false rumours about people's ethnic and religious heritage. As if Dreyfus tried to spread innuendo about people based on their background. As if Dreyfus cast aspersions on people based on their surnames or the size or shape of their noses. As if Dreyfus believed that certain minorities should be kept away from government and public administration.

When I think of prejudice against people based on their nose size, I think of the Nazis. It was the Nazis who determined whether a person was a Jew by the size of their nose. It was the Nazis who were so fixated with the size of people's noses. It is the Nazis who despised certain ethno-religious groups. It was the Nazis who spread the idea that a Jew could never be trusted and that Judaism taught its followers to lie and deceive.

AIM are carrying on these Nazi traditions. They look, sound and talk like Nazis. I wonder what that makes them.



Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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COMMENT: Jewish union leader negotiates religious holiday for American Muslim workers ...

The New York Times reports that a poultry plant in the American state of Tennessee has decided to award Muslim workers a paid holiday for its 1,200-strong workforce, a large proportion of whom are of Somali Muslim background.

Unfortunately, the move has been met with prejudice by some ...

“You are a union that is proud of achieving a Muslim holiday and prayer room?” one person wrote the union. “A union in the U.S.A., a country based on Christianity. You call yourselves Americans? Have you forgotten 9/11?”

Another wrote: “You had no right to drop Labor Day. Muslim employees must integrate Labor Day into THEIR lives if they are going to live in America.”

The move to allow Muslim workers to take Eid as a holiday instead of Labor Day was negotiated by Stuart Applebaum, who also serves as President of the Jewish Labor Committee. It only applies in one of Tyson's many hundreds of factories.

The usual array of far-Right fruitloops, including chronic Muslim-hater Robert Spencer, have condemned the move. Read this paragraph and wonder ...

The problem is that the accommodation of Islamic holidays and practices abets, however unwittingly, an avoudly supremacist agenda that is directed toward supplanting American laws and mores and imposing Islamic law here.

Using this logic, any legal accommodation to American Muslims must be opposed. Next, Spencer will be calling upon planning authorities not to grant Muslim groups with permits to build mosques. But more than that, Spencer is actually accusing the President of the Jewish Labor Committee of being a conduit for the imposition of Islamic law in America. Applebaum should get legal advice about commencing defamation proceedings against Spencer.

You can read echoes of Spencer's imbecilic rants in the comments section to this article. You can read more such comments here. Adolf Hitler will be smiling in his grave.

One so-called Christian questions whether Tyson's Foods can still call itself an American country. Don Swarthout , President of Christians Reviving America's Values (Crave), provided this hysterical response ...

What makes this particularly upsetting is that Tyson is replacing a secular holiday with an Islamic Religious Holiday. If we wanted to replace a secular holiday with a Christian holiday the company or the courts would not allow us to do such a thing.

That may be true, except that Christmas day is already a public holiday! The last time I checked, American Jews weren't lining up to celebrate Christmas day.

After all this hysteria, the company issued this press release. The press release sets out the background behind the decision ...

This change came about as a result of union demands brought to the negotiating table, and was agreed upon by Tyson in an effort to reach a contractual agreement with the union. The contract that calls for this change was unanimously recommended by the 12-person union bargaining committee, which included three Somali employees. The contract was then overwhelmingly agreed to by 80 percent of the rank and file membership of the union at the Shelbyville plant.

Imagine that. Four out of five union members supported this proposal. Democracy in action. But don't expect cyber-fascists like Spencer and Schlussel to have any respect for democracy.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT: Here come the moderates ...

The Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council, a thinktank I've never known to have ever published anything even mildly critical of any decision or action of any Israeli government, has invited a "terrorism researcher" to inform it that there are some "moderate" Muslims emerging in a place called "the Islamic world".

As we all know, terrorism is a purely Muslim phenomenon. The Columbian group FARC are just an example of how far and wide nasty Muslim terrorists have spread. And we all know that FARC wants to establish an Islamic state in Columbia.

Further, one can only understand Muslims through the prism of national security. Hence AIJAC has decided that instead of inviting a Muslim social scientist or even someone with a proper understanding of Muslim societies (e.g. Professor Ira Lapidus), they'll get some "terrorism researcher" promoted by a neo-Conservative speakers bureau.

The Australian Jewish News reports on July 8 2008 that Muslim "moderates" are "making their voices heard". As if their voices were never heard before. Unlike the universe (which only began with a big bang), the "Islamic world" has just been a constant loud bang lasting fourteen centuries until recently.

And who are these recently-emerged "moderates"? Apparently, there is one Egyptian chap named Sa'ad Ed-Din Ibrahim. His moderate credentials arise from him declaring that he was ...

... seen on Egyptian TV stating that Israel had become a technology powerhouse with a strong economy because it was a democracy.

Amazing. So what you need to do to be declared "moderate" is declare that Israel's IT industry and economy has been caused not by it being the largest recipient of US foreign aid or to the fact that Israeli Jews live longer and lower infant mortality rates to Israeli Arabs. Rather, you attribute it purely to the idea that Israel is a democracy.

Now there's no doubt that Israel is a few trillion times more democratic than most of its Arab neighbours. But does that mean democracy is unknown among Muslim-majority states. Is Indonesia a theocratic regime? Is Bosnia Herzegovina on the verge of returning to absolute monarchy? Is the Ottoman Caliphate about to be restored in Turkey?

Then there is Ali Ahmed Said, described as "a voice in Syrian affairs". What the ...? What kind of affairs is he involved in? Does Mr Said sleep with lots of Syrian women? Does he run an antique store in Aleppo?

Said is regarded as a moderate because he ...

... has publicly targeted radical interpretations of Islam and also campaigned against corruption.

So if you don't campaign against corruption, you must be an extremist. I guess on that basis, some of these Arab countries lining up to establish embassies in Tel Aviv are led by some rather nasty people.

Then there is the poster girl for every Muslim-phobe, far-right cultural warrior and wacko, Dr Wafa Sultan. The AJN report describes Sultan as ...

... a Sunni Muslim living in California ...

Someone should tell Dr Sultan that she is a Sunni. I'm sure it will be news to her. Just about every credible report about Dr Sultan says that she grew up in a Syrian Alawi/Nusayri family. Anyway, what makes Dr Sultan so moderate? Apparently, it is because ...

... she has challenged her own religion in numerous forums ...

Actually, she doesn't regard Islam as her religion. She has openly declared that she no longer regards herself as a Muslim. That's her choice, of course. Yet for some reason, AIJAC and/or AJN persist in describing Sultan as a Muslim.

That's a bit like me describing Maryam Jameelah (Margaret Marcus) as a Jew. The fact that she doesn't believe in Judaism and openly describes herself as an ex-Jew doesn't matter. The fact that she adopted the Islamic theocratic religion and politics of the Jama'at-i-Islami is irrelevant. The fact that she has written that Judaism treats God as "a real estate agent for the Jewish people" and has called for the destruction of Israel and its replacement with an Islamic state is inconsequential.

Even more absurd are claims by this "terrorism researcher" that in

... the Islamic diaspora ... there is a secularist influence but it ­hasn’t touched the core.

Where did that remark come from? Do Muslims living in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada regard themselves as a "diaspora"? Do they regard their real home (spiritual or otherwise) as somewhere else? And in what sense has secularism not touched the core of these communities? Do they all refuse to vote? Do they boycott secular political parties? Do they refuse to pay taxes? Do they live in Amish-style settlements and drive horse-drawn carts?

I almost fell of my chair when I read this "researcher" described as describing "Sufism" (by which I resume he means what Muslims refer to as zuhd or tasawwuf or ihsan or even irfan) as

... a form of Islamic mysticism that is seen as a moderate stream of Islam.

A form of Islamic mysticism? How many other forms are there? Has a type of Muslim kabbalist emerged? Have Jesuit Muslims set up their first monastery in Lakemba?

If this is the best AIJAC can do to understand Muslims, Allah/G-d help them.

UPDATE I: One anonymous reader has pointed out that the AIJAC speaker, Nir Boms, also spoke at the Limmud Oz Festival of Jewish Learning & Culture. The official Limmod Oz website gives a preview of Boms' lecture. I'm not sure whether Boms wrote this preview. That preview is as follows:

A war of civilizations? A battle of faiths? A peaceful Jihad? The dawn of the new millennium has brought the words “terrorism” and “Islamic Radicalism” much closer to our lives. New York, London, Madrid, Bali and Melbourne have ‘tasted’ these new realities and have been forced to provide some answers. Using video presentations, the session will provide an introduction to some surprising and uncommon voices. It will further explore the questions presented by this new era with a particular focus on Islamic radicalism and on some of the unique and brave voices within Islam that seek to counter it.

According to the anonymous reader, Boms' presentation was limited to the Midle East. Yet the preview reproduced above clearly refers to "unique and brave voices within Islam", not "within the Middle East". Further, I'm really not sure why these voices are described as unique. The implication is clear: that "terrorism" and "Islamic Radicalism" are the norm and everything else is "unique and brave".

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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COMMENT: Obama's not-Muslim obsession

Here's an awfully silly, immature and almost racist joke ...

What did Hillary say when she found out she lost the final vote in Democratic Party primaries? "Oh bummer!"

Yes, I admit this is exceptionally lame. Poking fun at people's names is as bad as casting aspersions on their religion. Or casting aspersions on the religions of others.

Which makes me wonder why Barack Obama is so-damned intent on keeping away from Muslim American voters. Isn't he aware that some of these voters delivered victory to George W Bush in 2000? And what does it say about the allegedly inclusive America he wants to lead? Does Obama's view of social inclusion have its limits?

Ethnic and religious minorities across America are asking these questions. Is Obama's idea of inclusion limited by the types of exclusion practised by his political enemies? If neo-Cons despise a particular group, will Obama avoid that group in an effort to avoid being labelled by his political enemies?

Or is this an issue of past ghosts coming back to haunt? Many neo-Con writers such as Ann Coulter express hatred for anything related to Islam more because of their past relationships with Muslims than anything else. Mark Steyn also fits into this category. Barack Obama has perhaps better reason to resent Islam if he associates it with his father and step-father.

Whatever the reason, Obama's reluctance to embrace voters of all backgrounds is beginning to worry members of a range of minority groups. Writing in the Detroit Free Press, Jewish-American writer Emily Hauser expresses her discomfort with Obama ...

I am a Jewish American and an enthusiastic Barack Obama supporter. I can't tell you how much I hope he'll be our next president.

But for all my longing for change and insistence that "yes we can," there's a bee in my bonnet, a sense of real dissonance between the Obama rhetoric and the reality: the Muslim thing.

Not the idea that he might be one. No, what has me so bothered is that an American presidential candidate acts as if the word "Muslim" were a slur. And according to recent reports, the Muslim community is feeling the sting, too ...

... the campaign discusses, endlessly, the candidate's Christianity; the third item on its "Fight the Smears" Web site reads: "Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim." Months ago, Michelle Obama characterized references to her husband's middle name, Hussein, a "fear bomb," and recently, two Muslim women were kept from standing behind him at a rally.

Honestly, there's something noxious in all this - as if Obama isn't proudly declaring his own faith, but running as fast as he can from the other ...

I wish that rather than hand out pamphlets declaring him a "committed Christian," Obama had held a prayer breakfast with an Imam; rather than trumpet his own faith, he'd found some praise for that of 1 billion Muslims around the globe.

Or, in the words of Keith Ellison, a Muslim and a congressman from Minnesota: "A lot of us are waiting for him to say that there's nothing wrong with being a Muslim."

In his "Yes We Can" speech, Obama echoed a powerful Jewish notion: tikkun olam, repairing the world -- an idea that embraces not just the physical world, but the people in it, and our relationships.

To my mind, it would be a real step toward repairing the world if Obama were now to consider an equally powerful, Muslim concept: "Allah will put friendship between you and those who have been your enemies. Allah is mighty, forgiving, and merciful."

Obama's campaign team would do well to read and take note of Hauser's sentiments. His attempts to distance himself with one unpopular minority could land him in trouble with other potentially unpopular minorities.

UPDATE I: You can read more about Obama's Muslim problem at AltMuslim.com here.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT: D'Souza on Christianity as "the only way" ...

Dinesh D'Souza poses this question: Is Christianity the Only Way? It's a legitimate question to be asked by someone living in a country as religious as the United States, where (according to Pew Research) some 92% of people believe in God. It's also legitimate considering the the United States has a strong and officially secular political system where holding a particular religious affiliation isn't a condition of holding any (including the highest) public office in the land.

At the same time, religious pluralism is very strong. Many Americans don't regard their own faith as being the only source of absolute truth or as the only comprehensive road to paradise.

What got the most attention, however, was Pew's discovery that a majority of religious Americans believe that other religions make valid claims about God and can lead to heaven. Around 80 percent of Catholics, Protestants and Jews, as well as 55 percent of Muslims, reject the idea that their religion is the only way.

D'Souza makes a very important point about how the monotheistic faiths view each other, yet how little this view is even known to many Americans.

... many people don't realize that just as Christianity sees itself as succeeding and incorporating Judaism, so Islam sees itself as coming after and incorporating both Judaism and Christianity. Consequently I'm not surprised that most Muslims view Jews and Christians as fellow monotheists rather than hell-bound infidels.

I was a bit confused by D'Souza's claim that ...

... Christianity is the only religion to hold another religion to be wholly true. That religion is Judaism.

Does that mean that Christians accept that Judaism's insistence on belief in a unitarian God is "wholly true"? What about Judaism's rejection of the belief that Jesus was the Messiah?

Followers of all faiths and none are welcome to comment.

Words © 2007 Irfan Yusuf

REFLECTION: Lessons from an older cousin ...

There were Jews on the First Fleet to Australia in 1788. According to Bilal Cleland, author of a definitive history of Muslims in Australia, there were Muslims on the Second and subsequent Fleets. In terms of European settlement on this continent, that makes Jews our elder cousins.

Our virtually-twin faiths ensure we have even more in common. For a long time now, I've been wondering why leaders and concerned citizens from Muslim communities don't spend more time learning from their Jewish cousins.

Which makes it pleasing that the Australian Intercultural Society and the Anti-Defamation Commission in Melbourne jointly organised a National Cohesion Summit in February this year. The topic of the summit was ‘The Australian Jewish Experience and Challenges Faced by Muslims’. You can read more about the event here.

Among the keynote speakers was Hon Justice Howard Nathan, a Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria. Justice Nathan spoke of the early achievements of Jewish settlers in literacy and numeracy. His advice to us is certainly worth its weight in gold ...

Not only were they literate, but they were also numerate, which put them ahead of others and stood the Jews in good stead ever since. Education, education, and yet more education was the key.

Also important was the contribution of Dr Helen Light, Director of the Australian Jewish Museum. Yes, museums do make an enormous difference in helping to construct an historical identity and in building bridges with the broader community. Consider these wide remarks ...

While museums are secular organisations, they are important venues to discuss cultural identity and talk about religion ... They teach the value of diversity, share the importance of respect between different people and provide a model of a community that has been able to make a real contribution to society.

I am not aware of a single Muslim community in the West which has established a museum. We so often complain about others constructing a negative identity about us. Yet the fact is that we are often too lazy or too pre-occupied with short-term issues to consider projects (such as a museum) which will have lasting effect.

Words © Irfan Yusuf 2008


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HUMOUR: The Cult of the Big Nosed Demon is back ...

Nasty Jewish conspirator spreading racial impurity through oversized nose ...


Nasty Islamic conspirators with Israeli names spreading more racial impurity through their oversized noses ...
_________________________________________________________

The Nazis were a rather strange bunch. Completely obsessed with certain harmless minorities (Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, the disabled etc), they blamed the ills of the world on any individual they deemed linked to these groups.

Today's Nazis have replaced Jews with Muslims. Yet their racist and sectarian bigotry shares certain common features with the German Nazism of the mid-20th century.

The Nazis assumed that Jews had bigger noses than the rest of humanity. Today's Nazis from the far-Right IslamistMonitor.org have attributed big noses to Muslims, be they of the more observant variety (such as Cat Stevens) or of the more nominal variety (such as myself).

As if to make matters worse, the website also asks whether the Arabic word "Yusuf" means liar. For the benefit of the in-breds who pollute cyberspace with their imbecilic site, allow me to clarify the matter.

"Yusuf" is in fact a form of HEBREW spelling of the name of the Bliblical and Koranic prophet Joseph. Arabs tend to spell the name as "Yousef" or "Youssef". Israelis and Jews who use the Hebrew pronunciation tend to spell it as "Yosef" or "Yusuf".

In fact, on quite a few occasions have I been approached by Jews and asked if I was an Israeli. Why? Because of the way my surname is spelt.

Aah well, I guess in the eyes of some chronic racists, that makes me the type of chappy who tends to have a big nose.

(Thanks to BC of Melbourne for the tip-off.)

Words © Irfan Yusuf 2008

COMMENT: Baghdad - once a city for all faiths ...

The October 7 2007 edition of the New York Times magazine includes a profile of Iraqi-American author Kanan Makiya, who wrote (under the pen-name of Samir al-Khalil) one of the most influential biographies of Saddam Hussein.

There's plenty in the profile to blog about. Despite spending much of his undergraduate years a supporter of the Palestinian cause, Makiya wasn't exactly fond of fellow Columbia University Professor Edward Said. Makiya promised George W Bush on the eve of the Iraq invasion that Iraqis would greet US forces with "sweets and flowers".

What particularly struck me was the description of historical Baghdad. The profile speaks of perhaps Makiya's most important achievement - the documentation of Saddam Hussein's atrocities under the auspices of the Iraq Memory Foundation.

Since 2003, Makiya and his small staff have scoured Baath party offices and dungeons, adding to a collection that would reach more than 11 million pages of records. And they began filming interviews with the regime’s victims. 

Makiya’s dream was to build a museum for the archives on the site of the Victory Arch, the memorial commissioned by Hussein to commemorate Iraq’s so-called triumph in the Iran-Iraq War ... Among the foundation’s most vivid achievements are the 190 videotaped testimonies from Hussein’s victims. They include Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and even Jews.

One of these testimonies takes us back to a time when Baghdad was a centre of Jewish cultural life. Thanks to the infiltration of Ba'athist ideology, the tolerance of devout Iraqi Muslims was undermined. Suddenly, anyone deemed non-Arab became a target. And supporting Palestinian rights became a cover for some of the most virulent and despicable acts of anti-Semitism.

In December 2003, at the age of 98, Shao’ul Sasson, for example, described his arrest and torture at the hands of the Baath Party police. Sasson, who died in 2005, was an Iraqi Jew. As late as the mid-1930s, Baghdad was one of the world capitals of Jewish life, with Jews making up a third of its population. Most of Iraq’s Jews either fled to Israel or were expelled beginning in the late 1940s; most of the rest were harassed or killed. In January 1969, in one of the Baath Party’s first displays of public brutality, 13 Iraqi Jews and 4 other men were hanged in a public ceremony in Baghdad before a crowd of about a half million people. Iraqis were bussed in from around the country to witness the event.
“I was born in Baghdad,” Sasson says on the videotape. “My father was the chief rabbi. He sent me to a Jewish school to learn Hebrew, but I can’t remember much of it.
“I was working for Mohammed al-Damarchi. My salary had been stopped because I was Jewish, and there was a warrant out for my arrest. They knocked on the door and asked for Shao’ul. 

“My wife said, ‘Let him take his clothes or put something on,’ but they said there was no need, as I would be brought back soon. They blindfolded me and took me away. I could tell we were going to the notorious Al-Nihaya Palace prison, because I lived in the same area. . . . They asked me to confess to everything, but I told them I didn’t have anything to confess to. And yet they insisted I must. They brought a metal bar and hit me on my legs. I fell into the wall and broke two teeth. Again, they told me to confess and hit me on the legs. Again, I fell and broke a few teeth. I lost 9 or 10 teeth that day.
“I saw Abdul Rahman al-Bazzaz (the former prime minister). They had hung him up and burned his tongue with matches. . . . My worst experience was the day I saw all the prisoners hanging up on either side of the corridor. 

“They put me in a cell where the floor was covered in urine and feces. I couldn’t bear to stay in it, so I would bang my head hard against the wall in an attempt to kill myself.”

The Prophet Muhammad is reported to have said: "Those who so much as lay one finger on the dhimmi (non-Muslim citizen of an Islamic state) will have me witnessing against them on the Day of Judgment."

Sadly, so many Muslim politicians like to flex their political muscle at the expenses of non-Muslim minorities. Those of us fortunate enough to live as Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries should be at the forefront of campaigning for non-Muslim minorities in Muslim countries.

© Irfan Yusuf 2007

COMMENT: Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Jewish fundamentalism ...

Muslims often attack Ayaan Hirsi Ali for her criticisms of the Islamic faith and Muslim cultures. Anti-Muslims adore her for these very reasons, using Hirsi Ali's (often legitimate) critiques of Muslim culture as an excuse to attack all Muslims.

Now, Hirsi Ali's attacks on religion have extended to overly religious and fundamentalist Israeli Jews. The result is that she is beginning to lose favour with her old supporters, many of whom come from the Jewish circles she criticises.

In August last year, the Jerusalem Post newspaper published Hirsi Ali's views on Jewish fundamentalism ...

From my superficial impression, the country ... has a problem with fundamentalists ... The ultra-Orthodox will cause a demographic problem because these fanatics have more children than the secular and the regular Orthodox.

As a result of these comments, one far-Right Jewish blog has described Hirsi Ali as an ...

... intellectually challenged anti semite ...

So there you have it. When Hirsi Ali criticises Muslim extremism, she is applauded. But when she attacks the Israeli equivalent, she is hounded. Still, at least she is consistent, unlike so many of her (now increasingly former) supporters.

Words © 2007 Irfan Yusuf

COMMENT: Muslims and the Holocaust

Nazi-hunter Simon Weisenthal passed away. He was perhaps the world’s premiere Nazi hunter. His centre built up an intelligence network that provided evidence leading to the trial and conviction of numerous people at all levels of the Nazi regime.

Yet for some Muslims, Weisenthal has been a problematic figure. His stated views on Palestinian rights were sometimes reminiscent of attitudes of some of the very people he was fighting. It seemed as if he lived in denial of Palestinian suffering.

But then, it is hard to blame him. For many holocaust survivors, Israel is a life insurance policy they wish they had access to when Hitler came to power. They lived in a Europe which promised and preached emancipation of Jews in the name of liberalism or socialism or secularism or some other ism.

Yet all the rhetoric could not face the tsunami of hatred built up over centuries toward the Jewish people. Jews were lambasted as Christ-killers, as nasty bankers and money-lenders, as being involved in a huge conspiracy to destroy Christianity and Western civilisation.

From time to time, I read some disgustingly anti-Muslim editorials and opinion pieces in newspapers. The suspects are well-known – Janet Albrechtsen, Andrew Bolt, Miranda Devine. Some are more subtle and sophisticated – Pamela Bone and Paul Sheehan comes to mind.

I imagine the hatred and venom that goes into these articles, and am reminded of a verse from the Qur’an which goes something like this.

Their lips speak hatred of you, but what their hearts conceal is much worse.

I sometimes wonder whether such editorials hide a deeper hatred which many in this country have toward Muslims. Today, people are able to say things about Muslims which they couldn’t say maybe 10 years or even 5 years ago. Today, a politician can stand up and describe me in Federal parliament as a “bomb thrower”, suggesting I have some links to terrorism.

Had that politician not been the human embodiment of all that is irrelevant and redundant in Australian politics, I would perhaps have ignored her. But then, I wonder – are her attitudes all that irrelevant? Is there an undercurrent of racism against Muslims in Australia?

I wonder whether David Hicks would receive more government support if he had not converted to Islam. I wonder if Schapelle Corby would have received the support she does if she had announced a conversion to Islam and not Christianity? But it goes beyond that.

I wonder if Aussie Mossie Ed Husic would have won the seat of Greenway at the last Federal Election if he had been born to a Bosnian Catholic family. I wonder if Paul Sheehan would have written about Husic’s religion a fortnight from the campaign. I wonder if some Young Liberals would have handed out a false how-to-vote in letterboxes speaking about Husic being “an asset to Islam”.

The attitudes we see in Christendom toward Muslims seem to find a mirror in what Jews saw in Germany and elsewhere in Europe in the first half of the 20th century. And that means that Muslim Australians need to learn some coping mechanisms from Jewish Australians.

The attitudes of the late Simon Weisenthal toward Palestinians should not blind us to the importance of learning to recognise the signs of xenophobia from our Jewish spiritual cousins.

Islamic and Jewish theology, law and culture have more similarities than differences. Today’s Muslims are being demonised in the same way Jews have been, the attitudes are centuries old and are locked into the Christian psyche.

Jews are Christ-killers. Muslims are Saracens or Moors or Turks, the Sick Men of the 21st Century. Muslims don’t understand “our” values and refuse to conform to “our” way of life.

Recently, I bought over $100 worth of books on Jewish culture. I have been wanting to especially focus on how Jews lived as persecuted minorities and survived for so long. As an Aussie Muslim, I feel like an endangered species. I fear a holocaust on the horizon. The rhetoric of conservative politicians, shock jocks and columnists makes me even more fearful.

Muslims don’t know what it is like to live as an oppressed minority with nowhere to go. We have only in the past 200 years been suffering real internal oppression and external domination.

Jews have been experiencing this for thousands of years. We need to learn from them how to keep our theology, our cultures and our memories alive. And many Jewish Australians are reaching out to us. In this regard, I was heartened to read the reaction of the peak body of Australian Jews, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) in relation to the pseudo-debate on the wearing of hijabs in state schools.

If Jewish Australians, especially holocaust survivors, can find resonance in our current position, perhaps we need to learn from their experiences. Our current fears should bring us closer to those who share so much with us.

Let us learn from the victims of a holocaust so that we are prepared to perhaps face our own.

Words © 2005 Irfan Yusuf