CJN: Bravo Stephen Tannebaum

From the CJN:

‘Palestine’ and Israeli maps

In his “Rejoinder to Crook and Marcus,” (letters, Oct. 29), Stephen Scheinberg complains that Israeli maps do not show “Palestine.” There’s a very simple reason for that. “Palestine” does not exist. Its borders have been the subject of negotiation since 1993, and the delay in its creation can be attributed almost entirely to Palestinian terrorism and refusal to accept Israel as the Jewish state. Scheinberg goes on to note that many Israel maps do not even show the Green Line, which he erroneously calls “Israel’s pre-1967 borders.” The Green Line is nothing more than the armistice line where hostilities ended in 1948. The fact that the Arab world has consistently refused to negotiate actual borders with Israel appears to have escaped his notice completely. As Scheinberg seems so keen to compare Israeli and Palestinian sentiments, may I remind him that as Itamar Marcus and Barbara Cook keep demonstrating, the Palestinians celebrate suicide bombers, naming schools and summer camps after them and idolizing them in their mosques. They also call for continued “martyrdom” in their textbooks and official media. That is official Palestinian policy. I challenge Scheinberg to find anything similar in Israel.
Stephen Tannenbaum
Thornhill, Ont.

Tarek Fatah Hits the Nail on the Head

Radical Islam is one of the most serious obstacles to peace in the world today. So many so called scholars cower to call a spade a spade. It is so shocking to see the Anti-Semitic attempts of so many scholars to deconstruct Israel's heritage for example. It disgusts me.

At least Tarek Fatah has the moral courage to state the case so plainly. As a Jew, I am respectful of various other societies: I wish them the best of luck and happiness. But when it comes to the bullshit spewed by so many Imams and radicals in Saudi Arabia, Toronto, London, wherever, about Allah and Muslims' duties to convert or kill non-believers: that bile has to be challenged at every instance.

That is why, as a York graduate student, I stood up to many graduate students who defended the right of an Anti-Israel organization show a biased video on Israel as part of a series of "York Community Events". Maybe these students have changed their ways. They are likely wonderful people in other respects, but when it came to my objection to "community" excluding Jews, that is, normal self-respecting Jews, not self-hating Jews, they were being anti-Semitic. Don't get me wrong, York University has many things going for it, but the toleration of Anti-Semitic sloganeering is not one of them. And here I am focusing on this particular issue.

Please read Tarek Fatah's article.

Tarek Fatah: Cleric urges Muslims to steer clear of non-Muslims

Posted: November 03, 2009, 1:33 PM by NP Editor

Full Comment, Tarek Fatah

Muhammad Salih Al-Munajjid is a well-known Saudi cleric who has a large following in Canada and the West. Many young Muslim men and women, born in the West, get their direction about Islam and life in the West, not from their parents, but from so-called scholars like Al-Munajjid, who operate on the Internet.

"Sheikh" Al-Munajjid operates an Internet Islamic portal called "Islam Q&A" out of Saudi Arabia. It caters to Muslim youth not just in English, but Mandarin, Cantonese, Turkish, Urdu, French, Spanish, Russian, Uyghur and of course Arabic.

For some time now I have been following the questions posed by Muslim youth and the fatwas issued by the "sheikhs" based in Saudi Arabia. It is fascinating to see how medieval-minded scholars serving a dictatorial theocracy named after an 18th century brigand are shaping the mindset of a segment of Canadian youth. And while this brainwashing takes place, the rest of us prize our slumber more than our liberties and values as a liberal secular democracy.

On November 3, 2009, a question asked by an anonymous writer caught my attention. Someone asked the Saudi sheikh: "Can a Muslim be a sincere friend to a kaafir? Is it permissible for a Muslim to be a sincere friend to a person who is not Muslim?"

The answer took my breath away. Sheikh Al-Munajjid replied in no uncertain words or ambiguity. He wrote:

"Praise be to Allaah. It is not permissible for a Muslim to make friends with a mushrik or to take him as a close friend, because Islam calls on us to forsake the kaafirs and to disavow them, because they worship someone other than Allaah."

Then, the Saudi cleric quoted from the Koran:

“O you who believe! Take not as friends the people who incurred the Wrath of Allaah (i.e. the Jews). Surely, they have despaired of (receiving any good in) the Hereafter, just as the disbelievers have despaired of those (buried) in graves (that they will not be resurrected on the Day of Resurrection)”

I picked up my copy of the Koran to read the same verse. Lo and behold, there was no reference to Jews, yet the Saudi cleric had found it within his jurisdiction to add words to the Koran as way to slam Jews.

As if the invoking of the Koran to discourage Canadian Muslims from befriending Jews was not sufficient, the Saudi cleric then invoked the supposed words of Prophet Muhammad. “Do not keep company with anyone but a believer and do not let anyone eat your food but one who is pious.”

Then came the bombshell. Quoting again from the supposed words of the Prophet, the Saudi cleric urged Muslim youths to avoid living among non-Muslims, unless the objective was to convert them to Islam.

“Do not live among the mushrikeen and do not mix with them, for whoever lives among them or mixes with them is not one of us. But it is permissible to deal with them in a kind manner in the hope that they might become Muslim."

The Saudi cleric ended with a story:
"There was a Jewish boy who used to serve the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him), and he fell sick. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) came to visit him. He sat by his head and said, “Become Muslim.” (The boy) looked at his father who was with him, and he (the father) said, “Obey Abu’l-Qaasim (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him).” So he became Muslim, and the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) went out, saying, “Praise be to Allaah Who has saved him from the Fire” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 1290)."

Today, well-funded Islamist groups are working tirelessly to convince young Muslim men and women to view their non-Muslim fellow citizens with suspicion and derision. While Islamists are asking Muslims to refrain from befriending non-Muslims, there is no effort at any level in the West to counter the hateful message of isolation, segregation, and hostility towards Canada and the West.

Who will rise to challenge this cancer of segregation seeping into the conscience of Muslim youth? The same clerics who sit at inter-faith and multiculturalism conferences and breakfasts with politicians are the very people who endorse the anti-Jew and anti-Christian message coming from their Saudi masters.

Time has come to call a spade a spade. The question is, are there any Canadians willing to fight this hate at the risk of being accused of Islamophobia?

National Post

New Issue of JJS Out

The Journal of Jewish Studies has just released a new issue (60.2).

I am interested in Martin's Goodman's article:
Religious Variety and the Temple in the Late Second Temple Period and its Aftermath

as well as Joan Taylor's article:

‘Roots, Remedies and Properties of Stones’: The Essenes, Qumran and Dead Sea Pharmacology
and finally, Naftali Cohn's: Rabbis as Jurists: On the Representation of Past and Present Legal Institutions in the Mishnah

Biblical Studies Carnival XLVII is here!

The 47th Biblical Studies Carnival is up at the Paul of Tarsus blog. Once again, there is so much to look at and study. Topics are arranged nicely according to field/sub-field. My hat is off to Kevin Scull!

JRS 99.1 Online (2009)

The latest edition of the Journal of Roman Studies is out. It is about time too. There seem to be some interesting articles and reviews on offer here. An institutional or personal subscription is required.

Conference on Phoenician Studies

Thank you to Jim Davila for making mention of this upcoming conference:

TUNISIA ONLINE NEWS:

The 7th international congress will be held in Hammamet, Tunisia form November 10 to 14, 2009 under the motto “life, religion and death in the Phoenician and Punic world”.
The congress in organized jointly by the National Heritage Institute (INP) and the National Agency for Revival of Heritage and Cultural Development as well as the Research Unity: Punic Carthage and culture dissemination.

250 researchers and historians including epigraphists and archeologist from different Arab and foreign countries will take part in this event.The program involves architectural constructions, the funeral Neo-Punic lexicon and deities and the Phoenician sanctuaries.

JBL 128.3 is Out

For those of you interested, the latest issue of the Journal of Biblical Literature is now online. An institutional or personal subscription is required. Thank you to the folks at SBL for alerting me to this. I am always eager to see what is on the docket in Biblical Studies. There are some interesting pieces in this issue. My eyes have turned already to Adela Yarbro Collins' article on the Death of Jesus as told in the Gospel of Mark.