Six years ago, Sydney's southern suburbs were the location of a string of gang-rapes in which teenage girls were threatened at gunpoint and then beaten and degraded by assailants from Lebanese Muslim backgrounds. The young women were called "sluts" and "Aussie pigs" and subjected to dehumanising torture. When the perpetrators were sent to trial, most showed no remorse, their families intimidated the victim witnesses, some of who were spat upon and abused in the courtroom.
Leading Muslims were critical of the behaviour of the accused and correctly pointed out that the great bulk of their community were law abiding and should not be smeared by their association with rapists. Keysar Trad, then vice-president of the Lebanese Muslim Association, said it was "rather unfair" that the rapists' ethnicity had been reported "because these boys themselves have completely disaffiliated themselves from their culture or their religion".
This week Australia's most senior Muslim cleric Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali endorsed the concept of blaming the victim in a sermon suggesting that immodestly dressed women are the cause of violent attacks such as the infamous Sydney gang rapes - MUSLIM LEADER BLAMES WOMEN FOR SEX ATTACKS. Strangely, his spokesperson Trad is one of his very few supporters.
Hilali's sermon brought condemnation from many sectors of society including the Muslim community. The Mufti apologised in his own feeble way explaining it all away as a case of being taken out of context. He was misunderstood. The same Hilali has been "misunderstood" in the past; he supports Hizbullah and Hamas, is an apologist for 9/11 and is an anti Semite. Understanably, he has a proclivity for being offensive to those with whose views he disagrees.
On the same low level in the human chain is British Muslim Cleric Arshad Misbahi of the Manchester Central Mosque who thinks the execution of sexually active gay men is justified IT'S OK TO KILL GAYS - BRITISH IMAM.
Local gay rights activist Peter Tatchell counters the Imam by saying, "It is disturbing that some British imams are endorsing the execution of gay and lesbian Muslims.
"Imam Arshad Misbahi's homophobic attitudes give comfort and succor to queer-bashers. They encourage conflict and disharmony between Manchester's large gay and Muslim communities."
Both Hilali and Misbahi enjoy turning the victims of disturbing crimes into the aggressors; dangers to their ordered view of society. This inversion of victim/perpetrator is both disturbing and unacceptable in our society and they are both being told in no uncertain terms that this is the case.
In much the same way, author Antony Loewenstein whose anti Zionist rant was recently published by Melbourne University Press under the title "My Israel Question", has sought to explain that the victim of a anti-Semitic hate assault was bashed because of "Israeli actions in Israel and Palestine and more recently Lebanon."
The factually challenged Loewenstein, who has no proof whatsoever as to what, if anything, was going through the brains of the drink addled thugs who beat up on Menachem Vorcheimer as he was walking through the streets of suburban Caulfield with his two young children, gleefully associated the attack on Israeli policy in a recent Geelong Advertiser article.
Loewenstein demonstrated he is not only factually challenged but also extremely confused because he told the newspaper that …"For the Jewish community to say there's a wave of anti-Semitism occurring is nonsense, it's just not true".
On the other hand, he claimed to understand that the cause of this non-existent wave of anti Semitism was Israel’s "illegal occupation". Of course, Loewenstein hasn't the slightest clue as to whether any of the hoodlums who attacked Vorcheimer held any views about Israel because the only comments attributed to them were "go Nazis". To that extent, the likelihood is that this particular attack had nothing to do with "Palestinians", "Lebanese" or "illegal occupation" as Loewenstein claimed while playing his insidious game of “blame the victim” with the Geelong Advertiser.
That's because Loewenstein, the current pin up boy of Australia's ultra right wing Jew hating Australian League of Rights, is himself obsessed with the Jews. In his little world, Jews are all fair game in Australia because they have a connection with other Jews in another part of the world called Israel.
That's the country whose citizens are under attack from madmen like Hassan Nasrallah who indiscriminately fires rockets and missiles at them or from Hamas and other would be mass murderers who send suicide bombers and others to attack Israeli civilians in their homes, on busses and in restaurants.
For that, Loewenstein wants to tell the world that Menachem Vorcheimer was viciously attacked in front of his two children while walking down a Melbourne suburban street on Simchat Torah.
At least the Geelong Advertiser wasn't fooled by Loewenstein's false claims. A photograph accompanying its article "BATTLING THE RISE OF ANTI-SEMITIC TIDE" [no link currently available] showed anti-Semitic graffiti in Melbourne containing the words "Victory of Islam. Death for Jew + ..."
The reality is that just as Hilali and Misbahi make poor attempts to explain misogyny and homophobia, Loewenstein does likewise with the actions of drunken anti Semitic thugs. They are all birds of a feather and their rantings should not be tolerated.
COMING SOON: Anti Zionist lobby tries to shut down debate.
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7 comments:
Loewenstein's knowledge of Israel and the conflict in the Middle East is severely limited.
He once called Tzipi Livni a "he" and his book is full of errors.
One thing I will say though is that it should sit nicely on the League of Rights bookshelves right next to Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
ASIO warned authorities 20 years ago that Sheik Taj al-Din Al-hilaly could inflame communal violence in Australia. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20661909-2,00.html
"Sheik Hilaly was also alleged to have endorsed suicide bombing, verbally attacked women and preached a highly political message of extremism."
"One thing I will say though is that it should sit nicely on the League of Rights bookshelves right next to Mein Kampf and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion."
As it will sit nicely on the bookshelves of ultraleftists and jihadists.
Friends at the Age relaxed their 200 word limit today for a 499 word defence of Hilaly. What are the odds of a pro Israel letter of that size ever seeing the light of day in the Age letters section?
There's a great response to Loewenstein on his own blog http://antonyloewenstein.com/blog/2006/10/23/the-old-scourge-returns/:-
"F**king Jews” and “Go the Nazis",
Do you really think Antony that these Australian Rules football players were reacting to Israel and Lebanon.
Jews are 1.4% of the population of the US, Muslims 0.6%.
USA religious attacks
2005, 68.5% anti-Jewish, 11.1% anti-Islamic
2004, 67.8% anti-Jewish, 13% anti-Islamic
2003, 69.2% anti-Jewish, 10.9% anti-Islamic
2002, 65.3% anti-Jewish, 10.5% anti-Islamic
2001, 55.7% anti-Jewish, 27.2% anti-Islamic
1995, 82.8% anti-Jewish, 2.2% anti-Islamic
It would seem that there is no need to complain about increasing attacks on Jew in the USA, it never stops. What is interesting about those stats, apart from the disproportionate number of Jews attacked, is the reduction in percentage with the increase in attacks on Muslims. Could conclude from that that hate criminals just run with any excuse to attack, and some have transferred their violence to Muslims.
This is the USA though which has always been more tolerant of Jews than Europe. Occasionally Europe admits, even France, that anti-Semitism is coming back in strength.
And yet in India.
"India is home to several communities of Jews. There have been no anti-Semitic incidents from other Indians in the nearly 3-millenium history of Indian Jewry."
Why aren't there some Indians who hate "Zionism" and Israel? Maybe it is because they don't hate Jews.
To believe that Jews get attacked so much because of Israel, not because they are Jews requires one to believe that an extremely anti-Semitic Europe abandoned a millenniums long meme of anti-Semitism at the end of WW2, and took up a new meme, anti-Zionism.
A more logical conclusion is that the meme of anti-Semitism morphed into anti-Zionism. A good reason for assuming that the meme has merely changed its name is that now it is Zionists that supposedly control the world's finances and media etc. (Your mate Margo for one). The reasons for hating Jews are the same as the reasons for hating "Zionists". Both are considered murderers, thieves and conspirators. Possibly new is that now they are also stealing land. Europe has never considered that Jews should be allowed to own land. And the ME has adopted the same meme. Jordan for one has legislated to that effect.
The fact that there are disproportionate attacks against Jews, not Zionists, says that even if the intellectual elite are sincere in their dislike of the political ideology of Zionism and the existence of a state called Israel, those who are attacking Jews are making no such distinctions. Hence what Israel does is not the point, it is any excuse to hate a Jew that drives the violent. Or nasty violent Aussie Rules footballers.
You claim that the waves of attacks on Jews, and hence the attack on Menachem Vorchheimer is because of Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine, not because of that eons old disease anti-Semitism. So you can conceive therefore of this same mob of bullies, on passing a Chinese family walking down the street would attack them because of the illegal and brutal occupation of Tibet by China. That they would shout "f…cking Chinese" and "go the Japanese".
If you didn't mean to imply that he got attacked by these oafs because of Israel, rather that he was attacked for being Jewish, say so and sincerely condemn, rather than excuse the violence. Just the reality? A fact of life. I think you could understand if Menachem didn’t want to invite you around to his home. That he might suspect you of using his attack to promote your views about Israel and Australian Jews, rather than feel any compassion for him, or empathy for the fear with which he and his family must now live.
There is no justification for attacking an Australian because he was identifiable as Jewish. Israel is the excuse, not the reason.
It is hard to understand how you could have grown up here and never grasped the fidelity, fecundity and longevity of the anti-Semitic meme in this country for one. Or never wondered if this malevolent meme has ensured its fidelity, fecundity and longevity, in the face of human embarrassment at the Holocaust, by changing its name.
Watch out for the standard response from a brain dead anti Zionist chanting the BS apartheid mantra as if on cue.
Antony Loewenstein has a problem. It would be nice to think that he would solve it once he learns about the subject he says he knows about. The chances are that it wouldn't make any difference because the problem he has is with himself. He is seeking publicity because he needs it. His obsession is driving him crazy and causing him to become more and more extreme. I pity his family - they must wonder where they went wrong.
Thanks Jim,
I think we have all gathered by now that he has a problem. I think however, it would be best if we responded to the absurdity of his claims rather than his personal issues.
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