Meet the New Keysar Trad

Paul Sheehan's article in the SMH provoked a furious response From Mohamad Abdalla, the Head of the Griffith Islamic Research Unit.

Paul Sheehan said on Monday there are ''more than 100 verses in the Koran that call Muslims to violence against the Unbelievers''.
Relying on the dubious website Thereligionofpeace.com, he concludes that ''the Koran groans under the weight of its own contradictions, with entreaties to kindness co-existing with exhortations to merciless war''. It is questionable whether such an opinion is a result of a direct insight into Islam - or based merely on an old prejudice against Islam: that Islam is inherently violent and intolerant of others.

Wherever could someone get that idea? Then the old "out of context" argument.

Critics of Islam often quote out of context the Koran's more aggressive passages, arguing these could easily inspire and endorse terrorism.

This reminds me of the time we were told there was a difference between "rape" and, you know, "rape rape". It's all in the context, see?

They ignore that the Jewish and Christian scriptures can be just as aggressive, taken out of their historical context.

If by historical context he means hundreds of years ago, perhaps. Pretty sure no London or Sydney Rabbis are calling for the murder of non-Jews. Nor can I recall the last time the Church of England beheaded someone. Context people...

For example, the Old Testament says: ''Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man intimately. But all the girls who have not known man intimately, spare for yourselves'' (Numbers 31:17-18).

Get back to me when Fred Nile is stoning rape victims to death.

Crusaders used them against Muslims and Jews. Nazis used them against Jews. Serbian Christians used them against Bosnian Muslims. Zionists use them regularly against Palestinians.

Ahh "Zionists". Apparently they are "regularly" citing the Bible when they behead and suicide bomb Palestinians. No, wait.
I'm pretty sure no eighteen year old Israeli Defence Force conscript chases terrorists because of something he read in the Bible. I'd say it's more to do with the fact he's being shot and or on the receiving end of rocket-fire.

The display of violence and killing of innocent people are indicative of a radical, and indeed extremist, mindset that is fundamentally opposite to the teachings of Islam.

Except for those bits where it wasn't. Mohammed wasn't a "turn the other cheek" sort of prophet.

A more objective and scholarly reading of the causes of terrorism would inform us of a host of causal factors, including radical ideology; empathy and association with radicals, socio-economic factors, personal experiences, criminal activity, racism and Islamophobia.

Perhaps a less scholarly reading is in order. Socio-economic factors don't explain why wealthy Saudis smash planes into skyscrapers or why Yasser Arafat was worth billions. Poor bugger.

All of these factors play a role, one way or another, in the process of extremism and terrorism. The matter is thus complex, and it is culpably simplistic to attribute it to a single cause.

Fair enough. How about we blame on Islam and the weather then.

  Maybe I'm stupid, but could Mohamad Abdalla please explain to me the "proper textual and historical context" of a Muslim standing in broad daylight, his hands and a machete dripping with blood, reciting verses from the Koran? Perhaps I'm stupid and missed some subtle nuance.
The head of the Griffith Islamic Research Unit cites examples of Christianity and (because he couldn't help himself) Jewish violence from hundreds of years ago as a way of whitewashing Islamist violence today. I would suggest they turn some of their research towards a calendar and note what century this is.

Film Idea Inspired...

The blurb for a forthcoming Sci-Fi release "The Purge"

In an America wracked by crime and overcrowded prisons, the government has sanctioned an annual 12-hour period in which any and all criminal activity—including murder—becomes legal. The police can’t be called. Hospitals suspend help. It’s one night when the citizenry regulates itself without thought of punishment. On this night plagued by violence and an epidemic of crime, one family wrestles with the decision of who they will become when a stranger comes knocking.

Clearly they got the idea from Sweden's Police, currently doing nothing while the city burns.

Exclusive Publification

Antony Loewenstein redefines another word to suit his resume:

Australian publication New Matilda published my interview with journalist and author Jeremy Scahill yesterday. 

The "publication" is in fact a website. The only way it's getting printed is if someone presses Control-P.

The blurb therein:

Journalist Jeremy Scahill has spent his life exposing the dark recesses of US foreign policy. He talks independent media, drones and terror in this exclusive interview with Antony Loewenstein

Scahill had been interviewed by Phillip Adams on the ABC about a week earlier. Keep getting those scoops Antony...

Protesting violence.... Or not.

Let's say someone drew a cartoon of the Muslim prophet Mohammed. London's Muslims would be out in force.

If someone organised a protest against Israel, within hours there would be hundreds, if not thousands of angry Muslims marching in the street (ably assisted by their useful idiot friends of the Left).

Of course when a couple of Muslims hack a man to death on a London street, what can you expect? A few letters to the editor, some statements and that's about it. Oh, and outright endorsement of their violence.

Where is the protest against Jihad? Where is the protest against Islamist violence? It's not as though the Muslim community can't organise a crowd when it suits them.

Silence is acceptance. The silence is deafening.

Crapitalism

Guess who's about to launch his next surefire "bestseller"?

Antony Loewenstein's new book on "Vulture Capitalism" will be launched at that well-known centre of literary excellence, the Addison Road Community Centre.

The event is sponsored by Reverse Garbage. Honestly, this is too easy...

Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state. And yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres. Mining companies pillage precious land in developing countries. Struggling nations are invaded by NGOs and the corporate dollar. 

When dollars invade!

As his site history shows (in no less than 500 places), Antony is desperately attempting to make "Vulture Capitalism" a term for which he is given credit.

• If vulture capitalism could be defined at Florida Atlantic University ...

  Australia reinforces vulture capitalism on compliant Pacific island ...

  The democratic challenge faced by vulture capitalism

  Vulture capitalism shifts gear in Afghanistan

  What rampant vulture capitalism looks like in Afghanistan 

etc...

Unfortunately, just as Fetch isn't going to happen, neither is Antony's attempt. You see, the term "Vulture Capitalism" has existed in another meaning for over a decade and Antony didn't bother doing his research before he started writing. What's new?

Lucky it wasn't a cartoon...

Syrian hackers recently demonstrated that famous Islamist brand of humour and hacked The Onion.

The Onion responded, by taking the piss out of them.

DAMASCUS, SYRIA—After hacking into The Onion’s Twitter account earlier today, members of the Syrian Electronic Army confirmed that the organization simply wanted to have a little fun before soon dying at the hands of rebel forces.

Baby Boom

It has often been said there will only be peace when the Arabs love their own children more than they hate the Jews.

Here's what the Palestinian propaganda sheets ran:

Israeli medical error causes a child from Gaza to lose his four limbs

 

Al Qassam website- Gaza- Palestinian citizen from the city of Khan Younis in the  southern Gaza Strip revealed that due to a medical error committed by one of the Israeli hospitals, his child has lost his hands and feet.

Abu Ahed Farra, 37, said that their suffering has begun when his youngest son Mohammed, who was born in August 2009, started suffering from continuous diarrhea.

He said that doctors in Gaza were unable to diagnose his illness, so they moved him to an Israeli hospital, where he remained more than eight months hospitalized.

Notice how they moved him to an Israeli hospital? Can't you just feel that "apartheid"?

Oh, and here's what actually happened.

 In his short life, Palestinian toddler Mohammed al-Farra has known just one home: the yellow-painted children's ward in Israel's Tel Hashomer hospital.

Born in Gaza with a rare genetic disease, Mohammed's hands and feet were amputated because of complications from his condition, and the 3 1/2-year-old carts about in a tiny red wheelchair. His parents abandoned him, and the Palestinian government won't pay for his care, so he lives at the hospital with his grandfather."There's no care for this child in Gaza, there's no home in Gaza where he can live," said the grandfather, Hamouda al-Farra.

Read it all for an insight into the sick society which has festered in Gaza.

Concentration Lacking

A letter in today's Age:

How ironic is our award to Raoul Wallenberg while we run our own concentration camps for asylum seekers. Perhaps one day we will award a similarly brave advocate. 

Janice Florence, Preston

I'm pretty sure none of those Wallenberg saved from the concentration camps would have risked their lives trying to get into them.

I could also be mistaken but I'm fairly sure that the Jews of Nazi-occupied Hungary weren't faced with Pilates , movie nights or beauty therapy.

The Age has lost its mind.

The Anti-Clover

Love this guy:

One of the more gruesome parts of running for office is answering a constant stream of questionnaires from special interest groups that verge on push-polling. Peter Burkinshaw, a candidate for this week's British local government elections, has decided to tell it like it is.

"Would you agree that creating very high-quality cycling routes to encourage new people to cycle offers by far the best cost-benefit ratio for transport improvements that facilitate growth of the city and surrounding areas?" he was asked in a cycling survey leaked to the Guido Fawkes blog.

"You are asking for benefits paid for by other road users," came the reply. "I would prefer more car parks." A response to a question on policing read: "Cyclists are by far the most undisciplined road users. On several occasions, I have had to stop or dodge cyclists riding through red lights when crossing at pedestrian crossings. More police attention to cyclists would be useful."

A question on cycleways was met with: "This proposal amounts to theft from the people who pay to use roads and the benefit given to those who don't."

That was only warming up. Queries on specific projects were answered: "Only if cyclists pay for it," and "Again, only if you don't expect everybody else to pay for it." But the bluntest response came to a "What do you intend to do about cycling signs?" question: "Nothing."

Outstanding.

Failed Journalist Offers Tips

Antony Loewenstein helpfully offers some "Reporting tips for Murdoch’s Australian over Palestine, BDS and Gaza"

He then goes on to reprint the entire article (normally behind a paywall) adding little by way of rebuttal other than mentioning a few politicians who bought tickets and then changed their mind (probably after waking up sober). A robust Fisking this ain't.

Perhaps The Australian should offer aspiring journalist Antony some tips on what constiutes Fair Use and what is simply plagiarism.

He closes with a typically sneering reference to:

"the Israeli spokespeople who claim to be “journalists” at the Murdoch rag".

I believe the correct term is "employable".