A Report From Jerusalem

Aeneas was an invited guest at today’s “Facing Jihad” conference in Jerusalem, and he sent us the following report:

Baron,

The following is a very brief discussion of the day’s events — I notice that Pamela has given detailed coverage. By the way, I spoke with Geert Wilders and he was very impressed by the efforts of yourself and Gates of Vienna people in translating Fitna into so many languages [Aeneas is referring to the Rosetta Stone projects —BB]. You might want to impart this to all concerned.

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The Facing Jihad Conference, organised by the Ariel Centre for Policy Review, took place in Jerusalem and was very well-attended in terms of the number of guests and media presence. The event was introduced by Prof. Arieh Eldad, MK, and each speaker was introduced by Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. Live coverage was provided by Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs.

The first speaker was Prof. John Lewis, who spoke about a policy to defeat Islamic totalitarianism with an emphasis on the legal separation of religion and the state. Douglas MacArthur’s approach to Shintoism in Japan was cited as an example of how this could be done.

Dr. David Bukay spoke about jihad and da’wah. This included the way Islam uses infiltration, deception, misinformation, and religiously sanctioned lying to subvert non Islamic societies.

Itamar Marcus of Palestinian Media Watch gave a visual presentation that showed how messages differ depending on whether the audience is Islamic or Western, with the latter being a sanitised and deceptive version. The version shown in Arabic on Palestinian TV conveyed a clear violent and supremacist message, with incitement to exterminate Jews and create a second Holocaust. The clips showed how violence is promoted as a first option with negotiation only being used when violence has failed, and with violence being celebrated as an ideal. They showed how even children’s TV is not immune to this tendency, and children are encouraged to become martyrs. The spin on the attacks on 9/11 is that the main victims of these attacks were the people of Iraq and Afghanistan. Palestinians and Muslims are portrayed as victims and this victimhood is used as an excuse for violence. Jesus is portrayed as the first Palestinian victim.

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Prof. Shlomo Sharan spoke after the lunch break about indoctrination in Israel’s public education system. This included historic revisionism that effectively eliminated Zionism and emphasised multiculturalism. It was shown how a disproportionate emphasis was given to the peace process at the expense of more successful approaches to attacks on Israel.

An unscheduled presentation was given by a former Sudanese slave highlighting the continued place of slavery in some Islamic societies. He reported on his experience of being made the gift from one Arab Muslim to another.

Daniel Pipes gave a presentation entitled ‘Israel and Clear Victory’. Fitna was then shown, which was the first formal screening of the film in Israel. Afterwards Geert Wilders gave a presentation and this was followed by closing remarks from Prof Eldad. The event ended with a press conference.

The conference was an overwhelming success and has attracted a great deal of interest and enthusiasm.