Mick Hartley

Julie Burchill, in the Spectator, lets rip on the “Islamist cry bullies”:

In the wake of the Manchester synagogue attack, we might ask ourselves why the Jews in particular have attracted the ire of Islamic extremists. Pretending that it’s about Gaza is the easy way out; I think it’s far more likely that the root of the trouble lies with the fact that Judaism was the first monotheistic (Abrahamic, if you like, which I do, as it further annoys Islamists) religion, around some 2,000 years before Islam. We know they’ve got a bee in their bonnets about being first; see the ridiculous idea that one does not ‘convert’ to Islam but rather ‘reverts’ to it, as we’re all born that way.

Let’s start with A for Archaeology. There’s always some humourless saddo who thinks that they’re pointing out for the first time that – ho ho ho – there are stamps saying ‘Palestine: Land of the Bible’ in the early part of the century. But – ha ha ha – that was merely what the British occupiers called Zion, when the fag-ends of the Ottoman Empire were being tied up. If we’re talking about history, earlier this year a silver coin dating from the 6th to 5th centuriesBC was found in what was then the Kingdom of Judah; on the other hand, the ‘Palestinian’ flag was adopted by the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964, becoming the official flag of ‘Palestine’ in 1988. That means that Polaroid cameras (first one on sale in 1948) go back further than the official ‘State of Palestine flag’. Some history!

Being well aware what cry bullies the Islamists on their doorstep are, Israel has bent over backwards many times in order to prevent a boo-hoo that could turn into a suicide bombing. You only have to think of the Temple Mount, the holiest site for Jews, originating in the first century; on top of that, the Muslim conquerors of Jerusalem built the Dome of the Rock in the seventh century. A child could work out who should have ownership. Yet neither Jews nor Christians are allowed to pray in this place which is so precious to both of them.

You’ll often hear state-approved ‘comedians’ mocking Christianity on their tragic little panel shows, but the Koran is strictly off limits. Quiz them on this and you might hear some bluster about ‘punching up’ not ‘punching down’. (In a similar vein, those who refused to back the Charlie Hedbo journalists, like Laurie Penny,  accused the magazine of ‘racist trolling’.) But this focus on Christianity once again seems a prime example of cry bullyism. Christianity is now the most persecuted religion in the world; Islam is the fastest growing, and the richest. Tell a migrant worker-slave in Qatar or a gay man in Dubai or a spirited woman in Iran that Islam is powerless. How come none of the fearless Radio 4 drolls dares to get a rise out of the bit in the Hadiths which tell us that:

‘The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews’

All those talking trees and flying horses; I suppose a Disney film’s out of the question?

The Jew animosity goes right back to the early days of Islamic conquest, when the Jews refused to bow down to the forces of Mohammed – see the Battle of Khaybar.

Why should we care, as Gentiles? Because we’re human. Because the Jews have added so much to our country. And if altruism doesn’t appeal to you, remember that ‘After Saturday comes Sunday’ – a phrase used by fundamentalists to intimidate Christians in the Middle East. Already across Africa the kidnappings, rapes and mass murders of Christians by Islamist extremists are common.