Top Islamic Claric: "KILL THE JEWS!"

Top Islamist cleric, with rock star status acorss the Middle East, Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi has delivered a speech on Qatari television calling on Muslims to murder Jews "in the name of Islam." The speech has been translated by the Arabic translation service MEMRI. Again, this can 1) be ignored as the meaningless blathering of a maddman, or 2) should be taken as seriously as it was meant by the speaker. The Neocon goes with #2.

"Everything will be on our side and against Jews on Judgment Day, at that time, even the stones and the trees will speak, with or without words, and say: "Oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim, there's a Jew behind me, come and kill him." They will point to the Jews. It says "servant of Allah," not "servant of desires," "servant of women," "servant of the bottle," "servant of Marxism," or "servant of liberalism"... It said servant of Allah. When the Muslims, the Arabs, and the Palestinians enter a war, they do it to worship Allah. They enter it as Muslims. The hadith says: "Oh Muslim." It says "oh Muslim," not "oh Palestinian, Jordanian, Syrian, or Arab nationalist." No, it says: "Oh Muslim." When we enter [a war] under the banner of Islam, and under the banner of serving Allah, we will be victorious."
Sheik Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, aired on Qatar TV on February 25, 2006.

Arab nations urged to seek UN ban on slandering religion
Musharraf must be told some harsh home truths
What Bush wants in India
Debka: Al Qaeda ultimatum for departure of all non-Muslim foreigners from Gaza


European lefty Intellectuals finally step up to the plate and declare what is obvious to any mildly informed observer; that the world is facing another "isim" that will require sacrifice and courage to defeat. Naturally, they have not yet reached the ultimate conclusion about what real steps will be needed to win in this struggle, and use soft and rather vauge language in their "manifesto"
today.

However, the good news is that the European left is finally begining to get it. It will undoubtedly take many more attorcities before reality truely sinks in for them, but like treating any addict, the first step is to recognize that there is a poroblem in the first place. This Manifesto seems to be that initial recongnition:

MANIFESTO: Together facing the new totalitarianism

After having overcome fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism, the world now faces a new totalitarian global threat: Islamism.
We, writers, journalists, intellectuals, call for resistance to religious totalitarianism and for the promotion of freedom, equal opportunity and secular values for all.

The recent events, which occurred after the publication of drawings of Muhammed in European newspapers, have revealed the necessity of the struggle for these universal values. This struggle will not be won by arms, but in the ideological field. It is not a clash of civilisations nor an antagonism of West and East that we are witnessing, but a global struggle that confronts democrats and theocrats.

Like all totalitarianisms, Islamism is nurtured by fears and frustrations. The hate preachers bet on these feelings in order to form battalions destined to impose a liberticidal and unegalitarian world. But we clearly and firmly state: nothing, not even despair, justifies the choice of obscurantism, totalitarianism and hatred. Islamism is a reactionary ideology which kills equality, freedom and secularism wherever it is present. Its success can only lead to a world of domination: man's domination of woman, the Islamists' domination of all the others. To counter this, we must assure universal rights to oppressed or discriminated people.

We reject « cultural relativism », which consists in accepting that men and women of Muslim culture should be deprived of the right to equality, freedom and secular values in the name of respect for cultures and traditions. We refuse to renounce our critical spirit out of fear of being accused of "Islamophobia", an unfortunate concept which confuses criticism of Islam as a religion with stigmatisation of its believers.

We plead for the universality of freedom of expression, so that a critical spirit may be exercised on all continents, against all abuses and all dogmas.

We appeal to democrats and free spirits of all countries that our century should be one of Enlightenment, not of obscurantism.

12 signatures

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Chahla Chafiq
Caroline Fourest
Bernard-Henri Lévy
Irshad Manji
Mehdi Mozaffari
Maryam Namazie
Taslima Nasreen
Salman Rushdie
Antoine Sfeir
Philippe Val
Ibn Warraq

Charter explicitly details Hamas’ agenda
Good Nukes, Bad Nukes
Islamistphobia-Phobia