Religious Hate:

• Via Dhimmi Watch, we learn of the latest Fiday sermon in Brunei containing slander which is as fanastically paranoid as it is vicious. It starts credibly enough:

  The Khutbah [Friday sermon] warns that the enemies of Islam are relentless in their desire to wipe out Islam and its followers from the face of the Earth. They use many tactics including endearing themselves to people in difficulties such as the jobless and the homeless. This they achieve by insincerely providing sustenance, work, houses, education and other assistance. Behind the mask of kindness, the hostile elements carry out their propagation, handing out documents, books, cassettes and other religious oriented material. After softening the targets with such moves, they continue by asking the victims to join them in prayers.

  OK, this sounds like a warning against Christian proselytizing. Then out come the daggers and the tinfoil hats:

  The targeted people are given something called black water to drink, that turns their tongues black and prevents them from uttering the Syahadah or Islamic pledge when they hear the Azan or call to prayer. Strangely, the black water is given to Muslims only. The confessions of people who had been tricked and became apostates, suggest that they succumbed to the trickeries of the enemies of Islam because of life's pressures, the lack of religious knowledge and weak faith. [emphasis mine].

  Just how are these “confessions” obtained, one wonders? Recall this is from an official government website. Does Brunei really want to be known as a purveyor of witchcraft libel?

• A Pentecostal preacher in Sweden is receiving death threats after calling the prophet Mohammed "a confused pedophile".

  "Even if I see Runar while he has major police protection I will shoot him to death," a radical Islamist told Swedish newspaper Expressen.
  
  Persons connected to the Kurdish group Ansar al-Islam claim to have received a fatwa, a decree from a Muslim religious leader, to kill Søgaard.

  Norwegian preacher kindles religious strife

• In Pakistan, Christians are being forced to convert to Islam. A Christian was tortured by a group of eight people because he refused to recite the kalma, the recitation that would make him a Muslim. Christian injured for not reciting kalma

• Describing the degree of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia is easy: there isn’t any. Forty Pakistani Christians were arrested late last month in Riyadh, after they were discovered worshiping in a makeshift apartment chapel.

  A Saudi religious police source explained the reason for the arrest: "These people tried to spread the poison and their beliefs to others, by means of distributing pamphlets and [missionary] publications."

  The month before it was the Hindus who were raided.

• MEMRI reports that last month prominent Iranian cleric Ayatollah Nouri-Hamedani discussed the role of the Jews in the end times:

  Fars news agency: Ayatollah Nouri-Hamedani, discussing [Shi'ite] religious texts, said: 'One should fight the Jews and vanquish them so that the conditions for the advent of the Hidden Imam be met.'

  The Hidden (twelfth) Imam will reappear as the Madhi near the end of the world, in most Shia eschatology. Note that according to the MEMRI piece, Ayatollah Nouri-Hamedani’s statement was removed from the Fars news agency website soon after it reappeared, and was reposted only by opponents of the Iranian regime.

• While the nascent Iraqi government may not be de jure Islamist, the de facto regime on the streets of Basra is headed that way, with Sadr’s thugs creating the facts on the ground:

  Fear is palpable on the streets. One day three months ago, a female student from Basra University's college of sciences was ordered to cover her hair. She refused to comply. Three days later she was found dead on the road to her house, said her classmates and professors.

  If this sacralized misanthropy expands and persists then “failure” will not be too strong a word. The Najaf Hawza should also realize that their prestige derives substantially from their popularity and their silence regarding Sadr’s crew will be noted.

• Sudanese Sheik Abd Al-Jalil Al-Karouri’s Friday sermon was televised April 22. (MEMRI-TV clip: click here and search for clip 651.) After ranting about the late pope, and the Jews killing Christ, Al-Karouri delivers this:

  (The Jews) are now destroying Christianity in America for the sake of Israel. Even the Twin Towers, which were destroyed in Manhattan, are planned to be built in Israel. [wtf? – ed]. This tiny people of four million living in a small territory has managed to bring the entire Christian world to ask for forgiveness for what happened to the Jews in Europe.

  Perhaps the conscience of the “entire Christian world”, and not the machinations of Jews, had something to do with it?

Idiotarian Seethings:

• Islamic militants in the Pakistani town of Miranshah have ordered hotels and music shops to stop showing movies and television or face "strict punishment." Unfortunately, instead of giving the militants the one-finger-salute, the owner of a Miranshah shopping plaza assembled all the shopkeepers and urged them to follow the instructions. Militants in Pakistan order stop to films, music

• I’m always encouraged when the universe demonstrates symmetry – now we have Pat Robertson arguing that federal judges are a bigger threat than Al Qaida. Paraphrasing the professor, recall that under the dictionary definition of Idiotarian, there is space for a picture of Pat.

• Suheila Hammad believes in women’s rights for Saudi Arabia, even claiming that a woman ruler is permitted in Islam. Sadly, she also believes that Bin Laden works for Bush, and Bush works for – yup, “world Zionism”. (MEMRI-TV clips 655 and 643).

• I’ve noticed the trend in political tee shirts, flattering to the figure and insulting to the wearers political opponents. Political discourse should be given the widest possible leeway of course, but at least two examples stand out as worthy of scrutiny. Via LGF, this logo from CafePress (“Save America, Kill Republicans!”) should require no further explanation. Another, from a blogad on the same page, and also from CafePress, is a bit subtler: conservatives often complain (rightfully) that Soviet symbols are accorded a kind of chic in our culture rather than taboo, as Nazi symbols have. Conservatives also note that “Bush=Nazi” rhetoric cheapens the monstrous legacy of the actual, historical Nazis. So: what exactly is so defensible about this logo, hmm? Nice to see CafePress arming both sides in the culture war, they seem well endowed with raw cynicism.

Race and Culture:

• Since 1989, when Tel Aviv University started a research project monitoring anti-Semitism, there's been a a sixfold increase in anti-Semitic violence in Europe and North America. This year's report found that a significant proportion of attacks on Jewish people and property were perpetrated by marginalized Muslim immigrants in sympathy with the Palestinians. The main factors in these attacks continue to be virulent anti-Israel propaganda and anti-Americanism. Report: Anti-Semitism on the rise

• MEMRI is featuring a series of reports focused on antisemitism in the Turkish media. Jews are often demonised and portrayed as a sinister "race," responsible for causing earthquakes, globalization and even the creation of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia.

• Member of the Spanish branch of an international neo-Nazi group called Blood and Honour have been arrested in Spain on charges of crimes against civil liberties, defending the Holocaust and weapons trafficking. Spanish anti-Nazi swoop nets 21

• There have been at least 10 neo-Nazi concerts in the Czech Republic since January and the police are powerless to stop them:

  “The neo-Nazis are probably coming here more frequently because the police are much tougher on them in their own countries. This is not the reputation we want,” he said.
  
  He was particularly concerned because of the growth of the extreme right in the bordering German state of Saxony — a neo-Nazi party made sweeping gains in Saxony’s 2004 parliamentary elections.

  Calling Czech police ineffective, Christian group warns of neo-Nazis

• And finally - those Neo-Nazi’s are turning up in the darndest places!

• Here's how Jews fared in Russia in the last year: in the 124 anti-Semitic incidents that were recorded, there were 12 violent attacks against Jews, 34 acts of vandalism, and 22 public anti-Semitic statements and demonstrations. A survey conducted last year found that more than 42% of Russians believed it necessary "to limit the influence of Jews in government bodies, politics, business, jurisdiction, educational system and show business." Human Rights Group Warns of Growing Anti-Semitism. In a more recent incident, the head of the local Jewish community and yeshiva students on their way to a seder were confronted by a group of skinheads yelling "Kikes!" and "Jude shvein!" And an Armenian church in the Ukraine was daubed with anti-Armenian and antisemitic slogans "Armenians are the second Kikes -- get out of Lviv." USCJ Bigotry Monitor

• Anti-semitism is also rising in Armenia, supposedly as a result of hate against Israeli-Turkish cooperation. But reading the article reveals that Judenhass is an old disease for Armenians and this is just the latest excuse.

  Armenia’s tiny Jewish community has grown seriously concerned by what it says is mounting anti-Semitism in the South Caucasus country. The issue has growth over the past year amid a rise in anti-Jewish propaganda in Yerevan. The government has so far done little to address the Jewish community's concerns.

• One of Austria's biggest houseware chains, in its summer catalog, lists a tool shed as the "Mauthausen" model. Activists say that at least some of the company's employees were aware of the significance of the name and its association. A young man at the information desk of the company's branch in Salzburg grinned and said "that's our gas house," when asked about the item. Austrian Houseware Chain Renames Tool Shed

• We’ve covered the continued propagation of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” several times here at Hatewatch, but this introduction from a recent Syrian edition is worth highlighting:

  At first glance, The Protocols would seem to be the figment of a sick imagination. Actually, they are not at all imaginary. They are established fact and every word contained herein has been rigorously researched. Their principles have been and are still being applied by the world Zionist movement, and that is why it is important to study, understand and analyze them. [emphasis mine]

  See also this report on recent Syrian editions of the “Protocols”.

• In a troubling story from the Philippines, apparently a rightwing paramilitary force (“Bag-ong Ilaga”) is forming, taking inspiration from a previous vigilante group formed in the 1970’s. That group was not exactly family friendly:

  At the height of the Moro rebellion, Ilaga gunmen massacred tens of thousands of Muslim civilians, including children. They were also accused of raping women.

  So far the new group is limited to issuing press releases. While “cycle of violence” rhetoric is often misused, the danger here appears genuine.

A Hopeful Note:

• When Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk said that 1 million Armenians were murdered in Turkey during World War I, three lawsuits were filed against him, accusing him of damaging the state. A nationalist group declared that "he shouldn't be allowed to breathe" and a school collected his books from students to return to him. The Armenian genocide is a taboo subject in Turkey but that's slowly starting to change: Turks Confront WWI Massacre of Armenians

• An editorial in Arab News describes that Saudi teenagers are interested in Western music and culture and as a result they're changing their behaviours and attitudes. So Eminem might not be so bad after all? Saudi teens go 'west'

  If these teenagers’ opinions are indeed representative of the Arab youth at large, it should be a red flag for the region’s entertainment industry and should encourage it to develop new stars to rise in the Middle East; otherwise, for young people, the stars they follow will continue to rise in the West.

• The Arab News also recently hosted a field trip from a Saudi girls’ school, whose students were planning to launch their own school newspaper. Everything was done “by the book” and yet the whip came down from the Education Ministry and the school paper was canceled. Saudi columnist Hussein Shubakshi asks:

  "Is it permitted to sow fear and to harm the reputations of the girls of this country – when their only sin is a desire for learning and development for the sake of the homeland and the good of all? Religion is devoid of all this. It is bad enough that they are hijacking our religion by means of terrifying thoughts.

  Even allowing for the vast gulf between the Western notion of women’s rights and the Saudi’s concepts, I agree with Shudakshi – I don’t understand how the Education Ministry justifies its actions, which reek of pure misogyny. Perhaps the “good news” is that these actions are unpopular and undermine the legitimacy of the officials and clerics who instigate them, and prompt the questioning attitude demonstrated by Shubakshi.