In this mailing:
- Guy Millière: France: An "Inverted Colonization"
- Alan M. Dershowitz: The 92nd Street Y Engages in McCarthyite Censorship and Lies About It
by Guy Millière • November 15, 2019 at 5:00 am
Soon after, Muslim organizations that had asked for students to have the right to wear the veil in schools also asked for a change in the school curriculum -- in history, so that Muslim civilization would be presented in a more "correct" and "positive" way.
"If the way I dress disturbs you, leave my country". — Signs at a demonstration, October 27, 2019.
"Any criticism of Islam is now blasphemy." — Ivan Rioufol, columnist, Le Figaro, November 4, 2019.
Details lead one to see that the anti-Christian acts were mostly acts of church vandalism, the anti-Semitic acts were very often violent attacks against Jews or cemetery desecrations, and that the anti-Muslim acts were almost only anti-Muslim graffiti or the laying of slices of bacon the entrance to a mosque or in the mailbox of a Muslim organization. No Muslims were physically attacked.
"We are not in a project of assimilation." — Yassine Belattar, former advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron, October 27, 2019.
Éric Zemmour has suggested that France is threatened not by a risk of "partition", but by an inverted "colonization".
(Image source: iStock)
On October 12, 2019, a meeting of the Regional Council of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté was held in Dijon, a quiet town in central France. A woman wearing a long black veil was in the audience, apparently accompanying a group of students. All at once, the head of the National Rally party group at the Regional Council, Julien Odoul, rose and said that the presence of a woman wearing an Islamic headscarf in a public building was incompatible with the values of the French Republic:
"We are in a public building, we are in a democratic enclosure. Madame has all the time to keep her veil at home, in the street, but not here, not today. It's the Republic, it's secularism. It's the law of the Republic, no ostentatious signs."
by Alan M. Dershowitz • November 15, 2019 at 4:00 am
The representative of the 92nd Street Y acknowledged that the accusation [a disproved and defamatory accusation of sexual relations with an underaged girl] was unfounded, but said it didn't matter: "We don't want protests or trouble." So suddenly I found myself blacklisted — or as it's now called, "de-platformed"....
It reminded me of my days at Brooklyn College, when professors were blacklisted based on accusations that they had been Communists or fellow travelers. Institutions that had blacklisted them often claimed that they didn't believe or support the accusations, but they too didn't want protests or trouble. So the easy way is to censor, de-platform, or disinvite instead of standing up for principle, due process, and truth.
The public, particularly those who support the Y and participate in its programs, have the right to know the truth. They have the right to express their views as to whether a long-time speaker should be denied a platform at the Y based on false and disproved accusations. I would be happy to debate this issue at the Y. I have just written a new book — Guilt by Accusation: The Challenge of Proving Innocence in the Age of #MeToo — in which I discuss how false accusations can destroy a career. I challenge the Y to have a public discussion on this important issue.
I will not allow my life's work — on behalf of Israel, the Jewish community, Soviet Jewry, human rights, civil liberties, teaching students, writing books, and defending the accused — to be "cancelled" by a totally false accusation by a woman I never met and by the cowardly McCarthyism of the 92nd Street Y.... I will continue to fight for truth and justice as I have during my entire life. I will not remain silent even if the 92nd Street Y tries to silence me.
Pictured: The 92nd Street Y in New York City. (Image source: Ajay Suresh/Wikimedia Commons)
The storied 92nd Street Y, which presents itself as a liberal paragon of free speech dialogue and openness, is engaging in McCarthyite censorship — and trying to hide it.
For the last quarter-century or more, I have been one of its featured speakers. The director told me that second only to the late Elie Wiesel, I have been the most frequently invited participant in its events. I have lectured, dialogued, participated in panels, and moderated on dozens of occasions about a range of subjects that have been video-conferenced around the world. I debuted my bestselling books about Israel, Jewish life, and issues of concern to all Americans — Chutzpah, The Case for Israel, and others — at the Y. It became something of a tradition.
by Alain Destexhe • November 14, 2019 at 5:00 am
The objective of using the word "Islamophobia" appears to have been to make Islam untouchable by placing any criticism of it as equivalent to racism or anti-Semitism.
The word "Islamophobia" deliberately intends to transform the critique of a religion -- a fundamental right in Western societies -- into a crime.
"The term 'Islamophobia' serves several functions....Above all, however, the term is intended to silence Muslims who question the Koran, who demand equality of the sexes, who claim the right to renounce their religion, and who want to practice their faith freely and without submitting to the dictates of the bearded and dogmatic." – Pascal Bruckner, in his book, Un racisme ordinaire : Islamophobie et culpabilité, Grasset, 2017 [English version: An Imaginary Racism: Islamophbia and Guilt, Polity 2018]
It is not Muslims people "hate," any more than they hate Hindus or Buddhists or Shintos. It is the violence and coercion that some adopt -- what is known as jihad or holy war -- that people reject.
In the attacks at the Bataclan Theater and other sites in 2015, terrorists murdered 131 persons and wounded 413. Is it irrational to remember who was calling those shots?
As noted by the journalist Stéphane Charbonnier, murdered in the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015, Islamophobia "is not only a poorly chosen word but also a dangerous one." (Image source: Arzu Çakır/VOA/Wikimedia Commons)
France is once again profoundly divided over Islam. Last Sunday, November 10, a "March against Islamophobia" was held in Paris in response to an appeal from 50 public figures. In an op-ed in the leftist newspaper Libération, the demonstrators pleaded to "stop Islamophobia and stop the growing stigmatization of Muslims, victims of discrimination and aggression".
Two recent incidents ignited the public debate and served as a pretext for the march. On October 26, an 84-year-old man shot and injured two men while trying to set fire to the mosque of Bayonne. Earlier in October, in the Regional Assembly of Burgundy, a member of the National Rally party (RN) complained about the presence in the gallery of a woman wearing an Islamic headscarf. The French political class and media condemned both incidents almost unanimously.
by Majid Rafizadeh • November 14, 2019 at 4:00 am
Tehran shelters members of the terrorist group Al Qaeda, and it is reportedly continuing to facilitate the group's operations.
Now imagine if this rogue state obtains nuclear weapons, what kind of destruction could it inflict on the world?
The international community, particularly European nations, must take urgent steps to counter Iran-backed international terrorism and prevent it from becoming a nuclear state.
Iran continues to smuggle weapons and provide military, financial, intelligence and advisory assistance to proxies throughout the Middle East, such as the Houthis, Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiite militias, Kata'ib Hizballah, and Hamas. Pictured: Lebanese Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah visits Iran's "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Image source: khamenei.ir)
When the US State Department released its annual Country Reports on Terrorism on November 1, 2019, four countries -- North Korea, Sudan, Iran, and Tehran's staunch ally, Syria -- were listed as state sponsors of terrorism. The annual report describes the theocratic establishment of Iran as "the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism" in 2018.
How, in 2018, did the Iranian government receive the title "the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism"? The criteria by which it is determined if a country should be listed as a state sponsor of terrorism are based on whether that state has constantly provided support for acts of terrorism.
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