Ret godt interview – tilsyneladende kun et par dage gammelt. Intervieweren hedder Nicholas Beecroft:
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali- Christianity in Complexity. Rejuvenating Democracy, Identity and Authority
Videoen har en lang følgetekst:
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is one of the leading figures in the Church of England. He was the 106th Bishop of Rochester, for 15 years which made him the first non-white Diocesan Bishop in the Church of England. Prior to that he had been Bishop of Raiwind in Pakistan, his country of origin where he had a both Christian and Muslim family background. In 1999 he was elevated to the House of Lords. He has a prodigious academic record with much research into the role of Christianity in a pluralistic world, Christian-Muslim relations and on the teaching of Christianity in the modern world. Now he is President of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue. He courageously supports Christian leadership in many parts of the world where Christians suffer persecution.
Bishop Michael really understands the state we are in the Civilisational challenges we face and has the courage to speak the truth in the face of strong social pressure to stick to the Politically Correct hymn sheet.
In this interview, Bishop Michael addresses the State of Western Civilisation; it’s strengths; what’s working really well; the challenges we face. He describes his positive vision for the future- his version of heaven on earth. He believes that we need a spiritual foundation for life and that we are living on past spiritual capital and that Christianity is essential to start regenerating that spiritual capital.
Bishop Michael says what he thinks of being spiritual but not religious- whether or not that is an evolutionary step towards towards a global post-Ethnic pure form of spirituality without cultural and historical baggage. Could it be that the C of E is the first post postmodern religion which provides a lead for the others in recognizing their common path and accommodating all- the first post-postmodern, Integral, Global religion? He sets out his conditions for that to be possible.
He says we need a shared story of who we are, what we believe, our values and history. He tells his version of that story and his own identity. He celebrates the strengths of Britain and talks about how he personally views the history of the British Empire and how we relate to that today. Clearly he sees Christianity as absolutely the central pillar of our history, identity, culture and values.
Bishop MIchael comments upon the muted Western reaction to the persecution of Christians around the world. Why do the Western Elites turn a blind eye?
How do we defend our freedoms, democracy and way of life from those who want to force their authoritarian and absolutist way upon us at a time when the pseudoliberal elite have made it at least taboo if not illegal to engage in debate and assert that Western or British values are better and in any case are our own right in our own country?
What’s needed to sort out gang violence and social decay? How do we restore the healthy authority of a parent, teacher, policeman, doctor etc?
Det hed den konference, der fandt sted i Chicago den 10. marts 2012. Jeg har plukket lidt ud – først den meget sympatiske Cynthia Farahat:
Faith Under Fire: Cynthia Farahat
Faith Under Fire: The Global Threat to Religious Freedom conference took place in metro Chicago on March 10, 2012.
Please join us for this eye-opening Chicago-area conference on the worldwide crisis in religious freedom. We will examine the plight of persecuted religious minorities in Islamic countries as representatives of these communities offer riveting testimony. Key members of the U.S. Congress will discuss the latest legislation and actions intended to prevent genocide. Recognized international and national experts will offer insightful analysis of policy issues and the global threat to religious freedom.
Cynthia Farahat is an Egyptian political activist, writer and researcher. She co-founded the Liberal Egyptian Party (2006-2008) and served as a member of its political committee. In 2008-2009, she was program coordinator and program officer at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty in Cairo, a multi-national free market think tank. She was a founder of the Masr El-Om (Mother Egypt) Party and was a member of its political committee (2004-2006). She has published in National Review, Middle East Quarterly, and in other publications in both English and Arabic. In December 2011, Ms. Farahat testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the US House of Representatives on the roots of the persecution of the Coptic Christian minority in her native Egypt. She is a fellow at the Middle East Forum and the Center for Security Policy. (edit)
Næste tale med Ashraf Ramelah kan man evt. se på YouTube. Derefter Juliana Taimoorazy:
Faith Under Fire: Juliana Taimoorazy
Faith Under Fire: The Global Threat to Religious Freedom conference took place in metro Chicago on March 10, 2012.
Please join us for this eye-opening Chicago-area conference on the worldwide crisis in religious freedom. We will examine the plight of persecuted religious minorities in Islamic countries as representatives of these communities offer riveting testimony. Key members of the U.S. Congress will discuss the latest legislation and actions intended to prevent genocide. Recognized international and national experts will offer insightful analysis of policy issues and the global threat to religious freedom.
Juliana Taimoorazy is the founder and President of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council, an organization that raises awareness about the persecuted church in Iraq and helps Assyrian Christians resettle in Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts and Arizona. Through her activism and media appearances, Taimoorazy has worked tirelessly to promote the cause of Assyrian Christians in the U.S. While volunteering for Catholic Charities, she has mentored young women arriving in the U.S. She has also volunteered with Operation Homefront in Illinois, an organization that provides emergency financial and other assistance to the families of our service members and wounded warriors.
Taimoorazy was smuggled into Switzerland in 1989 to avoid religious persecution in her native Iran. After spending seven days in a monastery in Zurich, she was smuggled into Germany where she sought asylum in the U.S embassy. In 1990 she immigrated to the U.S with the refugee status. As an Assyrian Christian living in Iran, Taimoorazy learned to be multi-lingual at a young age, and is fluent in English, Farsi, and Assyrian. She obtained her Masters degree in Instructional Design from Northeastern Illinois University. In addition to being an entrepreneur, she has also worked as a journalist for a local television station in Chicago. As a child, she would take her sister’s hairbrush and stand in front of the mirror and act as a news reporter — even before she learned how to read and write. She currently is a radio host for Nineveh Radio.
Faith Under Fire: Q+A Background Testimony on Indigenous Communities
Panel: Testimony from the Region and Background on Indigenous Communities
-Cynthia Farahat Egyptian political activist – Ashraf Ramelah founder and President of Voice of the Copts – Juliana Taimoorazy founder and President of the Iraqi Christian Relief Council
Moderator: Hon. Fred Grandy
Please join us for this eye-opening Chicago-area conference on the worldwide crisis in religious freedom. We will examine the plight of persecuted religious minorities in Islamic countries as representatives of these communities offer riveting testimony. Key members of the U.S. Congress will discuss the latest legislation and actions intended to prevent genocide. Recognized international and national experts will offer insightful analysis of policy issues and the global threat to religious freedom.
Paul Marshall var udmærket:
Faith Under Fire: Paul Marshall – Blasphemy, Apostasy and Free Speech
Faith Under Fire: The Global Threat to Religious Freedom conference took place in metro Chicago on March 10, 2012.
Paul Marshall — Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide
Faith Under Fire: The Global Threat to Religious Freedom conference took place in metro Chicago on March 10, 2012.
Please join us for this eye-opening Chicago-area conference on the worldwide crisis in religious freedom. We will examine the plight of persecuted religious minorities in Islamic countries as representatives of these communities offer riveting testimony. Key members of the U.S. Congress will discuss the latest legislation and actions intended to prevent genocide. Recognized international and national experts will offer insightful analysis of policy issues and the global threat to religious freedom.
Paul Marshall is Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, Washington, D.C.
He has spoken on religious freedom, international relations, and radical Islam before Congressional committees, the U.S. State Department, the Helsinki Commission, INS and DHS Asylum Bureaus, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. He has also lectured in Canada, England, Israel, Cyprus, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Greece, India, Switzerland, Spain, Lebanon, Korea, Nigeria, Belarus, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Thailand, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
In November, 2011, Oxford University press published his Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide co-authored with Nina Shea
His co-edited work Blind Spot: When Journalists Don’t Get Religion, was published by Oxford in early 2009 and was awarded the Wilbur Prize by the Religious Communicators’ Council and given the “Book of the Year 2009″ Awardfrom the Religious Communication Association.
Marshall is the author of the best-selling survey of religious persecution Their Blood Cries Out (1997). In speeches introducing the International Religious Freedom Act in the U.S. Senate, Senator Nickles described the book as “a powerful and persuasive analysis” and an “exhaustive survey,” “which simply cannot be ignored” and Senator Lieberman described it as “the manifesto of the religious freedom movement.”
Faith Under Fire: Q+A Paul Marshall and Keith Roderick
Faith Under Fire: The Global Threat to Religious Freedom conference took place in metro Chicago on March 10, 2012.
Paul Marshall — Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide
Very Reverend Keith Roderick — Strategy for the Future
Please join us for this eye-opening Chicago-area conference on the worldwide crisis in religious freedom. We will examine the plight of persecuted religious minorities in Islamic countries as representatives of these communities offer riveting testimony. Key members of the U.S. Congress will discuss the latest legislation and actions intended to prevent genocide. Recognized international and national experts will offer insightful analysis of policy issues and the global threat to religious freedom.
Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide
The 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie awakened many westerners to the danger of being charged with blasphemy in the Muslim world. Charges of “blasphemy,” “apostasy,” and “insulting Islam” are increasingly used by authoritarian governments and extremist forces within key Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states to acquire and consolidate power. These codes have proved effective in intimidating not only converts and heterodox groups, but also political and religious reformers.
In their newly released book, Silenced (Oxford University Press, 2011), Paul Marshall and Nina Shea provide the first survey of such accusations in the contemporary Muslim world, in international organizations, and in the West. These charges traditionally carry a punishment of death but are contested within Islam today, as described by the late Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid in the foreword to Silenced. Nevertheless, as Marshall and Shea describe, hundreds of victims, including political dissidents, religious reformers, journalists, writers, artists, movie makers, and religious minorities in many countries. They also document the political effects in Muslim societies of blasphemy and apostasy laws, as well as non-governmental fatwas and vigilante violence. And they examine in the West the move toward importing new blasphemy standards through bans on purported hate speech and Islamophobia, aggressively promoted by the OIC, and the increasing threat of violence to stifle commentary on Islam even in the absence of law.
Og det er endda sket flere gange på det seneste, at den 80-årige Nobelpris-tager, Desmond Tutu, fra Sydafrika har gjort sig heldigt bemærket:
Tutu vil bekæmpe børneægteskaber
Tutu har fordømt Iran for behandligen af bahaier, der nægtes adgang til højere uddannelse. Lærere med bahai-tro arresteres, hvis de underviser
Tutu har fordømt Sydafrikas regering for at nægte Dalai Lama visum
Tutu har fordømt Irans regering for dødsdommen over præsten, Yusef Nadarkhani, der anklages for apostasi
Tutu describes ‘passion’ to stop child marriage
September 21, 2011
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said Wednesday he is as passionate about fighting the widespread practice of child marriage as he was when he helped bring down apartheid in South Africa.
“My passion (that) now I hope to translate, transfer to this, is the same passion, commitment that I had when I was fighting, we were fighting, against apartheid,” Tutu told a conference in New York, where activists spoke out against the estimated 10 million marriages of underage girls around the world each year.
Mere HER i The Vacouver Sun. Kan også ses hos AFP Google Hosted her. Lidt kortere version her i The New Age.
Iran’s War Against Knowledge — An Open Letter to the International Academic Community
Desmond Tutu and José Ramos-Horta – September 25, 2011
The forward progress of humankind in the last centuries has been fueled, more than any other factor, by increasing access to information, more rapid exchange of ideas, and in most parts of the world, universal education.
Freedom of education and freedom of information are integral to freedom of thought. Few advances have been made for humankind which were not preceded by new ways of looking at our world and new schools of thought.
Mere HER i Huffington Post. Det er anden gang inden for to år, at Sydafrika har nægtet Dalai Lama visum, skriver Foreign Policy:
South Africa: Tutu blasts ANC over Dalai Lama visa
By Donna Bryson – Oct. 4, 2011
Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, an anti-apartheid hero often described as South Africa’s conscience, slammed the ANC-led government Tuesday as “disgraceful” and said it is worse than the country’s former oppressive white regime for not issuing a visa to the Dalai Lama.
The African National Congress responded by calling Tutu’s comparisons to the apartheid regime and to toppled Arab dictatorships “very unfortunate and totally misplaced,” and said the government should be given time to explain its actions.
Mere HER i The Statesman. Global News her. MSNBC her.
Apostasy – Tutu asks Iran to free pastor
October 9, 2011
Cape Town – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu on Sunday called on Iran to free a pastor who faces the death penalty for refusing to give up Christianity and return to Islam.
“I would like to appeal to the Iranian authorities to free Yusef Nadarkhani, and allow him and all other members of minority religions in Iran to worship God,” Tutu said in a statement.
“Forcing anybody to renounce his or her faith is an utter violation of our universal human and religious values, and a renunciation of God,” Tutu said.
Mere HER hos News24. Den næste artikel er en påmindelse om, at Tutu ikke altid er så heldig med sine udtalelser:
Arch-enemies: What’s not to like about Desmond Tutu?
Katharine Child – Oct 07 2011
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who turned 80 on Friday, has been awarded the Nobel peace prize, led South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and even donated DNA to the Human Genome Project.
But as with any leader, he has earned himself his fair share of critics along the way.
The ANC government, for example, has often found itself squirming under the glare of his criticism — President Jacob Zuma’s administration, currently the subject of Tutu’s wrath for delaying the issuing of an entry visa to the Dalai Lam until it was too late for the Tibetan spiritual leader to attend the cleric’s birthday celebrations, is not the first: Run-ins with Zuma’s predecessor, former president Thabo Mbeki, were not unknown.
Mere HER hos Mail & Guardian Online. Kan også læses her hos Afrika.no.
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, director of the Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue, looks back at 9/11 and forward at what the Christian response should be…
Ten years on from the ghastly atrocity of 9/11, and all that followed it, it is worth asking about ‘the stagnant and fetid waters’ that have given birth to terrorism on such a vast and well-organised scale. Commentators have drawn attention to the seething, and growing, resentment in the Muslim world at the dominance of the West, the experience of colonialism, the creation of Israel, the Kashmir dispute and, of course, the casus belli of so much, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
This resentment, however, has not just been the usual one of the weaker against the stronger or of the subjugated against the oppressor. It has also been informed by a world-view which expects ‘manifest victory’ for Islam, has not been reconciled to lands ‘lost’ to Islam, whether India, the Iberian peninsula or, indeed, Palestine, seeks the restoration of the Caliphate and the abolition of the nation-state in the cause of a united Ummah or Islamic nation.
Disse to artikler behandler de to slags menneskerettigheder, denne verden har. FNs og Kairo-deklarationen:
Sharia and Western Compliance
Leslie Sacks – August 22, 2011
Article 22 of the 1990 Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam states:
1.Everyone shall have the right to express his opinion freely in such manner as would not be contrary to the principles of the Shari’a
2.Everyone shall have the right to advocate what is right, and propagate what is good, and warn against what is wrong and evil according to the norms of Islamic Shari’a.
This declaration – made by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and intended as a counter measure to the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights – exposes the slippery slope on which Western societies tread when indulging Shari’a-based interpretations of rights and freedoms. If every such right and freedom is bounded by religious edict, then no such rights and freedoms will exist.
In 1973, the General Assembly of the United Nations opened for signature and ratification the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (ICSPCA). It defined the crime of apartheid as:
“Inhuman acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial [religious] group of persons over any other racial [religious] group of persons and systematically oppressing them.”[Italics are mine]
Mere HER hos Family Security Matters. Amil Imani her.
I was recently told by my aunt in Baghdad that there was a widespread belief among Iraqis that some external force was behind the protests and uprisings across the Middle East. What outside conspiracy, I wondered, could be responsible for the Arab Spring? Not to worry, however; George Saliba – the Syriac Orthodox Church’s bishop in Lebanon – offers us a simple answer. In an interview with Al-Dunya TV on July 24, Saliba declared that “the source… behind all these movements, all these civil wars, and all these evils” in the Arab world is nothing other than Zionism, “deeply rooted in Judaism.” The Jews, he says, are responsible for financing and inciting the turmoil in accordance with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
These remarks are not an isolated case among Middle Eastern Christians. The anti-Semitic trend has become especially apparent in the aftermath of Iraq’s assault last October on the Syriac Catholic Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, leaving 58 dead and 67 wounded in the worst attack on the Iraqi Christian community since 2003.
Mere HER i The Jerusalem Post eller her i Middle East Forum.
Endnu en advarsel om forholdene i Tyrkiet. Kristofobi overalt:
Turkey’s Christians under Siege
by John Eibner – Middle East Quarterly
The brutal murder of the head of Turkey’s Catholic Church, Bishop Luigi Padovese, on June 3, 2010, has rattled the country’s small, diverse, and hard-pressed Christian community.[1] The 62-year-old bishop, who spearheaded the Vatican’s efforts to improve Muslim-Christian relations in Turkey, was stabbed repeatedly at his Iskenderun home by his driver and bodyguard Murat Altun, who concluded the slaughter by decapitating Padovese and shouting, “I killed the Great Satan. Allahu Akhbar!” He then told the police that he had acted in obedience to a “command from God.”[2]
Though bearing all the hallmarks of a jihadist execution, the murder was met by denials and obfuscation—not only by the Turkish authorities but also by Western governments and the Vatican. This is not wholly surprising. In the post-9/11 era, it has become commonplace to deny connections between Islam and acts of violence despite much evidence to the contrary. [...]
Mere HER i Middle East Quarterly. Kan også læses her hos Family Security Matters.
Bat Ye’or: Brorskapet vil islamisere moderniteten, ikke modernisere islam
Christian Skaug – 21.03.2011
Bat Ye’or, takk for at du ville la deg intervjue av Document.no. Det har nylig vært en revolusjon i ditt opprinnelige hjemland, Egypt. Alle ble tilsynelatende overrasket over Mubarak-regimets fall, gjaldt det deg også?
Ja, det er klart.
De færreste kommentatorer ser ut til å ha noen klar oppfatning om hvor veien går videre for Egypt. Den senere tidens hendelser sammenlignes både med Berlinmurens fall i 1989 og revolusjonen i Iran i 1979. Hvor tror du landet er på vei nå?
Another day, another piece of disingenuous spin about Islam in the New York Times…
January 17, 2011 – by Bruce Bawer
In a series of articles published in the New York Times back in February 2009, Roger Cohen, who writes regularly for that newspaper and the International Herald Tribune, whitewashed the current Iranian regime and even – in a special touch of fantasy that was worthy of the Gray Lady’s late, great apologist for Stalin, Walter Duranty – described Jews in Iran as leading free, peaceful, and untrammeled lives. After a torrent of criticism, including understandably livid objections by Jewish and Baha’i refugees from Iran, Cohen modified his comments – somewhat, anyway – acknowledging the brutality of Ahmedinejad’s regime even as he reiterated his fatuous praise for Iran’s supposed “freedom” relative to other Muslim countries.
Here, courtesy of today’s Aftenposten, is the Norwegian cultural elite in a nutshell.
Stein Lillevolden, born in 1958, is a longtime member of a radical youth activist group, Blitz, who’s been arrested for throwing bricks at police officer in Gothenburg, hurling paint at the gate of the Israeli embassy in Oslo, and interfering in an arrest at an anti-U.S. demonstration – in short, an honored member of the Norwegian cultural elite. Who better, then, to write in Norway’s most conservative (!) major daily about a new book by Flemming Rose, the brave Danish editor behind the Muhammed cartoons? [...]
A leading Saudi speaks some home truths about the West and the Arab world. The West’s cultural elite would do well to listen up.
January 24, 2011 – by Bruce Bawer
He says that Arabs are infected by a herd mentality and thus “incapable of independent thinking, and of benefitting from the culture of others.” They might follow the example of Japan and learn from the “rich experience” of the West, which has so much to teach about “the value, liberties, and dignity of human beings, as well as…the development of science, of technology, and of life”; but instead they’ve persisted in being a “burden” on the rest of humanity, mulishly insisting that they have nothing to learn from others when in fact they “have nothing to offer others.”
Who’s talking here? Geert Wilders? Or maybe that German guy – Thilo Sarrazin – who published that explosive book about Islam last year? Nope. The speaker is Ibrahim al-Buleihi, who is, of all things, a former member of the Saudi national legislature, the Shura Council.
Imagine if Muslims in Europe were being arrested for nothing more than peacefully practicing their religion. Imagine if Muslims in South America were being sentenced to death for “insulting” Jesus. Imagine if mosques were being bombed and burned by terrorists in a growing list of Christian-majority countries.
Now here’s what you don’t need to imagine because it is all too real: In recent days, Christian churches have been bombed in Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, and the Philippines. In Indonesia a mob of 1,000 Muslims burned down two Christian churches because, according to one commentator, local Islamic authorities determined there were “too many faithful and too many prayers.” In Iran, scores of Christians have been arrested. In Pakistan, a Christian woman received the death penalty for the “crime” of insulting Islam; the governor of Punjab promised to pardon her — and was then assassinated for the “crime” of blasphemy.
Mere HER i National Review Online. I artiklen omtales denne video – 6½ minut:
Will attacks on Christians in Egypt spark more violence?
Farshad Kholghi lader tankerne gå tilbage til sin barndoms nytårsaftner i sharia-staten Iran og opfordrer danskerne til at vågne op af tryghedens søvn og forstå, at vores frihed er under massivt angreb.
Nytårsminder fra sharia-staten
Endnu et nyt år er på vej, og vi gør os klar til at sige farvel til 2010. Jeg står ved vinduet og kigger ud på den farverige nattehimmel. Månemanden har sikkerhedsbriller på og stjernerne gemmer sig for de millioner af eksplosioner, som oplyser nytårsnatten. [...]
I det nye år fortsætter retssagen mod Bent Jensen, der i sommer blev dømt for injurier mod Jørgen Dragsdahl. En juridisk skandale, skriver David Gress i sin anmeldelse af Ole Hasselbalchs bog om sagen, der ifølge ham er ”en omhyggelig, medrivende og stofmættet gennemgang af Dragsdahl-sagen”.
Katrine Winkel Holm er blandt dem, der jævnligt får henvendelser fra Hizb ut-Tahrir. Først var hun utilpas over at være deres penneven, men har siden fundet ud af, at det har visse fordele.
Under Islamist pressures, Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians are vanishing from their ancient homelands.
The enduring symbol of Christmas, spanning the world’s diverse Christian cultures and the history of two millennia, is the nativity scene inspired by the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Artistically synthesizing the two gospel stories, the nativity scene is infused with profound Christian meaning and symbolism.
John the Baptist, whose own birth is linked to Jesus’s in Luke’s account, exhorts Christians to “prepare the way of the Lord,” and traditionally many do so during the Christmas season by meditating on these tender devotional scenes. One of the earliest surviving is a 5th-century bas relief from Naxos, Greece. Whether modern nativity scenes are modeled on the famous “live crèches” staged by St. Francis of Assisi in the 13th century, those painted by Renaissance artists, the Baroque Neapolitan crèches (one is displayed in the White House), or simple folk versions, they remain popular worldwide.
Mere HER i National Review Online. Kan også læses her hos Hudson Institute.
Forståelsen av korstogene og islams første århundrer er preget av en dogmatisk og politisk korrekt virkelighetsoppfatning. Aslak Sira Myhres naive syn på Saladin, Marte Michelets påstander om Vesten og islam, og Frank Aarebrots nedvurdering av middelalderen er alle eksempler på en bredere trend blant meningsdannere. Den er det på tide å ta et oppgjør med.
Det er ikke ofte en professor i middelalderhistorie blir bedt om å skrive om korstogene og deres historiske bakgrunn, eller får sine forsøk på avisinnlegg om slike emner mottatt i avisredaksjonene. Overraskelsen var derfor stor da jeg ble bedt av redaksjonen i Minerva om å skrive en omtale av Christopher Tyermans over tusen sider lange verk om korstogenes historie i form av et bokessay.
Opdatering – fandt en ældre artikel af samme forfatter:
Arabernes betydning for den vestlige sivilisasjon
Professor i middelalderhistorie, Ole Jørgen Benedictow, reagerer på Dagbladets Marte Michelets påstander og omgang med historiske fakta. Benedictow avviser den vestlige sivilisasjons påståtte avhengighet av den arabisk-muslimske sivilisasjon. Men Dagbladet vil ikke publisere.
Av Ole Jørgen Benedictow, Professor emeritus – 21. maj 2008
Professor Benedictow skriver en kronikk som en respons til Marte Michelets artikkel i Dagbladet om den vestlige sivilisasjons avhengighet av den arabisk-muslimske sivilisasjon. Han påpeker at han som professor i middelalderhistorie ikke overraskende har synspunkter på et slikt emne – og i dette tilfelle meget kritiske synsmåter. Men Dagbladet refuserer historieprofessorens innlegg. Hvorvidt det handler om å ikke offentliggjøre kritikk av egne journalister, eller hvorvidt det handler om å unngå å offentliggjøre støtte til Hege Storhaug, ja, det får Dagbladet selv svare på. Her bringer vi Benedictows innlegg:
24. august 2010 – Trykkefrihedsselskabets bestyrelse
PRESSEMEDDELELSE: Hvis byretten dømmer Lars Hedegaard skyldig i overtrædelse af §266b, rokker det ikke ved bestyrelsens opbakning til ham som formand for Trykkefrihedsselskabet.
Dømt for at være bahai. Islam og de religiøse minoriteter
24. august 2010 – af Helle Merete Brix
[...] I den islamiske republik Iran er der fornylig faldet en bemærkelsesværdig dom: Syv fremtrædende medlemmer af det iranske bahai-samfund er blevet idømt hver 20 års fængsel. De syv, som jeg vil nævne ved deres navne for at gøre dem mindre anonyme, hedder Fariba Kamalabadi, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Afif Naeimi, Saeid Rezaie, Mahvash Sabet, Behrouz Tavakkoli og Vahid Tizfam. Den yngste er 36 år, den ældste 76 år. De er alle veluddannede, flere af dem har fået en uddannelse gennem bahai-samfundets private institutioner. For i Iran er det ikke tilladt for medlemmer af bahai at studere på et statsligt universitet. Hvad er disse mennesker dømt for? For blandt andet spionage for Israel, propaganda mod den iranske stat og hån af religiøse helligdomme.
Disse videoer stammer fra den pressekonference, der blev afholdt, da kendte ex-muslimer stiftede en ny forening i USA: Former Muslims United. Foreningen tæller prominente navne som Nonie Darwish, Amil Imani, Walid Shoebat, Wafa Sultan. Videoerne handler bla. om sharia:
September 24, 2009: Former Muslims United launch with press conference on Capitol Hill.
FMU Press Conference (September 2009)
This is the opening press conference for Former Muslims United. It featured Nonie Darwish, Ibn Warraq and others.
Video nummer 5 eksisterer tilsyneladende ikke, men der er muligvis bare tale om fejlnummerering. Fordi der er relativt mange dele, har jeg sat en fold ind i posten her:
The Mind of Jihad – Oct 15, 2008 – Hudson Institute
Laurent Murawiec talked about his book The Mind of Jihad (Cambridge University Press; October 13, 2008). In his book he looks at the history of jihad and argues that the jihadi movement today resembles Europe’s medieval millenarians and apocalyptics. Commentary was provided by Walid Phares, Ralph Peters, and Robert Lieber. Hillel Fradkin moderated. Laurent Murawiec, currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, served previously as an adviser to the French Ministry of Defense. He has translated Clausewitz’s On War into French and writes a regular column for London’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Walid Phares deltager nu faktisk ikke i panelet – han kunne ikke nå frem. Man skal ind til C-Span for at se video – link HER. Videoen kan også ses hos Hudson Institute her. Varighed 1 time og 2 minutter.
Hans far er bahaier; hans mors aner er muslimske. Men for skuespilleren Farshad Kholghi, som han forteller i sin intelligente og gripende selvbiografi Verden er ét land, var det grunnleggende bahai, ”en knap 160 år gammel iransk religion, der kort sagt går ind for ligestilling, frihed, oplysning til alle og en demokratisk tankegang”. Likevel anser han seg selv som ”verken bahai eller muslim, kristen eller jøde.”
“Min religion er min samvittighed…. For meg er verden ét land, der huser ét folk, menneskeheden. De universelle menneskerettigheder bør være vores udgangspunkt.“
Og når det gjelder menneskerettigheter vet forfatteren hva han skriver om. Født i Iran under Shahen, opplevde han som guttunge den ”tidsmaskine, der skulle sende vores land tilbage til profeten Muhammeds tid” – dvs. Khomeinis islamske revolusjon.
Kholghis redegjørelse av måtene dagliglivet endret seg på etter omveltningen er levende. Over natten ble en velutdannet slektning omformet til en islamist som skrek ”Allahu akbar!” ut av vinduer. Latteren stanset og alvoret grep fatt i befolkningen. (”Humor er, hvis ikke ligefrem selve jordens salt, så i alt fald demokratiets.”) Kholghi og hans medelever måtte ”rive hele, ’uislamiske’ kapitler ud af vores skolebøger”. På tv ble Hollywood-filmer erstattet av grov nordkoreansk propaganda som fremstilte amerikanske soldater ”som depraverede skurke”. Sistnevnte inspirerte riktignok guttens barneleker; i skolegården spilte han stadig en ”amerikansk kommandosoldat, der reddede mine kammerater ud af fjendens fangelejr og tilbage til den frie verden”.
Læs det hele HER i Trykkefrihedsselskabets blad Sappho.
Farshad Kholghis bog ”Verden er ét land” er udkommet på forlaget People’s Press. Den er på 206 sider og koster 199 kr. Den kan købes online flere steder og i boghandler over hele landet.
Den skal jeg helt sikkert have fat i. Farshad Kholghi er en meget begavet islamkritiker og en særdeles velskrivende forfatter.
Et klart mønster tegner sig. Konservative medier får etiketten ‘højreorienteret’, hvorimod venstreorienterede får ‘uafhængig’, ‘velanset’ eller ‘troværdig’.
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