Liberty or Sharia

"So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."

"CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam."

"In Yathrib (Medina), Muhammad had a number of people killed. One of them was `Asma' bint Marwan. Her crime was that she spoke out against Muhammad for having another man murdered named Abu Afak. In his displeasure towards her, Muhammad asked his followers to murder her as well. She was killed while she slept." [From answering-islam.org.uk. More? Here's Wikipedia.]

The latter story initially seems to have been told by Muslims. There are other Muslims maintaining the story is forged. Who knows who's right, 1300 years later?

But we remember very well how the film director Theo van Gogh was butchered by a Muslim in the Netherlands in 2004, for nothing more than criticising Islam, and the fact that nearly no one in the Islamic world was condemning this murder. Where were these Muslims then, not demonstrating against the murder of van Gogh, that are furious today about a simple cartoon?
And we remember 9/11 in the USA with 2986 people butchered. The 2004 Madrid bombings, 191 people dead, or the 2005 London bombings with 56 people dead.

And we remember Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie, for nothing more than writing a book.

[More on the wars of Muhammad:
http://www.salemthesoldier.us/prophet_to_conqueror_pfriendly.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad#War
http://www.al-islam.org/restatement/27.htm]

So given the at times merciless Islamic ideology, as assembled in numerous instances in the Koran, and, according to various accounts, the brutalities of the "prophet" Muhammad, plus the facts on today's crimes as committed in many cases, as it seems, by Muslims, the cartoon as published by a Danish newspaper, with Muhammad wearing a bomb on his head, seems to be a rather mild joke compared to the reality of brutalised Muslims now and then. Or that's at least what logic might tell.

But let's see:
"Switzerland's Nestle, Italy's Ferrero and New Zealand's dairy co-operative Fonterra were among the companies putting out newspaper ads showing their products were not made or imported from Denmark, according to Reuters." [CNN, February 7, 2006]

Or that one:
"LONDON - The European Union may try to draw up a media code of conduct to avoid a repeat of the furor caused by the publication across Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, an EU commissioner said on Thursday." [abs-cbnnews, Date unknown, probably around Febr. 2006]

This one:
"The Swedish government has moved to shut down the website of a far-right political party's newspaper over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
The site's host, Levonline, pulled the plug on the website of the Swedish Democrats' SD-Kuriren newspaper after consulting with the government." [BBC, February 10, 2006]

But let's see how the brave fight against "far-right" politicians is developing when the "far-right" is a fascist terror organization like the Palestinian Hamas movement:

"Sweden's government aid organization has pledged to provide the Palestinian Authority with over five million Euros in additional funding.
The proposal, announced on 20 February, came as a result of Israel, the US and the EU stopping aid to the Palestinians following the Hamas electoral victory." [http://www.ejpress.org/article/6310]

So obviously Hamas, an organisation announcing openly to kill every jew they can find, i.e. a far-right fascist terror group that recently was pushed by its electorate into the position to form the new Palestinian government, this group is no problem for a left-wing Swedish government. But people who perhaps might not like Islamist gangsters obviously do pose a problem. Or what?

Update, Feb. 28, 2006:
"The European Union said Monday that it will give the Palestinian Authority $143 million in emergency aid before the newly elected Hamas leadership forms a Palestinian government." [CNN, February 27, 2006]

Update, Apr. 19, 2007:
"A group of all-party MEPs has launched a move to crack down on race hate on the internet.
The move follows growing concern about racially-motivated material appearing in cyber space." [ www.eupolitix.com, Apr 17, 2007]

These EU politicians maintain they'd like to crack down on Nazis on the Internet. I don't believe them. The article mentioned above goes on like this:

"It also calls on all EU member states to sign up to the Council of Europe's additional protocol on cyber crime"

"Article 1 - Purpose

The purpose of this Protocol is to supplement, as between the Parties to the Protocol, the provisions of the Convention on Cybercrime, opened for signature in Budapest on 23 November 2001 (hereinafter referred to as "the Convention"), as regards the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems."

"Article 2 - Definition

1     For the purposes of this Protocol:

"racist and xenophobic material" means any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as a pretext for any of these factors."

Got it?

And here's the rest of the story, also mentioned earlier on this page: At the beginning of 2006 the EU started talking on plans, "to draw up a media code of conduct to avoid a repeat of the furor caused by the publication across Europe of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad [ ... ]" [ abs-cbnnews.com, unknown date, probably Febr. 2006]

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You can find the Muhammad cartoons also on this site.

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The Mohammad Cartoons

Even in Islam no strict ban on Mohammad pictures

Günter Grass, a German writer:
"We (!) all (!) know (!), that there is a law, written or unwritten, that prohibits both the depiction of Allah and his prophet Muhammad in the Islamic world"

Here's the BBC on the topic:

"Shia Islamic tradition is far less strict on this ban [to depict Allah, Mohammad, etc., WP]. Reproductions of images of the Prophet, mainly produced in the 7th Century in Persian, can be found."

But not only Shia tradition is "far less strict" on the ban: Egyptian Sunnis also do not seem to care a lot about Mohammad pictures, at least as long as these pictures do not show up in the Western world:

On http://freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com, some pictures from the Egyptian newspaper Al Fager can be seen: They show some cartoons as published in Denmark, months before Muslims were attacking European embassies for nothing more than what was happening in Egypt (Note: It looks like some minor details like the English comments, etc., were added by the editor of freedomforegyptians.blogspot.com).

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Initially the page you're seeing now was set up for the fact that Israel has a hard time, and it was set up for the fact that a lot of people are talking dangerous rubbish on the situation in Israel.

Israeli citizens are threatened by Palestinians and others who are targeting life and who are spreading death.
The fight of these killers, wherever they may come from, is fascist terror.
The nature of this Palestinian "uprising" is highlighted by Palestinians themselves: To understand you might want to read this excerpt from a memri.org page:

"In a Friday sermon in the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Aal Nahyan mosque in Gaza, broadcast live on official Palestinian Authority television, Sheikh Ahmad Abu Halabiya, member of the PA-appointed Fatwa Council and former acting rector of the Islamic University in Gaza, said:

"Have no mercy on the Jews, no matter where they are, in any country. Fight them, wherever you are. Wherever you meet them, kill them. Wherever you are, kill those Jews and those Americans who are like them - and those who stand by them - they are all in one trench, against the Arabs and the Muslims - because they established Israel here, in the beating heart of the Arab world, in Palestine. .... ""

Currently, Febr. 6, 2005 , changes might be looming: The Palestinian leadership has issued a decree banning Palestinian civilians from carrying weapons. And Palestinian police has been ordered to Gaza areas now, thus being hopefully in a position to stop attacks by Palestinian terrorists on Israelis. The situation still seems to be very fragile. Fragile, because Palestinian authorities still don't take the necessary measures against Palestinians responsible for armed attacks on Israelis.

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On Video: Armed Palestinian Gunmen Fleeing in United Nations Ambulance

Israel since long has been publishing reports on Palestinian misuse of medical services for terrorist attacks. Whereas Human Rights groups repeatedly accused Israel of impeding medical care for Palestinians. A video published now by accessmiddleeast.org could make us learn:

The scene in the short movie (about 60 secs.) shows Palestinian gunmen running away with an obviously slightly wounded comrade in a UN ambulance car. The whole scene, as it seems, took place in Rafah, Gaza, after a shootout with Israel Defense Forces soldiers. The footage was taken, as it seems, by REUTERS, May 11 2004, the day 6 Israeli soldiers were killed in their armored personnel carrier.

The whole video is here (link to another site).

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German Politician: Sympathies For Terror Against Israelis

German daily 'taz' on 04-04-2002 published an interview with Jürgen Möllemann, then probably one of the most influential politicians in the German FDP, an important "liberal" party in Germany. Excerpt:

"Will the Middle East conflict be imported to Europe?"
"I'm hoping this can be prevented. But the Union [German CDU party, WP] Foreign Policy expert, Lamers, is right: Israel's policy stimulates terrorism. What else would one do oneself, if Germany was occupied? I also would defend myself, and that by force. I'm an officer paratrooper reservist. It would be my task then to defend myself. And I would not only do this in my own country but in the aggressor's country, too. The more distinct we Europeans stand up for a just Middle East peace, the less one will turn us for one-sidedness into a scene of conflicts."

According to spiegel.de (04-05-2002, in German) FDP chairman Westerwelle defended Möllemann, one of the vice-chairmen of this party then: "Criticizing the policy of the Israeli Government is far from being an anti-Semite."

Möllemann remained as FDP vice-chairman for months after his utterances. Only on the evening of September 22, 2002, federal election day in Germany, as the votes were cast (or nearly cast), Westerwelle, according to spiegel.de [8], asked Möllemann to resign.

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Germany: Nazis, Hamas followers and Leftists Hand In Hand against Israel

The situation in Germany sometimes is becoming nearly unbelievable: on April 13, 2002, a demonstration [1] of Hamas followers, German Leftists and Nazis took place in Berlin, Germany, where people voiced their protest against what they called "Israeli terror" [2] against Palestinians. Leftists participating came - as it seems - from the German PDS [3] (Party of Democratic Socialism, today part of the Berlin city's government in a coalition with German Social Democrats) over the DKP (German Communist Party) to other unknown leftist groups like "Linksruck" or "Spartakist". According to reports on the demonstration people were witnessing the shouting of Nazi-slogans like "Heil, Heil, Heil Hitler" or "Wir wollen keine Judenschweine" ("We don't want Jewish Pigs").

This development is not that surprising: since long time it is clear that Israel in its ongoing fight against terror is seen by most of the media here as an aggressor.
The fact that the Israeli incursion into Palestinian territories some time ago took place after more than 120 Israelis in March 2002 alone were murdered in terror attacks is nothing that most German media seem very much interested in. A glance to various editions of German newspapers and their Online Forums, or a simple talk with your German Anti-Imperialist or Leftist neighbor might draw a rather disgusting picture on this, as it seems, not so very German but in the meantime even European piece of truth.

The whole story does not end there: actually there are a few people here trying to draw a different and rather precise picture on the situation in Israel: some of them are more or less loosely linked to the Berlin "BAHAMAS" [4] newspaper, an anti-German Socialist paper with a rather modern analysis approach to Socialism that might help understand how German Leftists misunderstood Socialist ideas (and still do) as an ideological basis for their anti-Semitism.

Here in Germany BAHAMAS and other friends of Israel have been made pay for their sympathies: Some of them were injured [5], threatened [6] or the places where they held public meetings were attacked [7] by, as it seems, Leftist Germans and their immigrant or Palestinian supporters, without much interest into these incidents by German media at this time.

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Notes:

 [1] This is the English translation of an article on madison.indymedia.org written by someone
     who seemingly has seen the demonstration.

     And here a Foto from a participant of this demonstration, with the Nazi-salute.

     Here's an article on the Pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin, April 13.

     On www.ilka.org you'll find this in-depth report on the German and EU position
     towards Israel.  

     This is the English translation of an article that originally was written in Italian by
     Oriana Fallaci: the author is protesting there the rise of anti-Semitism, even "a new
     fascism, a new Nazism" in Europe.

     On www.haaretzdaily.com several articles on "The 'New Anti-Semitism'", most of them
     relating to the situation in Europe. 

     Most of the following pages in German:

 [2] Seems this link does not work any more ... Sorry

 [3] According to the German spiegel.de the head of the socialist German PDS spread more or
      less the same wrong reports on "massacres" in Jenin, committed by Israel, as
      Amnesty International did or German Nazis or spiegel.de ..

      A, IIRC, washingtontimes.com report ("Jenin 'massacre' reduced to death toll of 56") once
      helped to find out what was actually going on in Jenin. Trying Google to find it?

 [4] This is where you'll find the BAHAMAS journal Web Site

 [5] http://www.de.indymedia.org/2002/04/19212.shtml

 [6] http://www.de.indymedia.org/2002/02/15558.shtml

 [7] http://www.redaktion-bahamas.org/aktuell/presse-10-04-02.htm

 [8] spiegel.de ....  More on Möllemann (in English) at http://www.moellemann.com/

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Honestly-Concerned-Mailingliste, in German, with large parts in English. Online mailinglist with nearly daily updated tons of links.
www.imra.org.il
www.memri.org, among others: videos, broadcast on Palestinian/Arab TV
Palestinian Media Watch
gamla.org.il
www.hagalil.com, in German
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
HAARETZ, Internet edition
Jerusalem Post, Internet edition, registration req'd for detailed articles.
Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, (PSR), Ramallah " ... organizes socio-political surveys and public opinion polls on current Palestinian political and social attitudes." [PSR, quote from their site]

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Andy,
www.israelmilitary.com
www.israel-tshirts.com
www.israelsportshop.com
for the Israel support stickers below: Without them this page wouldn't look half as good as it actually does ... :)

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Contact: Wolfgang Pfeiffer
Stuttgart, Germany