A Declaration Against Genocide
By Deborah Weiss
FrontPageMagazine.com | 2/13/2008
Washington, D.C. -- This Saturday, political activist and author David Horowitz stood on the dais in the nation?s capital against the backdrop of an enlarged photograph of women covered in black hijabs. With only their eyes revealed, the women carried signs that read: ?God Bless Hitler.? This photo was not taken in Iran or Saudi Arabia, but instead comes from a recent rally of radical Muslims in Chicago.
That such genocidal sentiments are alive and well in the modern world, and that they find their most murderous expression in the writings and actions of Islamic extremists, is the theme of a new campaign launched by the David Horowitz Freedom Center titled ?A Declaration Against Genocide.?
In introducing the campaign this weekend, Horowitz made a plea for the most basic of human rights: the right not to be murdered based on one?s race, religion or ethnicity. The Jew-hatred espoused by Nazis during World War II did not die when Nazism was defeated, Horowitz observed. Rather, it is alive and well, its torch now being carried by a new generation of jihadists and radical Muslims.
Failure to recognize that fact underlies a popular myth about the Middle East: that anti-Israel stems from a struggle over land. In reality, Horowitz noted, the grievances of Islamists against Israel are but a pretext for destroying the Jewish state and with it the Jewish population in the Middle East. It is this genocidal campaign that the center?s latest campaign aims to highlight.
As evidence, one need only listen to the extremists themselves. Thus the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has stated that he wants to wipe Israel off the map. Islamic terrorist groups, be they Shiite Hezbollah or Sunni Hamas, have echoed that sentiment, which finds roots in core Muslim writings. In the Hadith, the oral tradition relating the words and deeds of the Prophet Mohammed, one finds the following quote from the prophet:
[?.]the time [of judgment] will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!? The Hamas Charter, which serves as the political platform of the elected party in Palestine includes this passage and additionally reads: ?Israel will rise and remain erect until Islam eliminates it[?]
In the same way, the charter of Hamas encourages jihad, blames the Jews for all of the Islamic world's ills, and proclaims: ?[Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement? For renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion?.There is no solution to the Palestinian problem except by Jihad.?
Horowitz?s Declaration Against Genocide invites students of all faiths on college campuses to denounce the genocidal ideology espoused in these documents and to support the right of people everywhere to live free of violence and intimidation.
Already, Horowitz?s campaign has found support from prominent politicians. Among them is Congresswoman Sue Myrick, a Republican from North Carolina and the chair of the anti-terrorism caucus in the House who followed Horowitz on the stage on Saturday.
In her remarks, Myrick recounted how, along with some of her Congressional peers, she formed the bipartisan caucus in response to their frustration at the Bush administration?s initial refusal to identify radical Islam as America?s enemy in the war on terror, and thus its failure adequately to educate the public about the threat that America faces. Those who consider the U.S. government to be completely na?ve about the Islamist threat may take heart in the caucus?s efforts. Meeting twice a month, its aim is to inform congressmen about the nature, ideology, and tactics of both non-violent radical Islamists and violent jihadists.
As suggested by the photograph from the Chicago rally, a major problem confronting the country is the infiltration of radical Islamists into our culture. Myrick, one of the few members of Congress who truly is an expert on radical Islam, is all too aware of the fact. Islamist ideology is infiltrating our media, our universities, and even our military, she explained. And though some maintain that the Islamists? ultimate goal -- the enactment of Sharia law -- could never happen in the United States, Myrick argued that the country must nonetheless maintain its guard.
To that end, Myrick endorsed Horowitz?s declaration. She suggested that if everyone in the audience would educate themselves and others within their sphere of influence on the nature of the threat, America will be much more likely to escape the fate facing Britain, where Sharia law is beginning to take root and where no less a figure than the Archbishop of Canterbury now says that Sharia is ?unavoidable.? [/i]
Like its earlier Islamo-Fascist Awareness week, the center?s new campaign will extend a special invitation to Muslim student organizations, including the Muslim Students Association (?MSA?). One of the largest Muslim Student organizations on college campuses, the MSA professes to be a ?mainstream? group. However, it is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, the parent organization of Hamas. Muslim groups like the MSA have long claimed that Islam is religion of peace and tolerance. By signing the declaration against genocide, they can distance themselves from the jihadists who claim to act in Islam?s name. It remains to be seen whether they will in fact do so.
Deborah Weiss is an attorney and contributor to Frontpagemag.com.
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