"I am questioning some aspects of a belief system that has a powerful grip on many people. It is a legitimate and, indeed, important line of inquiry. Islam is going to be an important force shaping the future. We need to know what we're in for."

=> Your language/terminology suggests that either you are plagiarising from Melanie Phillips or you are Melanie Phillips.

=> Like Phillips, you are claiming to question a 'belief system', presuming there is only one form of Islam. This assumption in itself is false.

"Someone who sets himself up as a spokesperson for Muslims cannot comment on something as topical as that?"

=> Stephany/Melanie, provide evidence that I've made any claim to represent any group.

"I have given some reasons for my belief. Where possible I have provided links to sources. That's the best I can do here. Postings on an internet forum are not, cannot be, definitive scholarly papers."

=> My e-mail address is freely available from my blog. You are welcome to e-mail me and provide full references and sources. If you are too ashamed to tell us of your identity, you can send a private e-mail.

"Readers will note that Irfan has done everything EXCEPT address the issue."

=> How so? I've admitted there's anti-Semitism among Muslims, just as there's anti-Muslim hatred among Jews and Christians. That someone like Raphael Israeli is invited by a mainstream Jewish educational institution speaks volumes, just as the fact that leaders like Mahathir Mohamad and Ahmedinejad could make infantile statements about Jews speaks volumes.

=> What you are asking me to acknowledge is that 21st century Islamic theology ensures that virtually all Muslims are anti-Semitic. To do that, you need to prove (a) that Islamic sacred law itself is a source of anti-Semitism; and (b) that Muslims as a whole implement this sacred law.

=> What you need to do is provide evidence. If this forum is not enough, submit an article to OLO. If you have the evidence, present it. If you are to paint 1.2 billion people with one brush, show us your true colours.

LOL Irfan, I've been called many things but never "Melanie Phillips."

For interested readers here is a link to Phillips' website.

http://www.melaniephillips.com/

I have at times introduced myself as the racist, bigoted, antisemitic, islamophobic, Nazi, commie bitch, those being a sample of the names I have been called.

I am not altogether simpatico with Phillips. While my sympathies lie with Israeli Jews I have doubts about the Zionist project. Phillips is a fierce Zionist.

If you think Phillips and Professor Israeli are extreme, what do you make of Rear Admiral Chris Parry and the British Ministry of Defence?

See:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article673612.ece

Quote:

Europe, including Britain, could be undermined by large immigrant groups with little allegiance to their host countries — a "reverse colonisation" as Parry described it. These groups would stay connected to their homelands by the internet and cheap flights. The idea of assimilation was becoming redundant, he said.

AND

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2053020,00.html

Quote:

Resentment among young people in the face of unrepresentative regimes "will find outlets in political militancy, including radical political Islam whose concept of Umma, the global Islamic community, and resistance to capitalism may lie uneasily in an international system based on nation-states and global market forces", the report warns. The effects of such resentment will be expressed through the migration of youth populations and global communications, encouraging contacts between diaspora communities and their countries of origin.
Tension between the Islamic world and the west will remain, and may increasingly be targeted at China "whose new-found materialism, economic vibrancy, and institutionalised atheism, will be an anathema to orthodox Islam".

I was born in 1971 so I should make it to 2035. Think you'll make it to 2035 Irfan? We can see whether MoD got it right. ;-)

SUBJECT CHANGE

I posted a table here:

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=518

The data was extracted from:

http://pewglobal.org/reports/display.php?ReportID=248 (Views of Christians, Jews and Muslims)

I think it safe to say that Jews are not flavour of the month in Dar ul Islam.

I won't wish you a happy Easter or Passover but I hope you've enjoyed the long weekend break.

Irfan

Islam and the Koran are rabidly antisemitic and always have been.

Here is but one reference for you to enlighten yourslef

http://www.newenglishreview.org/print.cfm?pg=custpage&frm=6628&sec_id=6628

Perhaps you could follow this with a read of Mahartirs Mohammeds opening speech to the OIC in KL a few years ago, and he is supposedly and international statesman.

Irfan,
I do hope that you are going to point out to the last post that it it was christian nations that killed 9 million Jews in the Second War. Secondly, that the New Testament is also anti semitic with a constructed myth that the Jews were responsible for the death of Joshua when it was clearly the Romans. Finally, if the writer finds exhortations to religious conflict disturbing, he should not listen to George Bush on the subject of his crusader wars.
But hell mate, do something about this cleric. Mind you, the same mob who are going for you, were telling us Irish in the 1930's that we should do something about our cleric, the good archbishop.
Happy Easter!

"To do that, you need to prove (a) that Islamic sacred law itself is a source of anti-Semitism; and (b) that Muslims as a whole implement this sacred law."

Netab, all I was doing was responding to the point made by Irfan himself.

a) Is certainly true.
b) Is common but not universal

But of course it is not the only source of anti semitism

Irfan,

With all due respect you are evading the issue.

I've cut and pasted Stephanie's table here:

UNfavourable attitudes towards:

Country......Christians...Jews.......Muslims

US..............6%..........7%........... 22%
Canada..........9%.........11%............26%
UK..............6%..........6%............14%
France.........15%.........16%............34%
Germany........13%.........21%............47%

Spain..........10%.........20%............37%
Netherlands....15%.........11%............51%
Russia..........3%.........26%............36%
Poland..........5%.........27%............30%
Turkey.........63%.........60%............11%
Pakistan.......58%.........74%.............2%

Indonesia......38%.........76%.............1%
Lebanon.........7%.........99%.............7%
Jordan.........41%........100%.............1%
Morocco........61%.........88%.............3%
China..........47%.........49%............50%

India..........19%.. ......17%............43%

We Jews are a tiny minority in Australia. As a proportion of the population we will decline while the proportion of Muslims will grow. If the figures for Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Lebanon, Jordan and Morocco are at all indicative of the attitudes of Australian Muslims to Australian Jews then the future for Australian Jewry looks grim