‘Muslims and neo-Nazis’
Like an increasing number of commentators these days on current affairs, Melanie Phillips has lost all sense of proportion. Actually, she lost any sense of balance years ago but a recent rant shows how, like many others, all Muslims automatically get equated with being Nazis or anti-semitic.
Phillips was angry about a BBC Radio 4 documentary broadcast on Sunday titled A war Against Prejudice.
It looked at the work of the British Jewish defence organisation called the Community Security Trust (CST), and implied that statistics on attacks on Jews were inflated to give the organisation more relevance. No, it wasn’t going to go down too well.
She dismissed the two Jews on the programme who concurred with this view as “utterly unrepresentative of the mainstream Jewish community”, one simply because he was involved in Jewish-Muslim dialogue. Yeah, because that shouldn’t be allowed.
The third accuser was Inayat Bunglwala of the MCB and clearly makes an easy target because he’s not exactly an unbiased commentator. Cue some questions Bunglawala should be asked himself. Then this:
Anyone who talks to the police will know that the Jewish community in Britain has to be guarded against the very real threat of attack from both Muslims and neo-Nazis.Every single synagogue or communal event has to be guarded. It is a threat we Jews all live with, daily. We also have to live daily with the pathological hatred of Jewish nationhood that now courses through this country’s media, along with routine claims of a global Jewish conspiracy.
The words ‘mad’ and ‘freak’ come to mind. Melanie Phillips obviously loves competing with the MCB in the paranoid stakes.
If I understand her rightly, either most Britons are anti-semitic or every single Muslim is going around with a murderous anti-semitic agenda. No mention of the recent rise in attacks on Muslims but we’ll let it slide. She has a point to prove. Without statistics or anything, mind you.
There are two points to make here. Her assertion that Jews have to fear Muslims and neo-Nazis (together) is beyond despicable and, I guess, reflects the sorry state of her mind.
It is also interesting how her behaviour compares to the MCB’s. When the latter replied to the Observer’s accusations just before the Panorama documentary, it also tried to malign the dissenting voice of Abdul-Rehman Malik from Q-News by dismissing the magazine.
The Muslim Council of Britain was itself accused of the same charge as the CST earlier this year by Kenan Malik, saying it was hyping up Islamophobia.
Competition between religious groups to be labelled as ‘most sensitive’ and hype up paranoia has been going on for a while (and linked by HP). So the accusation is not beyond the realms of reality.
For Melanie Phillips though, this equates to anti-semitism and she uses the incident to once again slur all Muslims when all she needed to do was ask the MCB some legitimate but uncomfortable questions. So typical, and she has the audacity to accuse the BBC of ‘racist libel’.
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Filed in: Current affairs, Media, Religion
Jews are not quite under seige, but I can understand her line of thought though. All it needs is a few jewish kids to trash a mosque – that will do the trick.
north london v east london , im packing my bags to escape the impending civil war. another case of white flight.
We will be commenting on this on Points of Jew a bit later today or after Yom Kippur on Friday.
Meanwhile, how does Phillips rank Jew on Jew crime is it anti-semitic?
I can just about understand where she is coming from, but the reality is different.
As Jews we have every reason to be occasionally paranoid and that is exactly it, occasional. We can’t be paranoid 24/7.
Anyway here’s the piece on Jew on Jew violence.
http://www.pointsofjew.com/2005/10/neturei_karta_s.html
cheers
Leslie
Has anyone found the whole jewish moslem bloging amusing – or is it just me ? if you lot manage to sustain this and take it to the mainstream, there’ll be no need for the bnp. keep digging.
p.s. as a Daily Mail regular , i’m shocked at the extent to her disloyalty to the host nation. another case of multicultural-ism gone wrong. I thought she saw common sense,but then i read her blog and it turned out she was a cunning version of dilpazer aslam. Deport this traitor back to the Guardian where she started.
. . and we all know who’s actually under seige . Me.
These are difficult times so perhaps some over-sensitivity is understandable. However, because of this sensitivity, I believe she would have better asserted that Jews have to fear Islamists or extremists – which they clearly do – rather than that they have to fear Muslims – which could easily be construed as ‘all Muslims’.
Where is the evidence to show that Jews are under-seige? There might be the odd anti-semitic crime but ow does that compare to the current climate of hostility to all Muslims (rather than just Islamists).
If anything, the MCB has more reason to be paranoid than “Mad dog” Phillips about violence towards Muslims. When they say something – they are dismissed, but I’m supposed to take MP’s word to heart am I? Bollocks to that.
T Nathan – All it needs is a few jewish kids to trash a mosque – that will do the trick.
And it takes a few white kids to spit in the face of a woman with a hijab or desecrate a mosque. Your point is?
It is curious, though, that the questions raised by the Radio 4 programme echo in part questions raised by David Irving in his “Focal Point” website (eg in relation to training, equipment, relations with the security services).
Al-Hack:
“Where is the evidence to show that Jews are under-seige”
Are you serious?
Have you ever seen the demands made the Fascist MCB?
They want your country to stop commemorating the holocaust ? that is despicable.
You cannot deny that europe wide, anti semitism is increasing and indeed encouraged by the muslims and neo nazis…
have you sen the latest numbers for jews emigrating to israel from the european mainland, especially france?
All this doesn’t mean that muslims are not being discriminated against in europe. I can only imagine the everyday humiliations suffered by brown skin youth on the continent.
I guess what I am trying to say that anti semitism and muslim bashing doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive.
An entry on this (just in time before I need to fast for Yom Kippur) is now up on Points of Jew.
http://www.pointsofjew.com/2005/10/are_we_starting.html
The last two paragraphs:
All the money Phillips makes out of her writing, how much of that is ploughed back into supporting the community? You see, sometimes, writing about the bad things is quite lucrative that you will keep on doing it because it pays well.
We need people like Phillips, if only to show the world that not all Jews are like this.
There’s more than enough anti-semitism, anti-Muslim sentiments and other examples of prejudice, racism and religious hatred. We don’t have to get into a “we get it worse than they do” debate.
Rabbi Hillel said “That which is hateful to you, do not to your neighbour. That is the Torah. The rest is commentary.” Christ said “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”. I don’t know much of what is said in the Koran but I strongly suspect that there must be something similar.
What are we saying?
Melanie Philips is barking.
Doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem with anti-semitism, or predujice against jews. There is.
The great rabbi the Baal Shem Tov said:
“It’s a mitzvah (worthy deed) to be happy”
I like that.
Leslie
The two main points you make, Sunny, are that she attacks the standing of people who disagree with her and that she is promoting a paranoid mindset, where any disagreement with her is taken as evidence of anti-semitism.
Underlying that you are holding this up as a mirror to Muslim commentators: they sometimes attack internal critics as being unrepresentative of Muslims, therefore not to be trusted, and they sometimes interpret external criticism as evidence of Islamophobia.
Phillips’ argument is fair enough on the face of it. She thinks attacks on Jews are increasing and that some of this increase is due to prejudiced Muslims. She feels her evidence was treated by the documentary makers as inherently suspect, while those of her critics were treated as authoritative. I can understand that would irritate her and make her question the objectivity and the motives of the film-makers.
I’m sure this is how MCB felt about the Panorama documentary about them as well.
The mass media is full of propaganda masquerading as analysis. And we have to get used to consuming it as sceptically as we would read Pravda or the local Labour Party news-sheet. Otherwise we will all end up as disillusioned as Melanie Phillips – believing that we are being singled out for attack because we are Jewish, Muslim, whatever.
What is harder to overcome is paranoia – the kind of egocentric chauvanism that would interpret any criticism of Israeli army occupation as veiled anti-semitism, or any criticism of Sudan Govt human rights abuses as veiled Islamophobia. For any progress, we have to be able to talk to and listen to each other without assuming the worst motivations, otherwise we’re just talking to ourselves.
Arif,
Thanks.
Arif – paranoia is everywhere, and because it is a very psychological thing, it is unlikely that anything we say will assauge the fears of Melanie Phillips or the MCB.
My point was to firstly compare how similar they’re acting, and secondly point out how an increasing number of commentators like MP, and even Nick Cohen sometimes, brand all Muslims as anti-semitic.
Yes there is prejudice. Muslims face it, Jews and even Sikhs (mistaken for Muslims) do. Such is life.
For some organisations its useful to exaggerate this threat or push the agenda in such a way that strengthens their position. the MCB do it, and even maybe the CST. MP though sees any questioning of the CST as anti-semitic propaganda but would probably swallow anything negative said about the MCB. Such is her hypocrisy.
Anti-semetic? Isn’t Jewish/Muslim violence intra-semetic, as it’s perhaps the oldest running sibling rivalry in history?
“It’s a terrible tragedy except for any girls who were saved undergoing the savagery of FGM, and then being married off to some bastard who would basically rape her every time he felt the urge for the rest of her life.”
–Random comment on the Pakistan earthquake – via LGF Watch
“Is Zionism a form of fascism (falangism)?”
–Random comment made on Harry’s Places
When seeing the first comment, why is it not overly offensive to Melanie Phillips and her ilk (Hello Harry’s Place)? And why is the second tantamount to “rabid anti-Semitism”?
I think the reason is because people like Melanie Phillips are much more stridently vocal and successful with her propounding her views than the MCP can ever hope to be – because she has a captive audience. And secondly, she is extremely representative of the voices on the so called “progressive” blogs such as Harry’s Place and others on their blogroll. Spend 5 minutes reading their comments boxes and you’ll see what I mean.
Why pick on Melanie Phillips specifically?
Melanie Phillips talks a lot of sense. She wasn’t saying that all Muslims are going to attack Jews, merely that attacks on Jews will either be from Neo Nazis or Muslims.
In France most attacks on Jews have come from young Muslim men. A report showing this was suppressed on the grounds that it would be offensive to Muslims.
The Koran itself compares Jews to apes and pigs, so it is hardly surprising that many Muslims have a less than favourable attitude towards Jews.
The Koran itself compares Jews to apes and pigs, so it is hardly surprising that many Muslims have a less than favourable attitude towards Jews
er, no it doen’t. Buts that the kind of falsehood propounded by Harry’s Place and Little Green Footballs, and you provide an excellent example of a troll from those two blogs who dishes out this kind of bollocks. Thank you for playing.
And Allah was so disgusted with Jews that he transformed them into apes and pigs. (Sura 5:60/65, 2:65 and 7:166).
My pleasure.
005.060
YUSUFALI: Say: “Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil;- these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path!”
PICKTHAL: Shall I tell thee of a worse (case) than theirs for retribution with Allah? (Worse is the case of him) whom Allah hath cursed, him on whom His wrath hath fallen and of whose sort Allah hath turned some to apes and swine, and who serveth idols. Such are in worse plight and further astray from the plain road.
SHAKIR: Say: Shall I inform you of (him who is) worse than this in retribution from Allah? (Worse is he) whom Allah has cursed and brought His wrath upon, and of whom He made apes and swine, and he who served the Shaitan; these are worse in place and more erring from the straight path.
Apes and Pigs alright. But no mention of Jews in translations by Ali, Pickthall or Shakir. “Those who incurred the Wrath” refers to what people of the “Old Testament”. And guess what – they were Jews. Just like they are in the Old testament.
Do you want to deal with the historical antipathy that Christians have towards Jews for dealing Jesus to the Romans? Or the Jewish concept of calling Gentiles Untermenschen (subhumans)?
If you want to use Scripture, there’s no lack of politically incorrect scandals in the Old Testament.
Come on, lets have you.
OP – What are you now, an Arabic expert? Does the word ‘commentary’ mean anything to you? I suggest you do a bit more reading before just copying verses here willy-nilly and making yourself look foolish.
Jews are clearly meant, since the reference is to Sabbath breakers. Keeping the Sabbath was a commandment that could only apply to jews.
Do you want to deal with the historical antipathy that Christians have towards Jews for dealing Jesus to the Romans? Or the Jewish concept of calling Gentiles Untermenschen (subhumans)?
Irrelevant, not following Jesus. Muslims who curse Jews are doing just what Mohammed did.
Irrelevant, not following Jesus.
Sorry, I didn’t realise this discussion was about you.
Hahahaha! You smacked it Siddharth
Siddarth –
“His wrath hath fallen and of whose sort Allah hath turned some to apes and swine, and who serveth idols. Such are in worse plight and furthe”r astray from the plain road.”
seems the koran explicitly mentions the choice treatment for the idol worshippers.
anyhow, the problem is that christians or jews are not using the old testament to blow up things……but a very small minority of muslims are and a over whelming majority o.f mulsims do condone that.
Old Pickler
You’re full of shit. I could pick your argument apart, but you’re so tiresome and I know it will achieve nothing. Go back to Harry’s Place where your brand of poisonous selective and ahistorical racism will be more than welcome. And soil this blog no more.
OP – your policy of selectively using quotes and trolling others isn’t really going to be tolerated here. If you want to comment, stick to the point or don’t bother. This ain’t Jihadwatch or LGF full of little bigots hiding behind verses.
OK, fair enough.