Foxman on Anti-Muslim Agitation

 
"Growing numbers of people in Europe and the United States subscribe to this belief system; in some instances it borders on hysteria. Adherents of this ideological Islamophobia view Islam as an existential threat to the world, especially to the “West.”

Moreover, they believe that leaders and governments in the Western world are consciously or unconsciously collaborating to allow Islam to “infiltrate” and eventually conquer democratic societies."  Abraham Foxman

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Abe Foxman is the head of the Anti-Defamation League.   He has this right.  As I have written before, there is a campaign underway to establish in the public mind the notion of the innate danger that Islam and Muslims pose for the West and its peoples. 

The general condemnation of any group of people is inherently a bad idea.  In the case of Muslims it is a particularly bad idea since Islam in spite of its self-image of unity is not one thing.  It is many things. 

Foxman points to the pro-Israel bias of many of those seeking to demonize Muslims as Catholics and Jews were once demonized.  He is an intelligent man and must understand that the Israeli government is probably involved in this political warfare against Muslims.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/norwegian-attacks-stem-from-a-new-ideological-hate/2011/07/28/gIQAhxy8hI_story.html

Comments

[J]

Colonel,

Here's one that dove-tails on what you have said above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LofScCiJT4c
"Israel is paying internet workers to manipulate online content "

--"READ FULL DESCRIPTION: As many of you may have suspected, Israel is paying and training internet bloggers to delete, rewrite, and revise internet content to shape public opinion to Israel's benefit. Video of the Israeli-sponsored training programs have been leaked to the web (like the video here).

Additionally, investigative reporters that infiltrated these groups have reported that Israelis are being trained to spread disinformation and to try to create conflicts among different religious, racial, and ethnic groups if it would benefit Israel. Some of the seminars also encouraged the workers to spread disinformation on the internet and to attempt to recruit free (unpaid) labor. For example, many of these bloggers have been trained to attempt to make friends with you by pretending that they share an interest in your favorite sports team or movie, or that they went to the same school, but they will ultimately try to recruit you to attack other groups or individuals that Israel thinks is against its national interests (e.g., 'Muslims,' 'Russians,' 'Germans,' 'Latinos,' 'United Nations representatives' and 'human rights groups'). Others have been trained to personally attack, stalk, and harass anyone personally that does not agree with Israel. Not only is this type of behavior a terrible injustice to the accuracy of content (it's actually state-sponsored propaganda), it is also damaging to the public trust because people are being misguided into working as unpaid servants of a government through false pretenses. People really should speak out about this."--

[J]

Colonel,

I see another dove-tailing of all of this, namely Israel's continued black-propaganda op in preparation for their very probable coming stupid moment, where they think its 'safe' to attack Iran.

I'm sorry but I personally do not have a high confidence in Gen. Dempsey assuming the CJCS posit. Dempsey's judgement on things that have waif ed into the public realm, has me a little concerned regarding U.S. being suckered into an Israeli stupid moment. Again, this is all supposition and opinion on my part.

Life is grand in the retired realm, one can actually be an ass-hole now and then, and buck the decisions of the powers that be, and still get to eat ones' scrambled-egg samich. At least with scrambled-egg samiches, one doesn't have to depend on a P38.

[J]

Just an off the wall question, does anybody know why Gen. Dempsey was floated to the top of the President's list as Adm. Mullen's replacement ahead of other suitable replacements? Just curious.

[Jackie]

I guess, once in a while, even Abe Foxman can get something right.

[kao_hsien_chih]

If Abe Foxman thinks the allies and pawns of Israel have gone too far, how far have they really gone?!

[Babak Makkinejad]

Jackie:

Abe Foxman's statement is too weak, specially considering his position on the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque".

If he wanted to be helpful, he would have taken full-page ADs in the New York Times, in Washington Post, in popular Arabic, Bengali, Malay, Persian, Punjabi, Turkish, and Urdu news papers and stated - unequivocally - that Jews are not against Islam, are not fighting to destroy Islam, respect Islam or something to that effect.

This is too weak given the gravity of the current historical moment; in my opinion.

[Abu Sinan]

I agree with Babak. His stance concerning with "ground zero mosque" (which was neither at ground zero nor a mosque) means he cannot be taken seriously anymore, if he ever was. The way I see it, if such an obvious and openly shill for the Israeli lobby has come out like this, it means things are really over the top!

[William R. Cumming]

So what best open source documentation is there of Islamic beliefs (including all sects) as to the "Clash of Civilizations"?

[Jay Gould]

Interesting to note that one of the prime movers in the "Counterjihad" movement, Pamela Geller, has quite a checkered background.

Google "Universal Auto World scam" for the story of the auto dealership which she is alleged to have co-owned with along with her late husband.

One wonders if there is any connection between this criminality and her subsequent career shift. Or is that too conspiratorial?

[confusedponderer]

I think Foxman is right in pointing out the similarities between anti-Semitism and the current anti-Islamic Jihad.

Curious things have happened, like the startling sight of European neo-Nazis wielding Israeli flags on anti-Muslim rallies. Europe's fascist scum, to the extent that they don't deny the Holocaust, have traded anti-Jewish sentiment for anti-Muslim sentiment, so they can feel a little better about themselves. So you have fascists, like the EDL, who just love Israel.

Except for that detail not much has changed: 'Islamisation' is simply the functional equivalent to the previous theme of 'Verjudung' (Judaization) in this, and instead of the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, you have the assertion that 'the Islamics' strive to re-establish the Caliphate and impose 'Sharia law' on the West. Together with the indispensable enemy within - the fifth column of Liberal Multiculturalist Cultural Marxists - there is an omnipotent bogeyman is out there to get them - instead of the 'Weltjudentum' (World Jewry) it's 'Islamofacism' this time around. It's essentially the same bullsh*t narrative.

The appeal of feeding such thugs and in re-framing the conflict in the Middle East, and in particular Israel's conflict, for Israeli right wingers is obvious. If they frame it as a conflict between an irreconcilable monolithic global Islamic Jihad against the West, they can, since them Arabs cannot be dealt with anyway, postpone any resolution of the Palestine issue, and continue to create facts on the ground in the meanwhile. I don't think that Israel's sponsorship of such groups is official policies, but that it is being quietly funded by private ultra-conservative moneyed interests.

These people probably feel that poor, persecuted Israel needs all the help it can get, and if that means wooing essentially anti-Semitic folks like Hagee or the European neo-Fascist scene, well, if it is good for Israel ...

I think that Foxman sees, presciently, that the inherent problem with weaving that narrative and feeding such ogres, that one day they may run out of Muslims, and revert to default setting.

He is acutely aware, I feel, that the tolerance idea of multiculturalism protects Jews and other groups from majority overreach.

[Hank Foresman]

Pat, somewhat related is this article in the NYT today regarding Shairia law and who is behind the movement to alarm American's about the threat of Islam;
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us/31shariah.html/?hp.

[Patrick Lang]

WRC

You need to read some quality general text on Islam by a neutral party. Sometimes the best books are the old books. For an in depth study of this subject; "The Venture of Islam" by Marshall Hodgson (3 vols.) It has been republished in paperback or the very old "Caravan, the story of the Middle East" by Carlton Coon. pl

[Charles I]

Some background from the NYT.

"The Man Behind the Anti-Shariah Movement

". . . it is the product of an orchestrated drive that began five years ago in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in the office of a little-known lawyer, David Yerushalmi, a 56-year-old Hasidic Jew with a history of controversial statements about race, immigration and Islam. Despite his lack of formal training in Islamic law, Mr. Yerushalmi has come to exercise a striking influence over American public discourse about Shariah.

Working with a cadre of conservative public-policy institutes and former military and intelligence officials, Mr. Yerushalmi has written privately financed reports, filed lawsuits against the government and drafted the model legislation that recently swept through the country — all with the effect of casting Shariah as one of the greatest threats to American freedom since the cold war.

The message has caught on. Among those now echoing Mr. Yerushalmi’s views are prominent Washington figures like R. James Woolsey, a former director of the C.I.A., and the Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann, who this month signed a pledge to reject Islamic law, likening it to “totalitarian control.” "

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/us/31shariah.html?hp

[Jackie]

Babak and Abu Sinan,
While I agree with your assessments of Foxman's prior actions, I'm just giving him credit for making a sensible point. I wonder if it gave him whiplash to write it.

[J]

So with the D.C. debit debacle drawing the nation's attention, behind the scenes Friday the Senate Select Intel Commmittee had a closed door session to draw up new spying rules since FISA is set to expire next year.

Colonel, what is your eagle-eye assessment as to how Jimmy-boy has been doing in his DNI posit, has he had enough stroke to keep the DCI in check where he belongs? Has he been reining-in the DIRNSA from his off-the-reservation domestic bugging campaigns?

How's Jimmy doing do you think? Is it time for a report card yet?

[Phil Giraldi]

Foxy is pulling a false flag operation. He knows that everyone leading the charge against Islamophobia and Sharia is a strong supporter of Israel (Gaffney, Bolton, Horowitz, Pipes, Geller, Spencer) so he is trying to preempt any criticism of the country he loves above all others by raising the alarm himself but in a very mild mannered and protective way. Foxman's own track record on Islam bashing through ADL is far from reassuring.

[Roy G.]

Can't you all see that Eurabia is coming, when the Mooslims take over Europe? So says Bat Ye'or, a crazy lady who was transformed into 'the worlds foremost scholar on Islam,' by Pam Geller, Robert Spencer, Samuel Huntington, et al.

http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/09/anti-muslim-loon-with-a-crazy-conspiracy-theory-named-eurabia/

As others have said, this rhetoric is remarkably similar to antisemitic propaganda of previous generations, a very dangerous precedent for those who call themselves 'pro Israel' to find common cause with the likes of Bat Ye'or and Anders Brevik.

[J]

Phil,

You don't suppose that Foxman is trying to protect Israel's 'intel ciphers', and keep attention away from Mossad's penetration ops that would be exposed were the eagle-eye to be focused on what is happening in Europe now do you? He'd never do that, right? Riggght.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Jackie:

Publicly upholding rational decency is not deserving of any credit.

[J]

Phil,

It is sad to watch how low the Israelis (Mossad) will stoop to achieve their objectives, how many innocents they will murder in cold blood. The European Intel apparatuses need to pull their heads of their backsides and see just how bad that the Mossad are playing them for fools, and endangering their civilian citizenry in the process with their penetration crap. IMO, and this is just IMO, but the Europeans need to be sending the Mossad operatives packing, in body bags if necessary back to their Herzliya complex.
I have nooo sympathy for the Israelis, because they have murdered our fellow Americans with no remorse, so I don't give a shit how many Mossad maggots fall by the wayside, I am soo fed up with their Mossad penetration crap.

[Ken Hoop]

The proper Euro-nationalist stance would be to contain Muslim influence, limit Muslim immigration, stay on as friendly terms as possible with those already present while negotiating some re-emigration.

To stay on these friendly terms, and for reasons as important of maintaining a proper European neutrality, and independence from American occupation, the proper Euro-nationalist stance would necessitate and have necessitated refusing to co-operate with any American government war against any Islamic country in the past twenty years and of enacting aggressive pro-Palestinian policies against Israeli oppression.

[Jackie]

Babak,
You are absolutely correct. It's just that so many people do not publicly uphold rational decency, I was taken aback by Foxman's op-ed.

I've also taken Phil's comments into consideration.

[fred]

Ken Hoop, what are you talking about? Should all European nations strip their citezens of rights if they are Muslim? American occupation? Too bad Germany lost that second war, too. But that's not the occupation you meant, is it. Europe would be better off stripping their right wingers of citizenship and sending them packing. I hear the Negev has plenty of space available.

[Ken Hoop]

I don't believe Saddam Hussein would have been negotiating on friendly terms in a preliminary manner with anti-Zionist Le Pen some years ago for a deal which would have held France to non-co-operation with the foreign policy of the United States in exchange for a similar deal re a partial re-settlement were there no mutual interest involved. (Conditioned on a Le Pen victory of course.)

[bill roche]

Contributors:
Please consider the news. How often do we see (all over the world) Christians/Jews/Bhuddists/Hindus? blowing other people up in other countries?
How often do you read of Muslims doing this. Islam is an evangelistic religion and (from what I have learned) condones violence to achieve conversion. Please lets not get into the Crusades or Protestant vs Catholic violence in the Reformation and thereafter. Jesus did not say it is ok to convert with violence Pope Urban said it was. Jesus did not say it was ok to kill heretics, Protestant and Catholic leaders said it was. But Mohammed (Allah's voice on earth) said it was. We are living today. Today's Islamic fundamentalists are violent, and intolerant. This is about a "Clash of Civilizations and moderate Muslims are very (happily?) quiet about the contest. And why not,..they are winning.