Settlers: Arabs, leftists staged 'price tag' act/Jewish land purchase in Palestine/other news
Offensive Jihad The One Incontrovertible Problem with Islam by Raymond Ibrahim
A recent
MEMRI report titled "Arab Columnists: Stop Talking About Offensive Jihad," alludes to the ultimate problem between Islam and the non-Muslim world: offensive jihad, or
jihad al-talab — the Islamic imperative to subjugate the world. The report opens by saying "One dominant theme during Ramadan in the Arab world is the discussion, in the media and in religious circles, of the commandment of jihad and the obligation therein to wage war against the infidels." It then focuses on two recent op-eds, written by Arab-Muslims, that discuss the need to suppress Muslim talk of offensive jihad.
One writer, Khaled Al-Ghanami, states that the "wiser" supporters of offensive jihad believe that Muslims "must sit and wait until the era of our strength returns." In the meantime, according to these Muslims, "there is nothing shameful about
taqiyya [deception] until the time is ripe." Al-Ghanami bemoans the fact that such Muslims operate naively "on the assumption that the world doesn't read, doesn't monitor… and is not paying attention to the calls for killing, tyranny, and aggression that we are spreading."
Similarly, Abdallah Al-Naggar writes: "Today, the Muslims' circumstances are different [i.e., they are weak], and talk of this aspect [of jihad] requires a smart approach, one that stresses the aspect of self defense, instead of aggression and onslaught," since discussing offensive jihad "arouses the enmity of people"; thus, "there is a need for wisdom [i.e.,
kitman] in our impassioned discussions of war and battles."
These writers are insightful enough to understand that Islam's imperative for Muslims to wage offensive jihad is the one insurmountable obstacle for peace between Muslims and non-Muslims. Best not to keep reminding the infidel world, then.
Consider: most of the things Islam gets criticized for — lack of democracy, male-female relations, draconian punishments, etc. —are intra-civilizational to Islam; that is, they affect Muslims alone. As such, it is for Muslims to decide on their utility; for it is the responsibility of every civilization to reform itself from the inside, not through outside "help" or coercion, the former mistrusted, the latter resented. Modern democracy in the West developed only after the people of the West wanted it bad enough to fight for it themselves, and only after centuries of bloody — but internal — conflicts. Feminism was not forcefully imported from some alien civilization but homegrown in the West. Pragmatically speaking, then, so long as sharia's mandates affect Muslims alone, non-Muslims have no legitimate grievances.
And this is the dividing line: what one civilization maintains as "right" and "normal"
for itself is acceptable. However, when one civilization tries to apply, through force, those same principles onto other civilizations — whether the West trying to import liberalism to Islam, or Islam trying to spread sharia-style fascism to the West — that is objectively wrong. After all, the age-old argument that "
we must supplant
your ways, with
our better ways, for
your own good," works both ways, and in fact has been an oft cited justification for offensive jihad since the 7
th century. Or would the reader be surprised to learn that jihadists (i.e., terrorists) regularly posit their war as an expression of altruism to "liberate" Westerners from their self-imposed "delusions"? Even
Al Qaeda partially justifies its jihad against America for being "a nation that exploits women like consumer products"; for not rejecting the "immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and usury." In short, if the "white man's burden" is to "civilize" Muslims, the "Muslim man's burden" has long been to "civilize" Western man, namely, by enforcing sharia law. To justify the one is to make allowance for the other.
Yet while civilizations continue to quarrel over the philosophical position of man, one fact remains: all humans — secular or religious, Muslim or non-Muslim, from antiquity to today — agree that being forced to uphold a particular lifestyle against their will is wrong, bringing us right back to our topic: the purpose of offensive jihad is to do just that — forcefully impose a particular way of life on non-Muslims, culminating with
dhimmitude for those who, after being conquered, refuse to convert.
Worse, offensive jihad is part and parcel of Islam; it is no less codified than, say, Islam's Five Pillars, which no Muslim rejects. The Encyclopaedia of Islam's entry for "jihad" states that the "spread of Islam by arms is a religious duty upon Muslims in general … Jihad must continue to be done until the whole world is under the rule of Islam … Islam must completely be made over before the doctrine of jihad can be eliminated." Scholar Majid Khadurri (1909-2007), after defining jihad as warfare, writes that jihad "is regarded by all jurists, with almost no exception, as a collective obligation of the whole Muslim community."
Even that chronic complainer
Osama bin Laden makes it clear that offensive jihad is the root problem: "Our talks with the infidel West and our conflict with them
ultimately revolve around one issue… Does Islam, or does it not, force people by the power of the sword to submit to its authority corporeally if not spiritually? Yes. There are only three choices in Islam... Either submit, or live under the suzerainty of Islam, or die."
Clearly, then, it is in the Muslim world's interest to keep the West ignorant of the fact that, irrespective of all Muslim grievances — real or feigned — nothing less than Islamic law itself mandates a state of constant hostility. Indeed, if the implications of offensive jihad were fully embraced, humanity might be compelled to view the Muslim world as a perpetual, existentialist threat, in need of preemptive containment. That said, and considering the willful ignorance of the West's political elite — who are guided less by objective facts and more by their "feel-good" ideals — Muslim talk of offensive jihad, no matter how loud or ubiquitous, will likely continue to fall on deaf ears.
MEMRI Special Dispatch |3331|October 29, 2010
Egypt/Hamas/Inter-Arab Relations
Columnist in Egyptian Government Daily Launches Unprecedented Attack on
Hamas
In an article in the Egyptian government daily Al-Gumhouriyya, columnist
'Abdallah Al-Naggar attacked Hamas's "Islamic emirate" in Gaza and its
leaders, saying that the Strip has become a big prison isolated from the
world, where the residents suffer grinding poverty while the leaders live in
luxury, and where fighters fire "primitive" rockets that serve only to
prompt a deadly response from the enemy.
Following are excerpts:[1]
"The Islamic Emirate of Gaza and its Caliph, Sultan Isma'il bin Haniya, has
become a diminutive model of our Muslim nation, accurately reflecting our
[general] reality. It is an emirate isolated [from the world] on all sides.
There is no road or entrance leading into it, and if you want to go in, you
have to ask permission from its neighbors... It is divided [into isolated
regions] and isolated from the world.
"The relations between the residents of this emirate and their homeland is
like the relations between two rival brothers. Those living outside the
emirate hate the emirate and those [living] inside, while those inside, who
live in a large prison, curse their brothers and accuse them of
collaboration and treason. [Inside], there is degrading poverty and pressing
need. The plea [for help] is unending. People have no food or electricity,
and the sick have no access to treatment or medicine. Women are unprotected
and children do not receive their most basic needs.
"The leaders of this emirate are unrecognized outside its besieged walls,
and need permission from their enemies to leave it... If [the enemy]
refuses, they remain hidden within the [emirate's] boundaries, screaming,
wailing and calling for help, but nobody comes to the rescue. When the
residents of the emirate appear on [our television] screens, they are always
crying and beseeching Allah to take quick revenge on all the Arabs [for
abandoning them].
"This emirate, isolated from the world, has neither ambassadors nor
consulates, neither schools nor universities, and the international
community hasn't the slightest incentive to cooperate with it. Its only
contact with the world [takes the form of] pleas for help that never comes
and for aid that its enemies do not permit it to receive.
"[From time to time, its people] fire some primitive rockets from the
territory of their emirate, with no way of knowing when and where they will
fall. These [rockets] do not hit their target nor bring about victory. The
enemy's response, [on the other hand,] is decisive and crushing, completely
blind to the [anguish] of the defenseless, weak and wretched [residents]. It
takes no pity on children, women, or the elderly, and sows death and
destruction, encountering no resistance that can match it [in force]...
"After the disaster [of the 2009 Gaza war], the emirate celebrated its
victory, and the Caliph [Isma'il Haniya] graced the survivors with a
bombastic speech full of fiery phrases. [But] the tragedy repeated itself,
and [eventually] he was forced to sign a secret agreement with the enemy,
[promising] to stop the [firing of] rockets in return for a halt to the
[enemy's] blows. [Yet] you will always find someone who will praise the
[emirate's] courage and steadfastness [and refer to] the deeds of this
glorious emirate as a kind of jihad [that will be remembered] for all
eternity. [Meanwhile,] the Caliph lives in luxury, and drives a fast black
car preceded by dozens of motorcycles, after the manner of generals and
dignitaries around the world.
"This is a tragedy by any standards, for Palestine has lost its way. The
Arabs and Muslims are humiliated and have nothing left but empty [gestures]
that make them feel self-important but are actually meaningless. When will
we wake up from this drunken stupor, open our eyes to the [interests] of the
residents, and start employing [measures] that are [truly] serious and
beneficial? When will we recognize our own worth, and launch a serious
struggle, so as to find an effective cure for the disease?..."
[1] Al-Gumhouriyya (Egypt), October 22, 2010.
memri@memri.org.
Settlers: Arabs, leftists staged 'price tag' act
Palestinians, leftwing activists documented while sawing trees in bid to
accuse settlers
Yair Altman YNET Published: 10.30.10, 19:42 / Israel News
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3976976,00.html
Arabs and leftist activists staged an attack on Palestinian fields in a bid
to accuse settlers of vandalism, an organization that claims to have
documented the incident says.
The photos were released Saturday by Tazpit Unit members, an organization
identified with the settlers which documents news events in the territories.
Tazpit says that these staged attacks were meant to falsely accuse settlers
of attacking Palestinian land.
The photos, taken by members of the Tazpit Unit, were shot on Palestinian
land Friday, near the Neveh Tzuf settlement. The images allegedly show
Palestinians and left-wing activists cutting down Palestinian olive trees
using an electric saw.
Many so-called "Price Tag' acts targeting Palestinians were recorded in the
last few weeks, and the settlers now claim they were staged by the
Palestinians themselves and intended to harm the settlers' image.
Tazpit photographer Ehud Amiton, who documented the vandalism act on Friday,
says that this is exactly what can be seen in his images.
"We are talking about an olive grove east of Beit Zayit, located near Route
60," Amiton said."I immediately saw that it was no ordinary pruning, it was
done very aggressively...Some of the branches broke and other trees were cut
off entirely. When I approached closer with my camera, the Palestinian man
waved his saw at me threateningly. I felt uneasy so I backed off".
Tazpit unit director Amotz Eyal said that "during every olive harvest
season, just like this one, there are many cases of Arab farmers cutting
down olive branches, later blaming it on the settlers."
"Time after time photos prove that these Arabs are not holding back; they
provoke in order to tarnish the image of Jewish settlers," he said.
Eyal vowed that Tazpit photographers will continue to document such
activities in order to show the public actual events on the ground.
Website: www.imra.org.il
Jewish land purchase in Palestine refers to the acquisition of land in
Palestine by Jews from the 1840s until the establishment of the
State of Israel in 1948.
[edit] Background
During this time, Jewish people participated in the
Aliyah which consisted of a planned migration to Israel, which is considered the homeland of the Jewish faith. Jewish migrants moved to Palestine in hopes of starting a new life in their religious homeland. Most land purchases between the late 1880s and the 1930s were located in the
coastal plain area, including "Acre to the North and Rehovoth to the South, the Esdraelon (Jezreel) and Jordan Valleys and to the lesser extent in Galilee".
[1] The migration affected Palestine in many ways, including economically, socially, and politically. The land purchases contributed to the violence and hostilities that are still ongoing in the region today.
[edit] Pre Jewish migration
Palestine has been stereotypically described as "a land without people, for a people without a land" but the area was actually far from being unpopulated
[2]. Although proper census for the area was never collected, an estimate of the population would be approximately half a million disproving the myth of a land without people. As described in the
Report of the Palestine Royal Commission in 1913, Palestine was not an industrially advanced region. "The road leading from Gaza to the north was only a summer track suitable for transport by camels and carts… no orange groves, orchards or vineyards were to be seen until one reached [the Jewish village of] Yabna [Yavne]… Houses were all of mud. No windows were anywhere to be seen… The ploughs used were of wood… The yields were very poor… The sanitary conditions in the village were horrible. Schools did not exist… The western part, towards the sea, was almost a desert… The villages in this area were few and thinly populated. Many ruins of villages were scattered over the area, as owing to the prevalence of malaria, many villages were deserted by their inhabitants"
[3].
Most of the land that is the present day Israel, West Bank and Gaza were not owned by small farmers and local living peasants but rather owned by absentee landlords. These landlords were mostly tax collectors or merchants who lived elsewhere. Often these owners were from foreign countries and held "no connection to the land and who often exploited the local workers or fellahin"
[4].
[edit] Land Purchases
When purchasing land, Jewish migrants were concerned with the displacement of
fellahin, agricultural labourers who cultivated the land. "In 1920, Labor Zionist leader
David Ben-Gurion expressed his concern about the Arab fellahin, whom he viewed as 'the most important asset of the native population'. Ben-Gurion said 'under no circumstances must we touch land belonging to the fellahs or worked by them'"
[5]. Because of the desire to displace as little number of people as possible, large tracts of land were purchased in the coastal plain the valley areas since most of the area was uncultivated and swampy. There were two main reasons why these areas were sparsely populated. The first reason being when the Ottoman power in the rural areas began to diminish in the seventeenth century, many people moved to more centralized areas to secure protection against the lawless Bedouin tribes. This resulted in huge migration to the cities leaving the rural area drastically under populated. The second reason for the sparsely populated areas of the valleys and coastal plains was the soil type. The soil, covered in a layer of sand, made it impossible to grow the staple crop of Palestine, corn. As a result this area remained uncultivated and under populated
[6]. "The sparse Arab population in the areas where the Jews usually bough their land enabled the Jews to carry out their purchase without engendering a massive displacement and eviction of Arab tenants"
[7].
The Ottoman Land Code of 1858 "brought about the appropriation by the influential and rich families of Beirut, Damascus, and to a lesser extent Jerusalem and Jaffa and other sub-district capitals, of vast tracts of land in Syria and Palestine and their registration in the name of these families in the land registers"
[8]. Many of the fellahin did not understand the importance of the registers and therefore the wealthy families took advantage of this. Jewish buyers who were looking for large tracts of land found it favourable to purchase from the wealthy owners. As well many small farmers became indebt to rich families which lead to the transfer of land to the new owners and then eventually to the Jewish buyers.
In the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, many land purchases were made through organizations such as the
Palestinian Jewish Colonization Association (PICA),
Palestine Land Development Co. and the
Jewish National Fund. These organizations often offered to purchase the land from the wealthy owners for more than the actual value of the area. The Jewish land purchasers paid extraordinarily high prices for the uncultivated and marsh land. During a visit to Palestine in 1930,
John Hope Simpson, a British politician, noticed: "They [Jews] paid high prices for the land, and in addition they paid to certain of the occupants of those lands a considerable amount of money which they were not legally bound to pay"
[9]. It was believed that Jews were paying as much as $1,000 to $1,100 per acre in Palestine for non arable land in 1944. At that same time, one could buy rich arable land in Iowa for a mere $110 per acre
[10].
Huge tracts of land were purchased by Jews in the 1920s but in the next decade large tracts of uncultivated land were simply not available. Therefore in the 1930s most of the land were bought from small landowners. Of the land that the Jews bought, "52.6% of the lands were bought from big non-Palestinian landowners, 24.6% from Palestinian-Arab landowners and only 9.4% from the Fellahin"
[11].
[edit] Effects of Purchases in Palestine
[edit] 1929 Palestine Riots
Anti-Zionist demonstration at Damascus Gate, March 8th, 1920
During the time of this increased Jewish migration to the area, riots and massacres began to become more frequent among the people. During the Ottoman times there were conflicts between Jewish land owners and Arab tenants but in the 1920s and 1930s, the riots increased. In 1929 there were a series of violent attacks that resulted in the deaths of many innocent people.
[edit] Peel Commission
The British government who were controlling the area during these times organized the
Peel Commission to investigate the reasons for the civil unrest. Lord Peel's report found that "Arab complaints about Jewish land acquisition were baseless. It pointed out that 'much of the land now carrying orange groves were sand dunes or swamps and uncultivated when it was purchased... there was at the time of the earlier sales little evidence that the owners possessed either the resources or training needed to develop the land'. Moreover, the Commission found the shortage was 'due less to the amount of land acquired by Jews than to the increase in the Arab population'. The report concluded that the presence of Jews in Palestine, along with the work of the British Administration, has resulted in higher wages, an improved standard of living and ample employment opportunities"
[12].
[edit] Positive Effects
Before the arrival of Jewish migrants, Palestine was far from being a desirable place for refuge. "Moreover, the conditions of local life before the arrival of the European Jewish refugees were hardly enviable. Only a tiny proportion of the population could read or write. Health care was abominable, infant mortality high, life expectancy short, and water scarce"
[13]. The Jews were responsible for great improvements to the area including draining malarial swamps and bringing "improved sanitation and health care to the region"
[14].
[edit] Economic Impact
The land purchases did not have all positive effects on the people of Palestine. After the large tracts of land owned by the absentee landlords were bought by Jewish immigrants, parcels of land were bought from small farm owners including fellahin. One of the growing profitable commodities in the area was citrus. Citrus cultivation can be very expensive so many fellahin sold all or parts of their land to pay for the investment into citrus cultivation. There were negative effects to the transactions made between the Jews and the small farm owners. After the land was sold, many of the fellahin fell into financial problems. Some farmers sold their land during the hype over the high land prices but did not consider the future after the money was spent. Others sold their land believing they would be able to find work in the cities but instead they began to depend on unstable incomes which led to a number of other economic problems. The fellahin who sold parts of land in attempt to turn "vegetable tracts into citrus groves became dependent on world markets and on the availability of maritime transportation. A decrease in the world market demand for citrus or a lack of means of transportation severely jeopardise the economic situation of these people"
[15].
[edit] Influence on Population
The population of Palestine increased dramatically by the end of World War II. ..."By 1947, Jewish holdings in Palestine amounted to about 463,000 acres. Approximately 45,000 of these acres were acquired from the Mandatory Government; 30,000 were bought from various churches and 387,500 were purchased from Arabs. Analyses of land purchases from 1880 to 1948 show that 73 percent of Jewish plots were purchased from large landowners, not poor fellahin. Those who sold land included the mayors of Gaza, Jerusalem and Jaffa.
As'ad elShuqeiri, a Muslim religious scholar and father of PLO chairman
Ahmed Shuqeiri, took Jewish money for his land. Even
King Abdullah leased land to the Jews. In fact, many leaders of the Arab nationalist movement, including members of the Muslim Supreme Council, sold land to Jews"
[16].
[edit] Arab Reaction to Land Purchases
Over the years Arabs have argued that they have been displaced due to the increase in Jewish immigration to the area presently known as Israel. "In 1931,
Lewis French conducted a survey of landlessness and eventually offered new plots to any Arabs who had been 'dispossessed'. British officials received more than 3,000 applications, of which 80 percent were ruled invalid by the Government's legal adviser because the applicants were not landless Arabs. This left only about 600 landless Arabs, 100 of whom accepted the Government land offer"
[17]. French's definition of a 'landless' Arab was often though as too uncertain for it did not include Arabs who sold their land willingly, people who owned land elsewhere and people who became tenants of land elsewhere. French's describes landlessness Arabs as: "Those who can be shown to have been displaced from the lands which they occupied in consequence of the lands falling into Jewish hands, and who have not obtained other holdings on which they can establish themselves or other equally satisfactory occupation"
[18].
Also over the time period between World War I and World War II, the Arab population has actually increased by 120 per cent. From 1922 and 1947, the non Jewish population increased dramatically in many cities over the region. In Haifa, Jerusalem and Jaffa the population increased by 290 per cent, 131 per cent and 158 per cent respectively.The reasons for this increase in Arab population in the area was due to the high number of migrants from neighbouring countries hoping to take advantage of the high standard of living which was a result of the increased Jewish influence on the area
[19].
Not all Arabs believe the Jewish land purchases were harmful to the Arab culture and people. According to the editor of the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Ahram, "[it]is absolutely necessary that an entente be made between the Zionists and Arabs, because the war of words can only do evil. The Zionists are necessary for the country: The money which they will bring, their knowledge and intelligence, and the industriousness which characterized them will contribute without doubt to the regeneration of the country"
[20].
ISLAMIC JIHAD IN NUMBERS
Tears of Jihad
These figures are a rough estimate of the death of non-Muslims by the political act of jihad.
Africa
Thomas Sowell [Thomas Sowell, Race and Culture, BasicBooks, 1994, p. 188] estimates that 11 million slaves were shipped across the Atlantic and 14 million were sent to the Islamic nations of North Africa and the Middle East. For every slave captured many others died. Estimates of this collateral damage vary. The renowned missionary David Livingstone estimated that for every slave who reached a plantation, five others were killed in the initial raid or died of illness and privation on the forced march.[Woman's Presbyterian Board of Missions, David Livingstone, p. 62, 1888] Those who were left behind were the very young, the weak, the sick and the old. These soon died since the main providers had been killed or enslaved. So, for 25 million slaves delivered to the market, we have an estimated death of about 120 million people. Islam ran the wholesale slave trade in Africa.
120 million Africans
Christians
The number of Christians martyred by Islam is 9 million [David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends AD 30-AD 2200, William Carey Library, 2001, p. 230, table 4-10] . A rough estimate by Raphael Moore in History of Asia Minor is that another 50 million died in wars by jihad. So counting the million African Christians killed in the 20th century we have:
60 million Christians
Hindus
Koenard Elst in Negationism in India gives an estimate of 80 million Hindus killed in the total jihad against India. [Koenard Elst, Negationism in India, Voice of India, New Delhi, 2002, pg. 34.] The country of India today is only half the size of ancient India, due to jihad. The mountains near India are called the Hindu Kush, meaning the "funeral pyre of the Hindus."
80 million Hindus
Buddhists
Buddhists do not keep up with the history of war. Keep in mind that in jihad only Christians and Jews were allowed to survive as dhimmis (servants to Islam); everyone else had to convert or die. Jihad killed the Buddhists in Turkey, Afghanistan, along the Silk Route, and in India. The total is roughly 10 million. [David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, World Christian Trends AD 30-AD 2200, William Carey Library, 2001, p. 230, table 4-1.]
10 million Buddhists
Jews
Oddly enough there were not enough Jews killed in jihad to significantly affect the totals of the Great Annihilation. The jihad in Arabia was 100 percent effective, but the numbers were in the thousands, not millions. After that, the Jews submitted and became the dhimmis (servants and second class citizens) of Islam and did not have geographic political power.
Negationism in
India: concealing the record of Islam
Koenraad Elst - [Voice of India, 1992] 1992 - 176 pages [Page 27]
Every new invader made (often literally) his hills of Hindu skulls. Thus, the conquest of Afghanistan in the year 1000 was followed by ... The Bahmani sultans (1347-1480) in central India made it a
rule to kill 100000 Hindus every year. In 1399, Teimur killed 100,000 captives in a single day...
http://books.google.com/books?&id=mBEcAAAAIAAJ&q=Bahmani+sultans The
Ikhwan waged a jihad against other Muslims in Arabia, including Sharif Hussein of Mecca, who established the Hashemite dynasty that ruled first in Arabia and then in Syria, Iraq and Transjordan. As many as
400,000 Arabs were killed or wounded in these campaigns.
http://www.jcpa.org/art/nypost-dg6apr03.htmGenocide: A Comprehensive Introduction - Page 150
Adam Jones - [Taylor & Francis] 2010
[ISBN 041548619X, 9780415486194] 680 pages
A "Christian genocide" framing acknowledges the historic claims of the Assyrian and Greek peoples, and the movements now ... In Thea Halo's estimation, "
Armenian deaths were estimated at 1.5 million. According to figures compiled by by the Greek government in collaboration with the Patrirachate...
http://books.google.com/books?id=BqdVudSuTRIC&pg=PA150Congressional Record - Page 6450
- (April 22, 1998)
In addition to those killed, an estimated 500000 Armenians were deported from the Ottoman Empire. ... Mr. Speaker, today we remember the Armenian Genocide, and honor the memory of the
1.5 million Armenians who died between 1915 and 1923 ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=956nQAD4DZAC&pg=PA6450Encyclopedia of war crimes and genocide - Page 26
Leslie Alan Horvitz, Christopher Catherwood - 2006 - 582 pages - Preview
Estimates of the total number of Armenians who died as a result of the massacres and deportations vary,
ranging up to 1.5 million out of a prewar Armenian population estimated at 1.8 million. An Ottoman interior minister has ...
http://books.google.com/books?id=AHpFp2nsGyUC&pg=PA26A lethal combination of labor brigades, internal deportations and massacres conducted throughout Anatolian Turkey resulted in the death of
1,400,000 Greeks.
The Annihilation of the Anatolian Greeks
...The Ottoman Empire, famed by its harems and janissaries, was founded at the start of the fourteenth century and at its zenith occupied Anatolia, the Middle East and much of south-eastern Europe to the Caucasus. By the end of the 15th century, the considerable Greek
population of Asia Minor was under Ottoman rule...
http://www.greek-genocide.org/index1.html1971 - Sheikh Mujib arrested and taken to West Pakistan. In exile, Awami League leaders proclaim the independence of the province of East Pakistan on 26th March. The new country is called Bangladesh. Just under 10 million Bangladeshis flee to India as troops from West Pakistan are defeated with Indian assistance. [...]
2000 December - Bangladesh expels Pakistani diplomat for comments on the 1971 war. The diplomat had put the number of dead at 26,000, whereas Bangladesh says nearly three million were killed. Bangladesh wants Pakistan to apologise for alleged genocide it says Pakistani forces were guilty of during the war.
Sheikh Hasina's Awami League was defeated in 2001
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/country_profiles/1160896.stm
Fear God and the Shadow of the Muslim Sword - Page 20 Pat MR Pat - [AuthorHouse,] 2008 - 208 pages
The Iran-Iraq War is a lesson in the brutality of the Muslim Sunni-Shiite conflict. The religious leaders of Iran rounded up more than 10000 Sunni children and walked them barefoot in the front lines of their armies in order to clear the mine fields. Saddam Hussein, a member of the minority Sunni sect that ruled Iraq, moved hundreds of thousands of Arab Shiite men and boys to the front lines with little or no arms, to face the onslaught of the Persian Shiite army of Iran. Estimates of casualties on both sides of the war place the figure above 2 million.
http://books.google.com/books?id=LTHa-xlVcZ4C&pg=PA20 The Iran-Iraq War
No one is sure of the total casualties during the Iran-Iraq war, but estimates range from 500,000 to 1 million dead, 1-2 million wounded, and more than 80,000 prisoners. There were approximately 2.5 million refugees, and whole cities were destroyed. The financial cost is estimated at a minimum of $200 billion.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/arabs/iraniraq.html
Interview With George Clooney - CNN.com - Transcripts
Oct 14, 2010 ... There was a war here that ended in 2005, with a peace agreement .... Well, 2.5 million people died in the last war between the north and south that ended in 2005. ..... CLOONEY: Take two minutes. It's amazing the effect of one person's voice. .... KING: George, we think of Darfur, we think of you. ...
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1010/14/lkl.01.html Insurgents kill two in Thai south October 31, 2009
Oct. 31, 2009
AFP
SUSPECTED Islamic insurgents shot and killed two people and wounded three others in a bomb blast in Thailand's troubled Muslim-majority south, police said.
Gunmen broke into a house in Yala province and shot dead a 16-year-old Buddhist girl, also wounding her 29-year-old husband, they said....
Hannity - Monday, Sep 13, 2010 - mReplay Livedash TV Transcript:
Judith Miller: 00:29:05 >> With the small minority are the extremists.
Ilario Pantano 00:29:09 >> Islam minority has been responsible for 500,000 deaths since nine 11 -- since 9/11.
00:29:17 Egypt, spain, bali to baghdad, radical islamists have been blowing themselves.
http://www.livedash.com/transcript/hannity/51/FNC/Monday_September_13_2010/297258/ The Election and the Muslim Controversy | FoxNews.com
Oct 25, 2010 ... By Bill O'Reilly.
[...]
Listen to these stats: Since the attack on Sept. 11, 2001, more than 40,000 people have been killed by Muslim extremists worldwide, the result of more than 17,000 attacks. And we're not even counting the American troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Forty thousand human beings dead because of Muslim terror activity.
In addition, since 9/11, the USA has spent more than $1 trillion combating Muslim terror threats, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. $1 trillion in less than 10 years. And you're telling me there isn't a Muslim problem in the world?
Many Americans also remember celebrations after the 9/11 attacks. To be fair, they were brief and mostly Palestinian-driven, but the images are indelible.
Mansur: Ignoring Muslim-on-Muslim Violence Undercuts U.S. ...
Jun 15, 2010 ...Muslim-on-Muslim Genocide
Few Americans realize that the most victims of Islamism have been Muslims, Mansur argues. As an example, the Algerian civil war that began in 1992, killed more than 150,000 people in a fight pitting the nation's military regime against Islamist radicals. In Darfur, estimates range from 200,000 to 500,000 dead and millions more driven from their homes.
In East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), an estimated 500,000 to 1 million people were slaughtered in 1971 by the rampaging Pakistani Army. Mansur refers to it as "one of the great genocides that Muslims committed against Muslims."
In this case, "the Pakistani military was killing their own citizens, and none of these people, by the way, have been brought to [judgment.]" The perpetrators of these crimes are "still running around in the West," Mansur said. "So you see the barbarity…the savagery, with which a Muslim state treats its own population."
In Mansur's view, The East Pakistan genocide bears disturbing similarities to today's events in Darfur. "Half a million or more people have been killed in western Sudan, and there is not a peep about that," Mansur said. "There's a preoccupation, whenever the issue of violence or ethnic cleansing and war crimes…are talked about - the West is focused on the Arab-Israeli conflict."
But groups like CAIR show little interest in discussing the mass murder of Muslims in Darfur, Pakistan or anywhere else. According to Mansur, when the topic is raised, Islamists typically assert that the figures have been "inflated" by "enemies of the Muslims" such as Hindus or Zionists.
"In all of these cases, there is not a whit of taking responsibility, " Mansur said. Instead of using the Arab-Israeli conflict as a way to put pressure on Israel, the international community should take action to bring to justice "these criminals who were responsible for the genocide, whether it is in Darfur or Pakistan."
"There is no statute of limitation…for crimes against humanity," he noted.
Mansur said he sees some signs of positive change in Islamabad's response to the recent wave of terrorist attacks by the Taliban. The reality of suicide bombings in Pakistan's major cities is making it increasingly difficult for government officials and intellectuals to argue that terrorism results from India's machinations or "blowback" from the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Pakistani elites are coming to the realization that their jihadist terror problem is homegrown. A growing number of voices are acknowledging "that we have to take responsibility, that [jihadism] is what we have nurtured and created," Mansur said. "I see that as a hopeful sign. I think that if Pakistan is going to be saved from its own tendency to self-destruction, that these voices have to be reinforced and given support, which means the building of a civil society and the downgrading of the military side."
http://www.investigativeproject.org/2008/mansur-ignoring-muslim-on-muslim-violence UNESCO is complicit in stealing culture and history. A veritable shame.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted recently to officially declare Rachel's Tomb to be a mosque. UNESCO director Irena Bokova had previously stated "concern" at Israel's decision to treat the tomb as a heritage site.
The vote called for Rachel's Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs - the burial site of the other Biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs - to be removed from Israel's 
National Heritage list.
The Palestinian Authority has claimed that Rachel's Tomb is holy to Muslims as the site of a mosque called the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque. The PA demands control over both the tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron, as well as the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
UNESCO appeared to support the PA demand for the Temple Mount as well, asking that Muslim officials be allowed to examine the Mughrabi Gate near the Western Wall (Kotel). Muslim leaders have accused Israel of attempting to damage the Al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount under the guise of repairs to the Mugrabi Gate. Israeli officials have warned that if the gate is not repaired, it could collapse, putting worshipers at the Western Wall at risk.
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, Rabbi of the Western Wall, termed the decision "outrageous."
"They have never said in the past that this was a Muslim holy site. The [UN] organization responsible for heritage has turned heritage into politics." Israel should think carefully about whether or not to cooperate with UNESCO in the future, he said.
Israel's Foreign Ministry denounced the UNESCO ruling.
Tens of thousands of Jews recently visited Rachel's Tomb to mark the biblical matriarch's Yartzheit (anniversary of death). The tomb is located within Bethlehem city limits, but remained under Israeli control when the rest of Bethlehem was transferred to Palestinian Authority control.
Journalist Nadav Shragai, writing for Yisrael Hayom, noted that Muslims living in the land of Israel have historically referred to Rachel's Tomb as "Kubat Rahel," the Arabic term for "Rachel's Tomb." Under Ottoman rule, Rachel's Tomb was a Jewish site.
Only in 1996 did the PA begin to call the site the Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque, he said. Jordan, Dr. Peace and Mr. Apartheid
"The anti-Palestinian/anti-Israeli conservative nationalist political salons in Amman have been calling for threatening Israel with what they describe as the Palestinian demographic bomb by sending the Palestinians to Israel."
Jordan's doublespeak.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23891459-lauren-booths-embrace-of-islam-veils-the-truth.do
While Tony Blair was promoting his autobiography last month, his sister-in-law, Lauren Booth, was rolling around on the floor of a mosque in Iran. She was, it has transpired, having a spiritual experience: she left the building with a vow never to eat pork or drink alcohol again.
Blair, meanwhile, was sounding off about the threat from Iran. "We have got to be prepared to confront them," he said, "if necessary militarily. I think there is no alternative to that if they continue to develop nuclear weapons. They need to get that message loud and clear."
Now the message to him from Iran is loud and clear: Christmas will never be the same with a friend of Iran's President Ahmadinejad in the family. Booth works for Press TV, a propaganda channel run by the Iranian government from an office in Ealing. In her broadcasts, Booth dons a headscarf, so it's perhaps little surprise that this weekend she announced to an Excel arena packed with the Muslim faithful that she has joined their flock: "My name's Lauren Booth and I'm a Muslim." She described "the overwhelming sense of peace" she'd experienced at that mosque in the city of Qom and recalled a prayer: "Allah, thank you for putting me on this journey."
Then she asked God to get out his diary: "If you could spare some time to look at Palestine to ease their pain, that would be great." Many will be dismayed Booth didn't pray that the people of Iran be spared their pain too. It's baffling how a journalist could visit a country with Iran's appalling human rights record and not be moved to report on the injustices suffered by its people — such as Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who remains under threat of being stoned to death for alleged adultery. And then there's the rape and torture used by the Iranian state to punish opposition.
She didn't have to go to Iran: there are beautiful mosques in Britain she could have rolled about on the floor in.
Either way, her prayer for Palestine remains unanswered. Last weekend thugs in Gaza burned to the ground the already vandalised Crazy Water theme park for children, which they considered unIslamic, while the Hamas administration — which has banned women's lingerie from shop windows and women from using water pipes — turned a blind eye. These are Lauren Booth's friends. In 2008, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh presented her with a "VIP" passport to Gaza; both he and Booth are backed by the Iranians.
In converting to Islam she follows in the footsteps of her Press TV colleague Yvonne Ridley, the former Express journalist who honoured a promise to her Taliban captors to adopt their religion in exchange for her release. Cassius Clay converted to Islam and became Muhammad Ali in the context of the US civil rights struggle of the Sixties. Cat Stevens's conversion in the Seventies was because he believed God had saved him from drowning — and he used it to get out of the media circus. Booth is doing the opposite in that respect. While Booth's spiritual experience was clearly very real to her, one cannot but recall Ahmadinejad's claim to have been visited by divinity during his maiden UN speech in 2005. One of his aides had seen him surrounded by a halo of light as he became a vessel for the message of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the world. Also on this topic
Qataris ready to buy Christie's because 'it has stuff we are collecting'
Israeli bulldozers start work as West Bank settlement ban ends
World must stop Middle East bloodshed, says Barack Obama
Hamas militants: We'll derail Palestinian peace progress
Middle East: they're in for the long haul A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. ~Herm Albright~
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