The relationship between Iran and Israel has taken many turns over the last half century, especially since the 1979 Revolution, but don’t believe the vast majority of rhetoric against the Islamic Republic; it has nothing to do with terrorism or nuclear weapons: Shlomo Brom, a senior member of the Israeli intelligence apparatus, told [Trita] Parsi…
Showing all posts tagged Islam
Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali accuses Israel of atrocities
The following story by Natalie O’Brien appears in today’s Australian newspaper: Australia’s most outspoken Muslim leader, Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, has compared the Israeli bombing of Gaza to the Holocaust, sparking outrage among Jewish groups. Sheik Hilali, the imam of the nation’s biggest mosque at Lakemba, southwest Sydney, lashed out at the Israeli leaders, branding…
United against oppression
Following my talk last Friday at Sydney’s Imam Husain Islamic Centre, one of the organisers of the event, Ali Alsamail, asked if I would publish a Muslim perspective on the proceedings. The following piece is by him: Imam Husain Islamic Centre is unique among places of worship. In my visits there, I always find a…
Enemies here, enemies everywhere
The Third Jihad is “a groundbreaking film [that] exposes the truth and reveals what the media is not telling you about the Jihadist quest to rule America”: This kind of film comes around pretty regularly these days. This is how it works. A bunch of neo-cons find a Muslim to denounce the “radicals” within their…
Imam Husain Islamic Centre talk on Israel/Palestine
I spoke last night to a packed room of around 170 people at Sydney’s Imam Husain Islamic Centre (all photos here): I was honoured to engage with a large Muslim audience (as I was told that the idea of a Jew speaking to such a group happened rarely, if ever, due to the fear of…
Muslims, Christians and Jews together
One of the many events I’m doing in Sydney and elsewhere on alternative Jewish voices and organising opposition to the dominant Zionist narrative in our political and media elite:
Get ready for some predictable terrorism
Government efforts to prevent the radicalisation of British Muslims have been set back by Israel’s assault on Gaza, the security and counter-terrorism minister, Lord West of Spithead, announced yesterday. In an outspoken assessment of the terror risk facing Britain, Gordon Brown’s security adviser was scathing about the assertion, made by Tony Blair when prime minister,…
Are they all that different?
I wonder why: The operation in Gaza put an end to the European taboo on equating Jews to Nazis. That message was one of the conclusions of the first international panel discussion on anti-Semitism following the Gaza invasion, which was held in Jerusalem Monday on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Speaking at the…
Get Up! takes on Israel/Palestine
Get Up! is Australia’s biggest progressive organisation, modelled on US MoveOn.org. Get Up! has shied away from tackling the Israel/Palestine issue, preferring to focus on more domestic concerns. Its success in Australia is undeniable, though I know a number of members have been frustrated with its silence over the Middle East. But maybe that is…
The eternal victim
My following article appeared yesterday in the Canadian magazine Adbusters: Each side in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict believes criticisms in the media are biased, but the Palestinians are the ones doing almost all the suffering and dying these days. Antony Loewenstein argues for reality-based… coverage. Israel’s highly decorated Chief of Staff, Mordechai Gur, once said, “we make…