zenpundit.com

[ by Charles Cameron — not so ]
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On the one hand you have Sheikh Wael Al-Ghitawi..

Montreal mosque facing calls for investigation after imam preaches on anti-Semitic conspiracy theories https://t.co/TaQ8Vk2vq3

— Matthew Levitt (@Levitt_Matt) February 28, 2017

— and on the other, Prof Aisha Ahmad —

This is my son. At some point, he is going to learn that some people hate him because he's a Jew. I'd like to put that off as long as I can. pic.twitter.com/Qol6r1301n

— Alex Halpern (@HalpernAlex) February 28, 2017

When that time comes, you can also tell him that others – including this Muslim girl right here – are willing to human shield him. https://t.co/46HVhyZ3go

— Aisha Ahmad (@ProfAishaAhmad) February 28, 2017

Alhamdulillah!

[ by Charles Cameron — good news in response to bad ]
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First:

Appears hundreds of graves vandalized at #STL Jewish cemetery. Damage is extensive. @andybankertv live report on @KPLR11 and @FOX2now at 5p pic.twitter.com/wneuIpl5MY

— Joe Lamie (@GIJoter) February 20, 2017

resulting in:

From the reporter who met Syrian refugees helping repair the desecrated Jewish cemetery in Missouri. https://t.co/r9e2BKjMOO

— Lisa Goldman (@lisang) February 24, 2017

And now:

More anti-Jewish hate? Dozens of headstones damaged at Philadelphia Jewish cemetery https://t.co/2vNhUfDTm4 @ADL_National @ADLPhiladelphia pic.twitter.com/5eDSeF09JL

— Oren Segal (@orensegal) February 26, 2017

resulting in:

Muslim youth have come to help Philadelphia Jews repair the vandalized cemetery, reports Rabbi Yosef Goldman. https://t.co/njQzz4WH6C

— Lisa Goldman (@lisang) February 26, 2017

**

The heart dismayed, the heart uplifted. Thank you, thank you.

[ by Charles Cameron — do you suppose trees only prostrate before God, Q 55.6, during high winds? ]
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This admirable United Nations goal gains Taliban support..

The Taliban, in turn, have the encouragement of the Prophet:

The Prophet (pbuh) said:”If the Hour is about to be established and one of you was holding a palm shoot, let him take advantage of even one second before the Hour is established to plant it.”

and:

Allah’s Messenger (pbuh) said, “There is none amongst the Muslims who plants a tree or sows seeds, and then a bird, or a person or an animal eats from it, but is regarded as a charitable gift for him.”

**

Sources:

Plant for the Planet, Billion Tree Campaign

BBC, Taliban leader urges Afghans to plant more trees

Hidaya Foundation, Why Plant Trees?

Muaz Nasir, The Value of Trees in Islam

[ by Charles Cameron — still recovering from heart surgery, still a couple days slow on current affairs ]
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Holocaust Memorial Day might have passed me by completely had President Trump not decided to sign his executive order putting an initial ban on refugees — and green card holders — from seven Muslim-majority countries entering the US.

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The parallelism speaks for itself. In a single tweet:

"Anne Frank could be a 77-year-old woman living in Boston today." But was denied a US visa. https://t.co/BeZ2ZpqLhl #HolocaustMemorialDay

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) January 27, 2017

Read all about it: Anne Frank and her family were also denied entry as refugees to the U.S.:

“The story seems to unfold in slow motion as the painstaking exchange of letters journey across continents and from state to state, their information often outdated by the time they arrive,” the New York Times wrote … “Each page adds a layer of sorrow as the tortuous process for gaining entry to the United States — involving sponsors, large sums of money, affidavits and proof of how their entry would benefit America — is laid out. The moment the Franks and their American supporters overcame one administrative or logistical obstacle, another arose.”

**

See also the St. Louis Manifest Twitter feed.

.@Stl_Manifest shares the fates of the St. Louis refugees #HolocaustMemorialDay https://t.co/4MzcqDqePo via @SmithsonianMag

— J.M. Berger (@intelwire) January 28, 2017

The Smithsonian magazine describes it as “like a slow dirge, steadily announcing the names of the St. Louis passengers who were killed..”

A sample:

My name is Walter Velman. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Golleschau

— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017

My name is Bertha Unger. The US turned me away at the border in 1939. I was murdered in Sobibor

— St. Louis Manifest (@Stl_Manifest) January 28, 2017

**

Yet despite all..

“What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again” – Anne Frank#HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/KHE7jkqfGA

— Lost In History (@HistoryToLearn) January 27, 2017

**

And that’s before we begin to consider the constitutionality, in a nation dedicated to having “no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”, of executive orders that ban Muslims while showing preference for Christians, nor the likelihood that such orders will blow back on us, increasing IS and AQ recruitment.

Consider, for instance, this quote from an article subheaded ISIS aims to exploit Trump’s controversial rhetoric about Muslims to reinforce its propaganda, five current and former members told BuzzFeed News. “Trump will shorten the time it takes for us to achieve our goals,” one said.

ISIS also sees Trump as an ideal enemy for propaganda purposes, the former and current members of the group said, believing that his campaign’s heated rhetoric about Muslims will help the extremist group with recruitment by reinforcing its central narrative that America and the West are at war with Islam. “Trump announced his hatred of Arabs and Muslims and did not hide it as presidents did before him,” an ISIS official based outside the city of Palmyra said, speaking via an encrypted chat service.

[ by Charles Cameron — season’s greetings ]
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https://www.facebook.com/rami.khal.7/videos/10157979313090319/
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I trust you can see and hear this video, or at least click through to Le Liban c’est ça aussi : une chorale musulmane qui chante Noël dans une église and watch it. It presents, as the post in French tells us, a Lebanese Shiite choir singing Christmas carols in a church, and with it I offer you my Christmas greetings on behalf of one and all at Zenpundit, greetings secular, sacred, Maccabean, Nazarene, Muslim, or at the mall.

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I’m, as you may know, in recovery from heart surgery and on kidney dialysis, and this year I received a very kind care package of renal-failure appropriate food from an anonymous source, so I’m reminded that while the mall, grocery store and food-laden table may not represent the “essence of Christmas” as my mother would have wished — the child born God to brighten our dark world — they can nonetheless represent generosity as well as commerce, a break in the relentless pursuit of dominance, human life as gift and giving.

On this day, therefore, of commercial, charitable and Christian celebration, we wish you all, according to your varied natures and our own perspectives, happiness this Christmas in the teeth of winter and the world.

**

That Muslim voices are raised above in a Christian church in praise of the Christian nativity offers a glimpse of hope for mutual respect in the strife-and faith-torn Middle East — but such matters as the overlapping and interconnections of faiths are never simple, and by way or remembering something of the nuance, here’s a quick sentence from COL Pat Lang‘s post at Sic Semper Tyrannis yesterday, Christmas in Aleppo – Attention Joe Scarborough:

One of our German correspondents on SST informed us the other day that there are now some Christian members of Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shia militia. This would make sense because after the 2006 war against Israel Hizbullah assigned priority of its own reconstruction money to Christians in south Lebanon.

**

To quote Charles Dickens:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity..

Best wishes & blessings to all..