By Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban

Those who try to make the word 'terrorism' a synonym of the word 'Islam' try to brainwash us these days by the phrase "I am a Muslim, I am against terrorism", which many Arabic-language TV stations have started to use during the month of Ramadan, when TV viewing becomes a dominant pastime in the Arab world.  This phrase is coined neither by Muslims nor by the real enemies of terrorism; and the objective of funding the intensive broadcasting of this phrase in Ramadan is not exonerating Islam of an accusation levelled against it by Zionists and their allies among the neo-cons in the wake of 9/11.  This is clear from the political connotations of this phrase which suggest that "although I am a Muslim; yet, I am against terrorism".  In this sense, our enemies accuse a billion Muslims of terrorism; while Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus and others are exonerated of any link with terrorism.   

One is entitled to ask: how many terrorist crimes the Zionists commit against Muslim and Christian Arabs in and outside Palestine, including murder, assassination, home demolition, setting mosques on fire, etc.  Yet, have we ever seen a phrase saying "I am a Jew, I am against terrorism"?

The increasingly cosy relationship between the extremist, racist EDL movement and the ultra-racist Zionist movement in the UK is becoming more and more visible with each passing demonstration that they attend. It is now a common sight to see a mass of Israeli flags at an EDL rally and a mob of EDL members at a pro-Israel rally. This is an association which is at once revealing as to the true nature of the Zionist movement whilst also a source, one would assume, of much distress and embarrassment to right minded Jews who would blanch at such a self-defeating and counter-productive association.

For their part, the EDL clearly scrape the bottom of the barrel for members. It is hardly a thinking man's organisation. Typically comprised of thugs and louts it is scarcely a group that any sane individual would be proud to be a member of; and yet hundreds of Zionists have signed up to be a part of the new EDL "Jewish Division". This includes individuals such as Roberta Moore, who makes a habit of inciting hatred against Muslims while running around with an Israeli flag tied around her neck like a cape. Exposing her ignorance with statements such as "Islam is not a religion but a cult" she does seem to fit the EDL's low criteria for membership. The foul vitriol she spewed at one recent EDL rally not only betrayed her ignorance of Islam but her desire to incite hatred against more than 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide.

By Omar Radwan

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Spiritual Leader of Shas, an Israeli Sephardic ultra-Orthodox party, delivered a sermon at the weekend in which he prayed for the death of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and for the suffering of the Palestinian people, saying, "Abu Mazen [Abbas] and all these evil people should perish from this earth. God should strike them and these Palestinians, evil haters of Israel, with a plague."  This is not the first time that Rabbi Yosef has made remarks of this nature.  He has previously referred to Arabs generally as "vipers" and called for genocide against them, "It is forbidden to be merciful to them.  You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable."  While one could easily dismiss Rabbi Yosef as an unhinged extremist, he is far from a marginal figure in Israel.  Shas is a major political party in Israel, holding 11 out of 120 seats in the Knesset. It is a member of Israel's governing coalition and its official leader, Eli Yishai, who has defended Yosef's racist statements in the past, is the current Interior Minister and also a Deputy Prime Minister.

62 days ago (1st July 2010) three elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council walked into the International Red Cross headquarters in Jerusalem and they have not left since. A fourth colleague, now in detention, was also served with an expulsion order. The three in question  have spent the last 9 weeks confined to the Red Cross property, unable to leave, knowing that once they do they will inevitably be seized upon and arrested by the waiting Israeli army. These MPs have rather ingeniously sought sanctuary in the International Red Cross offices, invoking an age old principle of intermediary protection. They have been forced to do this, not because they have broken any laws, not because they are outlaws fleeing justice, but because the Israeli authorities are persecuting them in a manner which violates international and humanitarian law and it is the only way, temporarily, for them to seek shelter from the Israeli army's clutches.