Another day, another show but the UN continues along its immoral path. Iran's president (hard to bring myself to even write his nanme - yes I can spell it!) claims "The dignity, decency and rights of the American and European nations are being manipulated by a small but cunning group of people called Zionists… who control the important centers of the economy and the decision-making… It is troubling to see that a number of leading presidents and [presidential] candidates from large countries are visiting these people, participating in their conventions… and are committed to their interests… These facts indicate that the American people and the European states are forced to give in to the demands and whims of a small group of materialistic and invasive people… and to waste their resources and dignity on the crimes of the occupiers and the threats of the Zionist network against their will."
Following this speech, Ahmadinejad received the applause of heads of state, diplomats and dignitaries. Now, to add insult further, Iran is seeking a seat on the UN Security Council. Sick, sick,sick
Meanwhile in the UK, Islamisation continues to affect life in a slow and steadily increasing way.The Mail Online reports that the passport photo of 5 year old girl was banned 'in case it offends Muslims'
The post office clerk stunned the girl's parents by claiming the skin exposed by her daughter's halter-neck dress would not be accepted by the Passport Office as it might prove unacceptable in a Muslim country.
An official spokesman said: 'Our offices have a Passport Office template which says what the photograph should and shouldn't be.'Bare shoulders don't come into that at all. We can't see any instruction to that effect so all we can do is apologise to Mrs Edwards. It was clearly a mistake made by the clerk."
Of course, some would say I am overreacting, however Diane West writing in Townhall.com http://townhall.com/Common/PrintPage.aspx?g=b87e3c06-fc12-4356-b876-b4cfb68fa5e0&t=c states "With Wall Street convulsing, and the White House race intensifying, the question "Who lost Europe" is on no one's lips, let alone minds. Indeed, the question begs another: "Is Europe lost?"
The answer to the second question is, "No, not yet." And losing Europe, I would add, is by no means inevitable. But that doesn't mean the continent isn't currently hell-bent to accommodate the dictates of Islamic law, bit by increasingly larger bit. Such a course of accommodation, barring reversal, will only hasten Bernard Lewis' famous prediction that Europe will be Islamic by century's end. "
Just as the Jews of Germany could not accept what was happening to them and buried their heads in the sands, ostrich style in the 1930's, so many in Europe are today doing exactly the same - will the human race ever learn?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Life Goes On in Spite of Economic Woes
Now, where was I? What was I planning to do? Oh well, there goes my memory again!!
Well now there is hope with work carried out at the University of Haifa. A protein essential in long-term memory consolidation has been identified at the University of Haifa.
As the process of memory creation and consolidation is the first to be affected in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, understanding the biological mechanisms of the process brings us one step closer to finding a treatment for these diseases, said chief researcher Prof. Kobi Rosenblum, who published the study in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience.
The full story can be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221745575471&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
And so life goes on inspite of the politics, elections both here and overseas, the economies etc.
On a totally different track Kfar Saba became the first city in Israel, and perhaps in the world to adopt a master plan to become a sustainable, environmentally friendly city.
A team of experts spent a year compiling a comprehensive plan to overhaul everything from light bulbs to transportation to construction. Parts of the plan will already be adopted in 2009, Kfar Saba Mayor Yehuda Ben-Hemo said upon accepting the report and all of its recommendations.
To cite just a few of the many and diverse proposals, all building from now on will be green building focusing on energy saving, alternative energy sources and similar elements. On a smaller scale, the city will convert all streetlights and traffic lights to energy-saving bulbs.
The team of experts suggested creating a broad system of bike paths to encourage nonpolluting transportation. In addition, they suggested creating a rent-a-bike system like the one that currently serves Paris. The experts also recommended exploring the use of cleaner or smaller buses for public transportation.
The municipality plans to become an example to residents of sustainable living. It will also report to residents on its progress and environmental issues in a transparent manner.
The city plans to reduce paper use in schools by 10 percent within three years and to create green councils in half the schools now and the rest within five years. Pupils will be encouraged to conduct research projects on environmental issues and recycling will be stressed both for schools and in the community at larger.
The full report can be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221745575870&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Well now there is hope with work carried out at the University of Haifa. A protein essential in long-term memory consolidation has been identified at the University of Haifa.
As the process of memory creation and consolidation is the first to be affected in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, understanding the biological mechanisms of the process brings us one step closer to finding a treatment for these diseases, said chief researcher Prof. Kobi Rosenblum, who published the study in the prestigious journal Nature Neuroscience.
The full story can be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221745575471&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
And so life goes on inspite of the politics, elections both here and overseas, the economies etc.
On a totally different track Kfar Saba became the first city in Israel, and perhaps in the world to adopt a master plan to become a sustainable, environmentally friendly city.
A team of experts spent a year compiling a comprehensive plan to overhaul everything from light bulbs to transportation to construction. Parts of the plan will already be adopted in 2009, Kfar Saba Mayor Yehuda Ben-Hemo said upon accepting the report and all of its recommendations.
To cite just a few of the many and diverse proposals, all building from now on will be green building focusing on energy saving, alternative energy sources and similar elements. On a smaller scale, the city will convert all streetlights and traffic lights to energy-saving bulbs.
The team of experts suggested creating a broad system of bike paths to encourage nonpolluting transportation. In addition, they suggested creating a rent-a-bike system like the one that currently serves Paris. The experts also recommended exploring the use of cleaner or smaller buses for public transportation.
The municipality plans to become an example to residents of sustainable living. It will also report to residents on its progress and environmental issues in a transparent manner.
The city plans to reduce paper use in schools by 10 percent within three years and to create green councils in half the schools now and the rest within five years. Pupils will be encouraged to conduct research projects on environmental issues and recycling will be stressed both for schools and in the community at larger.
The full report can be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221745575870&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Academics for Israel??
It is hard to understand how academics who are, in principle, supposed to deal in facts seem to be able to make sweeping statements that cannot be backed up with facts. In two cases in which I have been involved in “debates” with anti Israel members of the public in the UK, the discussions on water rights and human rights came to an end when, after 3 or 4 rounds of e-mails, I was accused of “not being prepared to debate the issues, I insist on quoting facts”!!!
Israel Academia Monitor, which through its website: www.israel-academia-monitor.com reports on libelous articles, lectures and statements by a large number of Israel’s senior university lecturers and professors. For a full article see http://truthandsurvival.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/israel-academia-monitor/ . Much of what is propagated by these supposed “experts”, is based on half-truths and apparent antipathy for their homeland. Some even have questionable affiliations with other elements hostile to the State of Israel.
Goebbels in World War II is often quoted as saying the “a lie continually repeated becomes the truth” It’s amazing that academics even exist, and more amazing that they are allowed to use their prestigious positions to hawk their nefarious wares. After all, Israel is the ongoing victim of the Big Big Lie, as no other nation has been. And few people in Israel or abroad should be able to recognize the lie as well as these academics. The Lie, promoted through countless media sources and the various United Nations agencies, is that Israel wantonly and forcibly usurped the lands of the hapless Arabs of Palestine, and compounds the felony by subjecting them to humiliating roadblocks, erects huge walls surrounding their towns and villages, imposes curfews, preventing them from receiving hospital treatment, and generally bombs them to smithereens every now and then. (What many people choose to ignore is that the roadblocks, security walls and curfews are what stopped the daily terror attacks against Israel between the years 2000 to 2004.)
Anyone who really knows what’s going on in the Middle East, understands that the grim impression that much of the world has of Israel is a based on half-truth, shrewd selective omission and outright lie. The reality is that tiny Israel, which has always had a Jewish presence, has needed from the outset, to contend with an ongoing Arab quest to plunder this land from the Jews, while staving off genocide. A generation ago, the Arabs weren’t bashful to spell out their intentions. This reality has been craftily been turned on its head by Israel’s many enemies, and most of the world has accepted the Big Lie.
Statements from one academic tells the world that Israel is an apartheid state (clearly he knows nothing about Apartheit) but the world laps it up. Another academic goes one better with: “Israel is a terrorist state worse than the Hamas” whilst one with masochistic disloyalty, called for a worldwide boycott of Israeli universities!
It’s hardly surprising, therefore, when a Hebrew University graduate student submitted a thesis in which she comments that the absence rape of Arab women by Israeli soldiers indicates that Jews are racists and oppressors, who do not even regard Arab women as sexually desirable. Even creditable norms, when evinced by Israel, is seen as bad in the eyes of these woefully misguided so-called intellectuals.
The whole subject of academic disloyalty against one’s own country is multifaceted. Most of these people were once very loyal citizens of Israel. Many were idealists, spending years setting up agricultural settlements on Israel’s borders or serving in elite combat units, often in command positions. This in itself presents a unique study in Israel’s history. But one day, their perfidy will be recorded in the history books for all time.
Israel Academia Monitor, which through its website: www.israel-academia-monitor.com reports on libelous articles, lectures and statements by a large number of Israel’s senior university lecturers and professors. For a full article see http://truthandsurvival.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/israel-academia-monitor/ . Much of what is propagated by these supposed “experts”, is based on half-truths and apparent antipathy for their homeland. Some even have questionable affiliations with other elements hostile to the State of Israel.
Goebbels in World War II is often quoted as saying the “a lie continually repeated becomes the truth” It’s amazing that academics even exist, and more amazing that they are allowed to use their prestigious positions to hawk their nefarious wares. After all, Israel is the ongoing victim of the Big Big Lie, as no other nation has been. And few people in Israel or abroad should be able to recognize the lie as well as these academics. The Lie, promoted through countless media sources and the various United Nations agencies, is that Israel wantonly and forcibly usurped the lands of the hapless Arabs of Palestine, and compounds the felony by subjecting them to humiliating roadblocks, erects huge walls surrounding their towns and villages, imposes curfews, preventing them from receiving hospital treatment, and generally bombs them to smithereens every now and then. (What many people choose to ignore is that the roadblocks, security walls and curfews are what stopped the daily terror attacks against Israel between the years 2000 to 2004.)
Anyone who really knows what’s going on in the Middle East, understands that the grim impression that much of the world has of Israel is a based on half-truth, shrewd selective omission and outright lie. The reality is that tiny Israel, which has always had a Jewish presence, has needed from the outset, to contend with an ongoing Arab quest to plunder this land from the Jews, while staving off genocide. A generation ago, the Arabs weren’t bashful to spell out their intentions. This reality has been craftily been turned on its head by Israel’s many enemies, and most of the world has accepted the Big Lie.
Statements from one academic tells the world that Israel is an apartheid state (clearly he knows nothing about Apartheit) but the world laps it up. Another academic goes one better with: “Israel is a terrorist state worse than the Hamas” whilst one with masochistic disloyalty, called for a worldwide boycott of Israeli universities!
It’s hardly surprising, therefore, when a Hebrew University graduate student submitted a thesis in which she comments that the absence rape of Arab women by Israeli soldiers indicates that Jews are racists and oppressors, who do not even regard Arab women as sexually desirable. Even creditable norms, when evinced by Israel, is seen as bad in the eyes of these woefully misguided so-called intellectuals.
The whole subject of academic disloyalty against one’s own country is multifaceted. Most of these people were once very loyal citizens of Israel. Many were idealists, spending years setting up agricultural settlements on Israel’s borders or serving in elite combat units, often in command positions. This in itself presents a unique study in Israel’s history. But one day, their perfidy will be recorded in the history books for all time.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Dear World - I have some questions
In this morally corrupt world, a contact of mine states that Israel is not asking for admiration or special treatment! We simply demand the end of the double standard in treatment of Israel! Anti-Semitism must end! He poses the following questions:-
Why is it
- that someone can say they support national movements, and yet oppose Zionism?
- that are there 22 Arab countries and the world doesn't have a problem with that, yet throw one Jewish country in the mix and you think the world was about to end.
- that the world hears public calls for the destruction of Israel again and again and does not care and yet if Israel called for the destruction of her enemies just once, what would the reaction be?
- that Hezbollah has rearmed itself with over 40,000 rockets and missiles in Lebanon, since the end of the '06 war, in flagrant violation of UN resolution 1701, while the UNIFIL has done absolutely nothing to stop them.
- that someone go to bed on June 4, 1967 as a Jordanian and wake up the next day as a Palestinian?
- that it should be Israel's responsibility to be responsible for self-imposed 'refugees', who have been supporting those who intended to destroy Israel?
- that Jews living on the land of their ancestors, given by G-d, be condemned but Islamic terrorism aimed at destruction of the state of Israel is widely tolerated and quietly supported by the international community?"
- that in a test of "True Friendship", the United States has turned down Israeli requests for military assistance in attacking Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel would not be allowed to fly over Iraq. Therefore Israeli jets might not be able to carry powerful enough bombs to do the job. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Russian state-owned company building Iran's Bushehr reactor announced that the construction of the reactor will reach a state of "no return" by early 2009. Nuclear watchdog experts have found 50-60 tons of UF6, uranium in gas, enough to produce five or six nuclear bombs, missing from Iran's main nuclear production facility. (Russia has no problems with helping the terror state to acquire nuclear capability. The United States does not fight war on terror, but have been forging expensive, feel-good show! Israel must disregard the international hypocrisy and duplicity!)
- that we must care about public opinion? An international poll in 17 countries showed that 7% of participants believe that Israel was behind the September 11th attacks in the United States. A large 15% said that the Bush administration had organized the attacks.
- that any national or religious group in the United States and any other country, be it Irish or Muslims, has a pattern of voting for a political representation in the government, based on their special interests and affiliation. Only the loyalty of Jewish voters is constantly questioned. U.S.
- that "official Confirmed' Borders" according to James Wallace, American consul general in Jerusalem, (confirmed that American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel that negotiations for a new Arab country) are being based on the Israeli borders that existed between 1949 and 1967. (Why not the borders that were allocated by the League of Nations for creation of Eretz-Israel in July 1922? Does it mean that the US is prepared to negotiate with Mexico the return of the South-West which is still occupied and colonised by the United States? And why does the US have the right to tell Israel what is the Jewish land? The State Department is so thoughtful in its dealings with Arabs!)
- that it is business as usual for Russia with missiles purchased by Syria can strike almost the entire territory of Israel. (And Russia complains about the sale of defensive weapons by Israel to Georgia?) The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it intends to sell an anti-missile shield to the United Arab Emirates for the nice sum of $7 billion. (It is all about money!)
Why is it
- that someone can say they support national movements, and yet oppose Zionism?
- that are there 22 Arab countries and the world doesn't have a problem with that, yet throw one Jewish country in the mix and you think the world was about to end.
- that the world hears public calls for the destruction of Israel again and again and does not care and yet if Israel called for the destruction of her enemies just once, what would the reaction be?
- that Hezbollah has rearmed itself with over 40,000 rockets and missiles in Lebanon, since the end of the '06 war, in flagrant violation of UN resolution 1701, while the UNIFIL has done absolutely nothing to stop them.
- that someone go to bed on June 4, 1967 as a Jordanian and wake up the next day as a Palestinian?
- that it should be Israel's responsibility to be responsible for self-imposed 'refugees', who have been supporting those who intended to destroy Israel?
- that Jews living on the land of their ancestors, given by G-d, be condemned but Islamic terrorism aimed at destruction of the state of Israel is widely tolerated and quietly supported by the international community?"
- that in a test of "True Friendship", the United States has turned down Israeli requests for military assistance in attacking Iran's nuclear facilities. Israel would not be allowed to fly over Iraq. Therefore Israeli jets might not be able to carry powerful enough bombs to do the job. Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the Russian state-owned company building Iran's Bushehr reactor announced that the construction of the reactor will reach a state of "no return" by early 2009. Nuclear watchdog experts have found 50-60 tons of UF6, uranium in gas, enough to produce five or six nuclear bombs, missing from Iran's main nuclear production facility. (Russia has no problems with helping the terror state to acquire nuclear capability. The United States does not fight war on terror, but have been forging expensive, feel-good show! Israel must disregard the international hypocrisy and duplicity!)
- that we must care about public opinion? An international poll in 17 countries showed that 7% of participants believe that Israel was behind the September 11th attacks in the United States. A large 15% said that the Bush administration had organized the attacks.
- that any national or religious group in the United States and any other country, be it Irish or Muslims, has a pattern of voting for a political representation in the government, based on their special interests and affiliation. Only the loyalty of Jewish voters is constantly questioned. U.S.
- that "official Confirmed' Borders" according to James Wallace, American consul general in Jerusalem, (confirmed that American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel that negotiations for a new Arab country) are being based on the Israeli borders that existed between 1949 and 1967. (Why not the borders that were allocated by the League of Nations for creation of Eretz-Israel in July 1922? Does it mean that the US is prepared to negotiate with Mexico the return of the South-West which is still occupied and colonised by the United States? And why does the US have the right to tell Israel what is the Jewish land? The State Department is so thoughtful in its dealings with Arabs!)
- that it is business as usual for Russia with missiles purchased by Syria can strike almost the entire territory of Israel. (And Russia complains about the sale of defensive weapons by Israel to Georgia?) The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it intends to sell an anti-missile shield to the United Arab Emirates for the nice sum of $7 billion. (It is all about money!)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
War on Christians in the Middle East
It is really amazing how the world at large has lost the ability to protest effectively at the moral outrages taking place almost daily. It seems that we have become anaesthetized to the actions against the many peoples that are being oppressed. Yes, you may say that the Palestinians are being oppressed but with the openly declared aim of Hamas and Hizbollah to destroy Israel and similar aims in the Fatah charter (still not amended), we are duty bound to our citizens to take whatever steps are necessary to protect them.
Now Rabbi Eckstein, a founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews gives a number of examples of what is not being reported in most of the international media.
a) An Islamic court in Shiraz, Iran, has just convicted two men of being infidels. Their crime? Converting to Christianity. The possible sentence? Death.
http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Shiraz+(Iran)
b) Not too far away in Saudi Arabia, an outraged father recently hacked his own daughter to death for the same "abomination." http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Saudi+Arabia
c) In the daily drumbeat of Mideast news, there is one story of historic proportion that goes nearly unreported: the persecution and systematic destruction in the Islamic world of some of the world's oldest Christian communities.
Sure, we hear when a Catholic bishop is murdered in Iraq, when machete-armed fanatics attack Egyptian Copt worshipers, http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Iraq or when churches are torched in Hamas-controlled Gaza http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Gaza+Strip .
d) But what about the jailing in Saudi Arabia of foreign workers for holding forbidden Christian prayers? Or the arrest in Pakistan of a Christian man for marrying a Muslim woman? http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Pakistan
e) Or the continuing problem of an Islamic educational system that teaches the young that Christians (as well as Jews) are "the descendants of apes and pigs"?
f) The pattern is nearly the same wherever extremist Islam holds sway. From Bangladesh http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bangladesh to Darfur http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Darfur,
g) Christians have become regular targets for Islamic thugs and the governments that back them. Just this month, a Pakistani court upheld the kidnapping, conversion and "marriage" to older Muslim men of two Christian sisters, aged 10 and 13.
h) Even in lands that are not under orthodox Sharia law, Christian communities feel the pressure of persecution. In constitutionally secular Turkey, a legally recognized Protestant church in the capital of <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Ankara> Ankara is under threat of closure by local police.
i) Many Christians in Islamic lands have become subject to such terror that they are fleeing the homelands their ancestors have known almost since the time of Jesus. Iraq's Christian sects now feel forced to pray in secret. Others simply leave. Although they comprise less than 4% of Iraq's population, Iraqi Christians now account for 40% of its refugees.
j) And what about Lebanon's once politically powerful Christian community that has already shrunk almost beyond recognition. http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Lebanon Thirty years ago, Lebanon was 60% Christian; today it is barely 25%. And the growing political power of
Iran-backed Hezbollah http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hezbollah is encouraging further departures.
Even in the Holy Land, where Jesus walked, there is an increasing Christian exodus from both the West Bank and Gaza. http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/West+Bank. Part of it surely stems from the continuing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But much of it results from a growing Islamic campaign to force Christians to sell their property and leave.
The only place in the Mideast where Christian communities continue to grow is in the Jewish State of Israel http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Israel. Israel's tolerance is logical. What people of faith know the dangers of religious persecution better than the people of Israel - especially those whose families originated in the Islamic world? Between 1948 and 1956 more than 850,000 Jews were forced to flee the Arab lands where their families had lived for centuries.
When, in 2001, Afghan fanatics destroyed two ancient statues of Buddha, the world was shocked. But between 1948 and 1967, when Islamic forces controlled the Holy City of Jerusalem,
http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Jerusalem there was a systematic campaign to erase the historic Jewish presence. Synagogues were destroyed and ancient Jewish gravestones carted away. Even today, the Palestinian Authority denies Israel's right to consider itself a Jewish state and denies the historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
If there is hope for true peace in the Middle East, it won't simply come from Israeli and Palestinian leaders shaking hands at a formal ceremony. It hinges on extremist Islam reforming its view of others. People of commitment and tolerance all around the world - Christians, Jews, Muslims and others - must speak out loudly and forcefully to prevent the Islamic world's Christians from suffering the same fate as its now all-but-nonexistent Jewish communities.
Now Rabbi Eckstein, a founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews gives a number of examples of what is not being reported in most of the international media.
a) An Islamic court in Shiraz, Iran, has just convicted two men of being infidels. Their crime? Converting to Christianity. The possible sentence? Death.
http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Shiraz+(Iran)
b) Not too far away in Saudi Arabia, an outraged father recently hacked his own daughter to death for the same "abomination." http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Saudi+Arabia
c) In the daily drumbeat of Mideast news, there is one story of historic proportion that goes nearly unreported: the persecution and systematic destruction in the Islamic world of some of the world's oldest Christian communities.
Sure, we hear when a Catholic bishop is murdered in Iraq, when machete-armed fanatics attack Egyptian Copt worshipers, http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Iraq or when churches are torched in Hamas-controlled Gaza http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Gaza+Strip .
d) But what about the jailing in Saudi Arabia of foreign workers for holding forbidden Christian prayers? Or the arrest in Pakistan of a Christian man for marrying a Muslim woman? http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Pakistan
e) Or the continuing problem of an Islamic educational system that teaches the young that Christians (as well as Jews) are "the descendants of apes and pigs"?
f) The pattern is nearly the same wherever extremist Islam holds sway. From Bangladesh http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Bangladesh to Darfur http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Darfur,
g) Christians have become regular targets for Islamic thugs and the governments that back them. Just this month, a Pakistani court upheld the kidnapping, conversion and "marriage" to older Muslim men of two Christian sisters, aged 10 and 13.
h) Even in lands that are not under orthodox Sharia law, Christian communities feel the pressure of persecution. In constitutionally secular Turkey, a legally recognized Protestant church in the capital of <http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Ankara> Ankara is under threat of closure by local police.
i) Many Christians in Islamic lands have become subject to such terror that they are fleeing the homelands their ancestors have known almost since the time of Jesus. Iraq's Christian sects now feel forced to pray in secret. Others simply leave. Although they comprise less than 4% of Iraq's population, Iraqi Christians now account for 40% of its refugees.
j) And what about Lebanon's once politically powerful Christian community that has already shrunk almost beyond recognition. http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Lebanon Thirty years ago, Lebanon was 60% Christian; today it is barely 25%. And the growing political power of
Iran-backed Hezbollah http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Hezbollah is encouraging further departures.
Even in the Holy Land, where Jesus walked, there is an increasing Christian exodus from both the West Bank and Gaza. http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/West+Bank. Part of it surely stems from the continuing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But much of it results from a growing Islamic campaign to force Christians to sell their property and leave.
The only place in the Mideast where Christian communities continue to grow is in the Jewish State of Israel http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Israel. Israel's tolerance is logical. What people of faith know the dangers of religious persecution better than the people of Israel - especially those whose families originated in the Islamic world? Between 1948 and 1956 more than 850,000 Jews were forced to flee the Arab lands where their families had lived for centuries.
When, in 2001, Afghan fanatics destroyed two ancient statues of Buddha, the world was shocked. But between 1948 and 1967, when Islamic forces controlled the Holy City of Jerusalem,
http://www.nydailynews.com/topics/Jerusalem there was a systematic campaign to erase the historic Jewish presence. Synagogues were destroyed and ancient Jewish gravestones carted away. Even today, the Palestinian Authority denies Israel's right to consider itself a Jewish state and denies the historic Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
If there is hope for true peace in the Middle East, it won't simply come from Israeli and Palestinian leaders shaking hands at a formal ceremony. It hinges on extremist Islam reforming its view of others. People of commitment and tolerance all around the world - Christians, Jews, Muslims and others - must speak out loudly and forcefully to prevent the Islamic world's Christians from suffering the same fate as its now all-but-nonexistent Jewish communities.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Why are Muslims Powerless?
Dr Farrukh Saleem http://jang.com.pk/thenews/columnists/furrukh/index.html is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist. In a recent article he asks "why are Jews so powerful?" His answer: Education.
He then goes on to ask "why are Muslims so powerless?"
UNIVERSITIES
There are 57 member-countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and all of them put together have around 500 universities;one university for every three million Muslims. The United States has 5,758 universities and India has 8,407. In 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong University compiled an 'Academic Ranking of World Universities' , and intriguingly, not one university from Muslim-majority states was in the top-500.
LITERACY
As per data collected by the UNDP, literacy in the Christian world stands at nearly 90 per cent and 15 Christian-majority states have a literacy rate of 100 per cent. A Muslim-majority state, as a sharp contrast, has an average literacy rate of around 40 per cent and there is no Muslim-majority state with a literacy rate of 100 per cent.
Some 98 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world had completed primary school, while less than 50 per cent of the 'literates' in the Muslim world did the same. Around 40 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world attended university while no more than two per cent of the 'literate s' in the Muslim world did the same.
SCIENCE
Muslim-majority countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims. The US has 4,000 scientists per million and Japan has 5,000 per million. In theentire Arab world, the total number of full-time researchers is 35,000 and there are only 50 technicians per one million Arabs (in the Christian world there are up to 1,000 technicians per one million). Furthermore, the Muslim world spends 0.2 per cent of its GDP on research and development, while theChristian world spends around five per cent of its GDP.Conclusion: The Muslim world lacks the capacity to produce knowledge.
NEWSPAPERS
Daily newspapers per 1,000 people and number of book titles per million are two indicators of whether knowledge is being diffused in a society. In Pakistan , there are 23 daily newspapers per 1,000 Pakistanis while the same ratio in Singapore is 360. In the UK , the number of book titles per millionstands at 2,000 while the same in Egypt is 20.Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to diffuse knowledge.
Hi Tech
Exports of high technology products as a percentage of total exports are an important indicator of knowledge application. Pakistan 's exports of hightechnology products as a percentage of total exports stands at one per cent. The same for Saudi Arabia is 0.3 per cent; Kuwait , Morocco , and Algeria areall at 0.3 per cent while Singapore is at 58 per cent.Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to apply knowledge.
Why are Muslims powerless?Because we aren't producing knowledge.Why are Muslims powerless?Because we aren't diffusing knowledge.Why are Muslims powerless?Because we aren't applying knowledge.And, the future belongs to knowledge-based societies.Interestingly, the combined annual GDP of 57 OIC-countries is under $2 trillion. America, just by herself, produces goods and services worth $12 trillion; China $8 trillion, Japan $3.8 trillion and Germany $2.4 trillion (purchasing power parity basis).Oil rich Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar collectively produce goods and services (mostly oil) worth $500 billion; Spain alone produces goods and services worth over $1 trillion, Catholic Poland $489 billion and Buddhist Thailand $545 billion. (Muslim GDP as a percentage of world GDP is fast declining).
And if we are looking at education, let us compare what is being taught to children on Palestinian TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI2ivZA2-Z4.. Is this planning for peace??
He then goes on to ask "why are Muslims so powerless?"
UNIVERSITIES
There are 57 member-countries of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), and all of them put together have around 500 universities;one university for every three million Muslims. The United States has 5,758 universities and India has 8,407. In 2004, Shanghai Jiao Tong University compiled an 'Academic Ranking of World Universities' , and intriguingly, not one university from Muslim-majority states was in the top-500.
LITERACY
As per data collected by the UNDP, literacy in the Christian world stands at nearly 90 per cent and 15 Christian-majority states have a literacy rate of 100 per cent. A Muslim-majority state, as a sharp contrast, has an average literacy rate of around 40 per cent and there is no Muslim-majority state with a literacy rate of 100 per cent.
Some 98 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world had completed primary school, while less than 50 per cent of the 'literates' in the Muslim world did the same. Around 40 per cent of the 'literates' in the Christian world attended university while no more than two per cent of the 'literate s' in the Muslim world did the same.
SCIENCE
Muslim-majority countries have 230 scientists per one million Muslims. The US has 4,000 scientists per million and Japan has 5,000 per million. In theentire Arab world, the total number of full-time researchers is 35,000 and there are only 50 technicians per one million Arabs (in the Christian world there are up to 1,000 technicians per one million). Furthermore, the Muslim world spends 0.2 per cent of its GDP on research and development, while theChristian world spends around five per cent of its GDP.Conclusion: The Muslim world lacks the capacity to produce knowledge.
NEWSPAPERS
Daily newspapers per 1,000 people and number of book titles per million are two indicators of whether knowledge is being diffused in a society. In Pakistan , there are 23 daily newspapers per 1,000 Pakistanis while the same ratio in Singapore is 360. In the UK , the number of book titles per millionstands at 2,000 while the same in Egypt is 20.Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to diffuse knowledge.
Hi Tech
Exports of high technology products as a percentage of total exports are an important indicator of knowledge application. Pakistan 's exports of hightechnology products as a percentage of total exports stands at one per cent. The same for Saudi Arabia is 0.3 per cent; Kuwait , Morocco , and Algeria areall at 0.3 per cent while Singapore is at 58 per cent.Conclusion: The Muslim world is failing to apply knowledge.
Why are Muslims powerless?Because we aren't producing knowledge.Why are Muslims powerless?Because we aren't diffusing knowledge.Why are Muslims powerless?Because we aren't applying knowledge.And, the future belongs to knowledge-based societies.Interestingly, the combined annual GDP of 57 OIC-countries is under $2 trillion. America, just by herself, produces goods and services worth $12 trillion; China $8 trillion, Japan $3.8 trillion and Germany $2.4 trillion (purchasing power parity basis).Oil rich Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar collectively produce goods and services (mostly oil) worth $500 billion; Spain alone produces goods and services worth over $1 trillion, Catholic Poland $489 billion and Buddhist Thailand $545 billion. (Muslim GDP as a percentage of world GDP is fast declining).
And if we are looking at education, let us compare what is being taught to children on Palestinian TV http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI2ivZA2-Z4.. Is this planning for peace??
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
A Neighbor’s Child
Once again I have received a letter from my friend Larry at the Emek Medical Center in Israel. Again he recounts a story of the treatment of two Palestinian children who arrived at the hospital. I hope you find this story illuminating. For the staff at the hospital, it was just another day at the office.
On Friday afternoon, the 22nd of August, five-year old Hassan Shgadi was playing outside with his ten-year old brother. They live in the Palestinian village of Kfar Adja that is adjacent to Jenin. Both were barefoot when a large yellow scorpion (poisonous and deadly) aggressively attacked their feet. Both boys were stung, little Hassan in the big toe of his left foot and his big brother on his ankle.
Their anguished cries were heard by their mother and neighbors and they immediately rushed the two brothers to the Jenin Hospital. Anti-serum was administered to both, but Hassan’s condition quickly deteriorated to where his lungs began to fail and the physicians feared that they were losing him.
Frantic calls were made to the liaison officer on the Israeli side who is responsible for coordinating medical emergencies and getting a patient to an Israeli hospital. Precious time was ticking by and it was after midnight before the child was transferred from a Palestinian to an Israeli ambulance at the Jenin checkpoint manned by Israeli soldiers. Focus if you will for just a moment on a close up of that scene … Palestinian hands passing an unconscious and dying child into Israeli hands.
Five-year old Hassan arrived to Emek’s PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) at 3:00 AM, unconscious a
nd near death. It was the Sabbath in Israel, but a normal night for the physicians and nurses on staff In EMC. Hassan’s father, Kassam, arrived shortly thereafter. The boy was connected to an advanced life-support ventilator and the medical team began administering critical medications. Dr. Yossi Merzel, the Head of PICU explained, “The child’s lungs were inflamed beyond their capacity to function and he was extremely weak. We monitored his heart that was strong and we were hopeful that we could save him.”
Five days have gone by and only today, Thursday, 28th, little Hassan was taken off his ventilator and is breathing on his own. His father spoke to him briefly when the boy awoke. The first words out of Hassan’s mouth were his asking about his big brother and if he was ok. His brother was released from the Jenin Hospital after two days.
Dr. Merzel said that the boy should be going home early next week. Kassam, the father, could not say enough about the EMC medical staff and treatment that he received here. He was given a room next to the PICU and treated with dignity and respect.
Five-year old Hassan arrived to Emek’s PICU (Pediatric Intensive Care Unit) at 3:00 AM, unconscious a
nd near death. It was the Sabbath in Israel, but a normal night for the physicians and nurses on staff In EMC. Hassan’s father, Kassam, arrived shortly thereafter. The boy was connected to an advanced life-support ventilator and the medical team began administering critical medications. Dr. Yossi Merzel, the Head of PICU explained, “The child’s lungs were inflamed beyond their capacity to function and he was extremely weak. We monitored his heart that was strong and we were hopeful that we could save him.”Five days have gone by and only today, Thursday, 28th, little Hassan was taken off his ventilator and is breathing on his own. His father spoke to him briefly when the boy awoke. The first words out of Hassan’s mouth were his asking about his big brother and if he was ok. His brother was released from the Jenin Hospital after two days.
Dr. Merzel said that the boy should be going home early next week. Kassam, the father, could not say enough about the EMC medical staff and treatment that he received here. He was given a room next to the PICU and treated with dignity and respect.
I asked him, considering our mutual regional histories, if he has anything to say to the outside world. He answered in broken Hebrew, “When I stood next to the bed and saw the Jewish hands working to save my son – I understood in that moment that this is the essence of life. We are neighbors and we can live together. Nothing else matters.”
My grandson is also five years old. I couldn’t help comparing the two as I looked upon the sleeping Hassan. Two little boys, vulnerable and dependant upon the wisdom of the adults around them. I’m glad that we were able to save our neighbor’s child.
My grandson is also five years old. I couldn’t help comparing the two as I looked upon the sleeping Hassan. Two little boys, vulnerable and dependant upon the wisdom of the adults around them. I’m glad that we were able to save our neighbor’s child.
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