RELIGION: Jewish leaders defend Muslims

Some years back, a Malaysian prime minister had turned blaming Jews for the world's ills into an art-form. He blamed the Jewish heritage of at least one currency speculator for Malaysia's currency woes.

He then banned Schindler's List, a Steven Spielberg movie concerning a German businessman who saved some Jews from the Nazi death camps.

He even accused Jews of ruling the world by proxy, something which must have angered his Muslim supporters. I can just imagine how they would have responded.

"Does Dr Mahathir Mohamad think the Jews are stronger than Allah?"

... they would (or should) have asked themselves.

Muslim leaders in Australia at the time were silent over Mahathir's blasphemy. Jewish leaders were incensed. Australian politicians were too busy giving their shirt measurements for the next APEC summit to worry about the allegedly recalcitrant Asian leader.

Now, it seems Mahathir has an ally in such verbal gymnastics. And one from, of all places, a tiny strip of the earth's surface which Jews might rightly claim control of. Recently, a visiting Professor of Chinese and Islamic history from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem made some remarks about Muslims in general and Muslim migrants in particular.

On Thursday, Feb 15, 2007, the Australian Jewish News reported the comments of Prof Raphael Israeli, who teaches Chinese and Islamic History at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Israeli happily gave the newspaper's readers some advice on how the "war of words" was insufficient to oppose what he described as "this threat of Islam".

National headlines

"You have to adopt some kind of preventative policy. In order not to get there, limit the immigration and therefore you keep them a marginal minority, which will be a nuisance, but cannot pose a threat to the demographic and security aspects of a country And one of the big possibilities is Australia, so they will continue to come legally, or illegally, and settle here, and when they get to the rate of the 10 percent like in France, then you will see life will become untenable."

At one point, Israeli takes a cue from The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, claiming:

"Then they control whole sections of the economy, there are areas in France where you cannot be elected to Parliament without the support of the Muslims and so on. And therefore, by increasing their numbers they start to have an impact on the social, economic, political and cultural nature of the country."

Israeli concludes his conspiracy theory as follows:

"Muslim populations, which are very often minorities, very often abuse that hospitality and use democracy, openness and tolerance to their benefit, to spread their faith and to intimidate their hosts, and very often, to impose their standards and values upon them."

Israeli's comments made national headlines. He was lambasted by many in the mainstream media. He claimed that the Australian Jewish News had misconstrued, misunderstood and/or misquoted his words. But when asked to clarify his position on Muslim migration to Australia, Israeli said that countries whose Muslim populations reached a "critical mass" (usually 10%) would "have problems", and that this was "the general rule, so if it applies everywhere, it applies in Australia."

Muslim leaders silent

And just like the situation with Mahathir's remarks about Jews, Muslim leaders are largely silent. Jewish leaders (believe it or not) are by-and-large incensed. And Australian political leaders are too busy grovelling to visiting US Vice President Dick Cheney.

Thus far, only one Muslim community leader has spoken and written against Israeli. Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman and Melbourne lawyer Waleed Aly wrote a devastating critique of Israeli's remarks in the Melbourne Age on Feb 19, 2007. Here's how Aly disentangled Israeli's argument on the 10 percent Muslim minority scare:

"Rwandan Muslims were once held in low esteem. They were traders in a land where farmers held prestige. Moreover they were socially and politically negligible, constituting roughly five percent of the population, and largely confined to the unspectacular neighbourhood of Kigali. Then came the genocide of 1994 in which tribal violence between Hutus and Tutsis claimed 800,000 lives.

"Meanwhile, Kigali was a sanctuary. Muslims, both Hutu and Tutsi, resolved that they would stand against the genocide. When Hutu militias surrounded the neighbourhood, Hutu Muslims refused to co-operate. They hid Tutsis - Muslim and Christian - in their homes and in their mosques. Now, Islam in Rwanda is booming. Masses of Christians, incapable of returning to the churches in which their families were slaughtered, sickened at the thought of praying next to those who massacred them and listening to priests who sanctioned it, have converted to Islam. Today, Muslims constitute around 15 percent of the population."

Aly was alone among Muslim leaders. Not a single imam made a public statement. Nor did any leaders of Muslim organisations. So why would Muslim leaders be silent on such an outrageous attack on Muslim migrants?

They were too busy lobbying and being lobbied for votes at the upcoming elections of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC), Australia's peak Muslim body. The town is burning, and the foremen are too busy fighting over who should be given the keys to start the fire truck.

Jewish leaders to the defence

In an ironic twist of fate, Australian Jewish leaders were more effective in protecting and defending Muslim communities from Israeli's venom. On the same day his comments were reported, one of his sponsoring organisations (the Australia-Israel Jewish Affairs Council) issued a press release rejecting his comments. They further state that they 

"... will not be co-hosting any of his further appearances in Australia".

The CEO of the Sydney-based New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, said Israeli's comments 

"... do not reflect the position of the Jewish community and are unhelpful in the extreme". 

He reminded us of the Jewish community's 

"... strong record in fighting racism and condemn[ing] all expressions of bigotry".

Meanwhile, the only defence of Israeli came from the stable of newspapers owned by ex-Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch. His only broadsheet newspaper, The Australian, commissioned a column from Israeli which was published on Feb 22. He accused Jewish leaders of being two-faced, hypocritical and spineless for 

"... statements that were geared to placate Muslims".

The same newspaper published an article by a former Australian politician who claimed Australia's "Muslim problem" was a bigger threat than global warming and climate change.

Israeli also claimed in his defence that he had "been researching Islam in Europe". Yet anyone reading his resume on the Hebrew University website will discover the man has written virtually nothing on European Muslims in peer-reviewed academic journals. In fact, even Israeli's Chinese history credentials are nothing to boast about. He has not taught in mainland China even once, his only visit in the region being to Taiwan.

So there you have it, dear readers. Jew attacks Muslims whose leaders remain silent while Jewish leaders defend Muslims. Only in multicultural Australia!

(IRFAN YUSUF is a Sydney-based lawyer, writer and blogger whose articles and reviews have appeared in various newspapers including the Sydney Morning Herald , Melbourne Age , Canberra Times , Australian Financial Review and New Zealand Herald. First published in malaysiakini on 6 May 2007)