Muslims Combating Anti-Semitism

[Solomon2]

Anav Silverman / Tazpit News Agency

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Muslims Combating Anti-Semitism

MAY 30, 2013 12:09 PM 13 COMMENTS

Hafeez Kasim. Photo: : Anav Silverman, Tazpit News Agency


A small, but increasingly vocal number of Muslims are rejecting radical hate speech and combating anti-Semitism in the Muslim world. In the recent Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism held this week in Jerusalem, Palestinian Media Watch director, Itamar Marcus and Dr. Boaz Ganor organized a panel discussion with Muslim activists actively rejecting hate rhetoric.

Two of the panel speakers included Kasim Hafeez, a British Muslim who runs The Israel Campaign and Rev. Majed El Shafie, a human rights advocate originally from Egypt. Ahmad Mansour, a Palestinian living in Berlin, who is a policy adviser for the European Foundation for Democracy, was also scheduled to speak but was unable to attend.

“When people say that anti-Semitism exists in the Muslim world because of Israel, that is simply an excuse,” says Kasim Hafeez, born in Britain to a Pakistani Muslim family.

“People here [in Israel] get Islamic anti-Semitism. In Europe, we deny it,” Hafeez expounded.

“As a university student, I would attend radical anti-Israel rallies in Trafalgar Square. Here I am standing in London in the middle of a European capital – chanting ‘death to Israel’ and nothing was ever done.”

He compares those rallies with the Ku Klux Klan. “An Al-Quds Day rally in London is equivalent to a KKK rally in the US,” he stressed.

Hafeez told Tazpit News Agency that he began to change his thinking when he read A Case for Israel, by Alan Dershowitz.

Hafeez explains that he read the book in order to learn how to further deconstruct Zionist propaganda. “But I began to see that I could no longer support my convictions because I had no answers to the arguments that were made for Israel,” he explains.

Rev. Majed El Shafie. Photo: Anav Silverman/Tazpit News Agency.

“I found that the radical Islamic doctrine that I grew up with and my own belief in violent jihad could no longer support the truth I once believed in.”

That realization prompted Hafeez to visit Israel. “I kind of hoped that the visit to Israel would be a negative experience, that it would enable me to go back to my former beliefs,” he told Tazpit News Agency.

But the visit was eye-opening for Hafeez, who says he fell in love with Israel during his first trip. “It’s hard not to support Israel,” says the soft-spoken Hafeez, who recently participated in the Jerusalem Marathon. “I encountered Israelis who weren’t anti-Arab, or anti-Islam and saw that this wasn’t some apartheid state.”

However, coming out in support of Israel hasn’t been easy. Hafeez has become isolated from his friends. “It’s a lot of hassle – it really disrupts your life when you become vocal and open about your support for the Jewish state.”

“What people don’t understand, is that it doesn’t matter if you bend over backwards for radical Islamists. If you are Jewish, they will hate you no matter what,” Hafeez said.

Rev. Majed El Shafie, the founder of One Free World International (OFWI), a leading organization which advocates for religious minorities globally, echoed similar sentiments. A Muslim who converted to Christianity, he found political asylum in Canada and believes that the silence of moderate Muslims is more dangerous than the rise of extremists.

“They [moderate Muslims] must speak up,” says Rev. El Shafie. “Anti-Semitism is everyone’s problem. The moderate Muslims don’t understand that after the radical Muslims finish with the Christians, Bahai, and Jews, they will come after them. The minute we stop fighting for each other, we lose our humanity,” he added.

Rev. El Shafie believes that education is the solution to radicalization and is the only way to bring forth democracy in the Middle East. “The Arab Spring is a cold deadly winter. Whoever came up with the term ‘Arab Spring’ must have been a guy in a suit behind a desk who had no idea what was really going on.”

“Today all these dictatorships that have been overthrown are filled with extremist governments. There is no separation of religion and state and no freedom of religion in the Middle East. Education must come before democracy”

As for Israel, Rev. El Shafie declares that there are two things that the Jewish state cannot be questioned for. “When Israel’s right to exist and Israel’s right to defend itself, come into question, a line has been crossed,” he stated. “The new anti-Semitism today is to hate Israel.”

 

[Kompromat]

Wouldn't it be nice to have Jews,combating 'Islamophobia' too?

Any thoughts solomon?

 

[Solomon2]

Wouldn't it be nice to have Jews,combating 'Islamophobia' too?
Any thoughts solomon?

I'm thinking that we cannot count Aeronaut among those Muslims who combat anti-semitism or else he wouldn't be trying to change the subject.

 

[Yzd Khalifa]

Wouldn't it be nice to have Jews,combating 'Islamophobia' too?

Any thoughts solomon?

Pamela Geller!

 

[Kompromat]

One way circut never works, thats my case.

Aeronaut has good non zionist jewish friends.

 

[Pakistanisage]

I reject the argument that Muslims are Anti-Semitic. We Muslims rarely ever saw anything Anti-Semitic and when we do it is out of Ignorance. First of all, by definition many of our fellow Muslims are Semites ( for example Arabs, Persians etc.), so it is ridiculous that we would say anything Anti-Semitic. I love my Jewish Brothers and Sisters and cannot imagine saying anything against them.

I have however no love for ZIONISM ( which is a Political Philosophy) and frequently take Zionist to task. Although some of our Jewish cousins are Zionist, not every Jew is a Zionist and by the same token not all Zionist are all Jews. There are Christian, Hindu and even Muslim Zionist.

I hope people make a distinction between being Anti-Zionist is not the same thing as Anti-Semitic ( by which they really mean as Anti-Jewish). We have a lot in common with our Jewish Brothers and Sisters. We worship the same God ( God of Adam and Abraham and Muhammad, Peace be upon them). We are both circumsized people, lol. Our dietary rules are somewhat similar. Many of the Companions of Prophet Muhammad who converted to Islam were Jews and were very well respected members of the nascent Islamic Community during Prophet's lifetime.

BTW, historically, whenever Jews were weak, Muslims came to their aid. When Muslims ruled Spain, Jews held high level positions in the administration. Under the Muslim rule in Spain, Sephardic Jews flourished and prospered and made many contributions to the Rabbinical doctrine. However, all hell broke loose on the Muslims and Jews when Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand defeated Muslims in 1492. In the post 1492 era, both Jews and Muslims were told to either convert to Christianity or leave Spain. Those that decided to stay and refused to convert to Christianity were slaughtered.

When the Christian Crusaders occupied Jerusalem, they kicked all the Jews out of the holy lands. The first act of Salahuddin Ayubbi, after he recaptured Holy lands was to invite the Jews back.

Even in Turkey, Ottoman empire welcomed Jews in their areas with open arms. It was Ottomans who let Zionist enter Palestine in the late nineteenth Century.

These are some of the historical facts.

I have never felt anything other than love for Jewish friends and being a New Yorker, I have tons of Jewish Friends.

 

[Solomon2]

Aeronaut has good non zionist jewish friends.

Is there even one Pakistani who can pick out the fallacy here?