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| Britain | |
| British Muslims for Israel | |
| 2011-04-17 | |
“I’ve been really overwhelmed just by how shocked people have been that there’s been a group called British Muslims for Israel,” Afzal said. That surprise isn’t surprising. The debate over Israel and the broader Middle East conflict has become so tense and toxic that a group calling itself British Muslims for Israel inspires a mix of suspicion and fascination. But Afzal’s group is real. Formed by young Muslim professionals in Britain in January under the umbrella group Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy, it really took off after Afzal was interviewed by Israel’s Channel 10. Their Web site (BritishMuslimsForIsrael.com) received thousands of hits and the group began receiving letters of all kinds, from “thank you for what you said” to “how can we help?” One writer offered to help jazz up their Web site, and several spoke admiringly of the group’s bravery. “Although I never for one second thought I was being brave, I just thought I was being obvious in what I was saying,” Afzal told me. “We were worried that the dialogue, when it comes to the Middle East and especially Israel, had in the past five or six years moved from how do Muslims build an independent Palestinian state and coexist with Israel, to nonsense questions like should Israel even exist, or should the Jews even have a homeland,” Afzal said. “And we found that disturbing for two reasons: first is, it’s a completely delusional question to even ask if Israel should even exist.” Afzal likes to pose the following hypothetical to anyone willing to discuss Israel’s right to exist: Suppose the argument was about India-Pakistan, and Afzal said to his interlocutor, “you know, I really support India’s right to exist”—how silly would he sound? In addition, Afzal knows where such a question, with respect to Israel, would lead. Once you start asking if Israel has a right to exist, Afzal said, “that is almost like a back door Trojan horse entry to some pretty dark aspects of Islamism.” The media environment in Britain can be downright hostile to the Jewish state. Part of Afzal’s work is countering the misinformation in British media. “I’m sure you know that the UK has an infamous leftwing newspaper which can’t help itself but print editorials or op-eds linked to members of Hamas. And I’m talking about the Guardian here.” Afzal points to the coverage of the massacre of the Israeli family in Itamar. It was mostly ignored in British media, he said, and when the BBC finally covered it, they did so in a “dehumanizing and insulting way,” insinuating that since the family lived in the West Bank, they got what they deserved. Though Israel does have a tense relationship with European intellectuals and media, these groups aren’t ready to give up—quite the opposite. That’s because the media in Britain, according to Afzal, doesn’t speak for the people. I asked him how representative British media is of the population’s opinions on the whole. “It’s not representative, which is the bottom line,” he said. But their work remains so important because such biased media coverage can, over time, erode sympathy for Israel even among its supporters. Take your average consumer of news in Britain, he said. “If he gets the same anti-Israeli, delegitimized point of view, day in and day out, then decent people will start to turn their backs on Israel.” On a cultural level, Afzal made a point to avoid the traditional talk of “coexistence” between Jews and Muslims in Europe and beyond. He isn’t opposed, of course, to this activity, but rather wants to take it beyond the commonalities and into the realm of real debate. “What I would say about coexistence groups is, it’s great having a Muslim and a Jew in a room together and agreeing that we shouldn’t eat pork and agreeing that male children should be circumcised,” he said. “But what you’ll rarely find is that they actually talk about the issues that matter. So that’s why we try not to get too into the coexistence game. We have set beliefs and it’s our job to advocate it to the grassroots Muslim community and beyond.” | |
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| #3 Not offering them anything of value. it offers them Victim Status™, where nothing that happens is their fault -it's the fault of the Infidels or Jooooos |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-04-17 11:19 |
| #2 I think the extremists are terrified of any voices of moderation, because of a simple point. If you look at any group of people, including Muslims, the vast majority of them have "inertia". They just live their lives and never really "do" much of anything other than that. Extremists of all kinds are always a minority, and their hardest problems is having to push and coerce this inert majority into doing anything. Typically, they do so with violence against their own people, and desperately try to create the illusion that the majority are extremist. For example, while the vast majority of post-Czarist leftists in Russia were moderates, or "Mensheviks", the "Bolsheviks", a tiny minority, had a name that meant "majority". In a civilized society, extremists have to do everything in their power to keep the majority isolated and apart from society at large. Because if they integrate, they are no longer under control. They also are reliant on creating a persecution or victimization complex among their people, the actually rather rare "Islamophobia". Which in most cases should instead be called "Islamoskepticism". In any event, over time, more and more Muslims in the west are going to start noticing that they aren't persecuted, and are treated fairly equally, or enough so that extremism is seen as just that. Not offering them anything of value. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-04-17 09:59 |
| #1 A brave and intelligent Muslim---not long for this World. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-04-17 02:16 |