Wednesday, September 24, 2008
[Scroll down for details of the protests planned for Thursday in New York and Cambridge, MA.]
Dinner with hate: Quakers, Iran leader to meet, eat
Keepers of Protestantism's pacifist traditions will showcase just how far they've come from their humble roots in Europe's persecuted peasantry when they share an intimate dinner Thursday in New York with a world leader.
It's not just any world leader, however, but Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who's been labeled an international pariah for his nuclear ambitions, denial of the Holocaust, saber-rattling toward Israel and alleged support of terrorism.
But for Quakers and Mennonites who'll be at the table, breaking bread with this controversial man means drawing deeply on the same spiritual roots that sustained their embattled ancestors long ago.
"Jesus ate with lepers and with tax collectors, and in the United States right now, Iran would be in that category," says Arli Klassen, executive director of the Mennonite Central Committee, an outreach arm for Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in the United States and Canada...
An analysis of the pathology of that last statement would fill a book. Ahmadinejad is not a victim, nor is he doing a necessary, if resented, job. Nor will he starve or feel isolated if the Mennonites refuse to break bread with him.
The ADL, amongst many, many others is objecting:
"Ahmadinejad represents a rejection of everything these religious groups stand for," said Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League. "Their breaking bread with President Ahmadinejad is a perversion of the search for peace and an appalling betrayal of religious values."
The Catholic League condemns the meeting: CHRISTIAN APPEASERS WELCOME AHMADINEJAD [h/t: Tom Glennon]
..."The most prestigious organization welcoming Ahmadinejad is the World Council of Churches (WCC). Its politics are so radical that its agenda could easily be endorsed by any Marxist atheist. It was not for nothing that Jewish interreligious leader Israel Singer once branded the WCC 'the head office for the dissemination of antisemitic statements.' Indeed, after Yasser Arafat died, the WCC stated that the Arab terrorist 'came to the recognition that true justice embraces peace,' something that many Israeli mothers must have found mind-boggling.
"To appease someone like Ahmadinejad is sickening, but for it to be done in the name of Christianity is enough to induce vomiting. We strongly encourage Catholics and others to attend the rally."
Not that's a condemnation! The Catholic League is endorsing a protest: September 25 Rally to protest U.S. religious leaders honoring AHMADINEJAD at NYC Hyatt Hotel (925rally.org
Join us to raise your voice of conscience against religious appeasers of tyrant Ahmadinejad!
On Thursday, Sept 25, at 6pm in New York City at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, The American Friends Service Committee, Mennonite Central Committee, Quaker UN Office, Religions for Peace, and the World Council of Churches-UN Liaison Office will be honoring Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at an Iftar (dinner to break the day's Ramadan fast). Other organizations, political leaders and media have also been invited. Read the Text of the Invitation.
These religious leaders are about to betray their brethren across all religions, parties, and countries by honoring the tyrannical regime of Ahmadinejad and the Iranian mullahs of this terrorist state.
At the same time, Women United, the Jewish Action Alliance, Stand With Us, Center for Security Policy, the Catholic League, the The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Alliance of Iranian Women and over 30 organizations of all faiths and political affiliations will hold an interfaith rally to counter this betrayal of principles, to protest Ahmadinejad's presence at the United Nations, and to oppose Iran's nuclear weapons program and outrageous threats against the USA and America's ally, Israel. See the full list of participating organizations HERE, updated daily. UPDATE - RAIN OR SHINE, THE RALLY WILL GO ON! WEATHER REPORTS DAILY ON THIS PAGE...
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has been invited to speak along with many other civic and religious leaders and politicians, both Democrats and Republicans...
Here in Boston, Christians and Jews United for Israel will be holding a protest outside the office of the American Friends Service Committee:
Call to Action - Sept.25 demonstration
Christians and Jews United for Israel
Calling all pro-Israel, pro-America, people of moral clarity to join us tomorrow:
Thursday, September 25, 2008, 4:00-5:30
2161 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge.
outside the office of AFSC
Your presence will speak out against the disgrace of the American Friends Service Committee and other groups hosting the anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, anti-American, EVIL, Iranian dictator- Ahmedinejad.
"SHAME ON THE AFSC" - "SHAME!"
T-stop: Porter Square, Red line. We have the signs. And flyers. Just come!
The AJC is protesting the appearance of a UN official at the event: U.N. official speaking at dinner for Ahmadinejad
...The American Jewish Committee in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon criticized the scheduled address by Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, the General Assembly's president, at a dinner Thursday recognizing the Iranian president.
"The presence of the President of the General Assembly at an event in honor of Mr. Ahmadinejad would make a mockery of you, the United Nations, and the nations and leaders who have made a point of rejecting Holocaust denial whenever, wherever, and by whomever it is made," wrote AJC President Richard Sideman and Executive Director David Harris in their letter...
..."Given Mr. Ahmadinejad's repeated statements about the 'annihilation' and eradication of a U.N. member state, Israel, the claim that this event is a dialogue for peace cannot be taken seriously," they wrote. "Furthermore, the claim that this dinner promotes dialogue of any kind is undercut by Mr. Ahmadinejad himself, who has clearly stated: 'We are ready to hold dialogue with all countries of the world except for the Israeli regime.' It will serve as a platform through which the UN will help legitimize Holocaust denial, not to mention the destruction of a member state."
Finally, and this probably deserves its own post, in Salon (the Salon comment thread is predictably demented, btw), Juan Cole is chastising Barack Obama (whose political faction attempted to scuttle the main anti-Ahmadinejad protest and is now trying somehow to make up for that dishonor) and Sarah Palin for being too hard on the Iranian madman:
Sen. Barack Obama responded with outrage to the remarks made Tuesday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before the United Nations General Assembly, expressing regret that the quirky little president was even allowed to speak...
"Quirky little president?!?!" Remember, people pay Juan Cole to teach their children.
In his remarks, Ahmadinejad said:
...The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner. It is deeply disastrous to witness that some presidential or premiere nominees in some big countries have to visit these people, take part in their gatherings, swear their allegiance and commitment to their interests in order to attain financial or media support...
Hey kids, you don't have to be a big-time college professor to recognize baseline classical antisemitism. In fact, some college professors, like Juan Cole, don't:
...In the heat of the campaign, Obama surely overreached himself in appearing to advocate barring leaders of member states from addressing the United Nations because their views are obnoxious to Americans. He also fell into the trap of declining to make a distinction between anti-Zionist views and anti-Semitic ones...
As Adam Holland notes:
...So Cole has swallowed whole Ahmadinejad's substition of the word "Zionist" for "Jew" in the context of a classic anti-Jewish stereotype: Jewish control of international finance. Moreover, Cole says that he doubts that Ahmadinejad has any ill intentions for Jews because he hasn't killed them in Iran.
It's more than that. Ahmadinejad speaks for Cole. That much is clear.
He also speaks for the Mennonites, the Quakers, and many others, including those at the UN who stood and applauded.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Quakers and Mennonites Host Genocidal Antisemite -- Protests Planned for Thursday.
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The other day I hooked up with CAMERA's Christian Media Analyst, Dexter Van Zile, to make a little video of Dexter discussing the Mennonites, and what their problem with Israel just might be. Here is a search at CAMERA, and... Read More
Jesus ate with sinners..but told them to go and sin no more. The Iranian president is not repentant and vows to destroy Israel and those who stand with her....the apple of God's eye.
Simply unbelievable! I don't even know where to begin. For starters how about kicking the UN out of the USA.
Wow. You remember your enemies forever, but how quickly you turn on old friends. I studied the Holocaust and in particular, the Kindertransport because I believed my mother might have been on it. When the Catholics had their Father Coughlin Radio show, and the protestant churches were openly antisemitic or silent, it was the Quakers who were speaking up for the Jews, badgering their governments to intervene and to grant visas. Quakers were instrumental in making the Kindertransport possible. They went into Nazi Germany itself to try to rescue Jews, hiding them, feeding them and trying to get them out. And these are the people some websites are now describing as "slavering in the hopes of a next holocaust".
When you had no country, no allies and no hope, in your darkest hour, who was there for you? And where were all the right-wing fundamentalist churches who are so chummy with you now....they were too busy golfing at their whites-only country clubs to do anything but try to kibosh any effort to give Jews emergency visas.
If the worst should ever happen and Israel should be lost, that nice Christian Zionist support will evaporate. As long as Israel exists and they can use you to force their "End Times" they're your best fair-weather friends. It's them that wants to see you get killed in the final war that will bring back that Man...and it's the Quakers trying to prevent that, however foolish one may think their tactics.
Yeah well I don't recall the Quakers sitting down with Adolph Hitler.
Maybe times have changed.