As Harald said – not everything is shitty in Europe now. Reuters reports:
More than 1000 Muslims formed a human shield around Oslo’s synagogue on Saturday, offering symbolic protection for the city’s Jewish community and condemning an attack on a synagogue in neighboring Denmark last weekend.
Chanting “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” Norway’s Muslims formed what they called a ring of peace a week after Omar Abdel Hamid El-Hussein, a Danish-born son of Palestinian immigrants, killed two people at a synagogue and an event promoting free speech in Copenhagen last weekend.
“Humanity is one and we are here to demonstrate that,” Zeeshan Abdullah, one of the protest’s organizers told a crowd of Muslim immigrants and ethnic Norwegians who filled the small street around Oslo’s only functioning synagogue.
“There are many more peace mongers than warmongers,” Abdullah said as organizers and Jewish community leaders stood side by side. “There’s still hope for humanity, for peace and love, across religious differences and backgrounds.”
Indeed. Warmongers can cause terrible destruction, even working alone, but that doesn’t make them the majority. Let’s monger a bunch of peace & love.
These good people clearly see that “free for me but not for thee” means no freedom for anyone in the end. A secular government is the only one where all religions can safely exist.
The idea of a thousand people standing around a Jewish temple gives me the creeps.
To be clear, what I find uncomfortable is that anyone should be there even being supportive. Why should they feel they need to be supportive? Obviously because they see danger. The whole thing is creepy.
I hope it doesn’t become some sort of custom.
David are you unaware of what happened in Copenhagen a week ago?
I think the creepy thing is that someone will shoot at Jews just because they’re Jews, or at cartoonists because they draw cartoons. Protesting such shootings does not seem creepy at all. If everyone just shrugged and moved on, that would be creepy.
Quite so. David seems to be saying the need for support is creepy and the support itself is creepy…which seems a peculiarly unpleasant thing to say.
“There are many more peace mongers than warmongers,” Abdullah said as organizers and Jewish community leaders stood side by side. “There’s still hope for humanity, for peace and love, across religious differences and backgrounds.”
It’s probably partly propaganda, but I rather think its humanitarian aspect is more prominent.
These sure seem to be some of those moderate Muslims whose existence is not always acknowledged.
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[meta]
Ophelia,
I concur with the first, but the second is more ambiguous.
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davidsucher, a clarification would be informative.
Unclear rather than ambiguous, but yes, unclear, which is why I said “seems”.
I really wish people would stop naming the shooter like this.
“No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,”
I beg to differ here. These _ring-arounds_ ( there was one held in Copenhagen as well ) are self-serving and have nothing to do with solidarity with Jews.
The aim of these PR stunts is to reinforce the notion that ‘islamophobia’, a meaningless and ridiculous neologism, must be elevated to the ranks of anti-semitism which is, seeings the Jews are a people, a form of racism
These are very self serving demos designed to appropriate the mantel of Jewish suffering, to place it on the shoulders of Muslim in an effort to assign ‘racism’ to any and all examination and criticism, no matter how justified, of Islam’s core texts and doctrines.
Jew-haters and Islamists minimize, disbelieve, but deeply envy the Jews as victims of the Holocaust. But they covet the reverence for sacred victim status that they believe Jews have obtained…ostensibly via trickery. Islamists invented the false allegation of “Islamophobia,” are attempting to position the Palestinians/Muslims as the “new Jews,” and to anoint the Jews, Israelis Jews in particular, as the “New Nazis.”
“No to Islamophobia and racism” and “No to islamophobia and anti-semitism” are the new amalgamations, both dishonest and deceitful. They are designed to conflate legitimate, justified criticism of an ideology/theology, with knuckle-dragger racism and Jew-hatred.
Don’t buy into this.
Also, did anyone notice from the photos in the other posting that the ring appears gender-segregated?
Decker, do you know any of that, or are you just assuming it? Do you know the people doing this demonstration are in fact Islamists?
That seems extremely unlikely, since Islamists don’t like Jews and don’t pretend to like Jews for the sake of PR. Islamists are not into that kind of PR. Islamists are not at all likely to want to be seen making a symbolic protective circle around a synagogue – in fact I can think of few things they’re less likely to want to do.
Thank-you for retaining my comment.
I am offering a alternate opinion, albeit a cynical one, that is altogether plausible.
In Copenhagen Muslims formed a ‘protective’ ring around the city’s main synagogue at approximately the same time as the funeral service for the killer was held. There were so many ‘mourners’ in attendance at that service that half had to pray outside. Afterwards at the grave site people took selfies.
The mood was festive. The killer was given what was clearly a hero’s send-off.
These demonstrations of solidarity are cynical ploys to peddle _Islamophobia_ as the New Anti-Semitism. They want to cosy up to Jewish suffering in the hope we’ll mistakenly draw an equivalence between anti-semitism, a form of racism, and islamophobia…a completely bullshit term. And it seems to be working, doesn’t it?
After the islamist killings in Ottawa and St-Jean last fall, scores of Muslimahs, all in hijabs, appeared on the streets handing out red roses to pedestrians and expressing sympathy for the victims.
These horse/ barn door exercises are now a staple of the Muslim community after jihadist attacks, both in Europe and America
I want neither rings nor roses. I just want them to shut the barn door BEFORE the islamist horse bolts.
I am sure that the Muslims were well-meaning etc etc.
But the image of any large group of non-Jews (vastly outnumbering the old Jews inside) milling about a synagogue gives a queazy feeling if any knowledge of history and imagination for the future.
As well, now the synagogue is a certain target for extremists who will get a double-shot: kill Jews and damage moderate Muslims (whom they hate also.)
So, no, I am sure it was meant- well but I have an uneasy feeling about the assembly.
Well Decker you say you’re offering an opinion but you then word it as fact. You say “These demonstrations of solidarity are cynical ploys to peddle _Islamophobia_ as the New Anti-Semitism.” That’s a statement of fact, not opinion.
There are people who pose as liberals of a sort but who really aren’t – Tariq Ramadan and Mehdi Hasan to name two. But there are also liberal Muslims, who detest Islamism and work hard to counter it – like Maajid Nawaz, Tehmina Kazi, Sara Khan, Raquel Saraswati. They are our allies, not our enemies.
David, thanks, I get your meaning now.
There are people who hate Muslims. There have been attacks on Muslims in Europe. That’s Islamophobia.
In order to claim it’s a bullshit term, you’d have to show prejudice against Muslims doesn’t exist.
An opinion based on no evidence. As Ophelia points out, Islamists don’t go in for that sort of PR.
Moderate and liberal Muslims can’t win. If they don’t condemn Islamist brutality loudly enough, they don’t exist and all Muslims are violent jihadists. If they do condemn it, it’s a cynical PR ploy.
This despite the fact that most victims of Islamist terrorism are Muslims.
Decker can always provide us with a better term for bigotry towards Muslims if he doesn’t like Islamophobia.
As Lady Mondegreen said, except … the word “islamophobia” really is a stupid word to take as meaning fear and hatred of Muslims.
Said fear and hatred does exist, and the islamist do their best to foster it, but “islamophobia” really means (or should mean) irrational fear of Islam, and that is a whole different thing.
Simply put, Islam is a religion, and Muslims are its adherents. You can well fear and detest the religion without fearing and hating the adherents.
I avoid the word “islamophobia” to the greatest extent possible. Since there is no other word I know of that is as universally understood (misunderstood?), I just stick with “fear and hatred of Muslims” or similar wordings myself.
Or bigotry. Good word. I should remember that and use it more.
After Breivik’s massacre I’d guess that Norwegians are particularly sensitive about avoiding anything similar from a different kind of extremist.
Yep, you got that right!
Personally, I”d be happy with Decker’s comments not being retained. Decker is a racist wingbat.
I still detest the word “Islamophobia” because it’s a deliberate misnomer. It’s not the right word for hatred of Muslims.
Is “homophobia” the right word for hatred of gay people?
To be honest, I don’t have a huge amount of patience for etymological hair-splitting about the precisely correct terms to refer to different forms of bigotry. Usage is king, as they say. Same goes for the “it’s not racist, because Islam isn’t a race” argument – if the best argument someone’s got is that you’re not using the most correct term for the form of bigotry they’re expressing, then they’re pretty much admitting defeat.
@22 There weren’t a 1000 Muslims at this demo, and nor was there any ring around the synagogue. And the leader of this gesture of solidarity with Jews has engaged in quite a number of anti-semitic rants, claims the Jews were behind not only 911, but also the attacks in Mumbai.
This is nothing but a cynical attempt to draw an equivalence between much justified criticism of Islam and racism and antisemitism.
All you had were about 20 Muslims who were briefly allowed to cross police barriers so they could hold hand in a staged PR exercise. It was all over in a few minutes
@Ophelia. I understand exactly who the moderates are and Maajid Nawaz is certainly the genuine article. As such, I doubt he’d ever agree to participate in something as cynical as this.
You still haven’t said how you know any of this.
Dunc @ 24 – it’s not hair-splitting in this case. Hatred of Islam has to be treated as separate from hatred of Muslims.
Decker – I repeat – what is your source? The only sources I can find for your claims are Breitbart and Front Page. I don’t consider them reliable. From what are you deriving the authority for your sweeping assertions?