"Actually the more I think about this thread the more predictably pathetic it is. Of all the visiting Professors, scholars, writers, and dignitaries that visit Australia Irfan had to pick a JEWISH one. And surprise, surprise Irfan is a Muslim."

It's easy to speculate about other people's intentions without ripping their hearts out of their chests or their brains out of their skulls to determine what their real motivation is.

There are some marvellous scholars of Islamic theology and Muslim societies of Jewish background. Professor Ira Lapidus has written a comprehensive history of Muslim societies. Lawyer and academic Noah Feldman has dome some excellent work in developing a new constitution for Iraq.

Jews have made marvellous contributions to Muslim societies. How many people here know that the Foreign Minister of Bosnia is Jewish? And that the senior adviser to the King of Morocco is also Jewish?

I have to acknowledge that there is anti-Semitism in the Arab and Muslim world. It is a sign of their degredation that they treat their twin-faith as the enemy.

But I'd like someone on this forum to name me just one Muslim ruler who was able to systematically murder 6 million Jews. Just one. Can you, B_D? What about coach, dee and others?

Irfan: "I don't suggest Israeli's opinion represents all Jews, nor that he was a religious leader."

And I didn't imply either. My point was simple. That the media reaction to Hilali, as a religious leader, was entirely proportionate & reasonable.

"As for 99.9% of international terrorist incidents, it depends on how you define an international terrorist incident."

True. Putting a figure on it like that was just asking to be knocked down. But that's not my main point & we are getting off topic. Your main thesis and mine relates to the reactions to both Hilali & Israeli.

BOAZ_David:
wow, how do you keep taking the knocks? (I confess, I do get a laugh when it happens) You must be THE most maligned writer on OLO (unfairly of course). Congratulations! Sign of a thought-provoking writer. Well I for one generally love your posts. Of course I don't agree with all of it, but it's always thoughtful, concerned, intelligently written & often warm. This site would definitely be worse without your contributions. Keep them coming!

To the anti-religious (not non-religious - big difference):

Although a staunch atheist myself, religion clearly has a lot of positives, eg. religion transcends race & nationalism & a host of other differences that humans instinctively latch onto. Most of us have witnessed different race Christians whole-heartedly welcomed into churches and different race Muslims welcomed into mosques (I have a slight problem with Judaism in that it is a religious AND a racial thing. I've been very warmly received by Muslims and I know it would make their day if I converted. Jews are exclusionary. Is that a fair comment? I expect criticism on this point).

Religion can't possibly be all bad. And it's total naivity to think that the world would be better off without religion. Wishful thinking. Religion is a projection of humanity, not the other way around. Do people honestly think the world would be any more rational if religion was suddenly abolished? Not at all. In fact new religions would spring up overnight because that's what many people want. Mindless behaviour is not confined to the religious, and rational behaviour is not the preserve of the non-religious. Apparently the greatest scientist who ever lived was deeply religious - Newton. Didn't seem to stop him. It may even have inspired him. Horses for courses.

Irfan,
I hesitate to engage you since you seen to have enough on you hands at the moment.And something inside me says don’t kick someone when everyone else is …

But the question you pose:
“But I'd like someone on this forum to name me just one Muslim ruler who was able to systematically murder 6 million Jews. Just one”
Implies that you are genuinely unaware of such instances. So I’ll start off the list [ OTHERS CAN ADD TO IT -AS THEY SEE FIT-AS WE GO ALONG!] :
-The Armenian genocide in Muslim Turkey
- A heap of lesser genocides during the Ottoman/ Turkish occupation of the Balkans & Greece.
-The Persian /Iranian cleaning of Iran of Zoroastrianism & Bahá'ís
-The black Sudanese genocide currently underway .
And everywhere you look from Indonesia to Sth Thailand to Bangla -desh to Pakistan to Egypt you see non-Muslim minorities being murdered, raped, relegated to second class status & dispossessed of their lands…

Is this just men /women behaving badly or something more systematic?

One of them most damming & frightening aspects re the above (as with the London bombings) is most Moslems will deny the above happenings -But when confronted with the evidence will straight-away jump from denial mode to justification mode…

Well, Irfan, do you really want a list of Islam's abuse of jews which came under its control? It would be a very long list indeed. And how about the systematic oppression of Berbers, Persians, Kurds, Hindus, and Christians? We know about these opressions because some have survived. We don't know about the oppressions which were successful - where none of the victim people survived.
Ever heard of the word dhimmi?
Ever wondered why Lebanon was created? Because the French stepped in to stop the slaughter of the Christians under Syrian control. Of course, neither the Syrian political elite, nor the Syrian populace, could stomach this interference in their affairs, and set out to undermine the new safe haven. The christians are now a minority in Lebenon, and control from Damascus is stronger now than ever (Ceder revolution being a false Spring, as it turned out).
If you want more records of oppression and systematic slaughter of conquered peoples, don't hesitate to ask.
Most Muslims are better than their religion would have them be most of the time on most issues. But the religion itself is pre-fuedal fascism.

camo asks: "Well, Irfan, do you really want a list of Islam's abuse of jews which came under its control? It would be a very long list indeed. And how about the systematic oppression of Berbers, Persians, Kurds ..."

I presume camo must be suggesting that Kurds are Jewish, Berbers are Hindu and Persians are all Callithumpians.

And I guess camo will also suggest that the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans during the 1990's was carried out by a band of Shi'ite Serbs. And those poor Darfur Shintos.

Yes, there have been terrible atrocities carried out by political and military entities of all faiths. virtually all the nasty acts against Kurds, Berbers and Darfurians are being carried out not in the name of Islam (after all, their victims are all Muslims!) but rather in the name of some nationalistic or tribalistic sentiment. And I wonder who the Muslim fanatics learned nationalism from ...

Yet none of you can mention a genocide comparable in scale to the Holocaust.

Once again, I pose the question. Which Muslim ruler carried out anything comparable to the Holocaust? Some of you have mentioned dhimmi (which literally means 'protected'). Which Muslim ruler organised the killing of 6 million Jewish dhimmis?

Back to the topic. The anti-Semitic hatred which led to the Holocaust is now being transferred from Jews to Muslims.