Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Hatred only 8 miles by car from UCI at the Islamic Center of Irvine

Hat Tip: LGF

I hadn't heard much about the Islamic Center of Irvine, located at 2 Truman in Irvine, CA. Then I read this, published in the magazine Frontpage in an article by Joe Kaufman:

On June 5th, the Los Angeles chapter of CAIR sponsored a community town hall meeting at the Islamic Center of Irvine (ICOI), a mosque that propagates venomously anti-Semitic and anti-Israel rhetoric. In a Khutbah (sermon) given at the ICOI last month, entitled ‘The Abuse of a Religion to sustain a Racist State,’ the ICOI’s Director of Religious Affairs, Sadullah Khan, stated, “Jews who came [to Israel] brought with them a Westernarrogance…” In the sermon, which is found on the ICOI website, Khan liberally quoted alleged neo-Nazi William Baker and described Zionism as “racist,” “diabolical” and “sinister.”

Participating at the CAIR event was CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. Ayloush’s appearance at ICOI makes sense, as he, himself, has been known to exhibit an extreme hatred towards the state of Israel. According to Dr. Daniel Pipes, whom Ayloush has likened to “a KKK person,” he (Ayloush) has repeatedly used the term “Zionazi,” when discussing Israelis. He has referred to Zionism as “a political ideology whose tentacles are rooted in racism,” and he has stated that the violent Intifada (Uprising) that was twice perpetrated by the Palestinians against the Israelis “really indicates standing up against injustice.”

Ayloush has complained of the United States’ treatment of the terrorist group Hamas, who recently had members voted into power in the “Palestinian territories.” During a Khutbah speech he gave at the Islamic Institute of Orange County (IIOC), last May, entitled “Don’t Be Pessimistic,” Ayloush stated: “Compare your situation to the situation of our brothers and sisters in Palestine… They were starved, they were pressured and threatened with embargo, if they don’t have democratic elections. And then, when they have the democratic elections, because we don’t like the results, now they are being starved again, embargoed and punished.”


Oh, and here's the best part: Guess who was the main guest at this community hall event?

Steven Tidwell of the FBI

Sadullah Khan: The Abuse of a Religion to sustain a Racist State

Note: I added this for reference on 10/16/2006 at 3:45 PM PST

Summary: Imam Sadullah Khan...

  • Quotes Will Baker, a neo-Nazi
  • Considers one of three Big Lies to be "Zionism is essential to Judaism"
  • Thinks "Zionism is a nationalistic movement with a sense of racial superiority serving the interest of a specific group, exploiting religious sentiments, distorting history and vulgarizing interpretation of destruction as its sinister components"
  • Paints Zionists as "opportunists"
  • States "Jews who came [to Israel] brought with them a Western arrogance"
  • Considers (assumedly) any country "hipocritical" if it refuses to assist the Palestinian Authority because the majority party (HAMAS) refuses to recognize Israel, renounce violence, and abide by prior agreements.

And I haven't even looked to see if his quotations are both accurate and in context!

Link to the original khutbah

My analysis of the Frontpage Magazine article that discusses this khutbah

ICOI Khutbah 197 - May 17,2006
The Abuse of a Religion to sustain a Racist State - Page 1
Author: Sadullah Khan (616 views) Rating: No Votes So Far
إِنَّا أَنزَلْنَا التَّوْرَاةَ فِيهَا هُدًى وَنُورٌ يَحْكُمُ بِهَا النَّبِيُّونَ الَّذِينَ أَسْلَمُواْ لِلَّذِينَ هَادُواْ وَالرَّبَّانِيُّونَ وَالأَحْبَارُ بِمَا اسْتُحْفِظُواْ مِن ً
كِتَابِ اللّهِ وَكَانُواْ عَلَيْهِ شُهَدَاء فَلاَ تَخْشَوُاْ النَّاسَ وَاخْشَوْنِ وَلاَ تَشْتَرُواْ بِآيَاتِي ثَمَنًا قَلِيلاً

Verily, it is We who bestowed from on high the Torah, wherein there was guidance and light. On `its strength did the prophets, who had surrendered themselves unto God, deliver judgment unto those who followed the Jewish faith; and so did the [early] men of God and the rabbis, inasmuch as some of God's writ had been entrusted to their care; and they [all] bore witness to its truth. Therefore, [O children of Israel,] hold not people in awe, but stand in awe of Me; and do not barter away My messages for a trifling gain.. [Qur’an 5:44]

The Nakbah / Catastrophe Remembered
This week (15th May), Palestinians commemorate their forced displacement and dispossession resulting from the establishment of the state of Israel (1948) and people of conscience all over the world recall the mass deportation of a million Palestinians from their cities and villages, massacres of civilians, and the razing to the ground of hundreds of Palestinian villages. More than 60 percent of the total Palestinian population was expelled. More than 530 Palestinian villages were depopulated and completely destroyed. To date, Israel has prevented the return of approximately six million Palestinian refugees, who have either been expelled or displaced. Approximately 250,000 internally displaced Palestinian second-class citizens of Israel are prevented from returning to their homes and villages. The land is still occupied and the atrocities continue leading to the deaths of many innocent people

Three Major Lies
i. This is a war between Islam and Judaism, since Islam is against Judaism
ii. Zionism is essential to Judaism
iii. Palestine was a land without people

1) Muslim-Jewish Relationship through History
Since the holy Prophet Muhammad's coming into contact with members of the Jewish faith in Madinah, tolerance, kindness and co operation were the principles that permeated his attitude and approach towards them. Together with followers of the Christian faith, Jews are honorably considered as "People of the Book"; with whom we share a special heritage through the Prophets we jointly hold dear. Numerous verses in the holy Qur'an emphasize the Muslim duty of dealing with People of the Book with the highest degree of respect and etiquette [Q 2:62; 3:64; 4:113 115; 5:5; 29:46].

In his book, More in Common than you Think: Bridge between Islam and Christianity, Dr. William Baker elaborates on the fact that Muslims view the Torah and the New Testament as inspired revelations of God and that Islam neither targeted the Jews nor Judaism. He says: "It is a fact of history that when the Jews were being persecuted in Europe during the Middle Ages, they found peace, harmony, and acceptance among the Muslim people in Spain. In fact, this was the era of Jewish history that they themselves refer to as 'the golden age'. In the famous treatise by Rabbi Minken, he says of this era: 'It was Muslim Spain, the only land the Jews knew in nearly a thousand years of the dispersion, which made the genius of the Jewish physician Moses Maimonides possible. After the fall of Spain, the Jews followed the Muslims to Morocco and Egypt where Maimonides became the personal physician of the great Muslim leader Salahudin, who sent him to King Richard in order to treat the king'. During the Ottoman period and their great empire, Jews and Muslims lived and prospered together".

Whenever there has been hostility, it was due to breaking of agreements, treachery or in recent decades; the illegitimate occupation of Palestine by a Zionist Imperialist force under the guise of religion.

2) Political Zionism
In trying to understand the diabolical nature of political Zionism, we need to remove the myth that Zionism is an essential component of Judaism. Judaism has been a religion for over 3,000 years. Zionism is an organized European political movement that arose in the late 19th century, founded by two men: Theodore Herzl and Chaim Weizman, who were both of Jewish background but self professed atheists.

Zionism evolved into a militant political movement consisting of Jews who wish to establish a homeland for all Jews in Palestine. (Argentina and Uganda were also considered initially.) Zionism was officially launched by Theodore Herzl at a convention held at Basle, Switzerland in 1897.

Zionism, the originally secular, racist and mostly non believing movement, resorted to inventing a religious cause, a Jewish crusade in order to succeed in its colonial endeavor of establishing a national home for the Jewish people. Without this tactic the scattered Jewish communities around the world would not have heeded the call for uniting behind it. A pack of lies had to be fabricated and children brought up on them. Thus, Palestine, the heart of the Muslim world, has become their promised land, a God given gift to His "chosen people", who would kill, rape and rob in His name.

3) A LAND WITHOUT PEOPLE FOR A PEOPLE WITHOUT LAND
About 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their land after the creation of Israel in 1948 and the ensuing Arab-Israeli war. An additional 200,000 Palestinians underwent a similar fate during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Israel has stopped transferring import duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinains worth $55 mllion a month.The UN estimates that there are more than six million Palestinian refugees in the world today, four million of which are registered with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), with a third of that number living in refugee camps.

With the help of irregular militias, the Irgun (Menachim Begin) and the Lehi, the Haganah forces succeeded in establishing the Jewish state of Israel in May 1948.

The minority of Palestinians who stayed on their land when Israel was created are now described as Israeli-Arabs.

Moshe Dayan’s statement that: About 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their land after the creation of Israel in 1948 and the ensuing Arab-Israeli war. An additional 200,000 Palestinians underwent a similar fate during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Israel has stopped transferring import duties it collects on behalf of the Palestinains worth $55 mllion a month.The UN estimates that there are more than six million Palestinian refugees in the world today, four million of which are registered with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), with a third of that number living in refugee camps.[Moshe Dayan, Ha’aretz, 4 April 1969]

Father of Zionism, Theodor Herzl, wrote in 1895: We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us… We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries. While denying it any employment in our own country… The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly… Let the owners of immovable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us something far more than they are worth… But we are not going to sell them any thing back.

Dr. Israel Shahak, chairman of the Israeli League of Human and Civil Rights, stated: "It is my considered opinion that the State of Israel is a racist state in the full meaning of this term. In this state people are discriminated against in the most permanent and legal way and in the most important areas of life only because of their origin. This racist discrimination began in Zionism and is carried out today mainly in cooperation with the institution of the Zionist movement. I do not wish to debate any justification for the racist policy. The most important fact is that it exists. Therefore the first step consists in admitting the truth: The State of Israel is a racist state, and its racism is a necessary consequence of the racism of the Zionist Movement. Facts are facts. After this we can debate, if we wish to do so, why such a racism is 'forbidden' against the Jews and becomes a good deed when it is carried out by the Jews". (The Racist Nature of Zionism and of the Zionist State, article published in Pi Ha'aton, Hebrew University of Jerusalem on November 5, 1975)

Note the official statements of the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States of America and Canada, which states, among other things: “Consistently, since its inception, our sages and rabbis condemned the Zionist heresy. To this day Torah true Jewry has remained loyal to the heavenly decree of exile… It is only logical that during the Israeli State’s 52 years of existence, its most passionate and consistent opponents have been traditional Torah Jews. Therefore, the ongoing suffering and trail of death unleashed upon Jews and non-Jews by the Israeli state are not the work of the faithful remnant of Torah Jews who have always denounced the state’s very existence.”[Check Jewish websites ….Zochrot (Remembering) ; (Not In My Name), (Tikkun), and (Gush Shalom) (Jews Not Zionists), and (Neturei Karta).]

Tutu and Mandela on Apartheid suffered by Palestinians
  • Speaking at a conference called Ending the Oppression in Boston, Archbishop Desmond Tutu told delegates Jewish people had been at the forefront of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. He asked: "Have our Jewish sisters and brothers forgotten their humiliation? Have they forgotten the collective punishment, the home demolitions, in their own history so soon?"

  • MANDELA'S FIRST MEMO TO THOMAS FRIEDMAN March 28, 2000 To: Thomas L. Friedman (columnist New York Times)The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established "normally" and happened to occupy another country in 1967. Palestinians are not struggling for a "state" but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa. Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children. The responses made by South Africa to human rights abuses emanating from the removal policies and apartheid policies respectively, shed light on what Israeli society must necessarily go through before one can speak of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East and an end to its apartheid policies.


So, Zionism is a nationalistic movement with a sense of racial superiority serving the interest of a specific group, exploiting religious sentiments, distorting history and vulgarizing interpretation of destruction as its sinister components.

Zionist Opportunists
In order to justify the cause of Israel for its perpetual occupation, Zionist opportunists have also engaged in anti-Islamic propaganda veiled in their political jargons. They tend to view everything Islamic detrimental to the security interests of Israel. In the United States, they occupy positions of importance, as they are part of various think tanks and policy institutes. American law enforcement agencies have often relied on their analysis and information when dealing with Muslims.

The Problem Persists
The number of Palestinian refugees hit five million since the creation of Israel that pushed through a mass exodus from 531 Palestinian cities and villages, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Some 640,000 Palestinians live in 19 refugee camps in the West Bank, and 820,000 others in the Gaza Strip.

There are nearly 250 thousand Palestinians now outside their villages inside the Green Line, some of them are only a few meters away from their land and yet are not allowed into it.

Jews who came brought with them a Western arrogance that made it possible for them to see Palestine as "a land without a people for a people without a land," and hence to virtually ignore the Palestinian people and its own cultural and historical rights, the vast majority of those who came were seeking refuge from the murderous ravages of Western anti-Semitism.

Democracy or Hypocracy?
The punishment of the people has increased in recent months after elections; because though the elections were democratic, it was not the party that Israel wanted in power. So, democracy is not enough, you have to choose who the occupiers want you to choose. In the name of the Jewish people, Zionists in Palestine are continuing to commit the most heinous crimes as is evident from the present atrocities perpetrated by the oppressive Zionist army against unprotected civilians, the owners of the land.

Some say … “Be Silent” but …
- Silence is for cowards
- Silence is consent/acceptance.
- Some say ignore the facts, but then we are bound to repeat such a tragedy

Websites giving up to date info on Operation Summer Rain

Hat Tip: LGF

For those of you wanting to monitor the Israel's incursions into Gaza and the West Bank to - hopefully - find alive and in one piece (or easily healed) Corporal Gilad Shalit as well as the two Israeli civilians that have been kidnapped, plus hopefully knock out all or most of the terrorist infrastructure, I provide the following links to up-to-the-minute data. We're going to need it, as I'm sure it'll be a topic of many events and newspaper articles once the Fall quarter begins in September:

DAY ONE NEWS UPDATES

Vital Perspective

Israellycool (though some of the comments on this one seem a bit inappropriate to me)

DAY TWO AND BEYOND NEWS UPDATES

IsraellyCool continues to LiveBlog

Vital Perspective is also continuing to update

THE IMAGE TO KEEP IN MIND



Thank you, Cox and Forkum. 'nuff said.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

UCLA Hillel Director: Everything's peachy-keep up here!

On June 23, 2006, the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles published an opinion piece by Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, the Director of UCLA Hillel titled "Different Tack on Campus Challenge". His op-ed begins:

Speeches about “holocaust in Israel.” Academic boycotts. Divestiture campaigns. Professors who intimidate their students. Jewish speakers whose rhetoric is anti-Israel.

These program initiatives and phenomena that have seemingly overwhelmed our universities during the past few years have certainly transformed the campus quad into a zone of controversy.


"Finally!" - I thought - recognition of the harassment that Jewish students at UCI like myself have had to deal with with on a near-weekly basis.

Then I read on:

Some activists have gone so far as to characterize this onslaught as “Anti-Semitism 101” and have pressured the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to issue guidelines for confronting the scourge of campus anti-Semitism.


Excuse me? How exactly did we pressure the USCCR? The ZOA and others presented the relevant material to the commissioners in November 2005 (some of which provided by me), they discussed it, and in April 2006 they issued findings and recommendations. It's that simple - there was no "pressure".

Indeed, the above occurrences are undeniable, as are the vile expressions of Jewish bigotry at a select number of institutions of higher learning.


Couldn't have put it better myself.

However, rather than focus on the catastrophic response, which is traditionally Jewish, it behooves us to observe that Jews are actually experiencing a Golden Age at American universities and that the general atmosphere at the most prestigious schools is positive and supportive of Jewish interests.


This is the same line that Jeff Rips of OC Hillel dishes. Sorry, I can't hold hands and sing koom-by-ya or bury my head in the sand when my safety is being threatened on a near-weekly basis due to my ethnic background and religion. There are 6 million gone - and many, many people from the US, the UK, France, and other countries - because of the same sensibilities almost 70 years ago.

BTW, Rabbi, if they're so supportive of Jewish interests, why isn't Israel advertised heavily as a place to study abroad in the UC's? Where's the Jewish studies programs?

--

Note: The USCCR has not published the transcript of the November 2005 meeting. As soon as they do, I will put up the link in this entry.

Monday, June 19, 2006

OC Register: Muslims leery of FBI activity

Hat Tip: LGF

Marya Bangee doesn't know what to believe. The UC Irvine sophomore thinks the fact that she's Muslim is the reason she's been singled out for searches at airports and been scrutinized by police at anti-war demonstrations.

She's also distrustful of the FBI, uncertain whether the agency is telling the complete story of whether its employees are monitoring Orange County's Muslim community.

Her doubts loom a week after Muslim leaders and an FBI senior agent shook hands and patted each other on the back, concluding a meeting that addressed conflicting reports as to whether the community is being watched.


(Read the whole OC Register article here)

My perspective: The MSU and its invited speakers have supported and continue to support terrorist groups (HAMAS, Hezb'allah, etc.) and terrorist means (suicide bombing, rockets on civilian areas). Some of the speeches have bordered - and possibly crossed over - the line of incitement.

So guess what? The FBI notices.

There is a difference between:
a) discussing the Israeli political process (which is done all the time by Jews and non-Jews, even in the Knesset)

b) using false "facts" and fabricated quotes to demonize, delegitimize, and use double standards regarding Israel versus any other country in the world. Read my previous post on this subject here

Marya and any other UCI Muslim student, if you happen to be reading this, I have a few suggestions for you:
If you are realistically interested in fixing the situation on campus (and, G-d forbid, coming to a peaceful solution in the Middle East), take a cold, hard look at how the MSU and SAS have done things in the past. Even CAIR chided their actions (see that here)!

End the attacks on Zionism and Zionists. You attack Zionism and Zionists, and you attack nearly every Jew in this world. It's not civil speech and it has no place at UCI or anywhere else.

End the MSU no-dialogue policy.

Get the MSU to stop inviting Malik Ali, Musa, and al-Asi. Malik Ali especially is a great speaker - if only he would do it for peace instead of hatred, who knows what he might accomplish!

If you're not in charge of the MSU and SAS, take charge. Read the organization's constitution. If idiots are running the MSU and SAS, then figure out how to throw the bums out. Usually all it takes some convincing of the membership, then a 2/3 or 3/4 vote.

I know there's more that can be done - as I think of more, I'll post more.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Looking for a volunteer transcriptionist with good hearing

Two people have now accurately mentioned that Yossi Olmert's voice isn't coming out very clearly on the video. Here is a direct link to the Google Video page

Anyone willing to volunteer to transcribe the video (you'll need to have good hearing)?

If so, please transcribe it into Notepad (or another text editor) or Microsoft Word.

Then, to get it to me so I can put it on the blog, please upload it via www.QuickSharing.com and post a comment on my blog with the full "http://" URL that they'll give to you.

If you have an FTP server, web server, or blog of your own, feel free to post it there and just post a comment with the link.

Many thanks in advance to the volunteer(s).

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Is the FBI investigating the UC Irvine MSU, or not?

(Hat tip: LGF)

In May, the Orange County Register reported the FBI was investigating the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union:

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/article_1171489.php

Were this a straight news story, I might lead with, "The FBI appears to be actively studying Muslim student groups at UCI as part of an intense surveillance program to detect potential terrorists."

But I'm not as surprised that the FBI is doing this - as well as other aggressive anti-terrorist activities in Orange County - as I am that the FBI would tell us.



Now, the FBI says "nope, not us...":

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/local/article_1171489.php
The FBI and Muslim community leaders met again Monday night, one in a series of gatherings since 9/11 intended to promote a better understanding of each other.

The latest meeting was needed, Muslim leaders said, because of a report by Register columnist Frank Mickadeit last month in which Pat Rose, head of the FBI's Orange County al-Qaida squad, was quoted as saying her agency was looking for potential terrorists here through a variety of electronic eavesdropping techniques.


What a mess. You think the stuff the MSU is saying is just TALK? What planet are you from?

More videos from Holocaust in the Holy Land Week

Got these via the Emily Shaaya, Anteaters for Israel Co-President

May 17, 2006
Yossi Olmert event
The last question asked by the MSU, their subsequent rant, and en masse exit



May 17 or 18, 2006 (I'm assuming)
The MSU, Neturei Karta, and Amir Abdel Malik Ali walking in campus
Either before or after the Zionism Hijacking Judaism (May 17) or Israel the 4th Reich (May 18) speech



Unknown date between May 15 and May 18, 2006
More video of the MSU campus "wall"

Monday, June 05, 2006

Stand Back: The UC Irvine NewU Editor-In-Chief has Blown a Gasket!

Today (June 5, 2006), I picked up the dead-tree edition of the UC Irvine campus newspaper, New University, and thumbed through to see if there were any final developments regarding the hateful environment on campus. Today's issue is the last for the entire school year; the next time the NewU is printed, it will be the beginning of the Fall 2006 quarter.

Page 13 offered a weird glimpse into the mind of Allan Taing, the outgoing Editor-In-Chief, in an op-ed titled "EIC to UCI: So Long, Suckers!":

The addresses given by the guest speaker and student speaker are meant to inspire those in attendance. In my opinion, however, these speeches give a misleading impression to listeners.

I graduate with a bitter taste in my mouth. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved with the New University over the last three years and as such, I can say I know quite a lot about this campus. I will use my last opportunity as editor-in-chief of the paper to tell you what UC Irvine is really all about, what I hate and love. And this rant won’t be sugar-coated like the speeches you’ll hear next week.

I hate how Jewish and Muslim students hate each other at UCI.

Both groups abuse the free-speech policies at UCI to throw insults at each other, and then play victim when the other side does the same. If smart, educated young Jews and Muslims in a random small suburban university can’t get along, how can we expect those living in the Middle East to ever do so?


Read more at:
http://www.newuniversity.org/article.php?id=4832