I attended the 'Israel and
the Media' debate at Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue on September
13th. I am an evangelical Christian who supports Israel and
I picked up the vibe that most people present were not too pleased with
how the Jewish community had responded to Israel's war with Hezbollah.
A couple of things struck me which made a connection in my mind:
1. In the bio of
Melanie Phillips she was credited with being the author of 'All Must
Have Prizes' but not of 'Londonistan.' I have not read 'All
Must Have Prizes' but I have read 'Londonistan' and written a review of
it for two Christian journals (attached). It is a brilliant
book which accurately focuses on what we are up against and is wholly
relevant to the subject under discussion, so I wondered why it was not
mentioned.
2. There was
obviously widespread dissatisfaction with BICOM as an organisation. I
don't know all the ins and outs of what happens with BICOM but the mood
of the meeting at the synagogue seemed to be that BICOM had failed to
make a mark during the recent conflict and we need to set up another
organisation which will do better. As a point of interest we
have started a monthly 'Israel Forum' meeting at our church and I
invited a speaker along from BICOM (Ben Novick) who went down well with
our congregation.
Could I suggest that it is because of the issues raised in 'Londonistan'
that pro-Israel activists have a hard time getting their message across
and that we need to address these issues which are crucial to both
Israel's situation in the Middle East and our situation here in Europe. If
we don't it does not matter how many organisations we set up we will end
up being defeated. The problem is that addressing these
issues is both risky and dangerous, as it involves exposing the Islamic
agenda. Incredibly we are reaching a situation here in
Britain where to speak negatively about any aspect of Islam may not even
be legal if our government carries on down the road of appeasement to
the demands of the Muslim Council.
Briefly put the issue is this. The issue Israel has with
Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas (and to a certain extent with the entire
Muslim world) is not just a political issue but one which involves
spiritual forces which are also confronting us here in Europe. It
is about the Islamic desire to dominate. Our politically correct leaders
often tell us that Islam means peace. Actually it does not. Islam
means submission. If you submit you get peace, if not you get
jihad. In fundamentalist Islam, the area of the world where
Islam rules is called the 'Dar al Islam' (House of Islam). The
rest of the world is called the 'Dar al Harb' (House of the Enemy). The
ultimate goal of the jihad is the conversion of the Dar al Harb into the
Dar al Islam.
Submission means that the pagans convert to Islam and the Jews and
Christians are allowed to continue their communities as 'people of the
book' but also as 'dhimmis'. In effect this means they become
second class citizens who acknowledge the supremacy of Islam in society
and pay the 'jizya' poll tax to the Muslims as 'protected peoples'.
You don't have to look far to see the relevance of this to what is
happening in the Middle East and Europe. From the point of
view of Islam the establishment of the State of Israel in what they
consider the Dar al Islam is a reversal of the march of history in which
a dhimmi people (the Jews) assert power over Muslims. This is
seen as an insult to Islam which is now made worse by armies from
(supposedly) Christian countries operating in the Middle East. To
reverse this Israel must be defeated and armies from the
west driven out of the Middle East. Of course the jihadis
also wish to overthrow the Arab regimes which are not considered true
representatives of Islam.
At the same time Islam must become dominant in the west also. Using
the threat of terrorism, Islamic forces in the west are seeking to
intimidate the rest of society and restrict freedom of speech, so that
it becomes more and more difficult to criticise Islam or condemn what is
happening in Islamic countries or even debate and discuss the ideas of
Islam. In February the government very nearly passed a bill
which would have made it a criminal offence to make a negative statement
about Islam. This would actually mean the beginning of non
Muslims accepting a 'dhimmi' status here in Britain. In
Londonistan Melanie Phillips shows the main reasons why this catastrophe
is happening in Britain:
1. The government permitting radical Islamists to
settle in Britain and use it as a base for their operations.
2. The collapse of
Christian influence in Britain with church leaders apologising for their
faith and abandoning Biblical principles so creating a spiritual vacuum
which Islam is able to exploit.
3. The alliance of
leftist forces with Muslims. Reasons for this are support of
the Palestinians as an oppressed people and opposition to the USA and
the war in Iraq.
Another major issue which Melanie does not deal with in her book, but
which I have addressed in a book I have written called 'The House built
on the Sand' is the world's dependency on Middle East oil. All
of these issues are of course relevant to most of Europe as well as
Britain.
Israel is the front line of the Islamic jihad and the opposition to
Israel has learnt how to use the media skilfully to get its point
across.
Unfortunately most of the media (especially TV) is in the hands of the
left leaning intelligentsia which sympathises with the plight of the
Palestinians and fails to put across the whole picture. Therefore
we need to have a fight back from those concerned for Israel's need of
self defence, both in military terms and in the media.
As a Christian I am concerned to see the truth going out in the media
and therefore wish to oppose the errors and deception which are now
taking place over this issue. I speak at meetings around the
country on this and allied issues and find there are many Christians who
feel like minded but generally lack the information and expertise to
take on the opposition.
As was pointed out at the meeting last night there are people from all
walks of life and ethnic backgrounds who are waking up to these issues
and sympathise with Israel's plight in the midst of the hostile Islamic
world despite the negativity in the media. There are even
many from the Muslim world itself who are disillusioned with Islam. The
very last thing they would like to see is the Islamisation of Europe. Until
recently we had a meeting of Iranian Christians in our church building
on Wednesday evenings. They had to move out because they got too big for
our building. Apparently large numbers of young people in
Iran itself are totally fed up with Islamic
fundamentalism.
There are actually quite a few issues which could be addressed on this
subject not all directly relating to Israel but relevant:
1. The plight of non Muslim minorities in the
Middle East. This should be a burning issue for Christians in
the west who should be supporting their fellow Christians facing
persecution for their faith. The same people who seek the
destruction of Israel also seek the suppression of Christianity.
2. The fact that
the left - Muslim alliance is a marriage of convenience which cannot
last. If the Muslim radicals had their way in
society most leftists would be executed or in prison. Muslims
do not do too well under atheistic Communism either.
3. The fact that
terrorism is a threat to all people (including Muslims) who want to live
in a peaceful open society.
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