Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, double standards

Well, it's been a busy few weeks for those, such as ourselves, who follow such ugliness.

First, more evidence of official Islamophobia at the Pentagon (even amid all the hallucinatory paranoia that the commander-in-chief is a Muslim). It seems a training course for military officers was suspended in April after its extremist doctrines were brought to light. From AP, May 11:

The teaching in the military course was counter to repeated assertions by U.S. officials over the past decade that the U.S. is at war against Islamic extremists, not the religion itself.

"They hate everything you stand for and will never coexist with you, unless you submit," the instructor, Army Lt. Col. Matthew Dooley, said in a presentation last July for the course at Joint Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia. The college, for professional military members, teaches midlevel officers and government civilians on subjects related to planning and executing war.

Dooley also presumed, for the purposes of his theoretical war plan, that the Geneva Conventions that set standards of armed conflict are "no longer relevant."

He adds: "This would leave open the option once again of taking war to a civilian population wherever necessary (the historical precedents of Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki being applicable...)."

His war plan suggests possible outcomes such as "Saudi Arabia threatened with starvation ... Islam reduced to cult status" and the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia "destroyed."

A copy of the presentation was obtained and posted online by Wired.com's Danger Room blog. The college did not respond to The Associated Press' requests for copies of the documents, but a Pentagon spokesman authenticated the documents.

Dooley still works for the college, but is no longer teaching, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said.

Dooley refused to comment to the AP, saying "Can't talk to you, sir," and hanging up when reached by telephone at his office Thursday.

In April, an Israeli hiking trail guide briefly made headlines—which failed to distinguish between trails east or west of the Green Line, except to advise that hikers arm themselves when passing near Arab communities. From AFP, April 27:

JERUSALEM — Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat has condemned an Israeli hiking book that he said makes the West Bank a part of the Jewish state and incites violence against Palestinians.

The guidebook "considers the occupied West Bank part of Israel and incites... violence against Palestinians," Erakat said in a statement issued Thursday by the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

His remarks came after Haaretz newspaper reported Israel's defence ministry had given the book to thousands of families ahead of the country's memorial and independence day celebrations.

A gift to Israelis who lost relatives in military service and militant attacks since 1948, the publication contains suggested treks in Israel and the West Bank.

Haaretz noted that in some cases, hikers were advised to "bring a weapon, as the trail is located near an Arab village" or "a Bedouin encampment."

In the statement, Erakat described the book as "an outrageous case of incitement to violence against Palestinians that reflects Israel?s official policy and mindset.

"It should be of grave concern to the international community," he was quoted as saying.

"By issuing a book on trails in Israel that includes at least 50 sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli Defence Ministry exposes the true agenda of this government; nothing but abject disregard to international law, and the international consensus on the two-state solution."

Erakat said the book also gives Palestinian villages and areas Israeli names.

This showed "Israel is intent on taking over the entire Palestinian Territory rather than reaching a comprehensive and just agreement to the conflict based on the two-state solution," he said.

Agitprop appears in Jerusalem warning Jewish parents to keep their daughters away from Arabs. From YNet, May 8:

Lehava, the extremist Jewish organization for the prevention of assimilation in the Holy Land, has come up with a new gimmick that is creating a stormy debate on the issue of mixed marriages between Jews and Arabs.

In an ad made to look like an imaginary wedding invitation between Michal and her chosen groom Mohammad, distributed throughout Jerusalem's streets, the organization is seeking to demonstrate what would happen if parents fail to keep watch over their daughters.

The "invitation" asks you to join Michal and Mohammad as they celebrate their marriage on a Friday night at the Shahid (martyr) events hall in Ramallah. Next to the invitation the ad reads: "If you don't want your daughter's wedding invitation to look like this then…Don't let her work with Arabs or do national service with non-Jews, don't let her work in place that employs enemies and don't bring home migrant workers…"

The Lehava organization's goal is to "save the daughters of Israel who have been tempted into a romantic relationship with a non-Jew."

It appears that Israeli-themed charter schools in both New York and Washington DC are taxpayer-funded exercises in hasbara (Zionist propaganda). From The Forward, May 8:

Hebrew-language charter schools — long viewed by some critics as a Trojan horse for bringing religion into taxpayer-funded schools — gained a new level of acceptance when the Washington, D.C., school board recently approved the first Hebrew language school in the nation’s capital...

Yet, as Hebrew charters have overcome stereotypes of being parochial Jewish institutions, they've also positioned themselves as more than just schools. Many, though not all, Hebrew charters see themselves as fonts of Israel education [sic] that will cultivate students — both Jews and non-Jews — to serve as goodwill ambassadors for Israel in the years ahead...

One goal of the curriculum at Brooklyn's Hebrew Language Academy — HCSC's first school — "is to foster a love for the country of Israel in all of its diversity," said Principal Laura Silver.

At HLA, whose 306 students are 45% non-white, the Israeli flag hangs alongside the Stars and Stripes. (The proportion of Jews in the school is unknown as U.S. Department of Education rules prohibit enrollment policies and statistical tracking of students on the basis of religion.) Students at HLA and Hatikvah International Academy, another HCSC charter in East Brunswick, N.J., learn about the lives of six fictional Israeli families who live on Ha'Olam Street (Hebrew for "the world"). Each of the families represents a distinct Israeli immigrant story — one family descends from both Moroccan Jews and Holocaust survivors, for instance. But Arabs, who make up 20% of the population inside Israel proper, have no presence on Ha’Olam Street.

"It is realistic," said David Gedzelman, an HCSC board member, when asked about the omission of non-Jews. "This reflects the way neighborhoods are in Israel." Gedzelman said that HCSC is in the process of developing a similar curriculum about Arab families, which will be taught in its schools next year. For now, teachers address the topic of Arabs in Israel through a cultural lens, describing the food and dress in Arab villages.

According to Gedzelman, the HCSC charter schools use Israeli maps in line with State Department standards, which delineate the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. But school principals say that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not enter class discussions. "It is not part of the curriculum," said HLA’s Silver. "We are not learning in third grade about a political map, we are learning about a geographical map," said Hatikvah Principal Naomi Drewitz.

And finally, an entry from the other side of the proverbial coin. Remember all the totally bogus outcry over the Arabic-themed Khalil Gibran International Academy in New York three years back, which spawned such unseemly groups as Stop the Madrassa? (See New York Times, April 28, 2008) Well, it seems an Islamic school in Toronto really was living up to the stereotype. From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, May 8:

TORONTO -- A Toronto Islamic school being investigated following a complaint that it is teaching its students that Jews are "treacherous" and comparing them to Nazis has apologized to the Jewish community.

The curriculum at the East End Madrassah, a Sunday school for Muslim children that rents space from a public school, taught boys to exercise so they are "ready for jihad," refers to "crafty" and "treacherous" Jews and Jewish "plots," and contrasts Islam with "the Jews and the Nazis."

By early this week, the school had removed from its website the controversial portion of its curriculum. Later the same day, its website went offline.

The complaint was launched by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies in Toronto.

The school on Tuesday reportedly apologized to the Jewish community and pledged to revise its teaching materials after a careful review.

“We unreservedly apologize to the Jewish community for the unintentional offense that the item has caused,” the school said in a statement. “Our team of scholars has already undertaken to review all texts and material being used in the curriculum to ensure that our teachings are conveying the right message.”

Canada's Criminal Code makes it unlawful to publicly and "willfully" promote hatred against any identifiable group.

The Toronto District School Board, from which the madrassah rents space, said it is cooperating with police and noted it has the authority to revoke agreements with any associated school if it is found to be promoting hatred.

And once again, we have to state the obvious. Hasn't it occurred to Jewish Consensus Reality that we might have more authority to oppose the kind of rank Jew-hatred exhibited by the East End Madrassah if we spoke out against the Arab-hatred, Islamophobia and (at best) Zionist indoctrination represented in the other cases cited above? Conversely, this blogger was alerted to the anti-Arab and Islamophobic cases by lefty "friends" posting them on Facebook. Yet it was only a Zionist "friend" who posted anything about the East End Madrassah case.

Are there any single-standard voices for secularism and multi-culturalism out there?