The annual al-Quds Day has come and gone with the usual calls for genocide. There is an whiff of 1938 in the air.
by George Jonas
In 1979 the Ayatollah Khomeini designated the last Friday of Ramadan as Al-Quds Day to signify the Islamic world’s aspirations for Jerusalem. Some say it was just an expression of piety, but whatever the founder of theocratic Iran intended, Al-Quds Day has become an annual hatefest and expansionary symbol for vocal Islamists around the world.
Hate-tourists gather in cities with significant Arab and/or Muslim populations such as Toronto to denounce what they call “world Zionism” and express loathing for Israel. During the 2011 Al-Quds Day rally held outside the Ontario legislature, demonstrators brandished the flag of Hezbollah, while a featured speaker, Zafar Bangash, delivered himself of the view that “Allah willing, I see that day when we, the Muslims, will march on Palestine and liberate Palestine for all the people in the world.”
What the speaker saw and proclaimed last year from Queen’s Park, the grounds of Ontario’s provincial legislature, wasn’t some namby-pamby two-state solution, but the demise of the Jewish State. While he expounded on his vision, someone behind him waved the flag of a terrorist organization, which is what Hezbollah is in the view of Canada’s government. Little wonder that this strikes a person like Sayeh Hassan, a dissenter who fled the theocratic tyranny of Iran in 1987, as “a cynical abuse of Canadian pluralism and accommodation.” This week Hassan wrote an online Post column jointly with David Spiro of the Greater Toronto’s Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, denouncing Al-Quds Day for being “nothing less than a pep rally for an abhorrent, hate-filled ideology.”
It certainly is, I agree — but I’m not sure about cynical abuse. I think Bangash & Co. are simply using Canadian pluralism and accommodation as the manufacturer intended, which is what’s wrong with the multicultural model. Chances are they — or like-minded colleagues — will use it this year again, despite protests from Jewish organizations or Muslim dissidents, shocked at hearing the very voices they’ve tried to escape coming at them from the legislative grounds of their new country. As I’m writing this, Legislature Sergeant-at-Arms Dennis Clark has approved the use of Queen’s Park once again to the organizers of Al-Quds Day. In effect, Clark told the media that he realized the demonstrators went a little overboard last year, waving terrorist flags and all, but he approved because this year the organizers promised to behave.
[.....]
I’ve always had an issue with expropriating public spaces for private or sectarian purposes (other than the annual Santa Claus parade, perhaps). Much as I abhor what Mr. Bangash is saying, I would go to the barricades for his right to say it. What I question is Sergeant-at-arms Clark’s decision to lend the grounds of Ontario’s Parliament to the ayatollahs’ agenda.
What’s free speech? It’s freedom to speak my mind on any topic about which I have an opinion. It means I can say what I like regardless of how demonstrably false it may be; how much it may grate on the sense or sensitivity of others; how profoundly it may irk or offend the powerful and the fashionable, or how painfully it may hurt the feelings or self-esteem of the impoverished. Freedom of speech protects both speech and speaker from being silenced or censored because of what others may regard as requirements of social harmony, good taste, decorum, history, science, political correctness, or the truth itself — but can’t protect anyone from being regarded by contemporaries as unpleasant, indecorous, shrill, uncouth, hysterical, tasteless, false, ignorant or stupid.
Freedom of speech isn’t my guarantee of being heard. I can’t make my freedom your obligation. Freedom of speech entitles me to the first available spot in Hyde Park. It doesn’t entitle me to halt traffic in Piccadilly Circus.
[.......]
Those who want to limit free speech claim that it’s not absolute but this is false. Free speech is absolute; it’s just that using words doesn’t amount to a pass to break the law. It’s no licence to defraud, defame, incite a riot, enter a criminal conspiracy, betray an official secret, impersonate an officer, misrepresent a qualification, breach a fiduciary obligation, etc., nor should it be. Free speech should eliminate the censor and the “human rights” commissioner, but it’s not doing it yet. A pity.
Here I go again. Maybe freedom isn’t natural to us, so we have to keep reiterating its basics. It was this need that prompted someone (perhaps Thomas Jefferson) to say that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Unfortunately, eternal vigilance is the very thing that puts people to sleep.
Red the rest – Al-Quds Day is just a soapbox for a hatefest
Tags: George Jonas
Wise words, apparently lost on today’s youts.
The Syrian rebels were mocking Hizballah and Iran for al Quds day.
Funny how “al-Quds” i.e.Jerusalem -is never mentioned in the Koran.
Rodan wrote:
I hope they kill a bunch of those Iranians.
In Londonistan, al -Quds day is particularly blood curdling.
Maybe Obama will get the post office to issue an al-Quds Day stamp.
Speranza wrote:
In the Obama White House, every day is al Quds Day…
lobo91 wrote:
and Iftar Dinner night.
@ Speranza:
“Goat…it’s what’s for dinner.”
lobo91 wrote:
I owuld not be surprised if Obama ritually slaughters the goat just to show how culturally sensitive he is.
@ Speranza:
It was a East Roman/Byzantine controlled city before the Arab conquests.
@ Speranza:
I can see him doing it.
@ Speranza:
This is why we lose elections.
Todd Akin, GOP Senate candidate: ‘Legitimate rape’ rarely causes pregnancy
Rodan wrote:
The Crusades far from being an act of aggression were defensive warfare designed to roll back Islamic aggression.
Rodan wrote:
“Legitimiate rape” -- I am scared to read the definition of what that is. Does that have anything to do with the abortion debate?
They are going to light the Empire State Building in green tonight to honor the last day of Ramadan.
@ Speranza:
It was a result of The Byzantine Emperor Alexius asking for assistance to win back Anatolia from the Turks.
@ Urban Infidel:
Bloomberg is a dhimmi.
@ Speranza:
Yup.
Urban Infidel wrote:
Vomit. The Muslims would love to knock the Empire State Building down.
@ Speranza:
It’s worse than you think.
He went on about women’s anatomy.
He WAS up by 11.
Rodan wrote:
Didn’t they effing learn from Nevada 2010?
@ Bumr50:
The Democrats wanted him as the GOP nominee. Now I see why. He seems like a Santorum clone.
Rodan wrote:
He is also a dummy.
@ Speranza:
Nope, this is Angle all over again.
Rodan wrote:
Fuck!
@ Rodan:
Someone here said that Dem votes put him over the top.
He was polling as the weakest of the three GOP candidates up to election day then -- BOOM -- he wins.
Some Jew-hating asshole:
Whut? All the regions of Roman “Palestine” currently enveloped in the Zionist entity are already “liberated for all the people in the world”.
My passport had an Algerian stamp on it and I had a British accent when I showed up; oh yeah, and I was then an agnostic with Christian background. El Al gave me a few extra questions about Algeria. After that I was free to go and get ripped off by Jerusalem’s famous sidewalk vendors. I didn’t notice that any of the other tourists and pilgrims had any trouble getting in.
If you want an episode when outsiders really weren’t welcome in the Holy Land, here’s one.
D’oh, beaten to the Alexios ref by Rodan
@ Zimriel:
But remember, it’s not about religion…it’s about apartments in Jerusalem.
//
Hmmm… starting right now. Pittsburg v Indie in preseason or North By Northwest on TCM. I was going to say that it’s a toss-up, but upon further reflection, it ain’t even close. Carry Grant wins.
Later.
@ Urban Infidel:
Maybe I should dye a pig green to celebrate the end of Ramadan.
Speranza wrote:
Actually it is. The beginning of sura 17 goes over the history of the Temple. (Read it. If this “mosque of Israel” isn’t the Temple, please do tell me what else it could be.) It’s just hard to tell because the Qur’an is so indirect about it.
There’s been a real debate in Orientalism about why the Qur’an is so stingy with its references. John Wansbrough thought that the Qur’an was cobbled together from a huge array of poetry, slogans, and propaganda over hundreds of years -- mainly in the Arabian parts of Syria. But there was then a push to make the Islamic story less Syrian and more Arabian. Over that time, if sura 17 had mentioned al-Quds by name, the editors made sure to wipe it out.
Not entirely successfully, as all those stories about Muhammad’s magical mystery tour from the “furthest mosque” can attest.
@ Bumr50:
@ Speranza:
This guy is a creep!
Akin voted against creating sex offender registry, funding for homeless children
@ Zimriel:
You read the same book I did, In the Shadow of the Sword.
Bumr50 wrote:
It’s kind of like Leftie hecklers drowning out a speaker
that they disagree with.
They always claim that they are exercising their right of
free speach.
So their first amendment right trumps the first amendment
right of the speaker? Absurd.
mfhorn wrote:
With some green beer.
RIX wrote:
Colleges are the least free plsces in America.
Rodan wrote:
I can see why the McCaskill campaign wants to run on all that. They’re going to paint Akin as a sex offender.
First, to the federal offender registry: what makes someone a “sex offender” might well be an accusation of sexual assault. Or indecent exposure, like taking a whizz behind a bush and then someone stumbles onto you. I moved to Colorado in large part for the hiking; and sometimes I have to pee on a bush. I suppose the fear of being branded a sex-offender ensures that I try not to do it in sight of Boulderites, but if I get caught by some angry feminist, then…
As for the homeless kids, there are already NUMEROUS laws protecting and serving them on a state by state basis. Does it have to be federal?
Rodan wrote:
That was one; Yehuda Nevo’s “Crossroads to Islam” was another. (Patricia Crone’s revisionist material tends to get debunked, and debunked HARD. Crone’s best work is in overviews, like “Slaves On Horses”; or when she is co-writing with someone who knows what s/he’s doing, like “God’s Caliph.)
I’ve tried reading Wansbrough directly, too, but with less success. It is literally less trouble to learn Arabic and to read, say, Suyuti and Mizzi in the original Arabic.
@ Zimriel:
It seems that Islam was a Syrian-Arab invention.
@ Speranza:
I aver that one does not go to college to learn
critical thinking. You go to upgrade your career.
I say that with regret.
RIX wrote:
Funny thing, the left demonizes big oil, big pharma, big business in general, but big education? A sacred cow.
Dropped an email to the admins yesterday. Just letting you know.
Rodan wrote:
The Syrian Arabs definitely had a hand in it. I do think there was some influence from Madina. Madina was the Seat of Muhammad even in the Maronite Chronicle (667 AD).
I agree with Holland that Mecca was nowhere; an afterthought in the Qur’an and completely unknown to everybody until the Second Civil War (680s).
just so ya’ll know…you have been frakked
But Social Security benefits are not guaranteed.
They are not guaranteed legally because workers have no contractual or property rights to any benefits whatsoever. In two landmark cases, Flemming v. Nestor and Helvering v. Davis, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Social Security taxes are not contributions or savings, but simply taxes, and that Social Security benefits are simply a government spending program, no different than, say, farm price supports. Congress and the president may change, reduce, or even eliminate benefits at any time
http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/social-securitys-sham-guarantee
Rodan wrote:
And yet we shouldn’t support them?
mawskrat wrote:
I actually agree with this. When you become someone’s ward, you become someone’s slave.
That is why it is important not to trust politicians with your future.
Rancher wrote:
And yet we shouldn’t support them. If you have two enemies and one of them mocks the other, the correct response is to stand off to one side and giggle at both.
Quietly.
brookly red wrote:
Education costs run well ahead of general inflation.
The return on investment is pitiful
Look at the OWS kids. They’re shocked that a degree in
transgender studies doesn’t get the corner office and
stock options.
RIX wrote:
unfortunately many times it does…
@ Zimriel:
I am sitting here lurking, watching NFL and finding myself agreeing with your every post. You need to post more or even write a couple of thread headliners!
Dolphin wrote:
LOL. I’ll have to clear that with Dark Falcon first.
@ Rancher:
No, they are Islamists and are allied with al Qaeda. his is a Jihadi pissing mach.
@ Zimriel:
Exactly!
@ RIX:
The biggest factor driving inflation in higher education costs is the availability of student loans and other financial aid.
Every time they raise the financial aid limits, tuition goes up.
If you want to see tuition go down dramatically, eliminate federal tuition assistance programs.
After a year with 95% of classroom seats empty because nobody can afford to pay, you’ll see tuition rates drop like a stone.
@ Zimriel:
OK, not sure of any of that history, but appreciate your knowledge and input. Just wanted you to know. I know I am a nobody here, but I do read here to learn!
Our biggest enemy right now is Iran. When they get the bomb we will loose American cities. To take away their biggest ally, Syria, I would support anyone no matter how vile.
@ brookly red:
The University of Illinois got a new president about
six years ago.
He came in & declared that there were too many instate
students. He said that he wanted at least 60% out of
state & foreign studnts, leaving 40% illinois citizens.
Illinois is a land grant university supported by all
taxpayers in the state.
it is difficult to get in there anyway. People went nuts
& he backed off.
Rodan wrote:
I can’t help but think that if we had skilled and right minded leadership we could easily have the jihadis too busy killing each other to bother anyone else…
@ lobo91:
.
True. What the goofy kids in OWS dont get is that the
admin & tenured professor inflated salaries put them
in a hole.
Tenure was to protect profs from the House Committee on
Unamerican Activities.
there is no reason for it now.
RIX wrote:
Clearly, a very Urbana gentleman with Champaign tastes.
RIX wrote:
No I disagree, we need House Committee on
Unamerican Activities more than ever!
@ brookly red:
That’s the best solution. Have them destroy each other.
RIX wrote:
To the extent tenure exists today, it should protect rightist profs.
It won’t, though. Our universities are like al-Azhar in Egypt. They are becoming madrassas -- but for the Left, so that’s okay.
@ RIX:
That’s part of it. Another big factor is the amount of useless crap most universities buy to make themselves look cool.
There’s really no need for an indoor climbing wall in every gym.
mfhorn wrote:
Here’s a couple of pics. Makes me sad… and angry.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Quite so.
lobo91 wrote:
True. Most students manage to climb the walls during exam week without one.
Rodan wrote:
It is not far fetched at all, they have hate & they have pride, it would be an easy task.
@ Zimriel:
To be truly diverse , they would have more conservative
profs & speakers.
But they are not about an academic liberal education.
they are about political liberal brainwashing.
brookly red wrote:
The Cadmus Option™—or, if you prefer, the Sambo Solution™.
Cadmus had the task of plowing a field and sowing it with dragon’s teeth. Armed men sprang up from the dragon’s teeth, but rather than fight them he threw the helmet that had contained the dragon’s teeth in among them, and they slew each other while quarreling over who had struck whom.
In the story of Little Black Sambo, the tigers chasing Sambo pursue each other round and round the tree in which he is hiding, until they all turn to butter.
Basically, the same result in each story.
@ lobo91:
Universities are very insular worlds unto themselves.
If students & parents get buried in debt, they are fine
as long as they live an elite lifestyle.
Urban Infidel wrote:
A huge part of their income is tourist dollars from “flyover country” … if the folks in the heart land were to boycott they would change their colors red, white & blue every f’en day.
Good night all. Monday morning is coming up & the fun
starts all over again.
@ Urban Infidel:
Me too. Why do we allow it? Blocks from where these mf’ers took down the WTC’s and killed 3,000 innocent people. Why do we glorify them?
BTW, in case you didn’t know -- my company had office space at wtc2 on the 91st floor. All made it out.
@ lobo91:
@ RIX:
Graduating with degrees in 3rd World Transgender Literature doesn’t get you a job. That’s what they dopes spent their money on.
Rodan wrote:
actually it sets you up nice to work for homeland security…
@ brookly red:
Gets you posting rights at LGF!
Dolphin wrote:
How many islamic countries ring Christmas bells? I also heard the islamos are actually crucifying people on crosses in Egypt.
Thank God your colleagues made it out alive in 2001.
@ brookly red:
True, yet very sad statement.
I did the AP courses my senior year that officially got me through the “freshman” year of college, but had to go to work vs. Going to Jr college for dental assistance. Done all right for myself I guess, but have no desire to play the corporate politics. 5 more years where I am at and I am fully vested. Will probably move elsewhere in hopes I can get a 2nd pension at another company that hopefully I can retire from.
Urban Infidel wrote:
well not crosses, trees but they have been doing that for ages…
Coptics should be fleeing Egypt now before they start setting up ghettos and then camps… shit is coming down
Dolphin wrote:
please don’t put your future in pensions and promises those days are over
RIX wrote:
I worked at a public university and was a member
of The International Union of Operating Engineers.
the The American Association of University Professors (AAUP
made me sick>LOL
@ Urban Infidel:
They also made it out of wtc1 102nd floor I believe, in 93!
My company just celebrated its 150 year anniversary! If memory serves me correctly they have been in NYC since 1836.
@ brookly red:
Private companies -- not public. My pension where I am at is very sound.
@ Dolphin:
Can you imagine walking down 102 flights of stairs? In the dark, with smoke choking you and fear? That’s amazing all by itself. Years ago I worked on the 97th floor of the South Tower. It was like being up in an airplane all day. We were higher up than the thick brown soup that we call air here.
Dolphin wrote:
till the government wants it…
@ Urban Infidel:
No. I honestly can not. There is a picture of one of our workers that carried his laptop in his laptop bag all the way down. It was in life mag (he wasn’t young). I also got to read the letter that the executive admin wrote as a “thank you” to the rest of the employees that offered their support (worldwide). It was amazing. Her fiance was a maintenance worker on wtc1 at the time of the attacks (2001). It took them three days to find each other.
Dolphin wrote:
my pension is guaranteed by law…the newbies
have several different plans they can join.
What’s with the Newsqueak piece on needing a new POTUS?
Oh and brace yourself for a Bradley Manning pardon
waldensianspirit wrote:
Ferguson. Neo-Con from the Bush years with a touch of reactionary (he supported the Right in Guatemala in the book “War of the World”). Not surprising he went against Obama. The article says he supported McCain / Palin in ’08 (which I didn’t know, actually).
What’s a surprise is that Newsweek printed it and on the front cover, to boot. As Drudge Report put it -- “Tina [Brown] Bites”. Obama’s no longer cool in Manhattan…?
mawskrat wrote:
the stock and bond holders of GM were guaranteed by law… this administration is not concerned by laws.
Dolphin wrote:
So many incredible survival stories, so many heroes that day. My friend made it out of Tower 1, all the way down 100 flights, but was killed when the building fell. Decapitating him. He was 26 and didn’t even work in the building, was only there for a meeting that morning.
waldensianspirit wrote:
Newssqueak desperately trying to save it’s own ass… rats from a sinking ship.
waldensianspirit wrote:
They want eyes on their flailing, failing rag. It’s kind of refreshing to see it though. Like a cool drink in a parched desert.
@ brookly red:
I agree with your statement, however my company has to protect employees worldwide.
No matter, I will either not live that long, or just live very minimal in my latter years. Probably the first from my family history!
Night all! See ya on the flip side!
@ Zimriel:
Niall Ferguson is a conservative Brit historian. I don’t think he ever worked for GWB.
The Osprey wrote:
I don’t either.
I called him a “neo-con” because that’s the American translation of “Gladstonian liberal”. He made quite the brief for imperialism in “Empire”.
Urban Infidel wrote:
all I need to know about islam I learned on 9/11
Urban Infidel wrote:
like that scene in Private Rayn where the captured nazi says fuck Hitler… I don’t believe them for a second, drop em where they stand.
Photos from ‘blogwrath’ during Toronto’s latest Jew hatefest:
http://www.blogwrath.com/canada-anti-semitism/israel-haters-chant-in-toronto-from-the-river-to-the-sea-palestine-will-be-free/3244/
@ brookly red:
Learned more about Islam since 9/11. All bad. That much concentrated hatred is worse for the planet than Al Gore AND the UN.
@ brookly red:
my pension is covered under state law
mawskrat wrote:
I truly hope you receive it
Zimriel wrote:
He’s quite witty.
LOL. That’s exactly what I am always telling a Brit friend of mine who is showing signs of conservative thinking but who slides back into a Star Trekkie multi-culti liberalism from time to time… I always tell him, “enough with the post-colonial self-flagellation old boy!”
yenta-fada wrote:
love this photo!
@ Urban Infidel:
Photos and vids are the next best thing to being there. I’m too sick to do it, but I REALLY wanted to be there. Trouble is, you see the same people standing up to the Muslims over and over. They are small but mighty voices, but there should be more.
George Jonas, the writer of the thread article is a Hungarian Jew who lived under Communism just long enough to despise and flee it. He also RECOGNIZES it.
brookly red wrote:
I feel the same way about ‘tax-deferred’ savings plans. Governments can change laws. Witness the current administration.
Well, aren’t I having a nice little chat with myself?/
yenta-fada wrote:
LOL ! I’m still here!
Urban Infidel wrote:
Thanks.
Up goes the OOT.