Further down the rabbit hole they go:

Islamabad (AsiaNews) – A draft bill adopted in first reading by Pakistan’s National Assembly is now before a standing committee. Tabled by a six-party politico-religious alliance, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal or MMA, the Apostasy Act 2006 which the government sent to the committee would impose the death penalty on Muslim men and life in prison on Muslim women in case they leave Islam. It would also force them to forfeit their property and lose legal custody of children.

As Musharraf’s position grows weaker by the day the Islamists grow bolder still. And there are few sings of any possibility of a reversal on the horizon.

The situation is particularly affecting women who refuse to adhere to the stricter Islamic codes demanded by the medievalists (via 3 Quarks Daily):

Just the other day Tahera Abdullah was driving down the spiffy Margalla Road in Islamabad, the windows rolled down to enjoy the evening breeze. A development worker, her silvery hair could tell anyone she’s 50 plus. Tahera stopped at the traffic signal; an eight-year-old boy accosted her: didn’t she know Islam required her to cover her head? Tahera immediately rolled up the window. “How do you argue with an eight-year-old?” she asks. But the encounter with Pakistan’s religious extremism, at once frightening and puerile, has prompted Tahera to choose sweating inside the car over letting in the breeze. “We women are feeling more threatened today,” she says.

The streets of Islamabad are menacing women, compelling them to be what they are not, what they have never been. Consultant Sara Javeed realised this when she lit a cigarette in her car recently. “I quickly stubbed it. I don’t want strangers asking me why I’m smoking. This is the new me,” she says dolefully. Sara feels the emerging extremism could Talibanise Pakistan. “I don’t want to live in such a state,” she declares.

You can hear the winds of extremism whistle eerily even in Parliament. This week, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Sherry Rehman, as progressive as she’s glamorous, wrote to the speaker of the lower house asking him to stop her monthly stipend as she wasn’t anyway being allowed to speak on vital issues. “I’d never want to wait for anything to happen to me personally before I stood up to speak for women who are today in a far more dangerous situation than even during Zia-ul Haq’s times,” she says.

Sherry should know, she has experienced the destructive passion of the country’s religiosity. Two months ago, she was in a truck leading a PPP procession. An assailant stabbed her in the neck with a sharp object, to express his anger against women in politics. “The person who attacked me hasn’t been apprehended yet,” she said. “We are in a state of anarchy today. It’s a dangerous retreat of the state. There’s simply no check on the vice and virtue vigilantes.”

Comments from other women in the same article:

Sherry Rehman, politician
“Women today have more to fear than even in Zia’s time.”

Sara Javeed, Consultant
“When I drive, I don’t smoke now. I don’t want people accosting me.”

Rehana Hakim, Editor, Newsline
“It’s open season on the women of Pakistan.”

Moneezae Jehangir, TV journalist
“There’s a feeling of discomfort…Pakistani women are vulnerable.”

Rabab, Model
“Earlier, we had lots of shows in Oct-Dec. There’s less work now.”

More on Pakistan’s “virtue vigilantes” in this recent post.

I didn’t even realize mobile phones were Unislamic. I would have just said its a peace-spreading revolutionary device and pointed at the IED in the back.

Extremists harass villagers in Pakistan

KHAR, Pakistan, May 6 (UPI) — About 250 armed Islamist extremists went on a rampage of censorship in the Bajaur area of Pakistan, it was reported Sunday.

Wearing masks and carrying guns, the extremists set up checkpoints and prohibited men without beards from riding in public vehicles, the news agency Dawn reported Sunday.

The armed extremists also removed and destroyed mobile telephones, tape recorders, audio cassettes, CDs and CD players from cars stopped at the checkpoints in Baddi Saya, Kamar Ser, Umari and Tani areas of Mamond tehsil, Dawn reported.

In Inayat Kali, a group of men carrying automatic assault rifles shut down music stores and warned the stores’ owners not to reopen, the report said.

Earlier in the week, five more audacious attacks on the aural imperialists:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, May 4 (Reuters) – Suspected pro-Taliban militants in northwestern Pakistan attacked music shops with explosive devices early on Friday, destroying at least five outlets but causing no casualties, police said.

Thats so backward. Couldn’t they just settle for a “Warning: May contain music. Not suitable for people.” sticker on the front?

Turkmenistan’s new President, Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov, has finally opened his country to Internet access to the outside world. What took them so long? In a word – ‘pizza’:

[The previous President] Niyazov’s government earlier had an unhappy experience with the Internet, when in 1998 London-based NetNames persuaded him to sell top-level “.tm” Internet domain names for a percentage of the profits. NetNames argued that companies would rush to embrace the domain, as “tm” represents “trademark” in the West. After selling more than 4,000 domain names Niyazov pulled the plug on the project, as he was offended by certain registrations, such as “pizza,” which he found uncomfortably close to the Russian word for female genitalia.

That word is pizda, if you’re wondering. When I checked pizda.tm was still up for grabs, so get in there.

Undettered by the possibility of obscene connotations is North Korea’s top guy Kim Jong-Il, who had an Italian chef interrogated until the chef broke the ice by saying he spoke Russian and delivered to North Korea to make pizza for Kim. Word on the NK street is Kim was also at first confused by the p-word, having his foreign guest initially delivered into his harem, before the confused Italian was told to get back in the kitchen where he belongs. “So sorry, Great Leader, I said I’ve got some great PIZZA for you!”

No signs of confusion about the meaning of the word ‘pizza’ from NK’s nukilar-wannabe pals Iran. The Iranians know exactly what it means and where it comes from. That is why it is banned there. The blaphemous infidel word ‘pizza’ that is, not the dish. “Elastic loaves” however remain ever popular. Can someone tell these clowns what Shiite means, while I go and register shiite.tm?

Presumably following a similar logic Pakistani Shiites like to burn Pizza Huts (Elastic Loaf Huts?) because they identify them with the “American administration”. Which leads me assume Pakistani Shiites also identify KFC and gas stations with Pakistani Sunni extremists. Pakistani Sunni mobs on the other hand prefer churches, the Holiday Inn, McDonald’s, trains and Christian schools and convents. Oh, and “blasphemers”, but that goes without saying.

Not to be outdone across the border in India earlier this month mobs destroyed the residence a of poorly performing cricket star:

“An AFP reporter at the site reported that the protesters were shouting “Dhoni die, die”, burning effigies of the long-haired player, who has scored 1,958 runs in 68 one-day international matches and is counted among India’s most aggressive batsmen.”

But back to the pizza.

Under the cover of pizza: In November 2004 Dutch police arrested Morrocan Islamist who was doing reconnaissance for a terrorist operation while delivering pizza. He was described in the the Dutch paper De Telegraaf as a “radical Moroccan pizza courier”. No moderate Moroccan pizza couriers were available for comment, but rumours has it they were quite incessed about the hijacking of their scooters by the radicals.

But back to the mob attacks.

On Sunday the British embassy in Tehran was under siege from a rock and firecraker pelting mob chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Britain”. “Pizza, pizza!” came the defiant reply from inside the high security compound.

Parallels have being drawn with the 1979 seige of the US embassy in Tehran, when the Islamists adorned the building with slogans such as “This is not a struggle between the US and Iran, it is a struggle between Islam and blasphemy” and “The more we die, the stronger we become”, but there is an earlier and bloodier precedent:

When in 1979 a horde of students invaded the American embassy in Tehran and took the entire staff hostage, it was not the first time such a thing had happened in the city. In 1829, a mob had broken into the Russian legation and killed all but one of its diplomats. The unfortunate head of the Russian mission was Alexander Griboyedov, who died in the carnage.

[....]

Griboyedov’s arrival in Tehran coincided with Ashura, a festival which involved great numbers of flagellants parading in the streets to re-enact the deaths of Hassan and Hussein, the sons of the Imam Ali. The atmosphere was highly charged with religious emotion and the crowds were putty in the hands of the mullahs. Griboyedov tactlessly chose to ride a black stallion, the same colour as the stallion ridden in the plays by the murderer Yazid. Doubtless still under Yermolov’s influence, he displayed a signal lack of courtesy to the Shah, and the members of his mission, with their public drunkenness and insulting behaviour, did not endear themselves to the people of Tehran.

The atmosphere became more charged when one Mirza Yaqub sought refuge at the Russian mission. An Armenian Christian, he had been captured during the siege of Erivan, castrated, converted to Islam and eventually promoted to become the Shah’s personal treasurer.

The situation was now extremely delicate, and became more so when the palace claimed that Mirza Yaqub had absconded with a hefty part of the royal treasure. To make matters worse, Griboyedov was persuaded to take in two young Armenian girls, the property of the Shah’s son-in-law. After some days in the Russian mission, the girls began to smell and were taken to the bathhouse. The Persians assumed they were being given a ritual bath prior to a forced marriage to a Russian, and word got out that two Muslim girls were about to be violated. The next morning a huge mob gathered at the mosque. Fired by the mullahs, the mob attacked the Russian mission. All those inside, bar one, were slaughtered and everything movable was looted, including a substantial amount of bullion.

The Persian authorities were powerless to prevent it, and the rioting lasted for four days. Griboyedov’s body was sent on an ox cart back to his wife at Tiflis. Today, in the Kremlin, is displayed an 89-carat diamond, sent by the Shah to the Tsar by way of an apology.

On that occassion when the rabid mob stormed the building the Persian guards fled and soon the fanatical rioters, chanting “Allahu Akbah” were tearing through the roof of the compound and then tearing through its inhabitants, literally tearing them apart. Griboyedov’s body was recovered from the mob three days later and only recognised by a duelling scar on his hand. Another unfortunate victim had his head proudly displayed on a skewer at a nearby kebab stand. Only one person survived the attack. Griboyedov was also an outstanding playwright and his famous work “Woe from Wit” is still studied in Russian schools.

Back to modern times, and only days after the the 1979 attack on the US embassy in Tehran, the British embassy in Islamabad suffered a similar fate:

In November 1979, false rumors that the United States had participated in the seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca provoked a mob attack on the U.S. embassy in Islamabad. The government’s delayed response enabled the mob to burn the embassy. Four people died, two of them U.S. nationals.

Its currently looking like another wave of pizza politics is on the creep in Pakistan.

Below are some extracts from the Sufi teacher Abdullah Dougan’s book, “40 Days: An Account of a Discipline” that give considerable insight on the nature of the Islamic religion today, as well as the culture of its epicentre and birthplace, Arabia. These observations were made in 1974, as Abdullah travelled to Arabia on the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca that is one of the Five Pillars of Islam that every practicing Muslim must complete. Abdullah travelled to Saudi Arabia from Afghanistan with his student Abdul. Before being allowed entry into Arabia the two men had to swear before an Afgani High Court that they were Muslims, following which the judge told them “with a straight face” that now they were Muslims, by Koranic law they could be killed if they decided to return to being Christians. On entry into Saudi Arabia the customs inspector confiscated a book Abdullah had by the Hindu guru Ramdas, because it was “against their religion”. Abdullah observed: “This action on the part of the customs was typical of the bigotry of many Muslims, who observe only the outside part of their religion.”

I am posting this because you’d be hard pressed to find such honest and direct descriptions of a Hajj experience anywhere else, for reason that will soon become apparent, as well as a continuation from my last two posts. The Hajj is also presently a somewhat more orderly experience (or not?), perhaps because the Saudis have been embarassed into action by foreign visitors and governments, so it is important to capture this instructive bit of recent history.

Anyhow, I found reading the stories below to be a fascinating insight.

Abdullah on the meaning of the Hajj:

There are many explanations of the Hajj, by Muslim theologians, most of which follow a very literal line, as is customary in the Muslim world. Anything in the Hadith or Koran is held to be true, no matter how far-fetched to objective reasoning. The Koran, like the bible, has inaccuracies caused by the ego of writers intruding into universal truths.

On his experience at Masjid El Noor ( Mosque of Light), where he and Abdul stayed in Medina:

[..]The people who ran the school where part of the Tablig school, traditionalists trying to keep the clock back in the days of the Holy Prophet, who would slavishly follow many of the injunctions given in the Hadith or traditions of the Prophet.

Muslims maintain there are no monks in Islam, but this type of situation belied the assertion. The borthers lived the life of a monk at MAsjid El Noor, grting up at 4:30am for prayers, doing their ablutions at a cold tap which was the merest trickle and on a few occassions not even that so they would have to store water to use out of one of the spouted pots. Prayers were going on constantly as well as the five communal prayers. In between, someone was always lecturing others. There was a continual stream of visitors from among the pilgrims, for the Tablig school are the missionaries of Islam. They call themselves the Jumat (brothers) and go to other mosques to waylay people and harangue them constantly, trying to influence them back to their religion. They also attempt to convert any infidel they find interested in Islam. They are all most sincere, trying to live life to the Koran, and most are very feaful and superstitious. [..]

The Holy Prophets ideas on cleanliness wre a thousand years ahead of his time, for when the people of Europe were having baths only once a year, if at all, the Prophet had his peolpe bathing once a week. However the Law of Seven [TOD: an esoteric concept governing the atrophy of processes devoid of conscious guidance] has cought up with this, and now the Muslim people must contend for first place among the dirtiest races in the world. At El Noor there was never any hot water for a bath, and most people used no soap; this applied for wuzu, the ceremonial washing of hands and feet before prayers. Often there was no water at all because the town was so overcrowded the system could not cope. There were no flush toilets, but pans let into the floors with an adjacent tap, and even when there was water about half the users would not wash away their stool. To add to the lack of hygiene the cookhouse was adjacent to the toilets.

Most of the people there very pleasant and friendly. Many came to talk to me, some to learn, others to teach me the right way as they saw it through the Koran and Hadith. I formed the opinion that most were [overly] identified with sex and [the] devil, for these usually came up in conversation. As has been said elsewhere, Muslims are obsessed with reward and punishment, and much of their attitude towards sex is very archaic. The penalty for adultery is stoning to death, and in recent years a Christian at Jeddah killed a Muslim he caught in bed with his wife, so the Muslim’s friends and relatives killed the Christian by running him over with a truck. Most who spoke to me had not the slightest idea of sex psychology, still believing women to be the instrument of the devil. One young South African Indian who came each night for a chat summed up his primitive conception of sex when he observed that “women are the trouble”. Much latent homosexual behaviour noticed among Muslim friends stemmed from sexual frustrations. The South African Indian friend told me with a very straight face that the devil was in the toilet and you should always cough before going in left foot first, being careful to wear your hat. Whoever told him about the devil must have been referring to masturbation – it wasn’t clear why he had to keep his hat on.

[..] Having lived for 16 days with these brothers, I had become more aware just how hard it was for anyone to wake up to the inaccuracies of the exoteric teachings of Islam. The branwashing was, and is, constant.

Abdul, whom the brothers earnestly lectured about subjects of utmost importance such as in which hand one should hold a teacup in and where the right foot should be placed in prayer noted that Tabliah Jumat’s “appointed task seemed to be the emphasis of the irrelevant”.

Abdullah on Haram Sharrief, which houses the Prophets tomb:

Muslims do not believe in idols, and wherever they have conquered have destroyed priceless works of art by breaking off the faces; but unfortunately they have made idols of their shrines, with people fighting to touch a sacred place. A great deal of the pushing and shoving at Haram Sharief is attributable to this idolisation. Objectively watching people around the Prophet’s grave, one could only come to the conclusion that they have created an idol here. Nearby are some of the Prophet’s wives’ graves, and the crying and touching of the walls is no different from what goes on in Catholic countries.

In Saudi Arabia the classic Muslims law prescribes the cuitting off of the right hand as the penalty for stealing, but Abdul had his white gown cut at the pocket and the money he was carrying taken. Other people told of similar experiences. During the Hajj season the prices for everything where exhorbitant, as the shopkeepers had no conscience about profiteering.

On the other Haram Sharrief, which contains the Kabah in Mecca:

On the Friday before the Hajj started, we went to the Haram Sharrief with over a million others to do the mid-day prayers, or Jumuh. We saw armed guards tossing people off the main entrance to the mosque to make room for the VIPs who arrived hours later than the waiting pilgrims. I couldn’t get into the mosque proper, but remained in the street with thousands of others. The conditions outside were chaotic. Nearby was a truck with a machinegun mounted on its back direcred towards the main door and I wondered what would happen to the congregation if the gunner had to fire it. These precautions were taken to give protection to King Faisal and his ministers.

Mina, 5 miles from Mecca, first day of the Hajj:

[..] Many people died, and at one time the Egyptians [friends of Abdullah] counted ten dead stacked in an ambulance [TOD: they were staying opposite a hospital] Conditions were archaic, and very little water and only one hundred public toilets for one and a half million people. A great deal of time these toilets were closed through lack of water, and under guard. The streets became a quagmire of extreta and urine, especially behind the parked vehicles.

Day 2, going to Arafat and staying at a mosque called Masjid-I-Namdaram.

[..] All the passageways soon became occupied, causing complete chaos, with real fights all over the place.

As the hour of prayer drew near, peopel appeared to to become quite mad in their endevours to gain a place in which to pray. [Abdul and I] made room for two old Turks by squeezing together, but this didn’t stop two others pushing in, thus making it almost impossible for the Turks to find a place to put their heads in prayer. The hysteria of these people had to be seen to be believed. I observed to Abdul that one could easily see the mis-use of sexual energy in all these irrational actions.The Saudi government had no organisation to cope with the vast horde of people, so there was no crowd control in the mosque at all, unless they wanted to make way for some personage. The whole Saudi nation appeared to be concerned only with making money from the pilgrims, whom they exploited to the fullest limits. Every commodity was at least double the usual price, according to the friends who lived in Medina.

The pelting of stones at idols at Mina:

It was impossible to get near the idols unless you were unconcerned about getting hit by the flying pebbles, and there was such a crush within a hundred feet of the idol that you couldn’t get your hands above your head. Before attacking the situation [our friends] the Egyptians tied Ehram sheets tightly around their money and possessions, because they knew that thieves operated in the vicinity of this idol, taking advantage of the fact that if a person had his hands above his head there was no way of checking on purses. Abdullah made a token job of pelting and returned to the rendezvous. When it was Abdul’s turn he was pushed over by a group of negroes who charged him down, and lost his watch. The behaviour was completely stupid, again with no direction from the authorities, who could easily have controlled the flow of people.

By now Abdul and I were completely disgusted with this type of conduct so decided to leave Mina, although most people stay there for three days to throw the pebbles and also sacrifice an animal, which both found repugnant for several reasons. They clipped their hair.

After Arafat, back at the Kaaba Abdullah had his shoes stolen. Finally the animal sacrifice at the end of the Hajj:

The whole street where the vehicles were parked was one great cesspool with filth everywhere When [we] came down the mountainside [we] found pieces of animal along with extreta and tents. The Egyptians were cutting up a leg of camel, which seven of them had shared in the sacrifice, and had some ram and goat meat as well. They gave [us] some, which [we] took back to Mina and made into a soup.

And now Abdullah’s somewhat less patient and forgiving companion Abdul’s description of the same journey:

Rampant commercialism of the most spiritually destructive kind was widespread in Mecca, to the extend that the Holy of Holies of all Islam, the Ka’aba, was but an adjunct to the main motive for the modern survival of the city – the systematic removal of every last cent a pilgrim might have brought with him. It was typical of the attitude of the Meccan Arabs to the Bayt-al-Haram (Haram Sharrief) that when the new building was constructed a large shopping cetnre was incorporated in its strucrture. The only thing that could be said for the Meccan merchants was that their greed was if anything “bettered” by their colleagues in Medina, who sent their children into the precincts of the Prophet’s last resting place itself in order to tout their wares – to the exctent that the main courtyard of the mosque often looked like a marketplace rather than a place of worship.

Trenchant Muslim critics of the Hajj seem to be few and far between, perhaps because fear is such a strong force in Islam as it is practised. We found plenty of degrading spectacles to warrant comment. Men fought for places in the front prayer rows of the Prophet’s mosque in Medina, caring little if they forced out of place men who have been sitting there for four hours or more. The shoving, punching and kicking that went on wherever “two or three are gathered together in My Name” was aa consistent feature of the Hajj and nothing was done to control it by the Saudi authorities, with the odd ineffectual exception.

The culminatinf riot, for it could be called little else, took place around the Shatan stones in Mina, several miles outside Mecca where I, for all my size and weight, was knocked to the ground and had my watch removed by a band of Central Africans who bludgeoned all before them in an insensate forced passage through the packed crowd. Twenty people were trampled to death that day, we were told, and the report was easy to believe. Certainly no nation in the throng would have taken honours in politeness except the South-East Asian Muslims whose small size and good manners made them easy victims of the crushing crowds. It was no surprise to discover that the Indonesian government had warned the Saudis that unless measures where taken to police the crowd during the next Hajj season, they would not be allowing any of their own nationals over the age of 40 to travel to Arabia.

Ideally, the pilgrims slept at least three nights at Mina but after the first night we were in little mood to continue the punishment. The Mina streets ran with urine, and the diarrhoeic turds which lay everywhere, due to the almost complete lack of any toilet facilities, gave the lie to the proud Arab boast that they never suffered from dysentery. The only public toilets, for some classic Arab reason, were locked at night and at any rate, although newly built, were a squalid uncleaned mess giving point to the blunt British phrase to describe incompetence: “They couldn’t even run a public shithouse!” To cap it all, fresh water taps were few and far between, and invariably had a heaving scrum around them.

We returned to our sleeping place on the roof of the mosque I was already calling “Hellfire”. On the second day of the Shatan stoning we journeyed out to Mina, more as observers than anything else. I had begun to come to terms with the fact that there was a much bigger thing behind this pilgrimage of ours than I had earlier thought, that related directly to the course which Abdullah’s teaching would in the future. Personally, I knew I had to be bludgeoned between the eyes in order to learn something, and the Hajj was the blunt instrument to teach me the crucial lesson of Islam which I might never have learned for some time, had I not embarked on it. I learnt that a dead religion can take a long time to decompose. The stench of of its rotting was most penetrating at the slaughtering grounds outside Mina, where hundreds of thousands of animals, from sheep and goats to camels, are ritually slaughtered in commemoration of Abraham’s original sacrifice. In the Prophet’s time the sacrificial flesh was used to feed the poor, but Muhhamed could never have foreseen the day when two million Muslim fundamentalists would follow in his footsteps. What I saw made me angry and disgusted at man’s stupidity. I could understand something of the mentality behind the flashing knives of the peasant folk in the blood-lusting crowd, but what contortions of rationalisation were going on in the minds of the more informed Muslims who were part of the twentieth century, to explain the anarchy that reigned all around us? My companions, one a well-educated Egyptian, seemed quite at a loss to understand why one should object to the gushing blood, squirming and gasping animals, and the dehumanized people participating in the whole macable carnival. In the central compound, where the largest (qurbaanee) animals are slaughtered, carcase was being butchered on top of carcase. Bulging entrails, shit and blood squelched everywhere underfoot, and I begun to feel the gulf which separates this insane expression of religious fanaticism from the subtle workings of the Spirit. No wonder so few Muslims we met could grasp the inner meaning behind their religion, if a display such as this could them still still contented.

As I left the grounds, workmen were throwing ammonium chloride onto heaps of carcases shovelled together by bulldozers from the previous day’s carnage. It could have been symbolic.

“O Ye who believe! The idolaters only are unclean. So let them not come near the Inviolable Place of Worship after this their year. If ye fear poverty (from the loss of their merchandise) Allah shall preserve you of His bounty if He will. Lo! Allah is Knower Wise.” (Surah 9, v28, Koran, Pickthall trans)

Recent examples confirm not a whole lot has changed in Arabian attitudes in the 30 plus years since this was written.

Abdullah’s comment on Adbul’s description:

“In reference to Abdul’s remark about Islam dying, I would like to say that all organised religions must come under the Law of Seven in their outer manifestations. The inner parts of all religions usually say the same truth.”

As I said previously, I hope something of the inner teachings reamerge to guide Islam back into life once the present process of decay is complete, realistically, in decades to come.

One person that agrees with the assertion above that Islam is a dying religion is Theodore Dalrymple. From a recent essay by Fjordman, “Why the future may not belong to Islam”:

Theodore Dalrymple thinks that “Islam has nothing whatever to say to the modern world,” and states that “Personally, I believe that all forms of Islam are very vulnerable in the modern world to rational criticism, which is why the Islamists are so ferocious in trying to suppress such criticism. They have instinctively understood that Islam itself, while strong, is exceedingly brittle, as communism once was. They understand that, at the present time in human history, it is all or nothing. (…) Islamism is a last gasp, not a renaissance, of the religion; but, as anyone who has watched a person die will attest, last gasps can last a surprisingly long time.”

From the same essay, the view of Belgian orientalist, Dr Koenraad Elst:

Dr Koenraad Elst, one of Belgium’s best orientalists, thinks “Islam is in decline, despite its impressive demographic and military surge” – which according to Dr Elst is merely a “last upheaval.” He acknowledges, however, that this decline can take some time (at least in terms of the individual human life span) and that it is possible that Islam will succeed in becoming the majority religion in Europe before collapsing.

And some final words from Fjordman:

“The impact of globalization and modern mass media is more complicated and has contradictory results. As one pundit at ex-Muslim Ali Sina’s website put it: “Rituals are important as brainwashing tools to instill discipline and loyalty. Islam’s focus on rituals remind me of the rituals in the military. (…) But what worked well for a medieval war machine is disastrous for Muslims in the modern world. The Arab war machine was supported by the blind obedience, brotherhood, courage, hatred and high birth rates inspired by Islam. (…) But these same qualities are handicaps for Muslims in the age of the microchip. Today they lead to poverty, belligerency, war and defeat.”

Islam was perfect for medieval warfare, but gradually lost out to the West, especially after the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions, which could never have taken place in Islamic lands because of their lack of freedom and their cult of authority. Ironically, history has now gone full circle. Muslims are still useless in developing anything new, but as a result of migration, modern communications, the presence of Muslims in infidel lands and Arab oil revenues, they can more readily buy or expropriate technology from others. The Iranian Revolution was aided by audio cassettes of speeches by the Ayatollah Khomeini.

Case study India. From a recent commentary on the Sachar report from the Indian media:

The problem of Muslim backwardness and under representation in public services is a fact but this is not a problem of independent India. In 1878 Sir Syed had said that “Muslims had derived least benefit from European sciences and literature” and in 1882 appearing before the Education Commission of the Central Legislative Council presented voluminous evidence to show almost negligible Muslim presence among the graduates of Calcutta University. According to his memo there was no Muslim among 6 Doctors of Law and 4 Honors in Law. Among the Bachelors and Licentiates of Law there were 8 out of 705 and 5 out 235 respectively. Likewise in Engineering and Medicine there was not a single Muslim graduate. In MA there were 5 Muslims out of 326 and in BA there were only 30 out of 1343. The memo pointed out that based on the population covered by Calcutta University the number of Muslim graduates should have been 1262 whereas they actually were just 57. On the basis of these figures Sir Syed pleaded not for job reservation but government help in initiating programs for their educational betterment. It is worth noting that this memorandum was presented just 24 years after the formal collapse of uninterrupted Muslim rule for almost 800 years.

Before presenting these figures to the commission it was pointed out that “in 1824 when Government decided to start a Sanskrit College in Calcutta, the Hindu leaders met under the leadership of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and demanded that they did not want Sanskrit College to be established by Government but wanted that it should start English colleges as far as possible. On the other hand in 1835, after 11 years when the Mohammedans came to know that Government intends to start English teaching in all schools, they submitted an application signed by 8000 Moulvis of Calcutta to stop it. Muslims vehemently opposed the new system of education believing that the philosophy and logic taught in English was at variance with the tenets of Islam. They looked upon the study of English as little less than embracing of Christianity.”

Later at the time of starting Committee for diffusion of knowledge among Muslims Sir Syed said “it was a matter of deep regret that Muslims considered their religion which was so great and enlightened, weak enough to be endangered by the study of western literature and science.”

The problem is one of bigotry, not weakness.

The following observations on the topic are from a book by Abdullah Dougan, a New Zealander, who converted to Islam and was made a Shaikh of the Naqshibandi Sufi Order, by its leader in the late 60s (note the Wikipedia entry does not distinguish between Shaikh – teacher and Sheikh – leader). The book is called “40 Days: An Account of a Discipline” and recounts Abdullah’s undertaking of a 40 day fast on water alone in India and Afghanistan in 1974, accompanied by two of his students, Zaid and Abdul, also from New Zealand. The second half of the book follows his Hajj journey to Saudi Arabia, that immediately followed the fast:

Q [Abdul]: Why is that so many Muslims we have met are so bigoted?
A [Abdullah Dougan]: Islam was a rallying cry for the people of the desert to give up their evil ways of drunkenness and idolatry. The Holy Prophet had a very illeterate rabble to deal with and the strongest weapon he could use was fear, reward and punishment, so this is what he concentrated on. As can be seen from history it was very effective, for in less that a hundred years Isam was challenging the known world of the day. Because of the Law of Seven [TOD: an esoteric concept governing the atrophy of processes devoid of conscious guidance], anything based on fear, reward and punishment must contain the seeds of its own destruction, and that is what you are seeing with those who persist in talking about the religion on the surface instead of seeing deeper to the truth within.”

And his observations while in Afghanistan:

As in all Muslims countries the boys are completely spoiled, so they have inculcated into them the idea of male superiority and selfishness, a combination which produces generally completely unbalanced, egotistical men. The brothers [TOD: refers to Abdullah and his companions] found them always talking down, quoting parrot-fashion from the Koran to prove any point, leaving out any alternative statements which may have contradicted their conditioning. This lack of real intellect on the part of the Muslims generally gives them no discernment to enable them to bring the wonderful ideas of the Holy Prophet into the correct perspective. Like the Christian, Buddhist or any other religion, Islam has contained in it great truths and gives a way for its adherents to follow.

What is every religion trying to do for its followers? The main objective must be to lead to a complete understanding of and relationship with God, by whatever name they call Him. The great majority of Muslims are bigots, believing there is no way except theirs, and that the Holy Prophet is the last for all time. If anybody reflects on this assertion they will become aware of the colossal vanity and egotism involved. This goes for most religions; but I believe, as the Taoists, that though there are many and tortuous ways, they all lead to God.

I will post most more from Abdullah and his students shortly.

Now, back to India and the present and we see that not much has changed in over a century (via Judith Apter Klinghoffer), as the above mentioned Sachar report found:

“Compared to the national average of 43% of people not having land in rural areas, that of Muslims is 60.2%. Only 2.1% of Muslim farmers have tractors, while just 1% own hand pumps. Educationally, 54.6% of Muslims in villages and 60% in urban areas have never been to schools. The national average for this is 40.8% in rural areas and 19.9% in urban. In rural areas, only 0.8% of Muslims are graduates, while in urban areas despite 40% of the Muslims receiving modern education only 3.1% are graduates. Only 1.2% of Muslims are post-graduates in urban areas.”

And yet the bigotry lives on, thrives even, assisted by its own blindness. The following is from Subramanian Swamy, a Hindu politician and former Union Law Minister:

“Thanks to Shri Vedantamji of the VHP, I had visited Thondi and Rasathipuram Municipalities of Ramanathapuram and Vellore districts respectively, and was truly shocked by what I saw. Both these municipalities are in Muslim-majority areas, and the local bodies election had empowered the Muslims with their capture of the municipalities.

The Muslim-ruled municipalities have thereafter converted these areas into mini Dar-ul-Islams, in a Hindustan of 83 per cent Hindus! The minority Hindu areas of the municipality were thus denied civic amenities, funds for schools, garbage clearing etc., and sent notices in Urdu. Hindus were bluntly told convert to Islam if they wanted civic facilities.

I could not believe that in South India this was possible where Hindus are actually above national average at 90 per cent of the population. I know that in Kashmir Valley, Muslims who are in majority have actively or passively connived in driving out half a million Hindus out of their homes and made them refugees in their own country. Temples have been demolished in the Valley on a daily basis. The world could not care less. An American had once told me: “Why should we care? Indian democracy is led by the majority who are Hindus and you want us to talk about the human rights of the community of rulers?”

Such atrocities are happening not only in Kashmir, but in other parts of India as well in pockets wherever Muslims are in majority, e.g., Mau and Meerut. In pocket boroughs of India, thus, Dar-ul-Islam has today returned to India after two centuries. Considering that a demographic re-structuring is slowly but surely taking place, with Hindu majority shrinking everywhere, Dar-ul-Islam in pockets might indeed, like amoeba, proliferate, coalesce, and jell into a frightening national reality—unless we Hindus wake up and take corrective action now, actions for which we shall of course not get a Nobel Peace Prize.

Swamy then makes a blunt and honest summation of the situation in India (in contrast to the delusional Indian elites):

[..] Secular order in India thus is possible only when Muslims are not in power. Thondi, Rasathipuram and other places prove that the Muslim mind suffers from a dangerous duality—of seeking secularism when out of power and imposing a brutal demeaning theocracy for non-Muslims when in power.”

It is understandable that the Indians are worried, as Hugh Fitzgerald wrote yesterday:

Everywhere Islam has conquered, those conquered have emerged, when left with their lives, to live lives that are far more impoverished in every important way — either as non-Muslim dhimmis, or as converts to Islam. Islam limits artistic expression, stifles the free and skeptical inquiry without which real science is impossible, and cripples the lives of women. Islam stunts mental growth. We need make no apologies to others or to ourselves for coming to this melancholy conclusion, so much at odds with the official ideology that we have been subjected to — that everyone is the same, that all religions and peoples are equal in every way, that no one must ever ever challenge the self-evident truth of any of this.

Guess this country.

It’s army, under the command of the ruling regime, is engaging in a campaign of genocide against racial and religious minorities, often beheading, raping and torturing its victims, but it is not the Sudan.

Children as young as 12 are being forcefully recruited into this army, but this is not the Taliban in Afghanistan or “Saddam’s Lion Cubs” in Hussein’s Iraq.

The military regime is busily building bunkers in a strongpoint defence matrix, allegedly in anticipation of a US attack, but it is not Iran.

This country is removing any crosses or other Christian symbols from public spaces, bit it is not Algeria.

This country has the world’s largest narcotics-trafficking militia operating on its territory, but it is not Columbia.

This country has a health crisis worse than the poorest areas of Africa, with more children dying before age 5 in some areas, than the Congo, but it is not Afghanistan.

This country has recently agreed to allow Russia to share in exploitation of its oil fields, in exchange for weapons shipments, but it is not Venezuela.

This country, while shunned by the West, counts China as its main political and economic ally, but it is not North Korea.

While the world’s attention is focused on several noisy ideologically and religiously driven nutjob regimes, one old backyard hussler is slowly but surely losing touch with reality, seemingly by way of good old fashioned drug-induced psychosis. That twitchy little battler is Burma.

“The side road the soldiers have blocked off is 15 kilometers (9 miles) north of the city of Pyinmana in the central Burmese plains. The jungle stretches for more than 400 kilometers (249 miles), like some vast, green carpet, toward a line of jagged peaks on the distant horizon marking the Golden Triangle bordering Laos and Thailand. The only destination worth seeing in this rural stretch of Burma is its tropical rainforest research institute.

But Burma’s ruling generals recently declared the region a restricted military zone, making the trip to the institute off-limits to outsiders. The Junta is having its new capital built somewhere at the end of this 20-foot-wide highway. The central government’s officials were already required to move there last November.

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Burma’s leadership apparently plans to barricade itself into its remote new capital, from which it expects to control the country in the future. The nearest major city, Mandalay, is a 250-kilometer (155-mile) journey away on a deeply potholed road, and the trip to Rangoon takes about eight hours. Naypyidaw, or “Royal Country,” is the name Than Shwe, the junta’s 73-year-old leader, has personally selected for his government’s secretive new headquarters. According to official instructions to be followed in the event of a foreign attack, “Naypyidaw is our war bunker, where we will wait, during an American attack, until the Chinese hurry to our aid.”

Sounds like a brilliant plan. Although, considering the pace of events in Iraq and throwing in some generous estimates for the actions against Iran, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Trans-dnestr my estimated date of invasion is somewhere around hmmm.. how does 2090 sound? By which date you won’t need to wait long for China to help, because you’ll be a part of it.

So what the hell is going here? Well, I did mention drug-induced psychosis, didn’t I?

“Beheadings by troops are common. So too are beatings, the use of forced labour and rape. Growing use of amphetamines among Burma’s 400,000-strong army is fuelling this violence.

A narcotics expert from the Australian National University who is based in Thailand, David Matheson, said researchers had concluded that many troops went into battle high on amphetamines. “When they come across dead Burmese soldiers, they find methamphetamine tablets on most of them if not all of them, particularly in the Shan state.”

The brutality of the attacks is evident in video footage, taken by members of the evangelical Christian missionary group the Free Burma Rangers, of the burning of villages. The video shows young men, armed with AK-47 rifles, setting fire to bamboo homes as residents flee in terror.”

Lets put two and 400,000 together here. “Most if not all” of the military is marching to the rhythm of an ICE binge, and its leadership is barricading itself away from the world in the middle of the jungle, declaring their new place of residence “Royal County”. Add the delusion and paranoia up with the erratic acts of violence, and this is obviously one hell of a tweak out. And it is sure to be followed by one hell of a come down, yet oddly enough “Royal County” just doesn’t sound like a rehab centre to me.

But I propose a solution. Send in the bicycles. That should keep them busy for at least a couple of decades. Heck, maybe after that we can arrange for them to sort through the world’s garbage for recycling, and get on top of that global warming biznit too. Hey, its far more likely to have an effect than another UN Resolution.

Over at Claudia Rosett’s blog, where she points out the lunacy of Kofi Annan’s announcement that Ahmadinejad has “reaffirmed” Resolution 1701, in light of Hezbollah being Iran’s proxy army and all, a commenter asked:

The sooner Annan’s out, the better. So, who are the candidates to replace him? Who do you predict will eventually take his place?

Good question and one to which Greg Sheridan believes he may have an answer. It will certainly be a relief to see Annan go. But what are the prospects for any improvement?

The Secretary-General’s term ends at the end of this year. It is normally rotated between the major regions of the world in turn. This time it is Asia’s turn. Convention has it that it can’t be someone from a country which is a permanent member of the Security Council, so that rules out China.

And probably China would effectively veto a Japanese. The leading Indian candidate, Deputy Secretary General, Shashi Tharoor, suffers, like Kofi Annan himself, from being an absolute UN insider. [TOD: recent interview with Shashi Tharoor here]

The best Asian candidate is the South Korean foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon, who visited Australia last week. I had a discussion with him and found him to be formidably smart and on the ball.

[..]

While a charming diplomat in his own right, Ban would not have Kofi Annan’s charisma. That is a huge plus. He is organisationally hard-headed in the Korean way. That is a huge plus. He is not instinctively anti-American and would be much less likely than Annan has been to drift off into third world banalities.

That is also a huge plus.

Alexander Downer thinks Ban the most formidable of the Asians so far in the mix. Downer should back his Korean counterpart.

Ban certainly gets my vote.

The Australian position should be simple: Ban’s the Man.

Here’s hoping. South Korea recently announced that it will not run for a nonpermanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, so that Ban Ki-moon can run for the Secretary-General post.

There are however other candidates. One apparent hopeful is the deputy prime minister of Thailand Surakiat Sathianthai, who claims his candidacy is backed by 10 countries in SE Asia.
Former U.N. disarmament chief Jayantha Dhanapala from Sri Lanka is another possibility, according to a Security Council straw poll in July.

Time magazine has been engaging in some speculation of their own:

“Other possible candidates are former Malaysian Deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim and two contenders to be the first female secretary-general: Singapore Ambassador to Washington Chan Heng Chee – said to be a US favourite – and New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark”

Anwar Ibrahim or Helen Clark would be a bigger disaster than Annan. Fortunately neither is a real contender. Also fortunately Chan Heng Chee and Ban Ki-moon are.

UPDATE: We have a new contender! (hat tip EU Referendum)

It seems Ahmadinejad’s focus in this interview is to paint himself as a man of peace, Iran as the world’s champion of peace and justice, and the West and its leaders as deceiptful and corrupt warmongers. He uses the word “peace” 11 times in the short interview. Specifically he mentions his letters to Bush and Merkel as invitations to peace, implying that rejecting his proposals is a choice in favour of war. Several times he hints at some big event approaching, some big changes, the consequences of which will make the West, headed by the US, regret its miscalculations in dealing with Iran. He basically paints a picture where the peace-seeking Iran is being bullied into a corner by “the US, Britain and the Zionist regime” and they may have no choice but to retalliate.

Here are a few extracts.

Regarding the United Nations Security Council resolution on sanctions against Iran and Iran’s delaying of their response to the European package of incentives:

Yes, we said we would reply on the 22nd of August and they issued a resolution nevertheless! I am at a loss to explain this. What is the meaning of this? The only conclusion I can draw is that they are bullying us. They want to impose their will on us. They really are not looking for a dialogue. In all honesty, they do not want to talk to us but want to impose their wishes on us. They want to deny us our rights. They want to place a Damocles sword over our head so that we give up eventually. But they have miscalculated. The time for such behaviour is in the past, it’s finished. We are not concerned. And they will regret the miscalculation they have made today.

About the possibility of Iran leaving the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the nature of their nuclear program:

We have said time and again that all of our nuclear activities are peaceful, and are conducted in the context and under the safeguards of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and also the articles of the NPT. We remain firmly inside those boundaries. Nevertheless, if they decide to use the instruments at their disposal to put pressure on us to limit our activities, and try to take away or deny what is rightfully ours, and to distort our rights, obviously we are going to change our mind.

About being in the NPT, or about the peaceful nature of your nuclear programme?

Well, we are going to respond commensurate to their response. In other words, we are going to respond in kind. Having said that, they will not be able to put pressure on us.

There is a famous fatwa of Ayatollah Khomeini that it is against Islam to use the nuclear bomb. But do you also consider it un-Islamic to make or keep the bomb for deterrence purposes?

We think that the time of weapons of mass destruction having a say in, or determining the course of, political or human relations is in the past. It is finished. And in the very near future, these existing arsenals are going to become useless. All nations very much abhor war, killing, and bloodshed. There are only a few big powers that want to speed up the arms race, and of course, the reason they are interested in this is to line their own pockets. Today, the age of thinking, of cultural exchanges and endeavours has dawned. What we desperately need is better human interaction, peace, justice, pens — people in the media, for example — that work for the greater good. These are the factors that contribute to or bring about happiness and well-being. Bombs do not provide prosperity. The money that is spent on armaments should rightfully be spent on better welfare, for the development of our various societies, and also healthcare.

Now, is that a bit rich or what?! “People in the media that work for the greater good”… (big wave to the Useful Idiots)

Now, what could make “existing arsenals” of WMD’s “become useless”? A hint at the coming return of the Twelth Imam? (War is Peace!.. and healthcare! LOL)

Note also he did not actually the answer the question about whether it is “un-Islamic to make or keep the bomb for deterrence purposes”.

On the Bush and Merkel letters:

There are two points you need to appreciate. The westerners have devised a framework for diplomatic activity; they have written the rules of the game, so to speak, and want everyone to play by those rules. I assure you that whoever plays by those rules, whoever remains in that framework, will be worse off. We have to come up and use our practices and ways and methods. We very much can have our frameworks. We have a very rich culture, a very ancient civilisation to draw on. We have proposals, ideas to help find solutions to the many international problems which exist. So with these, we fully believe we can have a better world, we can govern the world much better than it is governed today.

Spoken with the (implication of a) confidence of someone who believes he will get to do just that.

The letters I sent, their spirit, were messages more than anything else. Of course, I was hoping — I was interested in them appreciating and accepting these rightful words. And I would have liked them to return to what is right, and appreciate the truth.

“Appreciate the truth” of Islam that is, referring the dawah purpose of the letters, to the call to acceptance of Islam, before “other means” may be applied against the infidels.

But they are free to make their own choices. But at the end of the day, all individuals will reap the seeds they have sown, the choices they have made. Of course, you can see for yourself, the result of these two diplomatic initiatives. I believe that the goals set have been secured. This was a message, a call, an invitation to peace and appreciation of the truth. [TOD: note repetition] If they were to accept the message, so much the better. And if they refuse, nations around the world will come to appreciate that they oppose peace, because this is a call to peace, an invitation to peace.

He subtlely implies here that not “accepting the message”, ie the invitation to Islam, means “they oppose peace”. Perhaps here “invitation to peace” means exactly “invitation to Islam”, using “peace” as one of the meanings of “Islam”. And of course, “so much the the better” – he’ll be all too happy to pursue war, now that peace has been rejected. And yet, in saying all that, he kept the air of righteousness, commitment to peace. He certainly knows how to manipulate words.

Your colleagues [TOD: Hah!] are signalling that our time is up but we have to ask one last question, on Lebanon. Does the failure of Israel to achieve its aims in Lebanon create a new opportunity for the international community to push for a just peace in the Middle East where all countries can live peacefully within secure borders and in freedom?

We believe that the incidents which have unfolded in Lebanon will change the ongoing equations in the region. The regime of occupation of al-Quds [Israel] is a regime which is very much dependent on and boasts about its military war machine. This regime does not have a humanitarian relationship, a long-standing relationship with the countries of the region. It is only falling back, so to speak, on its military might. This is a might, mind you, which they have used time and again for 60 long years. But this military might and this war machine have now come to an abrupt halt. Obviously, this vacuum is a prelude to certain changes, and these will come about. Developments are yet to unfold. We very much hope that these developments will lead to a just and durable peace.

Again, “developments are yet to unfold”, the same warning, the veiled threat, the implication he knows something the West does not.

You can read the whole thing at The Hindu.

This article by Maloy Krishna Dhar, the former Indian Intelligence Bureau (I.B.) Joint Director, gives a fascinating insight into how the global Jihad is looking from India’s pespective. Maloy Krishna Dhar is also the author of “Open Secrets: India’s Intelligence Unveiled” and “Mission to Pakistan: An Intelligence Agent in Pakistan”.

Here’s an extract:

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However, India has not been able to cope with the threat from regional and global Islamist jihadist forces. This multidimensional cancer travels through the arterial system of the country along the scarred tissues of fractures and carcinogenic gaps left by the neurosis of pre and post independence philisophy and the unassimilated edges of history.

The Pakistani establishment and the ISI have deftly exploited these gaps and unmatched edges in collaboration with the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence of Bangladesh and the Islamic tanzeems patronised by them.

Journeying through the Afghan killing fields, tangoing with the Taliban and Al Qaeda and resurgent global Islamist thrusts, Pakistan has emerged as the geopolitical epicentre of Islamist jihad with a binary centre in Bangladesh.

Extension of Pakistan’s proxy war through jihadist tanzeem tools to all conceivable corners of India is a part of its strategic war plan — mostly carried out through subversive terrorist attacks and sometimes with a Kargil-type forward thrust.

It is, nonetheless, part of a planned war.

India’s internal security and the seams of national unity and solidarity have been repeatedly threatened by jihadist operations carried out by ISI and DGFI-aided Pakistani and Bangladeshi tanzeems. This war, under the facet of peace, is about to invade every Indian home.

On a scale of one to ten, the jihadi tanzeems and handful Indian collaborators score success in about eight-and-a-half cases. The Indian intelligence agencies and state police forces can claim success in about two-and-a-half or three cases. On the scale of the law of averages, this is classified as failure.

Why do we fail in over 85 per cent of cases? We fail because:

With minor exceptions the political class — the presumed custodian, driver and preserver of the Constitutional Democratic Republic — fails to recognise that India exist beyond ballot boxes.

On either side of the imaginary ’secular fence’, there is an abominable amnesia about the historical roots of the jihadist thrust against India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and other global jihadist tanzeems. They communalise or trivialise the grave threat to national security, unity and integrity by throwing mud on each other with squinted eyes on the bulge of the ballot box.

The threat is not about ’secularism’ or ‘Hindu Muslim divide’; this is all about an undeclared multidimensional war involving India (irrespective of community and religion), Pakistan and Bangladesh, overlorded by International Islamic Jihadist Inc, represented by Al Qaeda al Sulbah and its global franchisees.

Political parties on either side of the imaginary ’secular fence’ (like the Tropic of Cancer that divides India almost into two equal halves) should understand that even before partition of the subcontinent certain Islamist leaders had targeted Indian Muslims for carving out a Muslim First Nation, which they called Pakistan. The descendants of same Hulagu (grandson of Genghis Khan, who ruled over much of southwest Asia) conquistadors are targeting to divide India on communal lines, while the gullible vote-blinded politicians still cling to their ballot boxes and keep dividing the country from behind their respective Tropic of Cancer. They fail to recognise that the cancer is real, and not an imaginary geographical line.

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Here’s also an excellent interview with Maloy Krishna Dhar after the Mumbai bombing last month.

Do read Hugh Fitzgerald’s empassioned and brilliant essay, inspired by Richard Cohen’s column on Tuesday, obscenely titled “Hunker Down With History”.
Hugh starts off taking modern journalism to task, but achieves so much more. I am not going to quote any of it here. Read the whole thing. It is a history lesson the West urgently needs.

Another fantastic history lesson for Cohen was written by Israel Matzav here. Here’s a part of it, but again, it is well worth reading in full.

The term “Palestina” was invented by the Roman emperor Hadrian. The Romans wanted to rename Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) after the Philistines, the longtime enemy of the Jews. Hadrian believed that by renaming the Jewish homeland after the Jews’ archenemy, he would be able to forever break the bond between the Land of Israel and the Jewish people.

But even the name of the Philistines, from which the term “Palestine” was adopted, is completely alien to the Land of Israel.

The name Philistines in Hebrew is plishtim, which comes from the Hebrew verb polshim (foreign invaders).
Arabs only came to the Land of Israel in large numbers after the Jews returned in the 20th century and started to rebuild the nation, thereby creating economic and employment opportunities for Arab immigrants.

Prior to 1870, when Jews started to return to the Holy Land in large numbers, there were fewer than 100,000 Arabs living in what is today the State of Israel – including Yesha (the Hebrew acronym for Judea, Samaria and the Gaza District).

This small number of nomadic, tribal Arabs who lived in the Holy Land before the modern Jewish return never considered themselves to be a separate people or nation.

The Arabs who lived in the Land of Israel were not “Palestinians” but Arabs – part of a huge Arab people with 22 very large independent nations that control one-ninth of the land mass on the planet Earth.

In an interview given by Zuhair Mohsen to the Dutch newspaper Trouw in March 1977, Mr. Mohsen explains the origin of the ‘Palestinians’:

The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct “Palestinian people” to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.

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Israel is anything but a mistake, and history shows the justice of Israel’s cause. With the exception of the period between the two Jewish Temples between roughly 586 and 516 BCE, Jews ruled this land continuously from approximately 1300 BCE until 68 CE. Since that time, no other government has been based in Israel, no other country has called Jerusalem its capitol, and no other people has called this land its home. It is not history that is Israel’s enemy but the false narrative of history presented to the World by the Arab Muslims. It is not history that is Israel’s enemy, but Arab attempts to wipe out the vestiges of that history, as if destroying all of the Temple artifacts on the Temple Mount will confirm that it was ‘always’ Haram al-Sharif, that two Jewish Temples never stood there and that Jesus never argued with money changers there.

This country was deserted swampland for much of the period between 68 CE and the beginning of the return of larger numbers of Jews started in 1870. Israel’s interior areas were mainly a desert-like wasteland while her coast was a malaria-ridden swamp. But Jews always prayed three times a day that God should gather them in from their diaspora and bring them back to this country. Many Jews attempted to come here on their own. Jews were a majority of the population of Jerusalem in the 19th century, and settled many of the cities of the Galilee as well. In 1844 – when the Land of Israel was controlled by the Turkish Muslims – the Turkish census counted 7,120 Jews and 5,000 Muslims living in Jerusalem. Thus, Jerusalem was already a Jewish city 160 years ago. Until an Arab massacre wiped them out in 1929, there was even a large Jewish community in Hebron, which included a major Talmudical academy, which was transplanted from the village of Slobodka in Lithuania.

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Don’t forget to read Hugh Fitzgerald’s piece now.