Well we all know that these fraud “ex-terrorists” are continuing to make the big bucks from the Islamophobic cash cow but this world must be crazy when I start citing JPost for exposing Islamophobes.

The Palestinian “terrorist” turned Zionist 

by Jorg Luyken

When he was 16, says Walid Shoebat, he was recruited by a PLO operative by the name of Mahmoud al-Mughrabi to carry out an attack on a branch of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem.

This is the story that Shoebat, who converted from Islam to Christianity in 1993 and has lived in the United States since the late 1970s, has told on tours around the US and Europe since 9/11 opened the West’s public consciousness to the dangers of Islamic extremism.

Shoebat’s Web site says his is an assumed name, used to protect him from reprisal attacks by his former terror chiefs, whom he says have put a $10 million price on his head.

Shoebat is sometimes paid for his appearances, and he also solicits donations to a Walid Shoebat Foundation to help fund this work and to “fight for the Jewish people.”

The BBC, Fox News and CNN have all presented Shoebat as a terrorist turned peacemaker, interviewing him as someone uniquely capable of providing insight into the terrorist mindset.

Now he and two other former extremists are set to appear along with US Senator Joe Lieberman, Ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor and other notables at an annual “Christians United For Israel” conference in Washington in July.

The three “ex-terrorists” have appeared previously at Harvard and Columbia universities and, most recently, at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado, in February, at a conference whose findings, the organizers said, would be circulated at the Pentagon and among members of Congress and other influential figures.

Last year, Shoebat spoke to the BattleCry Christian gathering in San Francisco, which drew a reported 22,000 evangelical teenagers to what the San Francisco Chronicle described as “a mix of pep rally, rock concert and church service.”

The paper described Shoebat as a self-proclaimed “former Islamic terrorist” who said that Islam was a “satanic cult” and who told the crowd how he eventually accepted Jesus into his heart.

However, Shoebat’s claim to have bombed Bank Leumi in Bethlehem is rejected by members of his family who still live in the area, and Bank Leumi says it has no record of such an attack ever taking place.

His relatives, members of the Shoebat family, are mystified by the notion of “Walid Shoebat” being an assumed name. And the Walid Shoebat Foundation’s working process is less than transparent, with Shoebat’s claim that it is registered as a charity in the state of Pennsylvania being denied by the Pennsylvania State Attorney’s Office.

Shoebat’s claim to have been a terrorist rests on his account of the purported bombing of Bank Leumi. But after checking its files, the bank said it had no record of an attack on its Bethlehem branch anywhere in the relevant 1977-79 period.

Shoebat told The Jerusalem Post that this could be because the bank building was robustly protected with steel and that the attack may have caused little damage.

Asked whether word of the bombing made the news at the time, he said, “I don’t know. I didn’t read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days.” (In 2004, he had told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph: “I was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb.”)

Shoebat could not immediately recall the year, or even the time of year, of the purported bombing when talking to the Post by phone from the US. After wavering, he finally settled for the summer of 1977.

The Sunday Telegraph described Shoebat as a man who “for much of his life… was eager to commit acts of terrorism for the sake of his soul and the Palestinian cause.”

In that interview he described how he and his peers were indoctrinated as children “to believe that the fires of hell were an ever-present reality. We were all terrified of burning in hell when we died… The teachers told us that the only way we could certainly avoid that fate was to die in a martyrdom operation - to die for Islam.”

But an uncle and a cousin of Shoebat, who still live in Beit Sahur in the Bethlehem area, where Shoebat grew up, said that Shoebat’s education was rather mild ideologically, and that religion did not play a dominant role.

The uncle, interviewed at his home, said he remembered little about his nephew, because Walid left for America at the age of 16, and because his American mother always kept a distance from the rest of the family. The uncle and his wife both said firmly that there was no attack on Bank Leumi.

When questioned on this discrepancy, Shoebat was adamant that he did carry out such a bombing, and that his relatives deny it to cover up for another cousin who was with him during the attack and still lives in Bethlehem.

Shoebat evinced no particular surprise that his family could be tracked down simply by asking Beit Sahur locals where they lived, even though his Internet site claims that his is an assumed name.

Shoebat describes his conversion to Christianity as a transformation “from hate to love.” He told the Post that he believes “in a Greater Israel that includes Judea and Samaria, and by this I mean a Jewish state.”

He argued that Israel should retake the Gaza Strip and rehouse Jews there, regarding Gaza as Jewish by right. “If a Jew has no right to Gaza, then he has no right to Jaffa or Haifa either,” he said.

He advocates that the government of Greater Israel introduce a law providing for the exiling of anybody who denies its right to exist, “even if they were born there.”

He has little sympathy for the PLO or Hamas. “The Palestinians have not met a single demand from Israel,” he said, and added, “Both the PLO and Hamas have not given up the goal of destroying Israel.”

“The Jews are not aware of the true threat,” Shoebat said. “They are still fighting dead Nazis. It is easy to fight dead people. But they don’t have the will to fight the living Nazis, the Islamic radicals.”

He told the Post he had set up his Walid Shoebat Foundation to educate Americans as to why the US should support Israel. Shoebat said the foundation had reached out to over 450 million people. He said it held events where he and others like him - whom he called “ex-terrorists” who have become Zionists - spoke about their views to Jewish, Christian and secular audiences.

Walid Shoebat.
Photo: Courtesy

A New York Times report last month on the Air Force Academy event, headlined “Speakers at Academy Said to Make False Claims,” noted that “Academic professors and others who have heard the three men speak in the United States and Canada said some of their stories border on the fantastic, like Mr. Saleem’s account of how, as a child, he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights. No such incidents have been reported, the academic experts said. They also question how three middle-aged men who claim they were recruited as teenagers or younger could have been steeped in the violent religious ideology that only became prevalent in the late 1980s.”

The Times quoted Prof. Douglas Howard, who teaches the history of the modern Middle East at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as saying after he heard Saleem speak last November at the college that he thought the three were connected to several major Christian evangelical organizations.

“It was just an old time gospel hour: ‘Jesus can change your life, he changed mine,’” Howard said.

The professor told the Times that his doubts about the authenticity of the three grew after he heard stories like that of the Golan Heights tunnels, “as well as something on Mr. Saleem’s Web site along the lines that he was descended from the grand wazir of Islam. The grand wazir of Islam is a nonsensical term.”

The newspaper said Arab-American civil rights organizations have questioned “why, at a time when the United States government has vigorously moved to jail or at least deport anyone with a known terrorist connection, the three men, if they are telling the truth, are allowed to circulate freely.”

A spokesman for the FBI, the paper reported, said there were no warrants for their arrest.

The Times said the three men were to be paid $13,000 for the Air Force Academy event.

Visitors to Shoebat’s Internet site are encouraged to make a donation to his foundation to enable him to disseminate his message. However, a notice on the page states that for “security reasons,” the money will not be debited to his foundation, but rather to a company called Top Executive Media. The name Top Executive Media is used by a greetings card firm from Pennsylvania called Top Executive Greetings, a company with an annual turnover of $500,000. When one makes a donation through the Shoebat Internet site, the Web address changes to topexecutivegreetings.com/shoebat.

This seems to be the only active page for the company; its homepage is blank.

Asked by the Post whether the Walid Shoebat Foundation is a registered charity, Shoebat replied that it is registered in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania State Attorney’s office said it had no record of a charity registered under this name.

Questioned further, Shoebat said it was registered under a different name, but that he was not aware of the details, which are handled by his manager.

“I remain separate to the running of the charity so that I am not constrained by church rules,” he explained, adding that the organization’s connection to certain churches meant it would be difficult for him to speak to secular audiences if he became too involved in running it.

Dr. Joel Fishman, of the Allegany County Law Library in Pennsylvania, expressed doubts about this donation process. If the money were being given to a registered charity, the charity would have to make annual reports to the state and federal government on how it was being spent, he noted.

Shoebat insisted donations were not being misused, however. “I survive by being an author,” he said. “I only get paid for being an author. All the money that is donated gets put back into events.”

If the Bank Leumi bombing claim is unfounded, it is unclear why Shoebat would have wanted to manufacture a terrorist past. True or not, however, it has plainly brought him some prominence and provided him with a means to speak in favor of Israel and be paid for doing so.

“Chi-Town, South Side, World wide” - Kanye West

All I could think when they were trying to get Barack on his association with Louis Farrakhan was that they are going to go after Rev. Wright next so I thought I would put in my two cents about this whole controversy surrounding Rev. Wright and the Obama campaign.  First of all almost every single YouTube video is like a minute long and there is no helpful context or setting given to what are actually much longer sermons (this website The Truth About Trinity United does provide truth and context). 

Nothing that the Reverend said was outrageous!  “Chickens coming home to roost” echoes the saying of one of my greatest heroes Malcolm X, and is a refernece to “blowback,” something acknowledged by the CIA, 9/11 Commission and which at least one candidate for president (Ron Paul) spoke about in debates.  The “God damn America” comment was in reference to the way America has in the past set itself up as in effect an “idol” and a rival “god” which doesnt jive with the Biblical message that God is One and He does not change.  It is also a shot at the silly slogan that people parrot of “God Bless America” even when it is dropping bombs and murdering and pillaging other nations and peoples.  Do you actually want God to bless something like that?  It’s a call to be more self critical, reflective and liberate yourself from the pantheon of American state sanctioned historical religion.

I have to say that even though as a Muslim I have disagreements with the Reverend on theological grounds I am in total agreement with him as far as social and political issues go, and I WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO THE “HIGH TECH LYNCHING” that is taking place upon his character. ”and nearest among them in love to the believers wilt thou find those who say, “We are Christians”: because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have renounced the world, and they are not arrogant. “(Holy Quran 5:82)

Also a comment on what I have seen in some of these interviews in which he has been slandered as a racist as well as his Church being labeled racist because of its charter which says “we are for black values, black leaders, black…etc.” Commentators and real racists such as Sean Hannity of FoxNews say if we replaced “black” with “white” it would be called racism, but the fact of the matter is that the two are not equivalent in the least. 

Black history as an oppressed and marginalized minority is a sharp contrast to the dominant power structure which historically has been run by Whites.  This nation has a history of White racist Churches (KKK) and White Christians who sanctioned slavery; there is NO such equivalent movement amongst Black Christianity.  One group is trying to maintain the status quo (Whites) while another (Blacks) are fighting for survival and dignity that is why it is important to have “black values” support “black leaders”, etc. in the face of pograms seeking your extinction.  Furthermore Whites do not have a coherent identity or idea of unity as one people, where as blacks do because of their collective history in this nation.

Peace from a Northsider to all those that are part of Trinity United and much respect to Reverend Wright!

 “There is No God, except God, and Muhammad is God’s Messenger,” this is our simple testimony throughout every place and time which hopefully we carry deep within our hearts throughout our lives.  Sometimes through the maze of life from amongst its shadows a light appears who calls us towards and reminds us of this simple message and to whom the hearts incline because it is clear that this person embodys ikhlas (sincerity) combined with knowledge.  Sheikh Abdul Hamid Kishk was one such man.  Ask anyone in the streets of Old Cairo, or on the minibus on the street about him and they will tell you about his steadfastness in the face of tyranny, his unrelenting call towards truth and justice, his humility and his great humor.  A man who could bring tears to your face in one minute and laughter in the next.  Anyone who listens to his inspirational lectures cannot help but be shaken.  One story I just want to relate about him is that the Egyptian authorites imprisoned him one time and they put vicious dogs with him in his cell to torture him as was their method but it was reported that the dogs just sat next to him doing nothing and when the prison guards showed their dismay and shock at this he told them, “Dogs only eat Dogs.” Allahu Akbar! 

In this regard I present a very inadequate translation of one of his powerful lectures concerning the end of the world.  His oratory and story telling skills are at their finest and the English really doesn’t do justice to the Arabic.  We are confronted with the vivid scenes of the Last Hour, the reality of death and God Almighty calling out the oppressive and unjust leaders who in their haughtiness really believed in the illusion of this World and in effect denied the coming of the Next. 

Comment: The video for his lecture is of an asteroid hitting the earth which though somewhat out of place, I also thought was on point with his topic as far as the destruction of the world goes.  Also the music is quite fitting with the voice of the Sheikh though it isn’t even needed as the voice of the sheikh is dramatic enough.

Translation:

And when the first blast of the trumpet approaches, Allah the Most High will send a wind from Yemen through out the Earth that will not find a servant that possesses even an atom’s weight of Iman (faith) in his heart except that it will seize his soul because The Hour will not be established except on the most evil of creation. Then Allah will command Angel Israfeel with the first blast of the trumpet and after it everyone in the heavens and the earth will be sa3eqa except whom Allah wills, and the Earth will stay in this desolate state for 40 years, on its surface there will be no sign of life, there will be no one on its surface who will have life…Inna Allah(Verily Allah)…Everything will be below the furat…No Europe, and No America, and No Germany, and No England, and no France… “And they ask you concerning the mountains, and Say My Lord will uproot them, and scatter them as dust” (20:105), “Nothing crooked or curved wilt thou see in their place” (20:107), and “On the day that Earth will be changed to another Earth, and also the Heavens” (14:4 Allah the Most High will say “O, Angel of Death who is left from amongst the creation”…Humans have perished, and Jinns have perished, and the Angels have perished…and (remember) when the angels asked Allah concerning His statement “Every soul shall taste death,” (21:35) the angels said we are not Nufoos, but we are verily pure Arwaah (Spirits)…and when the verse of Allah swt was revealed “Everything upon it will be annihilated” (55:26) the angels said we are not upon the earth but verily we reside in the heavens…and when the verse was revealed “Everything will be haalik (i.e.utterly destroyed/perished) except His Face, for Him is the Judgment and to Him shall you all return” (28:8 the Angels fell in prostration to Allah and said, “Glory be to Him who exists Alone, eternally”…Perished are the angels, and the humans, and the jinns, and the birds and everything that is on the earth and above the heavens…except the Angel of death…who is questioned by Allah, “O’ Angel of death who remains from amongst the creation”…he says, “My Lord, no one is left except Jibreel, Mikael, Israfeel, and this servant of yours in front of you now between your Hands…and Allah says “Seize the spirit of Jibreel, O’ Angel of death”, and so he seizes Jibreel’s spirit, “Who is left from the creation, O Angel of death” “Mikael, Israfeel, and this servant of yours between your hands” “Seize the spirit of Mikael”and he seizes it, then he says “Seize the spirit of Israfeel, O’ angel of death,” and he seizes it…and then The most Powerful, Most Magnificent asks him “Who is left from amongst the creation O’ Angel of death” and he says “No one is left except this servant of yours between your Hands” and then He says to the Angel of Death, “Die! O’ Angel of death!”… “die, O’ Angel of death”…and so the Angel of Death dies…and when he feels the sakra (stupor) of death he will say “O’ by your Honor and your Magnificence, If I knew that the stupor of death was verily such a torment as this I would have sought from you to pardon me from seizeing the souls of your slaves,” …and he dies…and he dies…and the Angel of death dies…and Allah looks towards the earth and it will be khawiyatun ‘ala ‘urushiha (in utter ruin)… “When the sun is folded up”… “When the stars fall, loosing their luster” “When the mountains vanish (like a mirage)” “When the she-camels are left unattended” and “When the Oceans are set on fire” and “When the souls are reunited” and “When the sky is torn away” and “When the garden is brought near” and “When the Blazing fire is kindled” …and then the Everlasting looks at the World, and it is khaaliya (completely empty) and He says “O’ World, where are your rivers, and where are your trees, where are the Kings, where are the sons of the Kings, where are the mighty, where are the sons of the mighty, where are those who lived in plenty and goodness and cultivated and gathered only besides that… “For whom is the Dominion this day!” (40:16) … “For whom is the dominion this day!”… “Where are the Kings!” … “Where are the sons of the Kings!” … “Where are those who lived in the White House” … “Where are the governors of the Kremlin” … and they lived in homes in which they oppressed themselves and we have made clear to you how we will deal with them”… “and we have set forth similitude’s for you”… and “verily they planned their plots and with Allah were all their vain plots even though their plots were such as to shake the mountains” (14:46)

Dr.M posted this great video of Norman Finkelstein tearing apart a Lebanese broadcaster from Future TV.  Note: The translation is from the notoriously biased and deceptive MEMRI (a extreme Zionist Media organization), but Finkelstein still shines through tearing the Zionists a new one.  It would be interesting to see the whole “unedited” and “uncut” version of the interview.

SMEAR CAMPAIGN SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT SOCIETY
Missed point on faith
By Ahmed Rehab

OK, we get the point. Barack Obama is not a Muslim. He has made that clear, time and again.

As well he should: The rumors are baseless, maliciously spun by political adversaries with the intention of taking votes away from Obama’s promising presidential campaign run.

Obama is entitled to set the record straight. But that’s not the end of the story.

The broader issue is: What does this attempt to smear Obama say about our society?

More personally, what does it say about my newborn nephew’s standing in society? Is he entitled to the dreams of his Muslim father that the boy could grow up to be president if he works as hard as Obama and is as ambitious?

Obama has not gone far enough to challenge the notion that religious affiliation could disqualify Americans from serving their nation. Nor has Mitt Romney, a Mormon, Mike Huckabee, a Baptist, or any other candidate.

It’s time for all of them to be quizzed on the meaning of citizenship as preached and practiced in this great democracy. As a voter, I would much rather know their stance on equal employment policies than which church they attend.

Whenever I address young Muslim audiences that may be struggling with identity issues, I remind them that this is their country, too. I tell them they should observe their civic duties, vote and, if it behooves them, run for public office and help bring about the positive reform they often passively expect of others.

It goes against all that I advocate that the mere rumor of a person being a Muslim — let alone actually being one — could be a tool to destroy political aspirations. This in a nation that prides itself on being the heart of the free world.

When it comes to Muslims, the divisive rhetoric coming out of this year’s elections ranges from the exclusionary to the just plain bigoted.

John McCain has said he would prefer a Christian president and that the Constitution established America as a “Christian nation.” Before dropping out of the presidential race, Romney conceded that he would not appoint an American Muslim to a Cabinet position because Muslims are a low percentage of the population.

One of Huckabee’s campaign advisers, Jim Pinkerton, recently advocated putting a “cop in front of every mosque” in America “just for safekeeping.”

John Deady, co-chairman of the New Hampshire Veterans for Rudy Giuliani, told the British newspaper The Guardian in late December: “We need to chase [Muslims] back to their caves or, in other words, get rid of them.” Deady resigned during the subsequent controversy over his remarks.

In addressing the Muslim question that seems to haunt him, Obama has yet to convert it into an opportunity to boldly address a deeper question: Do American Muslims enjoy the same constitutional rights as their fellow Americans?

If elected president, how would he deal with one of the most important civil rights questions of his generation? Would he turn a blind eye to the current climate of exclusionary fear-mongering, or would he take a stance against religious prejudice and bigotry?

Let’s face it, those who hatched the Muslim Obama rumors would not have bothered had it not been for a political and cultural environment in which demonizing and marginalizing Muslims generally goes by uncontested.

I was recently asked on Fox News Radio which candidate impressed me most. “Obama,” I answered.

Was this, I was asked, because of his “youthful Muslim experience”?

I explained it was my understanding that Obama is a Christian and that was just fine with me. I said most Muslims appreciate Christian values, given that they are not much different from our own, and that Obama’s knowledge of Islam should count as added experience and not as a statement about his identity.

I am not drawn to Obama for any other reason but his political outlook, one that brings me hope that we can move beyond divisiveness and polarization and toward a new unity for the common good.

So it is not that I am offended as a Muslim that Obama would not want to be one; I couldn’t care less. I am casting a vote for the next president of the United States, not the next imam of my mosque.

It’s just that I was audaciously hopeful that Obama would be the candidate to finally break the silence on the political marginalization of American Muslims.

He could start by saying something like: “There is not a Christian America, or a Jewish America, or a Muslim America. There is the United States of America.”

arehab@cair.com

Ahmed Rehab is the executive director of the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Ethnic Ashkenazim Against Zionism is one of the best blogs out there dealing with extreme Zionists both in Israel and the United States.  It is meticulous in documenting Islamophobia from the main body of Islamophobes and also exposing their ideology. It exposes the sordid web and connection between Zionism and Islamophobia.

 RJC and CUFI Incite Islamophobia

Book written by Jewish Executive Director of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), endorsed by former Israeli Ambassador, distributed with Obsession DVD, mailed under CUFI postal permit at behest of Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC)

Before reading the following story from JewsOnFirst, please note that CUFI is a Jewish funded and managed crypto-Zionist organization.

It is very similar to those think tanks that like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies hide a purely Zionist agenda under a veneer of patriotism and the goal of identifying threats to America. According to the Foundation’s biographies webpage, Sen. Joseph Lieberman and R. James Woolsey are among the organization’s Distinguished Advisors while its Board of Advisors includes Frank Gaffney, Charles Jacobs, Charles Krauthammer, and Bill Kristol.

CUFI is more creative than most crypto-Zionist groups because it camouflages itself as an Evangelical Christian organization with Hagee as titular Christian leader.

A genuine Evangelical Christian organization simply would not distribute the sort of murderous hate-filled incitement, with which the Jewish Zionist director Pierre Rehov fills his film entitled Obsession, Radical Islam’s War against the West, for this activity is simply incompatible with Jesus’ command to his disciples in Mark 16:15,
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.
Republican Jewish Coalition responsible for mailing anti-Muslim film
Mailing done in cooperation with Christian Zionist organization
By JewsOnFirst.org, February 15, 2007

The Republican Jewish Coalition is responsible for a mailing received by Reform rabbis and other Jews that included a DVD of the controversial anti-Muslim film Obsession, JewsOnFirst.org has learned. At least part of the mailing was sent under the postal permit of Christians United for Israel, a leading Christian Zionist organization.

The DVD was packaged inside a book by David Brog (see scan below, at right), CUFI’s executive director. The package also contained a letter by a former Israeli ambassador to Washington, endorsing Brog’s book and calling on Jews to accept an alliance with Christian Zionists.

CUFI’s media representative told JewsOnFirst.org that the package was “mailed out” by the Republican Jewish Coalition. The representative, Juda S. Engelmayer, was unable to specify a particular mailing list the coalition used, but said he believed the recipients came from “a combination of various lists.”

Informal surveys by JewsOnFirst and others determined that the mailing was received by many rabbis, and also many members of the Jewish community.

A staffer at the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the organized rabbinate of Reform Judaism, said that the organization had neither made its list available for the mailing nor sent the package through its mailing house.

Book cover altered
The Republican Jewish Coalition’s media officer asked that a request to confirm the group’s role in the mailing be emailed. She has not responded to the email or subsequent phone messages.

Engelmayer of CUFI told JewsOnFirst that he did not know what motivated the Republican Jewish Coalition’s involvement, but that the mailing was intended to reach “the broadest spectrum of Jewish community members.”

It is likely however, that Obsession was added to the book specifically for the mailing.

The cover of Brog’s book, Standing with Israel, that arrived in the mailing is different than the cover currently advertised on his website. The cover in the packages received this week indicates that the DVD of Obsession is inside (see scan above). The original cover, copied this morning from Brog’s website and shown here below the book cover from the mailing, has no reference to Obsession.

A knowledgeable source who asked not to be identified said that the Republican Jewish Coalition dictated the contents of the mailing as a condition of getting CUFI’s message to the Jewish audience that CUFI wished to reach.

The Republican Jewish Coalition is a national organization, headquartered in Washington, DC, with revenue of $4 million in 2005. It calls itself “the pre-eminent Republican organization in the Jewish community.”

On February 14th, the group’s website had a news release slamming Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama’s plan to try to bridge the widening gap between Muslim and Western nations.”

Rabbi Joan Friedman a professor of Religion and Jewish Studies at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, said it would be a mistake for Jews to involve themselves in the enduring contention between Islam and Christianity. “There is a long history between Christianity and Islam but if the Christians want to get on an anti-Islamic hobby horse, I think it is a mistake to buy into that,” said Friedman, who received the mailing this week. (You can listen to our recorded conversation with Friedman here.)

CUFI displaying link to Obsession trailer
Responding to a question about the thinking that went into sending the anti-Muslim film Obsession to Reform rabbis, who are often engaged in interfaith work, Engelmayer, CUFI’s representative, said that CUFI also engages in interfaith work. Engelmayer added that CUFI has nothing to do with the film.

In response, JewsOnFirst noted that CUFI’s contact with Muslims is limited to harsh critics of Islam like Walid Shoebat — and that CUFI’s website displays a link to the Obsession trailer, using the photo below.

Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs, founder of the Progressive Faith Foundation, who has been active in efforts at Jewish-Muslim bridge-building, said in an interview with JewsOnFirst.org that Obsession “offers an inflammatory portrayal of Islam and stigmatizes all Muslims as potential terrorists.” Jacobs expressed concern that the film is “going to blow up the bridge that many of us have worked hard to establish.” (You can listen to our recorded conversation with Jacobs here.)

The film has sparked controversey around the country; critics have challenged its thinly disclaimed portrayal of Muslims as violent and hostile. Campus screenings have sometimes been canceled, in one instance because of fears that the film would provoke anti-Muslim hate crimes.

Florida Attorney General screened film for staff
Recently Florida’s Attorney General Bill McCollum prompted an outcry from Muslim and civil liberties groups when he screened Obsession three times for his staff during business hours, in government buildings. Earlier this week Muslim leaders, civil rights leaders, and Rabbi Jacobs met with McCollum about the screenings.

Jacobs told JewsOnFirst that, while McCollum did not require his staff of 400 to see the film, “it was quite intimidating” for staffers to refuse to see the film and the few Muslims on his staff were “quietly threatened.” As a result of the meeting, McCollum agreed to establish a Muslim advisory panel and to educate his staff about Islam.

However, Jacobs noted, with the widespread mailing of Obsession into the Jewish community “many more will see the film” and “we’ve got an enormous responsibility to tell truths and not set a people up the way we were set up. In my opinion the Muslims are the new Jews of America in terms of being scape-goated and being hated. And we know that as well as anybody and we need to challenge this film.”

Israeli ambassador urges U.S. Jews to embrace Christian Zionists
In the cover letter included in the mailing, former ambassador Daniel Ayalon praised CUFI’s David Brog for his work with Christians and urged Jews to overcome their antipathy to Christian Zionists. “For the first time in Israel’s history, we are seeing the emergence of a significant pro-Israel movement outside of the Jewish community,” wrote Ayalon, who was ambassador to the U.S. between 2002 and 2006.

As does Ayalon in his letter, Brog (who is Jewish) argues in Standing with Israel that Jews should appreciate — not shun — Christian Zionist support for Israel.

Many Jews reject allying with Christian Zionists because of their fundamentalist domestic positions. CUFI’s executive board and its directors include some of the biggest names on the religious right — Gary Bauer, Jonathan Falwell and Rod Parsley, to name a few.

In the two-plus years that CUFI has been in existence, local Jewish federations have pressured rabbis to participate in CUFI’s “Nights to Honor Israel.” These programs usually feature televangelist John Hagee, CUFI’s founder and chairman, who typically presents a big donation to the local federation and sometimes to an Israeli settlement project as well.

Christian Zionism not an easy sell
Some Jews reject the Christian Zionists’ credo that Israel will be the scene of the “Battle of Armageddon” that presages the return of Jesus.

Rabbi Bill Leffler, vice president of MoneyWatch Financial Advisors, said he found Brog’s book “a sorry commentary on why we should appreciate the religious right’s support of Israel which has to do with the rapture and not the intrinsic worth of Israel. Politics can make for strange bedfellows!”

Recently CUFI has been trying to downplay Hagee’s promotion of endtimes prophecy. CUFI’s represenatitve Engelmayer emphasized that Hagee has said “countless times” that he does not believe Jesus’ return is imminent. But Hagee has been promoting a U.S. attack on Iran in an end-times context.

Additionally, CUFI has gone out of its way to oppose Israeli-Palestinian negotiations that might lead to Israeli concessions. That causes some who believe it is in Israel’s interest to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians, to question the value of CUFI’s support for Israel.

“If they want to contribute money to build hospitals, it is hard to argue with that, said Prof. Joan Friedman. But, she continued, “their contributions are not so innocent. They support groups that are inimical to the peace process.”

——————————————————————————–

Conversation with Rabbi Joan Friedman
Interview by Haim Dov Beliak, JewsOnFirst.org, February 14, 2008

Rabbi Joan Friedman is a professor of history and religious studies at a College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio. This interview focuses on the motives of Christian Zionists. Professor Friedman points to the long history of the demonization of Islam. She notes a bitter irony that fundamentalist Christian often mirror the hate of the most extreme Islamist elements. Click here.

Conversation with Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs
Interview by Haim Dov Beliak, JewsOnFirst.org, February 14, 2008

Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs is a long time social justice activist. Now in retirement, Jacobs focuses on building bridges between Jews and Muslims. In this interview he discusses attending a meeting with the Florida Attorney General, who screened Obession for his staff. Jacobs says that Jews should know how it feels to be scapegoated — the way Muslim are now. Click here.

Film’s View of Islam Stirs Anger on Campuses
By Karen W. Arenson, New York Times, February 26, 2007

When “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” a documentary that shows Muslims urging attacks on the United States and Europe, was screened recently at the University of California, Los Angeles, it drew an audience of more than 300 - and also dozens of protesters.

At Pace University in New York, administrators pressured the Jewish student organization Hillel to cancel a showing in November, arguing it could spur hate crimes against Muslim students. A Jewish group at the State University of New York at Stony Brook also canceled the film last semester. Continue.

University of Florida clash pits freedom, faith
The attorney general threatens action against school officials who sided with Muslim students.
Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler, The St. Petersburg Times, December 13, 2007

It started as a documentary screening at the University of Florida, the kind of discussion-generating event that happens every day on college campuses.

But the students promoting Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West put up dozens of posters declaring, “Radical Islam Wants You Dead.”

And before long, what might have been just another night at the movies turned into a debate about free speech, terrorism, the Muslim faith and censorship.

So loud is the furor now, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum is warning of possible legal action against university administrators who - in a widely circulated letter to students - sided with a Muslim student organization whose members saw the posters as an attack on their faith. Continue.

Florida Attorney General screens Obsession for staff

McCollum, Muslims to discuss film
The attorney general played the disputed movie for his staff.
By Meg Laughlin, St. Petersburg Times, February 12, 2008

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and Muslim leaders will meet today to address concerns that McCollum showed the controversial film Obsession to his staff during work hours in state buildings.

Through an assistant, McCollum sent an e-mail to his 500 employees in January, urging them to attend one of three screenings of the film in order to understand “the terrorist threat to Florida and the West by radical Islam.” Employees taped up posters of the crescent moon and star of Islam imposed over the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

Muslim leaders from the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles and the Council of American Islamic Relations describe the film as an “anti-Muslim propaganda film.” Continue.

FL Attorney General Agrees to Muslim Advisory Group
News release, Muslim Public Affairs Council, February 12, 2008

In a meeting today with state and national Islamic leaders in Tallahassee, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum agreed to establish a Muslim community advisory group.

Today’s meeting came following a controversy in which McCollum’s office reportedly directed staff throughout the state to view the controversial anti-Islam film “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West.” The film includes interviews with infamous Islamophobes like Nonie Darwish, Walid Shoebat, Daniel Pipes, and Steven Emerson.

During the meeting with representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), the ACLU of Florida, and the Florida Muslim Bar Association, McCollum also agreed to offer educational programs on Islam and Muslims to his staff and to help build better relations between the Muslim community and law enforcement agencies. Continue.

Gripes on film pay off a little
But Bill McCollum stands by showing what some call propaganda.
Meg Laughlin, The St. Petersburg Times, February 13, 2008

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum refused to “disassociate” from the controversial film Obsession during a meeting Tuesday but said he would create a Muslim advisory group and offer educational programs about peaceful Muslims to his 500 employees.

At the 70-minute meeting in McCollum’s Tallahassee office, Muslim leaders and a rabbi called the film an “anti-Muslim propaganda piece” and expressed concern that McCollum had shown the film to employees in state offices, during work hours.

“He was receptive to our concerns but still said he thought the film had value raising awareness,” said Ahmed Bedier, the Tampa executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Continue.

Florida Attorney General Requires Employees To Watch Anti-Muslim Propaganda
Muslim Public Affairs Council, Press Release, January 24, 2008

Muslim Public Affairs Council today sent a letter to Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, who serves as a campaign adviser to Rudy Giuliani, calling on him to cease subjecting his employees to blatantly anti-Muslim propaganda.

Last week, MPAC learned that McCollum sent an email to his employees requiring them to attend one of three screenings of a controversial video called “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West” in the State Senate Building. In the email, McCollum says the screening is intended to help employees “better understand the threat that we face as a nation and society.”

McCollum is a former member of Congress (1981-2001) who served on the Republican Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare for the US Congress. The Task Force was first in issuing papers on the clash of civilization and promoting an anti-Muslim agenda in the US Congress. Continue.

The Islamophobic Industrial Complex rolls on, but it seems more and more are catching on to their absurdities.

The War Against Tolerance 

By Chris Hedges

Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani are the three stooges of the Christian right. These self-described former Muslim terrorists are regularly trotted out at Christian colleges—a few days ago they were at the Air Force Academy—to spew racist filth about Islam on behalf of groups such as Focus on the Family. It is a clever tactic. Curly, Larry and Mo, who all say they are born-again Christians, engage in hate speech and assure us it comes from personal experience. They tell their audiences that the only way to deal with one-fifth of the world’s population is by converting or eradicating all Muslims. Their cant is broadcast regularly on Fox News, including the Bill O’Reilly and Neil Cavuto shows, as well as on numerous Christian radio and television programs. Shoebat, who has written a book called “Why We Want to Kill You,” promises in his lectures to explain the numerous similarities between radical Muslims and the Nazis, how “Muslim terrorists” invaded America 30 years ago and how “perseverance, recruitment and hate” have fueled attacks by Muslims. 

These men are frauds, but this is not the point. They are part of a dark and frightening war by the Christian right against tolerance that, in the moment of another catastrophic terrorist attack on American soil, would make it acceptable to target and persecute all Muslims, including the some 6 million Muslims who live in the United States. These men stoke these irrational fears. They defend the perpetual war unleashed by the Bush administration and championed by Sen. John McCain. McCain frequently reminds listeners that “the greatest danger facing the world is Islamic terrorism,” as does Mike Huckabee, who says that “Islamofascism” is “the greatest threat this country [has] ever faced.” George W. Bush has, in the same vein, assured Americans that terrorists hate us for our freedoms, not, of course, for anything we have done. Bush described the “war on terror” as a war against totalitarian Islamofascism while the Israeli air force was dropping tens of thousands of pounds of iron fragmentation bombs up and down Lebanon, an air campaign that killed 1,300 Lebanese civilians.

The three men tell lurid tales of being recruited as children into Palestinian terrorist organizations, murdering hundreds of civilians and blowing up a bank in Israel. Saleem says that as a child he infiltrated Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan Heights, although no incident of this type was ever reported in Israel. He claims he is descended from the “grand wazir” of Islam, a title and a position that do not exist in the Arab world. They assure audiences that the Palestinians are interested not in a peaceful two-state solution but rather the destruction of Israel, the murder of all Jews and the death of America. Shoebat claims he first came to the United States as part of an extremist “sleeper cell.”

“These three jokers are as much former Islamic terrorists as ‘Star Trek’s’ Capt. James T. Kirk was a real Starship captain,” said Mikey Weinstein, the head of the watchdog group The Military Religious Freedom Foundation. The group has challenged Christian proselytizing in the military and denounced the visit by the men to the Air Force Academy.

The speakers include in their talks the superior virtues of Christianity. Saleem, for example, says his world “turned upside down when he was seriously injured in an automobile accident.”

“A Christian man tended to Kamal at the accident scene, making sure he got the medical treatment he needed,” his Web site says. “Kamal’s orthopedic surgeon and physical therapist were also Christian men whom over a period of several months ministered the unconditional love of Jesus Christ to him as he recovered. The love and sacrificial giving of these men caused Kamal to cry out to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob acknowledging his need for the Savior. Kamal has since become a man on a new mission, as an ambassador for the one true and living God, the great I Am, Jehovah God of the Bible.”

This creeping Christian chauvinism has infected our political and social discourse. It was behind the rumor that Barack Obama was a Muslim. Obama reassured followers that he was a Christian. It apparently did not occur to him, or his questioners, that the proper answer is that there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim, that persons of great moral probity and courage arise in all cultures and all religions, including Islam. Christians have no exclusive lock on virtue. But this kind of understanding often provokes indignant rage. 

The public denigration of Islam, and by implication all religious belief systems outside Christianity, is part of the triumphalism that has distorted the country since the 9/11 attacks. It makes dialogue with those outside our “Christian” culture impossible. It implicitly condemns all who do not think as we think and believe as we believe as, at best, inferior and usually morally depraved. It blinds us to our own failings. It makes self-reflection and self-criticism a form of treason. It reduces the world to a cartoonish vision of us and them, good and evil. It turns us into children with bombs. 

These three con artists are not the problem. There is enough scum out there to take their place. Rather, they offer a window into a worldview that is destroying the United States. It has corrupted the Republican Party. It has colored the news media. It has entered into the everyday clichés we use to explain ourselves to ourselves. It is ignorant and racist, but it is also deadly. It grossly perverts the Christian religion. It asks us to kill to purify the Earth. It leaves us threatened not only by the terrorists who may come from abroad but the ones who are rising from within our midst.

An arch Islamophobe and Christian fascist, Brigitte Gabriel has been condemned by the UJC (United Jewish Council) for saying Barack Obama is an anti-semite, and Jews should not vote for him. 

Barack Obama is an anti-Semite,” said Gabriel, who founded the nonprofit organization American Congress for Truth following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. “No Jews should support him. Jews should vote for Hillary Clinton.”

Klein said Gabriel frequently speaks to Jewish groups and came with many references. One of the speaker topics listed on her Web site is “the threat of Islam to world peace and national security.”

Rieger said this was the first he had heard of Gabriel. Referring to her comments on Obama, he added, “I wish that people that express those views would simply go away.”

Gabriel has been pandering to Israelis for sympathy and support in her efforts to demonize and undermine Islam and Muslims.  She wants nothing less than the complete destruction of Muslims.  I wonder if it hasnt already will the UJC and other Jewish organizations condemn the following statements that she has made?

The difference between the Arabic world and Israel is a difference in values and character. It’s barbarism versus civilization. It’s dictatorship versus democracy. It’s evil versus goodness. (”A Survivor of Palestinian Tyranny Defends Israel,” 10/15/04, FrontPageMag)

“The difference, my friends, between Israel and the Arab world is the difference between civilization and barbarism. It’s the difference between good and evil [applause]…. this is what we’re witnessing in the Arabic world, They have no SOUL !, they are dead set on killing and destruction. And in the name of something they call “Allah” which is very different from the God we believe….[applause] because our God is the God of love.” - Bridgette Gabriel, CUFI (Christians United for Israel) 2007

 Chicago used to have one of the most vibrant graffiti scenes in the nation and in many ways it still is producing sick writers(graffiti artists) as there seems to be an explosion of Graf in the city but it is not the same and hasn’t been the same for quite some time.

The city spends millions on buffing(destryoing graffiti) and has passed aggressive and over the top legislation and ordinances that make the life of a writer very hard and dangerous. One can not buy spray paint in the city unless he or she is an authorized painter, and to paint on a public wall one is suppossed to not only get permission from the owner of the property but have it authorized by the city and the permit must be obtained by a licensed contractor. Though this is not followed most of the time local officals (such as aldermen) can arbitrarily interfere and or hinder public art projects. Yes a lot of B.S., yet writers still persevere out here in the Chi.

The millions that the City puts into graffiti busters should be put into Education, Health care, Shelters and other issues of more importance in my opinion.  Also what efforts have been made to provide alternate avenues for youngsters to express their talents and energies in graff in a lawful way?  From what I have seen not many aside from a few self-initiated programs that recieve no help or support from the City. 

In the end of course there will always be a dimension to Graff that is out law and urban jungle to its core. Not everyone is interested in piecing or dope styles though every one appreciates it. There will always be an aspect to Graff that is about getting up, getting fame.

The writer knows this and in my opinion this is why grafin’ in Chicago is the realest, because you continue to do it even with knowledge of your works impermanence. It’s not gonna be up there long, but you’re still gonna rock!