"If you are dying to see the first prize
cartoon that won in Iran's government of official state-sponsored contest on
denying the Holocaust"
The Winning Cartoon in
the Iran Holocaust Cartoon Contest
GPN Description: Fake
Auschwitz wall before mosque
First Prize: $12,000 + Trophy + Honorable
Mention
GPN Description: Palestinian pictured in Auschwitz stripes before a wall separating Palestinian territory from Israel, as if the wall is an Auschwitz fence.
Second Prize: $4000 + Trophy + Honorable Mention
Sources:
Iran Holocaust Cartoon Contest.
http://holocartoons.com/main.php
Home of Mohammed Cartoonist Attacked
The home of a Swedish artist who in 2007 drew a cartoon of
the Prophet Mohammed as a dog was hit by a suspected arson attack, police said.
Lars Vils, who lives in southern Sweden, was not at home during the attack and
no one was reported injured. The 53 year old cartoonist was assaulted by a
man while he lectured at a university and his Web site was also attacked by a
hacker. People passing by the artist's house alerted police that several
windows had been smashed. Police have no suspects in the case, a police
spokeswoman said.
Sources:
International Herald Tribune (May 16, 2010). Home
of Mohammed cartoonist attacked.
The Washington Post (Retrieved August 9, 2010). Swedish 'Muhammad' artist
goes into hiding after attack; arrests made.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/comic-riffs/2010/05/swedish_muhammad_artists_home.html
Islam Wants Peace with
Israel but Won't Meet with Rabbis or Peres: The New Head Sheikh at Al-Azhar
University in Cairo Continues Tantawi's Hateful Doubletalk
Editor's Note: Al-Azhar Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb
in an extensive interview with Egyptian Journalists' Syndicate chairman Makram
Muhammad Ahmad, gave his views on an array of important topics, including the
role of Al-Azhar as an institution and the extent of its dependence on the
Egyptian regime, Islam's relations with Judaism and Christianity, and the
Palestinian issue. . Al-Azhar Sheikh Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb has been in
office since March 2010.
He is the successor to the late Dr. Muhammed Sayyid
Tantawi who alternated drastically between elements of humanism and pluralism -
such as by participating in interfaith workshops with Jewish rabbis and
Christian ministers and signing a joint declaration of mutual tolerance and
peace (the "Alexandria Declaration"), and then pulling back and out from the
declaration and the continuing ecumenical process it was to launch.
Tantawi also vascillated crazily between renouncing and prohibiting suicide
bombers and approving and blessing them.
Tantawi and now Sheikh Al-Tayyeb are important 'beyond
themselves' as it were as the heads of Egypt's premier university, Al-Azhar.
Note with Al-Tayyeb too the constant flux between
standing for a peaceful Islam and distinctly provocative aggressive statements
against Israel and the West.
One source that tracks Sheikh Tantawi's zigzags is in a
book I wrote on suicide bombers: Charny, Israel W (1997). Fighting Suicide
Bombing: A WorldWide Campaign for Life. Westport, CT: Praeger Security
International.
Al-Tayebb:
"It is not true that Islamic civilization imposed itself upon the world by the
force of the sword. Islam spread throughout the world because it is the religion
of natural faith and the religion of wisdom, which spoke to the minds of the
people and to their hearts, cultivating equality among humans and promoting
justice. The sword is not fitting as a symbol of Islam because Islam
[represents] mercy and justice, and because a Muslim does not bear his sword in
order to attack others, but in order to protect the land, the homeland, and the
faith. Islam encourages a Muslim to be strong and capable of defending his
homeland, his religion, and himself, but does not encourage him to act
aggressively toward others."
"We are now getting ready to produce new programs for the
public that will address young people and women, and will spread the proper
Islam and call for the use of reason. We will start with a weekly program with
several reliable preachers – ones known for their ability to relate the audience
as well as for their erudition and instrumental knowledge of shari'a –
and react to problems, fatwas, and opinions spread by people who are pious in
nonsense or fanatical in superstition."
"Unfortunately, in some of the dialogue sessions I
attended in Italy, France, Germany, and the U.S., the dialogue was paralyzed. It
did not significantly [benefit the] Muslims and did not lead to any actual
change in the West's positions at the decision[-making] level: [it did nothing
to change] the West's longtime support of Israel and [did not stop the West
from] assisting [Israel] in deferring [its] commitment to the rights of the
Palestinian people; [nor did it promote] the need to respect Islam's symbols,
just as we Muslims respect the emblems of the other religions. This is clearly
evident in the case of the offensive cartoons [depicting] the Prophet, which
were interpreted as a matter of freedom of expression, despite the fact that
[the cartoons] had nothing to do with freedom of opinion. It is true that the
dialogues led to a certain degree of friendship and cooperation, but they did
not truly change the situation."
"According to the Koran, the Christians are closer to the
Muslims [than the Jews] because there are priests and monks among them, and
Maryam [Mary] was the greatest of all women. On the other hand, the Children of
Israel only expect the dialogue to drag the Arabs toward normalization, without
granting the Palestinians anything real. The Prophet maintained with the Jews
relations [characterized by] a high degree of friendship and respect – to the
extent that if a Muslim desired to marry a Jewish woman, he asked him not to
require her to convert, and to take her to synagogue to pray. However, despite
this, few Jews are inclined toward justice. The Arabs and Palestinians must know
that Israel will not grant them their rights on a silver, copper, or paper
platter. Whoever thinks otherwise is dreaming. The Palestinians must unite in
order to protect their legitimate rights and take advantage of their legitimate
right to resist occupation, with everything this entails."
"I will not meet with rabbis or to shake Peres' hand, nor
am I [willing] even to be with him in the same place. I do not think that Sheikh
Sayyed Tantawi knew he was greeting Peres. Not because he is a Jew, but
because he is one of those who planned the atrocious Israeli aggression against
the Palestinian people, and the takeover of Jerusalem, which is one of the most
important of the Islamic holy places... If I shake Peres' hand, it will be an
accomplishment for him, since it would mean that Al-Azhar shook Israel's hand.
It will be a loss on my part and on the part of Al-Azhar, because the handshake
will signify agreement to normalizing relations. And I will not allow such a
thing, unless Israel grants the Palestinians their legitimate rights."
Source: Excerpted from Middle East Media Research [MEMRI]
(August 11, 2010). Al-Azhar Sheikh: The West Isn't Really Working For Peace in
the Middle East, Interfaith Dialogue Is Futile; Al-Azhar Clerics Oppose Ground
Zero Mosque; Al-Aqsa Research Academy Member Dr. Abd Al-Mu'ti Bayumi: Mosque Is
a 'Zionist Plot' That Could Link Islam to 9/11
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4518.htm
Antisemitism in the New Form of Holocaust Denials:
Deligimitization of Israel's Right to Exist
Shimon Samuels
Editor's Note: We have come to understand denials of
genocide are also closely linked to, if not direct expressions of antisemitism,
and that Holocaust-denial antisemitism is a call for renewed violence to destroy
the Jewish people - at least the homebase of the recovering Jewish people in
their Israel homeland.
The Mainstream European media have begun to discuss the
heretofore seemingly inconceivable: the physical re-disappearance of Jewish
sovereignty, whereas the Arab world debates the relative tactical value of: on
one hand, denying the Holocaust to undermine Israel's justification; and on the
other, condemning Nazism to lay the groundwork for a propaganda strategy of
equating Zionism with Nazism.
I witnessed delirium at the UN Human Rights Commission
some years ago in Geneva, where George Orwell would have updated his canons of
Newspeak: The Drafting Committee for World Conference Against Racism included
such paragons of Human Rights as Iran, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, etc...
Their drafts state:
* Anti-Semitism is anti-Arabism, therefore Zionism is
anti-Semitism;
* Holocaust denial is the Zionist denial of the Palestinian "Naqba" (their
catastrophe of 1948);
* The Jewish "holocaust" is subordinate to the twin "Black holocausts of slavery
and colonialism" (contributions by Egypt and Sudan);
* In the half century of the UNHCHR, Israel was the only state ever condemned
for "war crimes and crimes against humanity."
The bottom line is:
* If the Holocaust was a lie, let's make it a reality!
* Let us create a climate of tolerance for antisemitism
Source: Excerpted from Samuels, Shimon (2001). Applying
the lessons of the Holocaust from particularism to universalism and back.
Holocaust Teacher Resource Center. Retrieved from the Web May 17, 2010.
Dr. Shimon Samuels is the Director for International
Liaison at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Paris. The presentation was given at
the Association of Holocaust Organizations 16th Annual conference in Atlanta,
Georgia on June 2-5, 2001.
Bomb Plotter Receives
Life Sentence: 'I didn't mean it when I pledged allegiance to the U.S.'
Faisal Shahzad, who pleaded guilty to trying to blow up a
sport utility vehicle carrying a homemade bomb in May 2010 in Times Square in
New York told the court "The attempt in Times Square is a warning."
Shahzad claimed that the F.B.I.'s interrogation had violated his rights.
He warned that the attacks on Americans would continue until the United States
leaves Muslim lands. "I did swear [allegiance to the United States], but I
did not mean it," he said.
Video of Uganda Bombing and Survivor's Account at Final Match of World Cup in
Uganda
"Negotiations, dialogues and protests will not stop the
advancement of the enemies and their massacres, nothing will stop them but the
sword and the spear."
A video posted on a militant Web site calls for Muslims in
Nigeria to use "the sword and the spear" to rise up against Christians in
Africa's most populous nation. A translation of the video was released by
a U.S. group that monitors militant sites. The video appeared on the Ansar
al-Mujahideen forum, a Web site sympathetic to Al-Qaida. The video shows
television news footage and graphic images of those killed as a narrator tells
viewers, "The solution is jihad in the cause of Allah."
The narrator also says the "crusader West" is interested
in Nigeria for its abundant oil reserves. He also refers to President
Umaru Yar'Adua, a Muslim from northern Nigeria, as a "tyrant" who allowed for
the killing of a sect leader whose group's attacks on police stations and
rioting left more than 700 people dead in July 2010.
On "Atlas Shrugs," Pamela "Atlas" Geller, who is the
founder of the Web site, commented "Again and again they tell us, they warn us,
they attack. Again and again we say they don't mean it."
Sources:
Harmon, Kendall (March 12, 2010). Muslims must rise up in Nigeria
. Associated Press.
The Spectator (Retrieved August 19, 2010). Video
call for Muslims to kill Christians in Nigeria.
Atlas Shrugs (Retrieved March 16, 2010). Internet Video:
Muslims must rise up in Nigeria. http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/03/internet-video-muslims-must-rise-up-in-nigeria.html