UK to accept Sharia law?

The BBC is reporting today on an interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams.

For those of you who don't know, Her Majesty the Queen is the head of the Anglican Church (Church of England) but the Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the church. (I suppose equivalent to the position of Chief Rabbi, only with a bigger flock).

Although he has no legal authority or power, his views certainly reflect the values of the church and may influence governmental policy.

Dr Williams thinks that the only way to accomodate the large Muslim population in Britian is to give them legal independence and the option of going to a Sharia court instead of a British court.

I suppose in theory this is similar to having a Beis Din, and perhaps the Muslims also have a prohibition in using secular courts. At present in Britian a Beis Din can act as an arbitrator in a civil dispute (as can anyone accepted by the two parties) although they don't have any judicial power. They oversee Gittin, but any divorce has to also be done through the civil courts.

I think that Dr Williams is now advocating giving a much more powerful authority to the Muslim courts. He wants to give them authority to deal with not only financial matters but also marital disputes.

I'll leave aside the question of whether the rulings of such a court would be acceptable to the average Briton (would they be allowed to administer lashes or to cut of limbs as they can in some countries under Muslim rule?). The more important question is why Britain should be trying to bend over backwards to accomodate Muslims? For hundreds of years Jews have lived in foreign countries, and have managed to make an acceptable compromise between using Jewish law and following the laws of the land they are in. The Chief Rabbi has never advocated transferring legal authority to the Jewish courts. Yet Muslims, in Britain as in many countries, don't feel as though they are in exile. Their goal is to make the whole world Muslim. Therefore anything less than complete submission to their values is, in their minds, racism, and undermines Western multiculturalism.

I am only slightly shocked that the head of the Anglican church can make statements like this. The reality is that Britain is fast becoming a Muslim country (some parts of the country already are), and eventually British 'tolerance' (or laziness) will allow them to take over completely.

I am very glad that my family made the decision to come back to Israel. Hopefully news items like this will encourage more Brits to leave Blighty and come home to Israel.

The Archbishop of Canterbury says the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law in the UK "seems unavoidable".

Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4's World at One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.

Dr Williams argues that adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion.

For example, Muslims could choose to have marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia court.

He says Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty".

In an exclusive interview with BBC correspondent Christopher Landau, ahead of a lecture to lawyers in London later on Monday, Dr Williams argues this relies on Sharia law being better understood. At the moment, he says "sensational reporting of opinion polls" clouds the issue.

He stresses that "nobody in their right mind would want to see in this country the kind of inhumanity that's sometimes been associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states; the extreme punishments, the attitudes to women as well".

But Dr Williams says the argument that "there's one law for everybody... I think that's a bit of a danger".

"There's a place for finding what would be a constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law, as we already do with some other aspects of religious law."

Dr Williams adds: "What we don't want either, is I think, a stand-off, where the law squares up to people's religious consciences."

"We don't either want a situation where, because there's no way of legally monitoring what communities do... people do what they like in private in such a way that that becomes another way of intensifying oppression inside a community."

His comments are likely to fuel the debate over multiculturalism in the UK.

Last month, one of Dr William's colleagues, the Bishop of Rochester, said that non-Muslims may find it hard to live or work in some areas of the UK.

The Right Reverend Dr Michael Nazir-Ali said there was "hostility" in some areas and described the government's multicultural policies as divisive.

He said there had been a worldwide resurgence of Islamic extremism, leading to young people growing up alienated from the country they lived in.

He has since received death threats and has been placed under police protection.

Amnesty Interntational DOESN'T condemn Israel

Mashiach must definitely be on the way. A report from Amnesty International which accuses the Palestinians (both the good ones and the bad ones) of human rights violations! And even the BBC manages to write 8 paragraphs before it mentions that everything is Israel's fault.

It is interesting to see that both the BBC and Amnesty are putting this report out just before Israel sit down with their 'moderate' peace partner to give away the coutry. Apparently even the 'moderates' are not all that nice really.

If we have too much more reporting like this I'll know that they have all done teshuvah. Or I'll be sure that Mashiach is here. (Or perhaps, since the Israeli politicians are clearly unable to say anything bad against our 'peace partners' or anything good about Israel, G-d has found other shelichim who can do it instead).

Make sure you are sitting down when you read this.

Feud 'hurting Palestinian rights'

Fighting between the two main factions in the Palestinian territories is fuelling human rights abuses, a leading human rights NGO reports.

Amnesty International says illegal detentions and torture have become commonplace in both Hamas-controlled Gaza and Fatah's West Bank stronghold.

It notes that the situation in Gaza has deteriorated sharply since June when Hamas seized control by force.

The UK-based group is calling for an independent investigation.

According to Amnesty, arbitrary detentions and the torture of opposition supporters have become widespread in the Gaza Strip where there have also been attacks on demonstrators and journalists covering such incidents.

But the report says human rights abuses are being committed in the West Bank too, by government security forces under the control of President Mahmoud Abbas against Hamas supporters.

Hundreds of Hamas sympathisers have been arrested and reports of ill-treatment and torture are frequent but much less publicised than Hamas violations, Amnesty notes.

'Dire effect'

"The leaders of both the PA [Palestinian Authority] and Hamas must take immediate steps to break the cycle of impunity that continues to fuel abuses, including arbitrary detentions, abductions, torture and ill-treatment by their forces," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's Middle East programme director.

"The ongoing factional struggle between Fatah and Hamas is having a dire effect on the lives of Palestinians, especially in the Gaza Strip, compounding and exacerbating the human rights and humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli military campaigns and blockades," he added.

Tensions between the two main parties have been high since the beginning of last year when Hamas defeated Fatah in parliamentary elections.

Those tensions often spilled over into violence and have led to the deaths of hundreds of people.

The distance between the sides has grown such that there is now little political dialogue between them, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool reports from Ramallah in the West Bank.

Amnesty's report calls on the international community to cease the sale of weapons to both factions until guarantees can be secured that they will not be used to violate human rights.

Good Old Auntie

In America they have the ADL. In Britain they have the BBC. (Those 3 letter initials are catchy).

Impartial as always, the Beeb reports on wanton destruction of artifacts on (so called?) Temple Mount.

Apart from the headline (priceless) I particularly like such phrases as:
"Muslim authorities at al-Aqsa mosque, also venerated by Jews as the Temple Mount" (also? who was here first buddy!),
"Jerusalem's holiest religious shrine" (not Judaism's holiest shrine),
"Mosque officials insist it is urgent infrastructure work doing no damage" (why would you think that a bulldozer is doing damage? Ask Arthur Dent!),
"the remains of King Solomon's temple" (no current religious significance then),
"We regret some Israeli groups try to use archaeology to achieve political ends" (because clearly archaeology is always motivated by politics, not history),
"it is a living religious site in an occupied land" (which is why they play football up there and have family picnics (and occasionally throw rocks down on those praying at the kotel) - a living religious site!)

I suppose history has no more significance for the readership of the BBC (since the end of the Raj, and the 'pink bits'), so archeology is just another political tool, and the Jews (as usual) are making trouble again.

Remind me again why Moshe Dayan gave the Wakf control of the site in 1967?!

(And why is this not reported at all on the Israeli news sites?)

Israeli anger over holy site work

A group of Israeli archaeologists is protesting about fresh excavations at Jerusalem's holiest religious shrine, saying it threatens priceless relics.

Muslim authorities at al-Aqsa mosque, also venerated by Jews as the Temple Mount, are digging a 150-metre trench for water pipes and electricity cables.

Israeli critics say the work is causing irreparable damage, indiscriminately piling up earth and carved stones.

Mosque officials insist it is urgent infrastructure work doing no damage.

The Aqsa Mosque/Temple Mount compound is the Middle East's most sensitive disputed religious site.

Competing claims have been a catalyst for violence in the recent past and determining its fate lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Delicate

Jewish tradition reveres the area as the remains of King Solomon's temple, while Muslim tradition has it as the location of the Prophet Muhammad's ascent into heaven.

With the rest of east Jerusalem the shrine was occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. Now the compound is run by the Muslim Waqf authorities under Israeli security control.

The Waqf resumed working this week, using a mechanical digger on a metre-deep trench, cutting through the subsoil and piling it up beside the trench.

Israeli archaeologists say such material should be carefully sifted and documented, as it would be even at sites of far less significance than this most sensitive cultural and religious location.

Gabriel Barkai of the Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount calls it an act of barbarism.

"They are digging in the most crucial and delicate point of the Temple Mount - of the whole country," the Bar-Ilan University senior lecturer told the BBC.

"They should be using a toothbrush, not a bulldozer."

Living shrine

Dr Barkai identifies the area currently under excavation as the outer courts of the Second Temple, built by Herod the Great in the First Century BC.

He maintains it is where the best preservation of antiquities was anticipated, since other parts of the compound are built on exposed bedrock.

He accuses the Islamic authorities of wanting to "show who is the boss" by destroying Jewish remains in al-Aqsa mosque.

He also lambastes the Israeli Antiquities Authority, meant to supervise any work at archaeological sites, for apparently giving the work legitimacy.

Yusuf Natsheh of the Islamic Waqf dismisses such claims, saying the area has been dug many times and arguing that remains unearthed would be from the 16th or 17th century Ottoman period.

He says the work is urgently needed to maintain the al-Aqsa compound as an important religious institution.

Saturated by history

"We regret some Israeli groups try to use archaeology to achieve political ends," Dr Natsheh told the BBC.

"But their rules of archaeology do not apply to the Haram (compound); it is a living religious site in an occupied land."

The Israeli Antiquities Authority has not commented on the issue. "They filled their mouths with water," as Dr Barkai puts it.

"The earth here is saturated by history. All we can do is alert the world to what is happening and try to stop the next disaster," he says.

As far as Dr Natsheh is concerned the Israeli government has no authority over what is happening, as the Muslim authorities do not recognise its legitimacy in the occupied territory.

"We inform the Israeli police about what we intend to do, and then go ahead, so they have no excuse to prevent us," he says.

BBC on Hamas TV

The BBC happily write about Hamas's very own version of Mickey Mouse as though there is nothing wrong with it. No comment on the fact that the character was killed off by being beaten to death by an Israeli agent! No discussion about what kind of programmes they are making way for! The only thing discussed is that they managed to find one politician (Barghouti) who wanted the show stopped (and he has become "some Palestinian ministers")

We don't expect any better from either the Hamas or the BBC, but it also isn't surprising that the other lead story today on the BBC is that UK terror threat now 'critical'.

G-d save the Queen (as Johnny Rotten once said!)

Hamas 'Mickey Mouse' killed off

A Palestinian TV station has killed off a controversial Mickey Mouse lookalike that critics said was spreading anti-US and anti-Israeli messages to children.

The Hamas-affiliated al-Aqsa channel aired the last episode on Friday, showing the character, Farfur, being beaten to death by an "Israeli agent".

"Farfur was martyred defending his land," said the show's presenter Saraa.

Israeli critics had said the show was outrageous and some Palestinian ministers tried to get it shelved.

In the final broadcast an actor said to be an Israeli agent tries to buy the land of the squeaky-voiced Mickey Mouse lookalike.

Farfur brands the Israeli a "terrorist" and is beaten to death.

He was killed "by the killers of children", Saraa says.

Al-Aqsa television told the Associated Press news agency the show, Tomorrow's Pioneers, was making way for new programmes.

'Indoctrination'

The channel had ignored demands from Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti for the show to be stopped.

Mr Barghouti said it "was wrong to use a programme directed at children to convey political messages".

In an earlier show, Farfur had said: "You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists.

"We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."

The Israeli organisation, Palestinian Media Watch, said Farfur took "every opportunity to indoctrinate young viewers with teachings of Islamic supremacy".

Looking Bad(ly)

Last week we read the Torah portion of the spies. They were punished for bringing back a bad report about the land of Israel. As a result of this report and its acceptance by the people, the Israelites had to wander in the desert for 40 years (corresponding to the 40 days the spies were spying out the land) until that generation had died and the new generation, their children, were finally able to enter the land of Israel.
R’ Chaim Shmuelevitz asks why they were punished for 40 years if the sin was only the speaking and acceptance of the evil report about Israel. In other words, why were the spies punished for doing their job of scouting out the land? And why were the people punished for doing nothing during those 40 days?
R’ Matis Weinberg points out that the Hebrew words for speaking evil, lashon hara, don’t actually means ‘bad language/ tongue’ (that would be ‘lashon ra’ah, since lashon is a feminine word). Rather it means ‘the language of evil’. The real sin of lashon hara is not causing damage to someone else, or offending them, but is more fundamental. It is the sin of seeing the world in a way that everything looks bad. Speaking about the bad things that one sees is just the consequence of viewing the world in this way. R’ Matis also points out that Rambam puts the laws of lashon hara in the book of ‘de’os’, which talks about perfection of character traits, rather than in a section of forbidden speech or damages.
The main prohibition of lashon hara is viewing the world in a certain way, where everything looks bad. This was the sin of the spies – for 40 days they only saw the negative aspects of the land of Israel. All the miracles that G-d did for them while they were there, and all the Divine protection they received, they managed to twist into seeing how bad the land was.
Similarly, the people who were so keen to send the spies were not looking at the positive aspects of Israel. They wanted spies who would seek out the negatives and allow them to remain in the desert, or even return to Egypt, rather than having to fight a war to enter the land. The whole enterprise was therefore doomed from the outset. This is why they were punished for 40 years. Moshe realized that things were going wrong from the beginning, which is why he prayed for Yehoshua that he should be saved from this wicked counsel.
I always wondered how people could view Israel in such a negative light that they were punished with 40 years of exile. Sure, there are some things in Israeli society, mentality or geography that I complain about from time to time, but how could the whole country be viewed so negatively? What about the daily miracles of survival and blessing? What about the homeland for the Jewish people? What about the ingathering of the exiles?
Luckily I have found the answer to my question – from the ostensibly unbiased news service of the BBC (I say ostensibly, because the Arabs in Britain complain that their news service is biased in favor of Israel – bear that in mind as you look at this article!).
Just to clarify – they don’t tell too many outright lies. But they manage to distort the facts to see only the negative side (from the Israeli/ Jewish perspective) of every main area of the modern political situation in Israel.
So, if you have the stomach to read what might have come directly from the words of the spies (and you will need a strong stomach) – here is the summary of the Middle East story, and obstacles to peace, by the BBC:

Obstacles to peace: Moveable frontiers
Obstacles to peace: Refugees
Obstacles to peace: Water
Obstacles to peace: Jerusalem

And for a final stomach wrenching personal account:
Samia Zaru, Palestinian refugee sculptor living in Jordan

Or perhaps you don’t agree with me. If you think these are fair and honest reports please leave your comments at the bottom of the page. And if you think they are seeing the real picture and I am wearing rose colored glasses, please let me know.

(cross posted from wwww.torahlab.org

Pizza for 4 with all the toppings - to take away!

Today the BBC reports:

A British climber is in the closing stages of an attempt to set a world record for the highest mobile call.

Rod Baber is making final preparations to scale Mount Everest and make the call from its north ridge.

What I want to know is whether the pizza place will deliver when he finally makes that call!

Someone should tell him that at the time of the tower of Bavel they made a similar attempt to climb to the highest point in the world (and construct the tower that would take them there). They weren't going to make a phone call - they didn't need to, since everyone lived in the same place and spoke the same language - but they wanted to show that their technology was greater than G-d. I hope Mr Baber won't make that mistake, but will realise the wonders of nature and the Creator who made them. It astonishes me that G-d made a human being who is able to live at sea level and is also able to ascend to such heights and breath (just about) and even move around a little bit.

But on a more serious note, can you imagine the lengths he is going to in order to make the highest mobile phone call! Days, weeks, months of preparations and money in order to break the record. And what will he do? Call someone on the ground!

While he is doing that we have the opportunity every day for our prayers to be heard in the heavens. That is much further (and closer, since G-d is everywhere) than the top of Everest. When we pray with sincerity we can achieve in an instant far more than Rod Bader will do with all his preparations.

(The main reason I am posting this is to take my mind of the much more disturbing news (which isn't really news anyway) that both the EU and the US wish we didn't have access to the kotel and the Old City, but should cede it to the Palestinians!
This is the Jerusalem Post article:

The United States ambassador in Israel, Richard Jones, will not be participating in Monday's Jerusalem Day ceremony at the Knesset, sources said Sunday afternoon. It was not yet clear whether his decision to absent himself, which followed a similar decision by the EU, was politically motivated.

And to make matters worse in 12 years the city will belong to Hamas anyway, even without the foreign politicians helping out:

Hamas may conquer Jerusalem within 12 years, says mayor

Uri Lupolianski warns cabinet ministers that demographic shift could lead to Palestinian group gaining control of Israel’s capital. As government discusses 40-year anniversary of city's reunification, Olmert promises to invest in its development

So let's just watch Rod Baber and his attempt at the highest mobile phone call - and let's hope for his sake an aeroplane doesn't go overhead while he is trying to make his call, because not only will he not be able to hear when the pizza will be ready, but someone on the plane might be making an even higher phone call!)