Muslim Sensitivity

By Dr. Jerome S. Kaufman,  World Jewish News Agency Columnist and National Secretary of the  Zionist Organization of America.

Perhaps we should re-evaluate the constant drumming we hear as to our lack of sensitivity toward Muslims and their religion.  The latest episode revolved around an error made by Newsweek magazine in its blatant attempt to again discredit President Bush and our own armed forces. The ploy backfired. It turns out Newsweek created a false story describing the flushing of a Muslim holy book, the Koran, down the toilets at the Guantanemo prison Abu Ghraib. This tactic was supposedly used in order to extract information from Muslim prisoners, a doubtful strategy at best.

 There happens to be another much neglected side to the equation.  Where is their "sensitivity" to us? Mary Mostert, political commentator reports that in Serbian Kosovo alone since 1999, 140 Christian Churches were blown up with 25 churches destroyed just this past year!

When the Jordanians invaded Israel in 1948 and maintained Judea and Samaria (West Bank) as theirs for 19 years, 57 synagogues were defaced and destroyed in Jerusalem alone. The ancient Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery was decimated with 38,000 gravestones torn loose and used to pave roads and Jordanian army latrines. 

. How does that compare with the reporting of a Koran book desecration that in fact, never occurred? But, never mind the "spontaneous riots?" What is really at play here? Professor Robert A. Pape, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago, declares after an extensive study of suicide bombings that, "What nearly all suicide terrorist attacks actually have in common is a specific secular and strategic goal: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from territory that the terrorists consider to be their homeland. Religion is often used as a tool by terrorist organizations in recruiting and in seeking aid from abroad, but is rarely the root cause." Cannot one easily apply the same conclusions to Islamic rioting? What is the common factor here?  Is not the common factor the transparent goal of the religious hierarchy, the imams, et al, to maintain their virtually absolute power over Muslim countries and their citizens?  Every ploy, especially using the United States and Israel as the whipping boys, is used to maintain their lethal power and delude the Muslim people that their societies remaining in abject poverty and ignorance for the last 800 years is somehow our fault. The imams are rightfully very frightened that President Bush's so-called War on Terror may actually result in bringing democracy to Islamic lands. In fact, it is already happening in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Palestinian Arab territories and the very thought itself, of Democracy, suddenly occurring to Islamic regimes in the rest of world.  What might this do? Of course it would take a giant step toward removing the imams from their strangle hold of power, educate their people and hopefully help bring them into the 21st century. Our looking the other way will not work anymore and did not really work in  the first place.  If we are truly to have some remote chance of relative peace, than the root causes must be unequivocally addressed.                    

Who is owed the apology and much more?

Yesterday, (June 19, 2005) Israel apologized to the United States, via Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, for agreeing to sell Harpy attack drones and other advanced technology to China. "It is impossible to hide the crisis between Israel and the United States with regard to the security industries. We are doing everything possible to put it behind us," Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said on Israel Radio "The United States is our biggest ally, and none of the things that were done were done with the intention of harming U.S. interests," he said.

Miss Rice had raised concerns about the deal on her way to the Middle East on Friday. "I believe that the Israelis now understand our concerns, and I'm certain that, as good partners can, that we can come to some resolution to allow us to proceed," she said yesterday It is absolutely impossible for me to understand why Israel has to constantly apologize to the United States for selling weaponry to China or India or anyone else. How dare the United States demand such an apology and such control over Israeli military exports to countries thousands of miles, fortunately from our borders, when the United States, at the very same time, has been supplying, in massive quantities, the most sophisticated weaponry to Israel’s mortal enemies - all of whom are either on her immediate borders or very short flying miles away?

Is Israel less needy of import funds than the gargantuan American Military Industrial complex that President Dwight Eisenhower so clairvoyantly warned us against 45 years ago According to the legally required Arms Sales Monitoring Project that keeps track of the administration's notifications to Congress of proposed government-negotiated Foreign Military Sales (FMS) agreements, export licenses for industry-negotiated Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), leases of equipment, and reduced price or free excess defense article (EDA) transfers, the following countries have impending military sales, not to mention the billions of dollars of sophisticated military hardware furnished to them in the previous 10 years Saudi Arabia – 370 million, Egypt 2.7 billion, Jordan 161 million, Kuwait 113 billion, United Arab Emirates 455 billion Would you not think that only when the US stops these sales to Israel’s mortal enemies (current cosmetic peace treaties not withstanding) can the US legitimately raise concerns as to Israel’s arms sales?

More articles by Dr. Kaufman: The Koran - Something Lost in the Translation