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A WARNING FROM HISTORY
Bristol Evening Post
January 29, 2008 Tuesday
UK
Britain has just marked Holocaust Memorial Day. Sadly, for many years
now, some Muslim organisations have boycotted the event. Their response
is a politically motivated decision and not a "Muslim" one.
The Qur'an teaches us to stand up firmly for justice even if it is
against our own selves and to stand by those being oppressed. That
is the true Muslim response.
There is a time and place to make political statements. This is
not one.
The Bristol Muslim Cultural Society (BMCS) for example has always
(since I've been involved) attended the events in Bristol. We did so
again on Sunday and Monday.
Throughout history, whenever the Jews have been persecuted in Europe,
they have always sought and received sanctuary from the Muslims.
Indeed, in a 4,000-year history, what the Jewish community itself
refers to as "The Golden Age of Judaism" was actually under Muslim
rule.
The Holocaust is the single most shameful event in recorded history.
Muslims tend to assume that there is nothing even remotely equivalent
in Islamic history, so Muslims do find it difficult to comprehend how
and why, a supposedly "civilised" society, could be so duped into
taking part or at the very least standing idly by, as the Jewish
people were being wiped out.
It was, in fact, part of an ongoing pattern of behaviour that has
long been associated with "Christian Europe" by the Muslim world.
For Muslims, this pattern began with the Crusades, culminating in
Jerusalem, with the wholesale slaughter of all Muslims, Jews and even
Christians who defended the city from the Crusaders.
>From the Muslim point of view, Muslims, too, have conquered the
world. But never have they engaged or even contemplated the genocide
of the indigenous non-Muslim populations.
What Muslims tend to forget is that there is one example of Muslims
attempting genocide of non-Muslims: the Turks against the Armenians.
Often though, like the Jews, Muslims have suffered as victims.
The above examples should illustrate firstly, how genuinely difficult
it often is for the Muslim communities to understand how a "Holocaust"
could even happen and secondly to indicate why there is often an air
of reluctance by ordinary Muslims to take part in the Remembrance
Day services.
Finally, there is the link to Palestine. I am not going to debate who
suffered more, the Jews in Europe during the war or the Palestinians
since 1947. But the link with the Holocaust is very much clear.
It was the outpouring of sympathy for the Jewish people after the war,
coupled with the Zionist acts of terrorism and indeed the anti-Semitism
of some of the leaders of Britain that the state of Israel was carved
out of Palestine with little regard for the indigenous population.
This year's memorial included reference to the horrors of Darfur.
This is most certainly welcome. The events should be used to draw
attention to such places, where the world has stood idly by as
massacres take place.
In 1946, at the Nuremberg Trials, German newspaper editor Julius
Streicher was hanged for "crimes against humanity." Streicher's
crime? He had published anti-Semitic editorials and cartoons in his
that had served to dehumanise the Jews.
The lesson that we must learn from these events is that once we are
made to believe that others are less than us, all horrors are possible.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Bristol Evening Post
January 29, 2008 Tuesday
UK
Britain has just marked Holocaust Memorial Day. Sadly, for many years
now, some Muslim organisations have boycotted the event. Their response
is a politically motivated decision and not a "Muslim" one.
The Qur'an teaches us to stand up firmly for justice even if it is
against our own selves and to stand by those being oppressed. That
is the true Muslim response.
There is a time and place to make political statements. This is
not one.
The Bristol Muslim Cultural Society (BMCS) for example has always
(since I've been involved) attended the events in Bristol. We did so
again on Sunday and Monday.
Throughout history, whenever the Jews have been persecuted in Europe,
they have always sought and received sanctuary from the Muslims.
Indeed, in a 4,000-year history, what the Jewish community itself
refers to as "The Golden Age of Judaism" was actually under Muslim
rule.
The Holocaust is the single most shameful event in recorded history.
Muslims tend to assume that there is nothing even remotely equivalent
in Islamic history, so Muslims do find it difficult to comprehend how
and why, a supposedly "civilised" society, could be so duped into
taking part or at the very least standing idly by, as the Jewish
people were being wiped out.
It was, in fact, part of an ongoing pattern of behaviour that has
long been associated with "Christian Europe" by the Muslim world.
For Muslims, this pattern began with the Crusades, culminating in
Jerusalem, with the wholesale slaughter of all Muslims, Jews and even
Christians who defended the city from the Crusaders.
>From the Muslim point of view, Muslims, too, have conquered the
world. But never have they engaged or even contemplated the genocide
of the indigenous non-Muslim populations.
What Muslims tend to forget is that there is one example of Muslims
attempting genocide of non-Muslims: the Turks against the Armenians.
Often though, like the Jews, Muslims have suffered as victims.
The above examples should illustrate firstly, how genuinely difficult
it often is for the Muslim communities to understand how a "Holocaust"
could even happen and secondly to indicate why there is often an air
of reluctance by ordinary Muslims to take part in the Remembrance
Day services.
Finally, there is the link to Palestine. I am not going to debate who
suffered more, the Jews in Europe during the war or the Palestinians
since 1947. But the link with the Holocaust is very much clear.
It was the outpouring of sympathy for the Jewish people after the war,
coupled with the Zionist acts of terrorism and indeed the anti-Semitism
of some of the leaders of Britain that the state of Israel was carved
out of Palestine with little regard for the indigenous population.
This year's memorial included reference to the horrors of Darfur.
This is most certainly welcome. The events should be used to draw
attention to such places, where the world has stood idly by as
massacres take place.
In 1946, at the Nuremberg Trials, German newspaper editor Julius
Streicher was hanged for "crimes against humanity." Streicher's
crime? He had published anti-Semitic editorials and cartoons in his
that had served to dehumanise the Jews.
The lesson that we must learn from these events is that once we are
made to believe that others are less than us, all horrors are possible.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress