More on Gates-gate

 
At the Museum of Hoaxes site, commenter Arabian has translated the mysterious page from the Arabic. He says, "This hoax has been doing the rounds of Islamic forums for a month. I'll try to translate the Arabic page you posted (I'm bored:- ))":

	---- Anwar Tunis No 213, Thusday 10 February 2005 ----
	At the center of shock and condemnation in the centers of American Science
	THE EMPEROR OF WORLD COMPUTING AND SOFTWARE BILL GATES..CONVERTS TO ISLAM
	al-Habib Sadiq al-Zeen- Washington
	"I have gained everything..money..leadership..science but all my life I have been looking for something that's missing..this is the peace of mind I have found in Islam"
	This is how Bill Gates started his speak in a party in his honour organized by the American society for the homeless and the dispossessed RYACH in New York on the 5th of this month.
	And this is how the emperor of computer building Bill Gates suprised those present with news that shocked them and stunned them all. And the American journal Christian Science Monitor, which broke the story, mentioned that with this speech Bill Gates put a stop to the speculation concerning his frequent repeated visits to American Muslims such as the American Muslim Louis Farhan.
	The journal also asks: "Will Bill gates aim his future software to aid Islam?" The mentioned journal also notes that Gates explained to its journalist that the attacks of 11 September 2001 were a turning point in his life, which made him turn his attention to the study of Islam and understanding Islamic thinkers which in turn convinced him that Islam was the religion he has been searching for.
	Moreover, several scientific communities in the united states condemned the speech of Gates and the Eisenhower center for software development in Chicago issued a statement in which the petitioners state that scientific progress in recent times was nothing but the result of the separation of religion from science, hoping that this new direction of Gates does not affect the future production of software.
	But will we as Muslims benefit from the conversion of an important identity such as Bill gates? We hope so..

This is quite a perplexing hoax: I googled eight different ways on the keywords involved and still can't find any indications of an event used as the basis of the post. Apparently the hoaxer made it up out of whole cloth.

But where is Snopes on Gates-gate? When I search there, I still get: "Sorry, no matches were found containing bill gates islam."

Not wanting to post any additional keywords to our blog and thus draw in even more searchers, I hereby abandon this topic. Unless, of course, any more interesting or amusing information turns up.

 
(Previous posts on this topic are here and here.)

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4/14/05 Update: An entertaining variant on one of the searches came in this morning: "bill gates" jew islam. Did the searcher assume Bill Gates was Jewish because he is rich?
 

"Hearts and Minds" Is Not Even the Half of It

 
Strategy Page has an insightful essay into the current flux in Afghanistan's regular Army. A mix of Soviet leftovers, former warlords, deserters, and anti-Taliban resistance fighters is being trained by NATO personnel to more closely resemble a traditional Western military.

They have their work cut out for them. The hit-and-run, capriciously revengeful tribal warfare these men were raised to rubs up against the ethos and rigorous standards of the Western warrior. Twenty-first century combat training seems "endless and exhausting." All those glory, gory war movies failed to show the sheer boredom of endless repetition necessary to produce a skilled infantryman.

What the recruits admire, though, are the American Special Forces and it is this image that keeps them from dropping out. The Soviet soldiers these men fought against often fled when attacked; the Americans fought back fiercely and that example has served to change their thinking about 'modern' armies and the definition of courage.

The NATO/US personnel doing the training are hampered by the lack of NCOs (non-commissioned officers). Under the more familiar Soviet system, sergeants had little authority. Looking for mature specimens among those who have volunteered, trainers are attacking the problem piecemeal, rewarding initiative and assigning responsibility. Some men work out well, some don't.

The officer problem is thornier. Mid-level and senior officers come from either the warlord population or Russian-trained veterans in the Afghan military. Both find the idea of treating their men as well-trained, intelligent and capable troops "exotic" at best. Those who have been willing to try the new ways are pleasantly surprised.

The author notes a shift in perspective in the civilian population. The latter are used to bandit-soldiers who operate in rape-and-pillage mode. As the army morphs into a professional cadre, their disciplined behavior has been welcomed by average citizens. He wonders, though, if these new professional soldiers will be high-jacked by ambitious officers in attempts of government takeovers.

Given the investment by NATO and the US, not to mention the sweat equity of the Afghan soldier, this may be less likely with each passing year. Old ways die hard, but the taste of life lived under the rule of law may be an irresistible force.

Who knows, perhaps the need for warlords will fade away, taking the life of banditry with it.

Your Bias or Mine?

 
The CNN headline this morning reads:

Bombs target U.S. military vehicles

Click the link and start to read the story:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three separate bombings targeted U.S. military vehicles in Baghdad on Wednesday morning, but there were no immediate reports of American casualties.

Notice the good news, not evident from the headline, was that the bombers were not successful.

But one has to scroll down through acres of the standard MSM litany to find a paragraph just before the end of the story:

Coalition raids Tuesday kept up the pressure on the insurgency. The U.S. military said "initial reports indicate foreign terrorists, including at least one suicide bomber" were killed in a raid in al-Qaim, a western Iraqi town near the Syrian border. There have been two other raids over the past week in the al-Qaim area, which is in Anbar province. Coalition raids Tuesday kept up the pressure on the insurgency. The U.S. military said "initial reports indicate foreign terrorists, including at least one suicide bomber" were killed in a raid in al-Qaim, a western Iraqi town near the Syrian border. There have been two other raids over the past week in the al-Qaim area, which is in Anbar province.

I propose an alternate headline, based on the same raw data and drawn from the same news story:

US forces score successes against the terrorists in Iraq.
 

Persecution and Orthodoxy

 
If one gives credence to the likes of CAIR, Muslims in this country are on the verge of persecution, as evidenced by a Fox television program which depicts -- gasp! -- Muslim terrorists. One presumes that a more realistic portrayal would have the typical terrorist be a neo-Nazi born-again Christian skinhead, or something similar.

In other parts of the world, however, millions of people suffer from more tangible forms of religious persecution, and those persecuted are most likely Christians. Consider the "stans", the former Soviet Socialist Republics of Central Asia. Under Communism, religious persecution was egalitarian: all believers were discriminated against equally. But with the departure of the commissars, the Muslim majority is free to exert its strength in the authoritarian states left behind.

Persecution News reported in 2003 on events in Uzbekistan:

Pentecostals in Muinak, 200 kilometres north of Nukus, the capital of Uzbekistan's western region of Karakalpakstan, fear that two church members, Kuralbai Asanbayev and Rashid Keulimjayev, may again face punishment for meeting together as Christians. According to Forum 18 News Service, Asanbayev's home was raided on March 6 and both men were forced to make a statement to police. When the two were previously arrested in December, they were tortured and sentenced to five days in prison. At the time, the hakim (chief of the district), Jarylkan Tursynbekov, said that even if the church managed to get the 100 signatures needed to register, they would not allow a Protestant church in Muinak.

Protestant Christians in particular have been facing increasing pressure in this country where Islam is the main religion. Church registration is required, but is often refused, forcing Christians to worship in secret. Even in registered churches, "turning believers from one confession to another" and missionary activity are illegal. Meetings are not allowed outside of the regular church building. Pastor Obyedkov of Yangiyul, 30 kilometres south of Tashkent narrowly escaped charges recently for a meeting in the home of a church member. Obyedkov is the pastor of a registered Baptist church.

More recently, ASSIST News Service has reported:

In a continuing anti-Christian campaign in the Karakalpakstan [Qoraqalpoghiston] autonomous republic in north-western Uzbekistan, a Protestant final year medical student, Ilkas Aldungarov, has been expelled from the Nukus branch of the Tashkent Paediatric Medical Institute, because he belongs to a Protestant church, the Church of Christ, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The expulsion took place at the end of November and a Tashkent Protestant who preferred not to be named stressed to Forum 18 that, although formally Aldungarov was expelled on grounds of academic failure, in reality he was expelled for his religious beliefs.

Iklas Aldungarov and other Protestants have been targeted before by the authorities. In April 2004, Nukus city prosecutor M. Arzymbetov tried to have him expelled as he belonged to what Arzymbetiove called " an illegal religious sect." The Prosecutors Office also summoned 11 members of the same church for questioning, where they were pressured to renounce their faith and convert to Islam, and threatened with being shot (see F18 News 21 April 2004)

Contemplate for a moment the ominous phrase: an illegal religious sect. CAIR has yet to face such conditions in this country, unless one counts the shutting down of the Islamist "charities" that funnel money to al-Qaeda and Hamas.

The ANS article goes on to say,

Two of the students - Aliya Sherimbetova and Shirin Artykbayeva - were expelled in September for being Christians and were told that they were also expelled because their case had been published "on the internet", possibly a reference to Forum 18's coverage (see F18 News, 16 September 2004).

So publicizing the plight of Christians in Uzbekistan in the Western media makes stepped-up persecution more likely.

Human Rights Without Frontiers reported:

The police periodically enter the homes of local Protestants, take them to the police station and subject them to beatings. For example, on 17 December last year the police raided the home of local Protestant Kuralbai Asanbayev, who was being visited at the time by fellow-believer Rashid Keulimjayev. They were both detained at the police station where they were beaten and tortured, with police officers putting gas masks on them and closing off the air supply. The hakim said that even if the Protestants did manage to collect the 100 signatures required for registration, they would still not be allowed to establish a Protestant church in Muinak.

Note that in Uzbekistan, 100 signatures on a petition are required before the government will permit the establishment of a church.

No wonder people come to America.

In this country the established religion is, of course, Orthodox Secularism, but Christians face no persecution by the authorities. The Christian religion is vital and confident, exercising its ministry here and abroad.

However, there are discouraging signs that a "religious test" may soon be applied to those who would hold public office. Witness the ordeal of Bill Pryor at the hands of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His Catholic faith was held by some of the Democrats on the committee to put him outside the mainstream and make him unfit for public office. We are approaching the point where sincere religious faith is enough to have a public officeholder branded a "theocrat" by the mainstream media.

The Orthodox Secularists who create this new atmosphere do not intend to do the journeywork of the Islamists; in fact, just the opposite is true: they are as adamant in their opposition to Islamic intolerance as anybody else.

But make no mistake about it: the deliberate and systematic undermining of public Christianity creates a spiritual void in our civic life, and works in a kind of synergy with the Islamist goals. One only has to look at "Eurabia" to see what happens when Christianity is debilitated and the post-Christian polities emerge.

When religious belief is routinely trashed and denigrated and mocked and belittled, a kind of spiritual enervation takes hold of the body politic, leaving it empty at the center and ripe for appropriation by those whose zeal is strong and pure and unyielding.

Watch for it in Europe, and fear for it here.

The Kingdom of Non-Deviant Thinking

Prince Abdullah addressed the board meeting of the King Abdul Aziz Public Library in Riyadh yesterday. He used the opportunity as a platform to establish the important role of the library in broadening knowledge and "obliterating ignorance" throughout the Kingdom.

The library's supervisor, Faisal Muammar, estimated the number of volumes at more than 1.2 million books. He also described the library's latest and most ambitious project: publication of a Saudi Arabian Encyclopedia. The first volume, about Region Seven -- Riyadh territory -- will be ready this year. There was no mention of how many volumes will comprise the series, though Prince Abdullah did say

it would serve as an authentic reference on the Kingdom. It will contain information on every region of the Kingdom, its antiquities, historical sites, natural and agricultural resources, ancient history, culture and traditions as well as achievements in health, education, industry and communication.

Depends on what you mean by "authentic" perhaps. The Cambridge Dictionary of American English has this definition: "being what it is claimed to be;" and suggests 'genuine' as a synonym. Somehow it doesn't seem likely that anyone outside the Kingdom will be ready to apply this adjective to the Saudi encyclopedia. Though perhaps outsiders might discuss slavery (abolished in 1961), or the fact that the number of imported foreign workers is about twenty five percent of the total population. Many of them come from the poorest of the poor countries and work as indentured servants. Sometimes they get paid, sometimes they don't. The latter is called slavery. Read the whole report.

Meanwhile, Prince Abdullah has a new idea -- new to him, at any rate, though ageless in its essentials. Every other attempt in history to control thinking has failed utterly. Then again, history is not a strong point in this benighted land. What doesn't fit is obliterated.

	Crown Prince Abdullah yesterday called for measures to combat deviant thoughts by carrying out cultural and educational programs, explaining the true teachings of Islam and driving home the merits of moderation and tolerance.
	"This country, which is honored to serve the two holy mosques, cannot tolerate any aberration of the fundamentals of Islam."

???"explaining the true teachings of Islam and driving home the merits of moderation and tolerance"??? Excuse me? The oxymoron of the day perhaps? By all means let us drive home the merits of moderation and tolerance. There's no point in hanging around where you don't speak the language. Someone get the chauffeur and give these ladies a ride back.

In one place the Prince is absolutely correct. A little "aberration" and the whole cardboard House of Saud will collapse. The clan will have to grab their already-packed-and-waiting luggage and head for France...imagine the scramble for seats on the airplane.

Can you see it now? Nervous Princes asking themselves "what would Mohammed do?" Yes, that's correct: he'd take the money and run.

More on Bill Gates' Alleged Conversion to Islam

 
I found this at The Museum of Hoaxes:

Has Bill Gates Converted To Islam?

I got an email asking me if it's true that Bill Gates has converted to Islam. Seems like an odd question, but doing a google search uncovers that this rumor has been going around. Over at the Ultimate Bill Gates site you can find lots of people asking if the rumor is true (scroll down to the comments section), and the Gates of Vienna site reports getting lots of search-engine traffic from people searching for the phrase 'Bill Gates converts to Islam'. I think I've found the source of the rumor. Over at Iraqitek.com, someone posted a screenshot of an arabic-language website that supposedly has a story about Bill Gates' Islamic conversion. I don't know any Arabic, so I can't tell what the screenshot says, but assuming that the text in the screenshot does describe Gates' new-found beliefs, it must be the source of the rumor. However, I have no idea where the screenshot itself came from. Oh, and to answer the original question: No, Bill Gates has not converted to Islam.

The image link is here.

Oh, and by the way: our traffic is through the roof due to this hoax, but this fact gives us no pleasure.

Insult to Injury

 
Why is this soldier downcast? Time magazine would like you to believe that he has been demoralized by his experience in a senseless war.

But perhaps he has just learned that when he returns from active duty, his service and sacrifices for his country will be mocked by the mainstream media, who will report virtually nothing of the good he has done and the successes he has achieved, but instead will focus on the violence of terrorists and give prominence to statements issued by the mouthpieces of terrorists. He knows that he will be honored and respected at Instapundit, Powerline, Blackfive, Mudville Gazette, Belmont Club, here at Gates of Vienna, and on many other blogs. The blogosphere recognizes the phenomenal success our military has had in the war against the Great Jihad, but the newspaper that plops onto his front porch in the pre-dawn dimness will open to reveal stories that are selected and spun to make him and his country look bad, so long as he and his comrades are waging a successful war on behalf of a Republican president.

There's no need to analyze why this happens; it's all so depressingly familiar: the overwhelmingly liberal opinions and Democrat voting habits of those who manage, select, and write the news; the great and growing cultural chasm between those who fight our wars and those who write copy about them; the sophisticated condescension of the elite literati towards those who practice a rough and dangerous skill like soldiering.

But the story discussed here and at Belmont Club yesterday has exposed a new level of corruption and deceit. A captured cameraman named Abdel Amir Younes Hussein, acting as a paid CBS stringer, appears to have been at the site of an IED incident in Mosul, having been given prior notice which allowed him to get the most advantageous shots, all in order that CBS should have the most valuable and graphic propaganda to display on national television screens to the disadvantage of our military and our President. This was not Mr. Hussein's first rendezvous with terrorist destiny; images found in his camera reveal a number of previous terrorist incidents. The placing and timing of his shots indicate that he could not possibly have been able to take them without the close co-operation of the terrorists.

For all intents and purposes, the man is a terrorist himself, a terrorist paid by and acting on behalf of CBS. As I asked yesterday, Where is the outrage?

Presumably there are many others like him, paid by Western news services and helping to organize incidents which maim and kill American and Iraqi military personnel and untold numbers of civilians. The executives of major news organizations, acting from ideology and in order to make a profit, organize a process which helps maintain the fiction of a successful insurgency in Iraq.

The evolution of this meme is unprecedented: a story created and maintained by major news media and passed off as a grassroots resistance, all in order to serve a left-wing ideological agenda and do damage to a war president and his political party.

When there was still honor in the world, this behavior would have been labeled treason and sedition, and the perpetrators would have had to answer for it, sometimes with their lives. But we live in a degraded time.

CBS, I say to you: There is blood on your hands, and you have much to answer for.

Are the Mamluks Back?

 
The Arab News reports that a German news agency believes that the Philippine government is investigating reports of forcible conversions to Islam of Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia.

The allegations were met with an immediate denial by Badr A-Olayan, director of the Islamic Education Foundation. Several Filipino workers were brought forth to deny the story.

	"After seeing this report I had contacted many people working in the field to find out whether any Filipino had been converted to Islam by force. They told me that they had not come across any such incident in the Kingdom," Olayan said.
	Filipinos who embraced Islam recently expressed their indignation saying the allegations were aimed at tarnishing the image of Islam and Filipino Muslims.
	"It's a ridiculous report, which has no basis at all. At least I can tell you that I embraced this great religion out of my own conviction and without any outside pressure," one Filipino Muslim told Arab News.

It remains to be seen whether or not the report is true. If it turns out that Filipino workers start showing up as jihad terrorists, the old Islamic mamluk tradition of slave soldiers may be operative again.

Is history repeating itself? Let's wait and see what shows up.

Did Bill Gates Convert to Islam?

Why is this an important question?

For the last week or so, due to a quirky coincidence of keywords, about 15% of the traffic on this blog has been due to web searches (primarily Google) on "Bill Gates convert Islam" and similar combinations. In the last two days the frequency has been increasing.

What is going on here? A search on Snopes turns up nothing for "Bill Gates Islam". My Google searches have been as fruitless as (I presume) those of all the new visitors to "Gates of Vienna". All I can locate are stories about Mr. Gates' Foundation granting money for relief efforts in Afghanistan.

Is this an urban legend? A "forward this email to everyone you know" hoax? A rumor spreading by word of mouth?

We're dying to know. Anyone with any information is welcome to email us.


----------------------------
Update: Commenter bigdaddybean says:

"It's a total hoax and yes I found this blog from doing a google search.

"It was posted on an Islamic Arab site knowing it was a lie. They won't get many good deeds from Allah like this."

----------------------------
Final Update (4/22/05): If you found this page directly via a search, please be aware that I know this thing is a hoax, with all the details. My later posts on the topic are here and here.

From Haifa Street to Mosul

 
It seems that a cameraman with an inside track to the terrorists has been captured by US forces in Iraq. CNN reports:

	BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A CBS stringer has been arrested as a suspected insurgent, U.S. military officials said Friday.
	The video cameraman was wounded during a firefight in northeastern Mosul between U.S. troops and insurgents Tuesday.
	U.S. military officials said the man's camera held footage of a number of roadside bomb attacks against American troops, and they believe he was tipped off to those attacks.

As Belmont Club reported last December, the miraculous appearance of cameramen at precisely the right moment during terrorist attacks appears impossible without prior notification by and co-ordination with the terrorists themselves. Now one of these "journalists" seems to have been caught in the act. At Haifa Street it was an AP stringer; this time he was working for CNN:

	CBS said the photographer was hired about three months ago, and it asked news organizations not to identify him.
	In a written statement, the network said the man was referred to the network by a "fixer" in Tikrit "who has had a trusted relationship with CBS News for two years."
	"It is common practice in Iraq for Western news organizations to hire local cameramen in places considered too dangerous for Westerners to work effectively," the network said.

The US military wants the evidence in the photographer's camera:

	One official said at least four videos in the man's camera show roadside bomb attacks on U.S. troops.
	All had been shot in a manner that suggested the cameraman had prior knowledge of the attacks and had scouted a shooting location in sight of the target.

We are accustomed to the idea that the major news media in America are fellow travellers with our enemies. From Walter Duranty and his cozy relationship with Stalin, through the television newscasts during the Tet Offensive, to Peter Arnett in Baghdad, the activities of our journalists have often given aid and comfort to those who are implacably opposed to us.

But first at Haifa Street, and now in Mosul, we have something different. How many more are there? The actions of CBS border on active collaboration with the enemy.

Where is the outrage?

Tariq's Taqiyya

 
In military strategy this might be seen as a flank attack. Academe probably has another term, and Islam yet a third. However it's decoded, though, Tariq Ramadan's latest move is brilliant.

Ramadan's claim to fame in the US lies in Homeland Security's revocation of his work visa last year. He'd taken on a prestigious tenured position at Notre Dame and had done all the preliminary work -- found a house, schools for the children, etc. -- and was within nine days of leaving Switzerland for South Bend when the news came.

Despite all his connections, which included Bill Clinton, William Cohen and a designation by Time magazine as one of the top 100 spiritual innovators, Mr. Ramadan was considered a risk.

It could be his family: Grandpa was the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt; Dad helped establish the Saudis' proselytizing World Islamic League. That was before moving on to Switzerland in 1961 to start the Islamic Center of Geneva -- where Osama bin Laden studied. Then there's his brother, Hani, the director of Geneva's Islamic Center. Swiss intelligence thinks he's involved with Middle Eastern terrorists. And Tariq is on the Board of Directors.

Lee Smith, weighing in on the debate last year, dubbed Ramadan "gentle Jihadist" for his views:

Ramadan is a cold-blooded Islamist who believes that Islam is the cure for the malaise wrought by liberal values. His revision of the jihadist paradigm -- peaceful but total -- is brilliant in its way, and he may well turn out to be a major Islamist intellectual, far surpassing even his grandfather's influence. His cry of death to the West is a quieter and gentler jihad, but it's still jihad. There's no reason for Western liberals to try to understand that point of view.

So there Tariq Ramadan sits in Geneva, his chance for tenure as a US academic gone...for the moment. What's a fellow going to do to get back in the swim?

Here's one way: issue a 'world-wide' call to Muslims for a moratorium on hudud.

	We are officially launching today an international call for an immediate moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and the death penalty in all majority Muslim countries...
	This call for a moratorium is being made considering that the opinions of most Islamic scholars is neither explicit nor unanimous (indeed even without a clear majority) as far as the comprehension of the texts and to the application of the Hudud.

Ramadan further said the political systems and the state of the majority Muslim societies do not guarantee just or equal treatment of individuals before the law.

	A still more grave injustice is that these penalties are applied almost exclusively to women and the poor, the doubly victimized, never to the wealthy, the powerful, or the oppressors.
	Furthermore, hundreds of prisoners have no access to anything that could even remotely be called defense counsel. Death sentences are decided and carried out against women, men and even minors (political prisoners, traffickers, delinquents, etc.) without ever given a chance to obtain legal counsel.

The explosions began immediately.

The former President of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) chose a reductio ad absurdum to make his point: "When this call comes from a respectable scholar like Dr. Tariq Ramadan, it may encourage others also to disrespect the laws of Allah...some may start calling for moratorium on the family law of Islam also, and some others on the business and finance laws of Islam, and some may ask for moratorium on the whole Shari'ah".

Another alarmist also invoked the slippery slope "for the sake of the Muslim Ummah... If we call today for an international moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and the death penalty, then tomorrow I am so worried that they may ask Muslims to suspend their Friday Prayer."

Yet another worthy, this one a member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research and the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS) fretted that "such a call will only stir too much ado about an issue that is by no means a priority... "It will further beef up seculars and enemies of Islam, who will step up their war on Islam."

There were predictions and imprecations and scoldings. Muslims would be pitted against one another. This was the fault of women: it occurred after the woman-led prayer in the United States and the opening of a women-only mosque in Holland. Now a call for a moratorium on hudud from Switzerland. Who would close Pandora's box?

Ah, hudud. The justice and mercy of Islam, the peaceable kingdom. Allah forbid that an adulteress go unstoned, a lewd adolescent unhanged.

Meanwhile, where hudud has reached its fullest flower, they're selling girl children in the streets of Tehran.

And Tariq Ramadan has proven again his skill at the practice of taqiyya. A virtuoso performance: he sounds so Western and compassionate and a rule-of-law kind of guy. Meanwhile, he never has to worry that this un-Islamic idea will ever be implemented.

Is this genius or what?

Divest in Democracy

A Jewish Perspective

Last year the Presbyterian Church voted a resolution calling on churches to give up their investments in Israel, in protest of Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. The reactions presented here on both sides of this issue, interestingly enough, were all written by Jews.

Shamai Leibowitz, in the March 24th edition of The Electronic Intifada wrote,

The Presbyterian Church took a positive step in this direction when in July 2004 its General Assembly passed a resolution calling for selective divestment from companies that profit from the occupation. This past February the World Council of Churches, which brings together more than 340 churches worldwide, issued a similar resolution. While criticizing the severe human rights abuses inherent in the occupation and the construction of the illegal West Bank wall, these resolutions also affirm the right of the State of Israel to exist securely and peacefully, and they categorically reject the tragic cycle of indiscriminate violence perpetrated by both sides against innocent civilian populations.

Mr. Leibowitz, like many people on the left, offer no prescription for achieving the "right of the State of Israel to exist securely and peacefully". Any attempt at self-defense on the part of the Jewish state is not permissible. We are required to put our faith in the eternal "peace process", and somehow peace will come about. Any attempt on the part of Israel to fight back against the terrorists who would destroy it is condemned as contributing to the "cycle of violence".

Aside from wishful thinking and moral preening, the World Council of Churches has nothing to offer as a practical means of attaining the elusive peace. Make nice with the thug who comes to kill you. Close your eyes and cross your fingers, and maybe he will go away.

Not everyone agrees, however. Some Jews are planning a counter-campaign. In the April 1st Jewish Week, James D. Besser reports:

	Frustrated that dialogue is proving fruitless in the protracted fight with the Presbyterian Church (USA) over the explosive divestment issue, Jewish groups are set to break off or limit talks with the mainline Christian denomination.
	And in another escalation of the fight over economic sanctions on Israel, a prominent Jewish group has started to purchase stocks in companies that could be targets of divestment campaigns.
	Their goal: to fight divestment from inside the boardroom.
	"I'm a firm believer in the value of communication and dialogue," said Paul Miller, president of the American Jewish Congress, which this week became the first Jewish group to launch a shareholder action campaign since the divestment issue emerged last year. "But at the same time, I believe it's important to take affirmative action. And this is a time for affirmative action."

A nice phrase, that: affirmative action. Maybe it will catch on.

On March 3rd, writing in Washington Jewish Week, Rabbi David J. Forman said,

...it is incumbent upon the world religious community to monitor Jewish behavior and condemn it if necessary in order to protect its own sense of moral and religious self-righteousness. One who condemns another's actions feels he is elevating his own standard of behavior. Every time Israel is roundly criticized, a non-Jew can feel a sense of superiority.

Yes, the moral superiority of the Presbyterian Church is undeniable. They were on the front lines protesting the brutal Chinese occupation of Tibet, and the ongoing human rights abuses there, were they not? No?

Surely they were the first to protest the presence of Cuba on the U.N. Human Rights Commission... Well, maybe that communiqué will be issued next week.

And the Presbyterians were up in arms about the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, and the gassing of the Kurds by Saddam, and the abuse and disenfranchisement of women in much of the Muslim world... NOT.

No, for some peculiar reason it is the Jews of Israel who are singled out, the same Jews who run a successful democracy in an implacably hostile neighborhood and have survived for more than half a century against all the odds. The Jews, whose self-defense is waged under the most stringent human-rights standards in the world, more stringent than those of the United States. If the countries of the EU had any ability to defend themselves, they would not do so more ethically than Israel.

The UN has dedicated an entire agency to maintaining festering camps of Jew-hating refugees on Israel's borders; it has not done so for any other country. Only Israel is forbidden by the edict of the UN to construct a wall defending its citizens from those who would destroy it. Only Israel is singled out for condemnation in resolution after resolution for the simple act of defending itself.

Perhaps the Presbyterian Church has forgotten another form of human-rights abuse. As Rabbi Forman has said: I must also protest the most basic human rights offense committed against my people, as demonstrated anew by the edicts of both the Presbyterian Church and now the World Council of Churches: The human rights abuse of anti-Semitism.

Slavery By Any Other Name

 
A 25-year-old maid who came to Saudi Arabia as a guest worker will leave behind most of her fingers and toes and part of her right foot when she is repatriated to Indonesia. In addition to the amputations, necessitated by gangrene, several teeth had been knocked out and she is in danger of losing an eye as a result of severe beatings.

Nour Miyati was wheeled into the hospital on March 19th by her employer, Fahd Naji Al-Dossary. The attending physician said she arrived in “critical condition.” Ms. Miyati reported that Al-Dossary and his wife, who also participated in her abuse, complained of the smell of her gangrene — a result of being tightly bound and stashed in a bathroom for a month — and made her sleep outside the house.

Miyati, who hails from Sumbawa Island in central Indonesia, had worked for 18 months for the Al-Dossary family for a monthly salary of SR600 - money she never received. "The first time she asked for her salary, that's when it started," according to an Indonesian attaché.

Al-Dossary has been charged, though he is not in jail. In Saudi Arabia “there is the public right and there is the personal right.” Thus, since the employer is in the military, he is not in jail thought he not permitted to leave the area of his work. His wife was questioned and released.

What is surprising is the recent intervention by Crown Prince Abdullah. Today’s Arab News announced that Abdullah had instructed health officials to transfer Ms. Miyati to King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center. Abdullah even sent the Health Minister over to check on her. They both declared her experience at the hands of her employers “disgusting".

Meanwhile, Indonesian officials have revoked the licenses of 28 Indonesian labor exporting companies for worker neglect. While claiming such abuse is rare, the Indonesian Embassy’s Labor Attaché, M. Sugiarto, admitted that 853 cases of torture were reported to his office in 2004.

Remember that this case will be tried by Sharia Law. Here are the important factors to consider:

1. This maid is a woman, so any compensation for injuries would be half that of a man.
2. This woman is an infidel, so any compensation would be half that for an infidel man.

In other words, her pain and suffering aren’t worth much in Saudi Arabia.

Crown Prince Abdullah is covering his back here. He isn’t covering hers.

Islam Remembers the Pope

 
Among the reactions to the death of Pope John Paul II in the West, that of the liberal elite was the exception. The liberal press has said, in effect, "We're sorry the pope is dead, but he opposed communism, abortion, contraception, euthanasia, etc., etc." However, the vast majority of the people in the West are simply mourning the passing of a profoundly important and popular spiritual leader. Protestants and Catholics, and even Jews and Christians, are united in their appreciation for the accomplishments of the late pope.

What is interesting is the reaction of the Islamic world to the passing of the pope. Yesterday al-Jazeera, in an article entitled "World unites in mourning Pope's death", reported:

	World leaders and commoners [sic] have come together in expressing their grief and admiration for Pope John Paul II, who died on Saturday night.
	People from every continent and of many faiths found something in the life of the Pope to praise - be it his inspiration for the resistance to Communism in his Polish homeland, support for better relations with Muslims and Jews, or championing the cause of the poor.

It also reports the reaction of different Islamic countries and factions:

	In Bosnia, the Muslim member of the multi-ethnic Bosnian presidency, Sulejman Tihic, lauded him as a man who was "one of the most important personalities of the 20th century and worked for peace and tolerance among different religions".
	[...]
	Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said the Pope would be remembered "as a distinguished religious figure, who devoted his life to defending the values of peace, freedom and equality".
	Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad also expressed their sorrow.

Perhaps the Palestinians remember the times when the pope expressed opposition to various Israeli policies.

Today the Gulf Daily News ("the voice of Bahrain") posted the article "Torchbearer for peace and morality":

LONDON: The world mourned Pope John Paul II, hailing him as a torchbearer for peace and moral certainty and a force in the fall of the Iron Curtain - albeit one who imposed an unbending rule on his own vast flock.

The view of the pope "imposing an unbending rule" in the style of an Arab autocrat, as if he were the Saddam Hussein of Christendom, must be projection of the part of the Bahraini reporter.

In the Indian media we find different perspectives on the Islamic reaction. The Times of India has posted the story "Taliban militia sing praise":

Afghanistan's ousted Taliban militia on Sunday acknowledged the Pope's peace-making efforts, but insisted other Roman Catholics were the 'enemies of Islam'. The hardline Islamists, responding to Pope John Paul II's death on Saturday, called for his successor to help stop what they called the 'torture' of Muslims worldwide.

"The Pope's moderation and his voice for peace is noticeable, but the other followers of the Roman Catholic religion are enemies of Islam," Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told the Pakistan-based private Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) from an undisclosed location. "Christians should take the right path and stop torturing others and fill the void of Pope with a person who could show them the path of deliverance."

So Pope John Paul was out of step with his huge flock, who are the enemies of Islam. Evidently the pope broke ranks with the rest of the Crusaders and stopped the centuries-old practice of "torturing others".

One hopes that Mr. Hakimi's "undisclosed location" is not the same one that Vice President Cheney so famously occupies.

The most extreme reactions came from the hardcore Islamists. The Indian website Sify News has posted the article "Arab media coverage of pope's death angers Islamists":

	Radical Islamists however, who advocate the expulsion of non-Muslims from Islamic countries, have been using Islamist websites to vent their anger at Arab television stations for according the pope such importance.
	One such user lashed out at Al-Jazeera, saying viewers were "annoyed" with extensive reports eulogising the pope, who the user described as an "old tyrant".
	"What is mortifying is that this hooligan channel pretends (to defend) Islam," added the user, who wrote under the name Muhib al-Salihine on the Islamic News Network, a site often used by Islamist militants operating in Iraq.
	"What is more humiliating - I think that it was Al-Arabiya channel - is that the imam of a mosque... praised the memory (of the pope)," said Seri Eddine le Libyen on the same site.
	"I have started to hate Al-Jazeera for the multiplicity of information on the grieving" for the pope, said another user.

Apparently the hooligans at al-Jazeera have been brainwashed into supporting the infidels, and are now the enemies of all true Muslims. We await with dread the dispatching of suicide bombers to the offices of Al-Jazeera, and the capture and beheading of its correspondents.