With some nostalgia and a feeling of empathy, I see some of the familiar places in Alexandria and Cairo and Ahmad al-Badawi’s Tanta on the TV screen and recall the kind of almost Police State security apparatus that was Egypt already twenty years ago after ten years of Mubarak.

I’m walking down Cleopatra Avenue in Alexandria and I notice an Egyptian man walking close to me on my right and another on my left and we are walking side by side, same pace and you would think that we were some kind of trinity moving down the street. I stop and they stop, so I ask them , in Arabic, “ What do you want?”

They show me their cards and tell me, “We are the Police and you are going to accompany us to the Police Station.”

At the station they want to see my passport. “Ah, Swedish?” and they tell me that I’m free to go.

That was some 20 years ago, not long after Saddam took Kuwait. At least a Swedish passport did not get you into terrible trouble.

Later that day I kept the company of an Egyptian psychiatrist, something of a sadist ( but then you have to adjust to figurative language and the sort of hyperbole of hatred or disgust that can be applied to the enemy.) In discussing Israel and the two wars that had devastated Egypt’s economy, he told me quite plainly, “I would like to eat Yitzhak Shamir’s liver!”

In 1991, young people could not afford to get married, because they could not even afford to buy or rent a modest apartment.

In 1991 a newly trained medical doctor on intern-ship got an allowance of the equivalent of three hundred Swedish crowns per month.

Since then, more of a middle class has been created – and of course it is the Middle Class that would not be in a hurry to see their new found Western life styles and the Western freedoms that they aspire to, clamped down by people like the Muslim Brotherhood wanting to create an Islamic State in Egypt. The middle class especially, wants liberalisation, more reform, personal freedom, nightclubs, discos, gambling casinos, more interest banking , more burlesque theater than the pieces I saw in Alexandria ,and of course the more pretentious ones have pretensions to Jean-Paul Sartre instead of Jean-Paul Belmondo.The more disadvantaged want more justice and food, good health and better shelter and believe that this can only come about with more Islam.

On my first visit to the American University in Cairo, I could not believe my eyes. Many of the female students were dressed up as if they were going to a party in Manhattan. I was the only one dressed in a gallabiya. At noon I asked a young lady where do the Muslims do their mid-day prayer and she looked at me with such anger and contempt written on her face ( she must have thought that I was  a Murid from the Sudan ) and spoke to me with such venom! Shouted at me with a put on American accent “ This is not a mosque!!! You want to pray you go over there !!!!! “– and pointed to the exit door….

“And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.”

Fast forwarding a little, this is a good place to start .

Like an admiral on the ship of state, looking out to sea through his glasses our Foreign Minister Carl Bildt sees “a demographic tsunami to the south of the Mediterranean “

By definition, too much is too much and enough is enough. In the history books, Tunisia will be seen as the catalyst that lit the fuse to the keg of gunpowder waiting to be set on fire the fire that is about to spread throughout the Middle East : in frustration and despair a young man set himself on fire, the whole country arose as one country and in less than two weeks their president had boarded a plane to seek refuge in the monarchy of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al-Islam.

In some ways the on-going revolt in Egypt is somewhat reminiscent of the children of Israel’s exodus from that land – to the Holy Land and up till today,everybody knows what Moses said to the Pharaoh :“Thus saith HaShem the God of Israel : Let My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness.”

In today’s Egypt, it looks like in the absence of more spectacular miracles (the seven plagues and so forth) the Egyptians are destined to remain there (in Egypt) to sort things out with their Pharaoh and they ( the suffering masses) don’t want to go anywhere else since Egypt is their land – albeit it is not “ The Promised Land” ; so they say that a change of government or any other cosmetic changes just won’t do the trick: it’s the Pharaoh himself that they say must go. Get lost .

In today’s Egypt, which is the burial place of the last Shah of Iran, the crowds have caught fire and the throne of the Pharaoh is being shaken and in a few days time the army will have taken over completely in the name of the people of Egypt – all this, prior to the elections that were scheduled to take place in June.

No smoke without fire: Rumour confirms the results of analysis: Mahmud Abbas /Abu Mazen and the present day Palestinian authorities are next in line for a demise, as his people now inspired by Wikileaks arise against their erstwhile leaders who they now see as actually being in bed with Israel and therefore as traitors to their cause.

From afar Herr Bildt looks into the future and just as the Prophet of Islam, salallahu alaihi wa salaam originally saw himself as “a warn-er “ so too these prophetic words are attributed to our Minster of International Affairs:

“These are extremely young societies, demanding concerning the future, and their demands for jobs, for prospects for the future cannot be met by systems that are seen as closed, be that in economic or be that in political terms.

“This is process that lies ahead of all of the countries in the region, one way or another. They’re very different but the demographic tsunami is something that is common to all of them,” he warned. “

This warning is not accompanied by any announcement of a change in or re-adjustment of Swedish policy towards the Tsunami lands of North Africa and environs. Understandably, compared to the main power-broker the United States of America, Sweden is a medium sized player in that area and will probably have to take the cue from what Uncle Sam says and does.

Uncle Sam is very very concerned, to say the least, because thus far, after Israel, Egypt has been his very best friend in the area – and heaven forbid that the ground should begin to rumble and shake or the earth to quake under King Abdullah’s throne in Jordan.

One thing at a time : here are some very sober considerations: The Revolt in Egypt and US policy

Could it be an exaggeration that Radical Islam will spread like a wildfire throughout the Middle East ?

I’ve watched a lot of al-Jazeera, CNN, BBC, and SKY News, much of the day , and everybody ( some drooling at the mouth – with excitement ) have so much to say. There’s little, precious little being said about the Palestinians, but in view of the fact that HAMAS is the Muslim Brotherhood’s younger brother and the Muslim Brotherhood is about to gain a little more say-so in Egypt, – 34 Muslim Brotherhood political prisoners have already been released these past 24 hours (and their little influence could become a little bit more after the June elections – if such elections will be held in June)  we must all understand that they (Hamas) more than Mahmud Abbas are rejoicing, and that Israel is keeping an eye on the security situation as things unravel in Egypt.

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Aminatta Forna is special.

It’s a little late in the day to write a review of her autobiographical “The Devil that Danced on the water” but there will be plenty of reviews when that and certainly when her later stuff such as Ancestor Stones is available in Swedish translation.

Just a few minutes ago I was going to whet your appetite and had already written “But here’s a juicy bit  from that book, by the way of gossip – (about Yasser Arafat) and there’s much of that (gossip) in the history books:” …but when I got to the bookshelf I realised that I had lent it to someone (Miriam Sio-Lodenius) just a few weeks ago, to encourage her along the path of the autobiographical which for many people, has to come off the chest – or as an unpretentious American would say in plain English “has to be “gotten” off the chest”.  Books are ” begotten”. It’s said to be therapeutic – and that most writers’ early stuff incorporate much of the autobiographical, often fictionalised and thinly disguised.

There’s been a lot of fuss about Chris Abani of late and Swedish readers tend to have a tender spot for female African writers, the latest rave being Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Before the advent of Adichie, all the old ladies loved – and my friend the late Bedu Annan adored, Buchi Emecheta who was on regular visits here to Stockholm , sometimes at the invitation of this and that Women’s organisation – well so would you be if you had best selling titles that suggested the kind of stuff they would like to hear, titles such as “ The Slave Girl ”, “Second-Class Citizen”, ”The Bride Price”, “Our Own Freedom”, “The New Tribe“. My Better Half and I were present at one of her lectures at the ABF. She charmed everybody in the hall. At the end of her reading, everybody wanted an autographed copy. Even my Better Half was making some small talk with her. And so was I. ( You notice that I say my Better Half? None of that equal-ity stuff. Super woman. BETTER!

I suppose that the curious Swedish reader wants to at least find glimpses of African life ( exotic or complicated) and answers to the kinds of questions around what defines an African sister, some of the feminism stuff, anticipations of some of that old time religion ( the African patriarch system) the psychology and sociology of oppression, holy (or not so holy) poly-gamy, and these days, some of the problems of love and freedom to be encountered by women living in modern Muslim societies in transition, ina Africa or in Europe, Japan, India or North America. Etc etc etc.

Those are some of the anticipated areas that fiction is supposed to deal with…

Chris Abani and Aminatta Forna have a few things in common: Chris Abani has an English mother and a Nigerian father, whilst Aminatta Forna has a Scottish mother and a Sierra Leonean father.

Another thing that they have in common is that I am a fan of both of them.

Right now the focus is on AMINATTA FORNA

Her latest work is The Memory of Love

Also celebrated here by Cafeafricana ( link at the bottom of the review)

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The apple core:  Jimmie Åkesson introduces himself

The heart of the matter:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9372832.stm

Perhaps, had his buddy Robert Spencer been in the Hardtalk driving seat, then Kent Ekeroth would have been a little less tongue-tied and more articulate than his boss, especially in talking about the anti-Islamic & anti-Islamization angle to the principles that underpin the Sweden Democrats’ xenophobic policies. Instead, he left it all to his leader Jimmie Åkesson – slightly less at home in the English language, to stutter and stammer and grope for the right words throughout the interview – and with Sarah Montague such a kind-hearted lady too.

He did not strike anyone as being very self-confident or assertive.

I fear that Jimmie would have fared even worse with CNN’s Isha Sesay

Had Stephen Sackur been in the driving seat, Jimmie Åkesson would have been in for a rough ride even if  from the very beginning Åkesson had said, “ Peace Brother” and taken special pains – special care – to assure Sackur that he should not take it personally and did not mean to include and could never include the English, the Scots, the Welsh or the Irish in his wicked xenophobic policies.

It’s certain that Stephen Sackur would have screwed him if he chose to do so or at the very least given the defenceless lad a very rough time and perhaps got him to mumble and to blush a few more times…or even storm out of the programme , the way that he stormed out of church when he thought that the Bishop’s talk was too much

You can judge for yourself: the SverigeDemokrater/Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Åkesson for 22 minutes on BBC Hardtalk

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International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Marking the seriousness of the occasion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the Knesset

There’s something that we have to be more aware of -  namely : The Muslim Lobby – in Europe

Democratic Sweden being a very important member of the family of nations, I find myself writing this in response to reading in the Jerusalem Post, Benjamin Netanyahu saying that “ the world is not doing enough to condemn Iran’s anti- Semitism”

Iran claims to be a lover of the truth and yet here  it  is : Holocaust denial by Iran and others

When one country (Iran) – a member of the United Nations , threatens another country -  Israel  – with the intention of ” Wiping out” that nation, “off the map “, this is very serious.

What would Sweden’s Foreign Minister Carl Bildt an expert in International relations say, if Iran announced the same intentions for Sweden : wiping us out and “off the map” … even when he hasn’t got the bomb yet?

This takes some looking into :

Briefly: The question for Muslims and non- Muslims to answer: Do they think that THE ALMIGHTY likes anti-Semitism?

We’ve read about Islamophobia here in The Local in this article entitled The New Anti-Semitism

Those who are the victims of discrimination should themselves try to not be the spearheads of anti- Semitism and by anti-Semitism I mean the devil’s old anti-Semitism, the original, the one and only real anti-Semitism, for which reason the whole world is suffering and will continue to suffer until anti-Semitism becomes a thing of the past. It has now spread some more and here are other accounts of it

Here’s

Memri TV – Anti-Semitism captured on Camera

Here is some resource information about more recent Post Holocaust anti-Semitism

Rightly called Daily Alert ( that was for Tuesday – there’s anti-Semitism everyday!)

Since it’s basically Sweden we’re talking about let’s stay focused. Here are a series of valuable documents on the subject of anti-Semitism in Sweden

But, not only in Sweden

In recent months, especially since the Sweden Democrats’ spectacular entry into the Swedish Chambers of Parliament, followed by the suicide bomber on Drottninggatan, the closest Sweden has come to experiencing a 911 – there has been an upsurge in fear and in personal insecurity and as a consequence a new upsurge and increase in anti-Islam feeling, since it is believed that it is Islamic Doctrine that is used as justification of Jihad and of suicide-bombing which is a strategic component of Jihad – and that Jihad’s ultimate aim is to conquer the world and subjugate all mankind and the whole of humanity to submission to the dictates of the laws of Sharia Islam.

Their aim is nothing less than a World Islamic Government – the world under Islamic rule.

Another cause for Islamophobia :Look at what Iran is doing in Iran

The Wild Westerner – and even the not so wild (of “the Wild West” – and this includes Swedish Mr. Sven Svensson & Mrs. Svensson & family) are especially afraid of losing democracy in the form that they now know it, and of losing what they believe to be their political and social and economic and existential and sexual and even philosophical & entertainment freedoms and rights, under Sharia Law and this indeed is a great fear, although these rights and freedoms are not under any immediate threat yet, even should Iran be soon armed with the Revolutionary Islamic nuclear. Bomb, the first of its kind, in the service of Jihad , or even self-defence against opponents of al-Islam.

The Westerner fears this loss of freedom more than he fears burning in the hell-fire for not having suitable or appropriate Islamic beliefs or for not submitting whilst still in the corporeal flesh.

World anti-Semitsim includes rabid Muslim / Islamic anti-Semitism that is currently operational in Sweden. Never mind “ the people of the book” and all that jazz, as the Qur’an confirms Muslim anti-Semitism is due to the fact that it is the Jewish Faith that is most resistant to Islam and provides the irrefutable arguments and living evidence of that resistance. This assertion can can be discussed but cannot be refuted

The doctrines of Nazi anti-Semitism was injected and incorporated into Arab nationalism and this is still what is fuelling anti- Semitism in the Middle East, where the Arabs who already have 22 ( twenty-two) Arab states, want to convert Israel into being the 23^rd ( twenty-third ) Arab state.

Here, if you don’t know, you can check it out : Nazism, anti-Semitism and Arab nationalism

Here is a list of anti-Israel groups

Hopefully the winds of change blowing though Tunisia and the streets of Cairo will help bring about the realisation that with peace, the whole of that area could be one of the most prosperous and happy people in the world and in the world to come.

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This TV programme Vi och Dom (We/Us and Them) has been one of the best public debate/discussion programmes ever – on Swedish TV – on a subject that concerns all of us thanks to the Sweden Democrats who have succeeded in bringing this necessary discussion to the forefront.

And also special thanks to

1. Jimmie Åkesson and his band walking out of church when he thought that the Bishop’s preachment was directed against him/ them.

2. Some of the fallout and particularly the reactions to the article by Maciej Zaremba in Dagens Nyheter of 27th October 2010 .

3. Bishop Brunne’s forgiving spirit ( it’s her job, she’s a priestess and it’s expected of her : she’s supposed to forgive the bad boy walking out on her like that in the Middle of her sermon – and to understand. To forgive him ( so that she too will be forgiven – for her intentional or unintentional offences. “ And forgive us our trespasses – as we forgive those who trespass against us” etc.) Otherwise it would dent her image, and the image of the Swedish Church. And so thanks to her perseverance, round two was possible – and Jimmie Åkesson was courageous and gentlemanly – and responsible enough to be himself (as usual) and to accept the challenge to discuss these matters that he is so passionate about and courageous & committed enough to discuss the matter in Christian ethics’ home turf, namely within the Church premises.( Knowing Jimmie as I do, it’s doubtful that he would have consented to having the Mosque as the venue that would host the same kind of fruitful discussion with another kind of panel, this time, including at least one Muslim and one svartskalle.

As the moderator Madeleine Åhlstedt made clear from the beginning, it was to be a dialogue – “not a debate but a dialogue”. The panel members Bishop Eva Brunne, Maciej Zaremba , the Sweden Democrat leader Jimmie Åkesson were sharp – and focused – as indeed were all the contributions from the floor. Let’s hope that the fruitful discussion that’s just been started will be continued with the same kind of intelligence on all sides, and in the same atmosphere of mutual respect.

The discussion was in Swedish and for those who do not feel at home with the language, I can only do justice to the quality of the dialogue by giving a detailed resume of what was said , and said so very well. It would even be better to translate a complete transcript of the discussion and if the Swedish is available in print, I will do just that.

In any case I should like to highlight some of what was said in a subsequent posting.

It has been a very edifying programme indeed, this evening.

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Of course it would have been quite a different session indeed, if instead of meeting Bishop Brunne,

young Jimmie Åkesson and his comrades were meeting, Louis Farrakhan or Barack Obama,

or Malcolm X or Mahatma Gandhi, or the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther  King  – or even Jesus – in the  Kingdom of Heaven

or Khalid Muhammad or Muhammad Ali in his prime

or Osama bin Ladin and Saddam Hussein or Chairman Arafat and the leaders of Hezbollah & Hamas down here on mother earth asking him, “ What’s that you have been saying about our people? “

I listened to the reprise of Professor Christer Hedin’s lecture on Islam on kunskapskanalen at 1600hrs this afternoon. The programme announcer told us said that if it so happens that the “Sweden Democrats” do not walk out of the meeting with the Lady Bishop (Bishopess?) we would all know exactly what transpired at the meeting between Bishop Brunne and the SVD at 5 O Clock tomorrow evening on Kunskapskanalen…. which suggests that, hopefully, we will witness the proceedings in living colour….

So far, no news is good news. There has not been any news that they chickened out/ walked out of the showdown and failed to confront the reality of Bishop Brunne’s sermon on morality, on Swedish Christian ethics and the value of the Human being, all of which are the very foundations/ foundation stones of Swedish society or if you prefer, Swedish Civilisation – of which racism and xenophobia are surely not values to uphold locally, parochially or internationally.

Well, I’ve just checked the latest news: The good news is that this time ( Round 2) the Sweden Democrats have lived up to the name of their party, have exceeded the expectations of many and behaved both rationally and some of their fans and even some of their enemies would say that this time they have behaved properly – like gentlemen (and gentle women who did not follow their leader when he stormed out of Church the last time.

They did not walk off in a huff this time.

Here’s some confirmation of the good news

Trust in the Lord yes , but don’t forget to keep your gunpowder dry.

It’s good to be realists. Just look at what’s happened at Moscow airport….

Here is some of what Kent Ekeroth would probably like to hear

( it should sound like music to his and Robert Spencer’s ear :

Professor Paul Eidelberg’s eight minute perspective on Islam ( in relationship with the West)

More on this later, under a more suitable  heading…..

P.S. It’s interesting what Mr. Åkesson is reported to have said – immigrants who don’t want to be “we”  Sweden  etc.

Even before we watch yesterday’s proceedings with the Bishop, this is both well timed and timely:

An important article by Jimmie Åkesson in this morning’s Dagens Nyheter

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There has been precious little in the Swedish media this past week, about the ongoing post- elections stalemate in the Ivory Coast from which country and their neighbour Ghana, our chocolate manufactures get so much of the cacao that is transformed into everybody’s favourite chocolate.

Oil has also been discovered in the Ivory Coast. ( and in Ghana too) and this makes the country an even more attractive source of raw materials for oil consumers, (especially should it come to pass that the Straights of Hormuz/ Persian Gulf be closed to traffic in one of these future days.)

In any case it seems that the EU member states led by France in this instance, have thrown in their lot with the former colonial power, about the situation in their former colony in which they continue to have so very much of a say so.

In international organizations / interest groups such as the UN, the EU , the African Union, collective decisions are made – even decisions about going to war, as a result of which member states might feel that they are compelled by such collective decisions, to contribute their military quota, be it to send to Afghanistan or wherever, and oft-times, while governments make decisions at that level, with so much propaganda and demonization of “ the enemy” going on the ordinary citizens are poorly informed or even ignorant about the true nature of the exact state of affairs.

Many of us are very concerned about the situation in the Ivory Coast and do not want to see more black blood being spilled…..

It’s one O’ Clock in the morning and here is some more clarity about the situation , in chronological order:

The Empire Strikes Back ( 16^th December 2010)

Preparing For Disaster In Ivory Coast ( 25rh December 2010)

The International Community and Africa (29^th December, 2010)

West African Leaders On The Square Against Gbagbo ( 4^th January, 2011)

Western Hypocrisy In The Ivory Coast ( 8^th January, 2011)

And the  very latest – 23^rd January, 2011 :

The International Community and the Impasse in the Ivory Coast

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Ah freedom! Oh freedom ! O Freedom of Speech!

As has been said time without number: Whatever a Muslim does – purportedly in the name of Islam,  does not disqualify other Muslims from being law-abiding human beings.

And what a bad Christian does in the name of Jesus should not mean that all Christians are guilty.

How to dispel the prevailing pessimism ?

Wasn’t it the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King who said that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to Justice everywhere.” ?

Yesterday, I met a Moroccan acquaintance at the supermarket and inevitably, we got to chatting about events in Tunisia – and about what everybody else has been chatting about .Soon enough I asked him about the possibility of our witnessing the same course of events leading to the heads of other Arab states following in the footsteps of Field-Marshal Dada Idi Amin and taking flight to Saudi Arabia not to do the pilgrimage in Mecca – or to repent and do some penance in Medina, but to apply for refugee status in Riyadh.

It’s as if Ben Ali had not done any good in Tunisia. Of course he did. It’s just that “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”

I was impressed (to say the least) with my friend’s take on what democracy is (not just the peoples right to choose, to say yes or to say no – but also the desire  among those who are blessed to want others to have that which they cherish for themselves). I was also impressed with his analysis of the situation in Tunisia – about how Tunisia with its intelligentsia capable of using its social networking etc. is different from other countries in the region. (Like everyone else, I’ve been following events in Tunisia. Najib Chebbi was informative and impressive on Hard Talk and al-Jazeera has been covering Tunisia not only for Western viewers but also for the satisfaction of the Arab masses. We’re made to understand that Tunisia is probably the most Europeanised of the North African countries, just as Argentina is the most Europeanized of the South Americans)

Could the same happen in Egypt where the Pharaoh ( Hosni Mubarak) would like to see a smooth succession – the transfer of all of his POWERS to his crown prince? (If the price of bread were to be raised 100% in Egypt, it could be the last straw  – that broke the camel’s back – and I’m sure that everybody would rebel. There is that direct correlation between the state of happiness of peoples ‘ stomachs and rebellion against the central belly, no matter the arguments here: ” There was a time when all the body’s members rebelled against the belly …

Like Nigeria, I think that Algeria is too big for the people to overpower the army – unless as in Iran it ever got to the point where their Imam Khomeini ( r.a.) would say – at the point where SAVAK and the Shah’s loyal army had got tired of shooting into the multitudes of their own people :“ The army is the people and the people is the army” – and at that point, it was all over for the Shah who is now laid to rest in exile in the Muhammad Ali mosque in Cairo.

Meanwhile, over there in Lebanon

What the resident racists, Islamophobes and anti-immigration people must understand is that many people from the oil rich countries among others, are refugees here in Sweden because they are the victims of either oppression or persecution – and that, they are not here illegally nor – in the long run, are they bad for the economy…..

By the time that we got to the cashiers and I was checking out my purchases, my acquaintance had become my friend and it was as my friend Rashid from Marrakesh that he paid for some of my groceries , as I myself was straight out of cash…..

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Israel the birthplace of nearly all the Jewish prophets, is one of the smallest countries in the world………………………………………………………………..

On Page 294 of Herbert H. Davidson’s “Moses Maimonides – the man and his works”:

“ Islam in his opinion is the cruelest and most implacable enemy that the Jewish people has faced in its entire history.” ( Epistle to Yemen, 94-97 ; English translation xviii.)

The Full Text of Maimonides EPISTLE TO YEMEN

But first of all it would be good to clear up a misunderstanding that persists in many quarters – and this should lay that misunderstanding to rest: on the same Page 294 of Herbert H. Davidson’s “Moses Maimonides – the man and his works”:

“On a different occasion, Obadia, a recent convert to the Jewish faith, asked Maimonides to adjudicate a dispute that had arisen between him and his teacher regarding Islam. Obadia had asserted that Muslims are not idolaters, while the teacher had insisted that they are and , in exasperation had called Obadia a fool. Maimonides responds that Obadia was right: Muslims are unquestionably monotheists and when they bow down to the stone in the mosque in Mecca “their hearts are directed to heaven” and they do not worship the stone. “Just because they lie about us”, Maimonides writes, “we shall not lie about them and assert that they are idolaters”  if they are not. Obadia’s teacher therefore owed him a full and heartfelt apology. “( Responsa § 448)

Checking out Herbert A. Davison’s book on Moses Maimonides one comes to the realisation that, not without cause, Islamophobia has deep roots stretching back to the distant and the not too distant past .

Leaving the The Crusades aside, this brief posting is about the life and times of Moses Maimonides – and upon reflection that life and those times cast some light and some cruel shadows on what’s happening these days.

About the rise of Islam in Europe, no one can say with certainty what it’s going to be like say in the next hundred years….

Already, here is the latest ominous warning issuing from the terrorist chief, and only those who believe in loving their enemies can afford to ignore it: no doubt they have not given up, the Jihad continues: Osama bin Laden issues a warning to France ( to get out of Afghanistan – or else ! – Or else some more caramba!)

There is a history of Islamic warfare and expansion – from the beginning of Islam unto the present day. But for now, back in the medieval times, page 10 of Davidson’s “ Moses Maimonides- the man and his works”:

“The Almohads eradicated religious error as fanatical religious groups have eradicated it in other periods of history and as we still see such groups doing in our own day. They drowned it in blood………..By the early 1150s, the Almohads had conquered a wide swathe of North Africa extending from the Atlantic Ocean through most of present day Algeria – an area known in Arabic as the Maghrib, “the West” – as well as the Western portion of Muslim Spain, including the city of Cordova. By 1160, they had expanded their control of North Africa beyond areas that had been ruled by the Almoravids, to include Tunisia and Tripoli. Ten years later they completed the conquest of Muslim Spain. Jewish communities were among those trampled under foot .

An Egyptian Jew writing in 1148 reports eyewitness descriptions of Almohad ferocity in areas that are today Morocco and Western Algeria, and, what is of interest for us, actions that Almohads took towards the Jewish population: When Abd al- Mumin the successor of Ibn Tumart, conquered Oran, he put the Almoravid garrison to death., killed the Almoravid governor, and gibbeted the latter’s body. In Fez, he slaughtered a total of 100,000 persons and in Marrakesh, a total of 150,000 – numbers that are scarcely imaginable. He killed the entire population of Tilimsen, with the exception of the Jews who converted to Islam. After occupying Sijimassa a city that did not resist, the Almohads tried to persuade the Jewish inhabitants to convert to Islam. Nothing came of the negotiations for seven months, whereupon a new governor appeared and presented the Jewish population with an ultimatum: conversion or death – this although Islamic legal doctrine of the time rejected the validity of coerced conversions. Some 150 Jews were thereupon put to death for their obstinacy, while the remainder, led by the local rabbinic judges, accepted the cordial invitation to embrace the majority faith. From the city of Bejaia (Bougie) to the eastern Algerian coast to Gibraltar. No one professing” the name Jew….remains: he who was killed was killed, he who sinned ( by converting to Islam) sinned.”

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From the ridiculous to the more sublime

In the end, it’s what you’ll find.

EXPO tells the ongoing story of all kinds of racism here in Sweden.

The latest report is that a member of SverigeDemokrater (the so called “Sweden Democrats”) has allied herself  with a facebook group that would like to forbid the religion of Islam in Sweden!  It’s outrageous!

Here the Sverigedemokrater have been invited to a manifestation against racism

Expo’s mission is similar to that of Searchlight Magazine

It’s a question of Civil Courage and a sense of social, even national, global responsibility. It doesn’t matter where we were born, or who we are, it’s our planet. Heaven is somewhere else.

There’s a saying “Silence is golden” – that there is a time, when silence is most effective.

There is also a saying that “Silence means consent”.This suggests that being quiet about Islamophobia means that by maintaining a silence about it, one is guilty of acquiescing to it. If this is not true then the burning question is what are the diverse Swedish religious leaders of Church and Mosque, of Buddhist and Hindu Temple saying about Islamophobia? Will the Dalai Lama talk about it when he comes to Sweden? What do the Marxists say?

For now I include Marxism because it has certain features in common with religion although, as Ninian Smart once observed, “the practical aspect of worship, and so forth, which is important in a number of religions, is much less developed in Marxism. One can see ways in which it’s developing of course.”

Civil Courage

What would Jesus have said, if he were alive today or if he had come back to this world and was living among us here in Sweden? (Of course there’s always the oddball racist nut-cracker Swede who would probably tell him to go back to wherever it is that he came from : his favourite country in the Middle East – perhaps they would prefer that he went back to Egypt where our ancestors sojourned for a while, the place where they claim he would feel more at home, than in the most civilised and advanced Sweden, so says one of them to me, wagging his puppy dog tail:

“But you think to give the Swedes advice on some nonsense about going out to reassure muslims. Since you are not Swedish, you have no place counselling them to do this or that, or any other course of action. You are a foreigner living amongst them who has prospered (not because of any African society presumably), and thought yourself fit to do so. You are not. You are a son of Africa living amongst a foreign people, who are not your people; however you may wish to deceive yourself.
Also, if you love Sweden so much, why are you planning on spending your final years in your favorite Middle Eastern country (not that I care). Go there now and save all of us the wait.”

So what’s all the talk of integration supposed to be about? Can Nyamko Sabuni be a member of the Government’s cabinet?

Of course,  I have many Swedish relatives (and German, Dutch, American, British, French). I also sing this – and with feeling too:

”Du gamla, du fria, du fjällhöga Nord,
du tysta, du glädjerika sköna!
Jag hälsar dig, vänaste land uppå jord,
din sol, din himmel, dina ängder gröna,
din sol, din himmel, dina ängder gröna.

Du tronar på minnen från fornstora dar,
då ärat ditt namn flög över jorden.
Jag vet, att du är och du blir vad du var.
Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!
Ja, jag vill leva, jag vill dö i Norden!”

Another song (you may or may not sing along. Feel free)

As the saying goes, “In your heart you know we’re right.And in your guts you know they’re nuts.”

Check THIS out !

I actually heard one of the greatest living Talmudists Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz say (at the Great Synagogue of Stockholm:”We all came from Africa!”

I’ll come to the similarities and the differences between ideology and religion (with particular reference to Islam) later – in my posting in which I propose to bury the guy who said that the word Islamophobia ought to be abolished -  and  thus  silence all criticism  of them  – so that he and others like him can be free to continue to rail at Islam and express all their hatred towards Muslims as perfectly honourable, even innocent Islamophobes who belong to the   misunderstood religion of Islamophobia which they insist should not be named but exist as a secret religion, clean, nameless, so you cannot label them or properly identify them, no matter what they say, since they’ve abolished the name of the crime.

Don’t get me wrong, there are hate preachers in some of the judgemental (heaven & Hell) religions, for example there is Sheikh Abdullah Hakim Quick for whom certain fundamentals are non-negotiable and not open to reform. This is him talking: “They said ‘what is the Islamic position on homosexuality?’ And I told them. Put my name in the paper. The punishment is death. And I’m not going to change this religion.”

Hate Preachers

The fallout from news about what Baroness Warsi was going to say and what she actually said, has been considerable.

Here’s what she actually said:

University of Leicester Sir sigmund Sternberg Lecture

Baroness Warsi & Islam

Once upon a time I thought that Karl Marx was the prophet of Communism – his book ( which I have not read in its entirety) “Das Kapital”  and in this way we can name many other prophets of this and that,  Freud, Darwin etc. At the same time ( once upon a time)  I thought that  Muhammad Ibn Abdullah – salallahu alaihi wa salaam with all due propriety could be referred to as the Prophet of ISLAM , his book : The Qur’an.  But that was before zapping through “Moses Maimonides – the man and his works”  by Herbert A. Davidson with  special emphasis on the last chapter of the book , his miscellaneous writings.

Will explain that in my next posting about Islamo-phobia

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